In 2016, a servant of God complained bitterly to me that a friend was pressuring him to purchase a ring, an occultic ring supposedly used to perform miracles. He refused the offer. When I asked him for the price, he told me, and I was stunned. Even more troubling was the fact that this pastor selling the ring belonged to a very prominent church and had been actively marketing this same ring to pastors across many congregations.
That is nothing less than wearing Sodom on your fingers and using it to spiritually manipulate and deceive innocent Christians. You cannot end well if you add anything, no matter how small, to the gospel. I cannot make this warning lighter for you.
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Many years ago, God called a man and anointed him with unusual grace. Pastor Alex (not his real name) was chosen and empowered by God specifically for missions and evangelism. He served under a large ministry that deployed him to various mission fields across the world. He planted churches, established community-based mission centres, and became a pillar of that ministry’s global outreach.
Yet, beneath these remarkable exploits, another fire was quietly burning. Pastor Alex began to look longingly at what he believed was “greener grass” on the other side of ministry. He wanted something bigger, something more glamorous than preaching with a microphone and carrying a Bible. To accelerate the breakdown of his appetite for God, he slowly detached himself from the destiny relationships God had planted around him, relationships meant to keep him accountable. As those relationships died, the boundaries that once protected him collapsed completely. As I speak, Pastor Alex has turned away from God and His values, hobnobbing with the same men and women of Sodom he was sent by God to bring out of sin.
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Sodom has never profited anyone. Jesus said, “The flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63). Sodom represents a rotten, corrupted world where sin reigns as king. When the roll call of generational failures in Scripture is made, Lot easily rises to the top. His destiny-shattering journey into Sodom was fuelled by covetousness and a lack of spiritual sensitivity. Lot grew under one of the greatest leaders in the Bible, Abraham, the father of faith. Abraham mentored, shaped, guided, and tutored him for years. He gave Lot a platform to thrive, helping him discover and maximize his potential. And Lot prospered greatly, his business flourished until it became the talk of the town.
But tragically, Lot voluntarily and covetously left his place of safety under Abraham’s mentorship and walked straight into Sodom. That decision became the final nail in his destiny.
Key lesson: Never walk away from a destiny relationship, no matter what happens. A destiny relationship is one God Himself initiated. You will know in your heart that God birthed it, and only God should end it. Examples of such relationships include Moses and Joshua; Paul and Barnabas; David and Jonathan. Satan’s strategy is to use offence to destroy such relationships because he knows what many Christians don’t know, we are only as strong as the relationships in your life.
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Some men divorced their wives and immediately lost the spark of glory in their lives. Some women have never recovered from the loss of favour because offence hardened their hearts until they drove away the husbands God ordained for them. I have a friend whose wife shone like a million stars. Her brand thrived. Her name appeared on major platforms. Then offence came. She committed an unimaginable wrong against her husband. Yet the man wanted to forgive her. But the spirit of the last days entered her, “My husband must apologize to me.” We pleaded with her. I spoke to her. Her pastor spoke to her. Her in-laws spoke to her. She rejected every plea.
She held a foreign passport and believed her husband was a “blocker” in her life. She walked out of the marriage. Today, she is a shadow of herself. Invitations have stopped. Those who once respected her have turned away. She believed she didn’t need her husband because she lived in a “civilized country” where women have more power. But she forgot that marriage is a spiritual institution that respects spiritual laws. You cannot be wiser than God. When you throw away a destiny relationship God established, you willingly walk into Sodom.
What paved Lot’s descent into failure was his lack of honour for Abraham. Abraham gave him the platform he needed to excel, but familiarity blinded Lot. He didn’t realize he was standing at the threshold of history, about to become the world’s first generational failure.
Many today are cooling off in Sodom because they ignorantly fired themselves from the mentorship of those whose platforms shaped them. They felt, “I have arrived. I can take care of myself.” They promoted themselves before completing their course work. That was Lot’s undoing. Sodom represents everything evil. As a pastor, many people have left me. There is nothing wrong with people leaving, people left Jesus. But there is a time to enter a place and a time to leave. If you leave before your appointed time, you will pay a price.
We see many who prematurely left their places of mentorship and spiritual covering, exposing themselves to attacks and battles that damaged them. If God leads you into a place, God must lead you out, not your flesh. A mentor once told me, “There is a way you enter a place, and there is a way you leave.” You don’t enter honourably and leave dishonourably. Sodom is the destination of anyone who leaves destiny relationships dishonourably.
While in Europe, a close friend of mine, a strong believer, went through severe financial hardship. Despite impressive academic qualifications, he had no job. Life was brutally difficult, and he survived on menial work. In the middle of this crisis, he was introduced to a prominent female corporate leader who promised to help him secure a job. An appointment was scheduled. But when he arrived, he discovered she wanted him to work closely with her, as a sexual partner. The salary was enormous. He rejected the offer immediately. He suffered for his obedience, working menial jobs that added more pains to his wounds. But a few years later, the HR department of a global corporation found his CV online. They contacted him about an executive role. He passed the interviews and was offered a Senior Manager position at a multinational corporation, without going to Sodom.
The journey to Sodom is a journey into compromise. Sodom typifies greed and covetousness. When Lot chose Sodom, he thought he was making the best decision of his life. Why? Because the land looked fertile and green from the outside (Genesis 13:10). Sodom always looks green until you taste it. Many have walked into Sodom. Satan has erected many Sodoms to capture hearts in this critical hour. Some have been captured by the Sodom of adultery. Adultery appears sweet until you taste its bitter pill, only to discover it is poison to the soul. Sexual immorality appears sweet until consequences begin to fall.
May you never be captured by the Sodom of adultery. Sodom always looks attractive until you taste its bitterness.
Ayo Akerele is the senior pastor of Rhema Assembly and the founder of the Voice of the Watchmen Ministries in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached through [email protected]. You can connect with him on: YouTube: @VoiceoftheWatchmen, TikTok: @drayoakerele, Instagram: @drayoakerele, Facebook: @Ayo Akerele
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