When Jesus Christ began his ministry, great multitudes followed him after seeing the miracles he performed. Nevertheless, many who followed him did so for self-serving reasons. Some who followed after he fed them continued only as long as they believed they might find worldly benefit.

Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.” Likewise, from then until now, there have always been multitudes of professing believers who seek to fill themselves in this present life by attaching themselves to the name of Jesus, but they do not truly follow him.

Binding together in congregations devoted to worldly doctrines, they become links in chains of darkness, having a form of godliness but denying the power of God.

To truly follow Christ is to lay your life down, put on the mind of Christ, pick up the cross, and walk up the hill to Golgotha to be crucified. It is not incorporating religion into your life; it is letting go and living the life the Lord chooses for you.

There are multitudes of churchgoers who attend services to hear smooth things that comfort a guilty conscience. Being lifted up by self-affirming ministers, feel-good worship music, and watered-down messages, many people seek affirmation in religion rather than to be crucified with the Lord.

Thus, many who identify as Christian are entangled in commercialized versions of the gospel designed by branders as a commodity to be peddled in the marketplace of religious assertions.

Catering to the appetites of their congregations, many pastors and teachers prepare modernized sermons as though they are commercial food processors. Cuisines of select verses, seasoned to suit the palates of the hungry, are placed in attractive take-out boxes to be picked up on Sunday and to be fed once a week.

Many different tastes and numerous interpretations of the Bible are cooked up to satisfy every kind of appetite; thus, faith is divided into innumerable denominations, subsets, sects, and cults.

The true Gospel is sweet in the mouth, but it is bitter in the belly. The bitter herbs and salt are lacking in most of the recipes served. As Paul wrote to Timothy, saying, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.”

When religion becomes institutionalized, it is given to false teachings, but the Word of God, even when denied, shall not fail. There is death of truth, but there is healing to be found in God’s word. He gives us the answer for restoration.

Kings 4:38-41 tells us how restoration comes: “And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, ‘Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.'” And one went out into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered thereof wild gourds, his lap full, and came and shredded them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not. So they poured it out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot.” And they could not eat thereof. But Elisha said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot.” And there was no harm in the pot.

There is a dearth in the land today of the truth. The sons of the prophets had not attained to the same depths of a relationship with God as their fathers; they were born into their religion; their beliefs were inherited. Many Christians in churches today hold an inherited faith, not one from a personal experience with God. Wild gourds have been shredded into the pot; they know them not; they have not heartfully sought the truth for themselves. They rely upon others to teach them what they believe.

False doctrines unknown have crept into the teachings of the gospel! They corrupt the whole pot with poison; a little sin leavens the whole loaf, but the Word of the Lord removes the leaven.

To be healed, there must be the recognition that there is death in the pot—false teachings handed down.

Once the seeds of falsehoods germinate and take root, they grow among the wheat into the abominable tares that are easily seen by those who know the Lord.

It is a poison gourd to accept that people can willfully embrace sin after being saved and still be accepted into heaven. God is merciful and will grow you into Christ, but sin cannot be embraced and nourished to maturity. “The soul that sins shall surely die.”

Jesus said that those who overcome the world will inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus is the bread of life, the Word of God, and the meal. When cast into the pot, it heals the whole pot. The word of God destroys the wild gourds of unknown falsehoods, but lies must be recognized as death in the pot.

When believers recognize the wild gourds and receive God’s word, the body of Christ will be healed, revival fires will burn, and the power of God will be made manifest to the world. Seek truth, repentance, healing, and revival.