OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - FRIDAY - 07/03/2014 - ARE YOU A FALSE WITNESS? BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE

ARE YOU A FALSE WITNESS?

MEMORIZE

A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.

Proverbs 19:9

READ

Mark 14:57-60

57 And there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying,

58 We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands

59 But neither so did their witness agree together.

60 And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

MESSAGE

In Exodus 20:16, God commanded that we should not bear false witness against our neighbour. The consequence of being a false witness is found in Proverbs 19:9. Wicked people cannot survive without false witnesses. They rely on false witnesses to perpetrate their evil deeds. For example, Ahab could not have gotten rid of Naboth but for the use of false witnesses (1 Kings 21:13). It was the false witness of Rehum the chancellor, Shimshai the scribe and their cohorts against the Jews that halted the rebuilding project of Zerubbabel (Ezra 4). These people wrote false allegations against the Jews and their leadership and sent the document to King Artaxerxes. The result as stated in Ezra 4:24 was devastating:

“Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem. So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.”

The effects of false witnesses are unimaginable. As a matter of fact, a false witness is a murderer in disguise. His or her motive cannot be mistaken: it is to destroy. I pray for you that false witnesses shall not destroy your destiny in Jesus’ Name.

When the Jewish leaders could find nothing to nail Jesus Christ, they opted for blackmail and false witnesses. Jesus had earlier told those who were following him in John 14:30b that:

“…for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”

So the only way they could get at Jesus was through false witnesses. Despite the conspiracy, the Bible in Mark 14:56 says:

“For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.”

There is a great lesson that you as a follower of Christ must learn from this story. You must live above-board like your Master if you don’t want to become an easy prey for the accuser of the brethren – Satan. In the same vein, you must learn to be transparently honest. This will prevent you from being a false witness. When you engage in false witnessing and lying, you are crucifying Jesus Christ again and the danger is that you will fall into a state where it becomes difficult to be restored (Hebrews 6:4-6). Another danger of being a false witness is that it exposes one to becoming a reprobate. This is a state where the conscience no longer checkmates a person against wrongdoing (2 Timothy 3:8, Romans 1:28-32). In what areas of your life are you a false witness? Fake affidavit? False claims that you are married with so many children whereas you have a family of just three? I pray for you that a lying tongue will not blot your name from the book of life in Jesus’ Name.

PRAYER POINT

Father, deliver me from a lying tongue and help me to be a true witness of the Cross of Jesus.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR

Jeremiah 33:14-35:19; 

Psalm 55:1-15