ARE YOU SERVING WITH YOUR LIPS OR WITH YOUR HEART? by Precious C Philip

We live in a time where lip service has become the norm. Heart service is rendered to God today by just few believers. People claim with their mouth to be serving God, but in actual fact, they're not really serving God because the life they live and what they do virtually nullifies their claim of serving God. The words of Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 29:13 comes to mind as I behold this unpleasant status quo: "The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught."

Do you really know God? Are you really serving God indeed? Are you serving God from your heart, rendering a heart service to God, or are you serving God hypocritically with your lips, rendering a lip service to God?

You cannot be serving God and serving the devil at the same time. You cannot have one leg in God's kingdom and the other leg in the kingdom of darkness. God does not accept lukewarm Christians - "I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!" Revelation 3:15-16. You're either hot or cold. You're either here or there. You're either serving God fervently, or you're not serving Him at all. You're either serving God genuinely and heartily, or you're not serving Him at all.

You can't be serving God and still be fornicating or committing adultery. You can't be serving God and still be lying and cursing. You can't be serving God and still be patronizing witch doctors and using charms. You can't be serving God and still be falsifying accounting records and stealing in your office. You can't be serving God and still be cohabiting with someone who's not your legally married spouse. You can't be serving God and still wallow in alcoholism and drunkenness. You can't be serving God and still be going to nightclubs. Does nightclubbing or dancing at nightclubs really bring glory to God? The music played at club houses or disco club, does it praise God? The kind of dressing women wear to nightclubs, does it bring honor to God? The things done at nightclubs (drinking, dancing, illicit sexual activities), does it bring pleasure to God? All these acts do not in any way bring glory to God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 clearly instructs that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, it should be to the glory of God. Are you cognizant of this command given in that scripture? 

It's so sad to see some people who call themselves Christians still drinking and clubbing. How do you represent Jesus indulging in these things? How do they produce godly character in you or make you Christ-like? Getting drunk or tipsy brings pleasure to the devil, because in such state, he can manipulate your mind, play with your thoughts, and control your behavior to do what will bring him further pleasure like lusting after the opposite sex, engaging in illicit sexual activities, dancing for him, singing praise to him via secular ungodly music, saying nasty things, making naughty jokes, fighting and exhibiting violence, imagining wild things. If you are a true child of God with the Holy Spirit living in you and your conscience being alive, you'll know that none of these behaviors exhibited under the influence of alcohol or spurred on by drunkenness brings glory to God.

Carefully read this detailed explanation on what happens to a person given to alcoholism, narrated by Proverbs 23:29-35 (The Passion Translation (TPT). It says: "Who has anguish? Who has bitter sorrow? Who constantly complains and argues? Who stumbles and falls and hurts himself? Who’s the one with bloodshot eyes? It’s the one who drinks too much and is always looking for a brew. Make sure it’s never you! And don’t be drunk with wine but be known as one who enjoys the company of the lovers of God, For drunkenness brings the sting of a serpent, like the fangs of a viper spreading poison into your soul. It will make you hallucinate, mumble, and speak words that are perverse. You’ll be like a seasick sailor being tossed to and fro, dizzy and out of your mind. You’ll awake only to say, “What hit me? I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck!” Yet off you’ll go, looking for another drink!"

Receive wisdom and apply it.

God bless you.