Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTISE LAWLESSNESS.”
The evidence of real conversion is a changed lifestyle!
This is a scary passage. These people thought that they were a part of God’s family, but they weren’t. They may even have been well-known ‘Christian’ personalities, famous for their messages from God, their casting out of demons, and their other miracles. But on the day of judgment, God will say to them, “I never knew you”.
They thought their miraculous evidences were proof of God in their lives, but their hearts were not submitted to God. Jesus says to us today that the thing that demonstrates God’s activity in our lives is that we do the will of God, that we obey and honour God with our lives.
Obeying God isn’t the way to become acceptable to God. None of us are good enough for that. But after we’ve been made acceptable because of what Jesus did (not what we do), then God begins to change the way we live.
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