Thur.s’ Devo - The Nicolsitans

Read Rev. 2:6 The church of Ephesus is praised for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. The word Nicolaitans means “to conquer the laity”. Remember that there were two trees in the Garden of Eden. One was life and the other was knowledge (of good and evil). These two trees are in the church also. Jesus warned against trying to separate the wheat from the tares, lest you dig up wheat with the tares. He said, to let then grow together, and he would separate the in the end. So, in the church, there are wheat and tares - false teaching and true Word. Matt. 24:24 talks about these false prophets that will be able to do signs and wonders and will try, if it were possible, to deceive the elect. Only, it is NOT possible. God will give us the spirit of discernment and wisdom. We see this play out in the children of Israel with Moses. God led them out of Egypt with signs, wonders, miracles, a cloud, fire, and the oracles of God. They moved when the Holy Spirit led, or the cloud moved. But, the people rebelled and complained. They wanted rules and then a king, and eventually wanted to be like all the other nations and fell into complete apostasy. That is how it works. It starts out small and innocent and ends up big and atrocious. It started out as “deeds” and ended as “doctrine”. They fell out of God’s leadership and subjected themselves to man’s leadership. That is why we have denominations. It divides us when Jesus wants us to be one. It is God who is our leader and him alone. He anoints his leaders and his flock. Lord, make us one!