I have heard and read arguments that degenerated into fist fights because someone was accused of wrongly reporting what somebody had said. People have become enemies because someone deliberately misquoted somebody. Animosity between people and among nations developed because of use of wrong words.

Report by Erasmus Makarimayi People have been asked to retract words and statements. Wars have been waged because of wrong words used. Travelling to a church service last week with an elder and a deacon, I was at pains to tell them that they were misquoting the Bible. They were adamant that they had read well. Many people have failed to grow and walk in victory because of misquoting the Bible, thereby putting their own words into God’s mouth. Don’t write your own Bible by superimposing your own words into the Scriptures.

This column has covered Biblical interpretations already and it will be helpful to refer to that piece. We have vigorously and repeatedly taught on word study which is very necessary for your understanding of the Bible. In your library please make sure you have a King James Version. If you are a minister of the Word, this version is a must. Describing the land that the children of Israel were about to occupy, the Bible notes in Deuteronomy 8:8: “A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey.”

Please note that the Bible does not say olive oil, but oil olive. Many scholars and unfortunately some Bible translators have tried to correct the Bible and have it as olive oil. God was simply telling the people that they were about to enter a land of abundance and the work was already done for them by the nations that they were about to drive out. The process of extracting the oil out of the olive had already been done; the oil was ready for use. How many times are you trying to suffer for what Christ paid for by dying on the cross for your redemption?

You are not supposed to believe in them lest you end up trusting in them and then worship them. Respect your pastor, prophet, bishop or priest, but never hinge your belief in them. The prophet Jeremiah warns and says in 17:5: “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” Don’t invite a curse in your life by putting your trust in people. Is your trust in God or in the man or woman of God? There are people that believe in the woman/man of God more than God.

The verse that pushed me to write this piece is John 8:32 which reads: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Many of you have heard this verse preached or have read it as “set free” instead of “make free”. In case you would want to argue like the deacon and elder I was travelling with and brush aside as mere semantics! The devil will be glad to hear that. If you have access to the Hebrew and Greek Bibles, your life will be made easier. The original texts will clear these arguments. If you set free something it means it was bound. You have to come with tools, instruments and probably massive equipment to untie and break the ropes and chains.

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Do you know that Christ came to set the captives free? The preaching of the Gospel of Christ brings in illumination and knowledge that you are no longer bound. All you have to know is the truth and the truth will make you free. I have often used the example of combatants that remained in the bush after the war because information had not reached them that the war was over.

There are many Christians living in bondage because of half-baked preaching and skewed Biblical interpretation. When God wrote the Bible through the Holy Spirit who inspired the writers, He knew exactly which words to use. Sometimes the most quoted verses are the most misquoted ones.

Isn’t your walk of faith stagnant and your Christian growth miserable because you heard or read the Bible wrongly? Maybe just one word is the difference between you and salvation, deliverance and prosperity.

Relook at your belief system and read the Bible as it is written and walk in dominion. You are not bound, walk in victory; you are going somewhere.

Misinterpreted Scripture Another commonly misinterpreted Scripture is 2 Chronicles 20:20 which in part reads: “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” Note that you are supposed to believe in the Lord so that you may be established and believe the prophets for your prosperity. The Bible does not say believe in the prophets, but just believe what they say.

All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

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