Revelation 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Notice that Jesus praised them for testing those who claim to be apostles because they proved that they were not apostles. He did not call them "heretic hunters" not chastised them for "having a religious spirit."
We live in an age that is spiraling down spiritually preparing for the Anti-Christ who will come with many lying wonders that if it were possible they would deceive the very elect or true Christians. They will not be deceived because they know the Word and I believe because they have experience discerning between the true and false like the Ephesians.
My Cessationist friends have an advantage because if you believe that God no longer works in the same way as in the beginning you do not have to have discernment. You just write off everything. They will not be deceived by the Anti-Christ. Yet, how much have they missed that was real because they wrote off everything as fake?
The other extreme and is very dangerous is just to accept everything as being of the Spirit. I have seen and heard so many bizarre things that are believed by so many as being manifestations of the Spirit that it grieves my soul and boggles my mind.
Pastors are able to get women to undress to receive their anointing or to be naked before the Lord to pray. That is horrible exegesis and yet because the men are supposed to be filled with the Spirit and often have a fancy title women fall for this type of thing. I have read about even worse things that women have done because the Apostle, Prophet or Bishop said so rather than asking for a Scripture that approves such actions. Some of these men were well respected in hyper-Charismatic circles.
People accept testimonies that have no basis for reality in the Word in either Testament. Prophets have to be 100% accurate and yet modern prophets have a pass for multiple errors. If the Old Testament prophets had to be 100% perfect and the Holy Spirit did not dwell in them as He dwells in believers today then how much more so should that 100% requirement be for us today? The Gospel does not allow for a downgrade of some sort for the prophetic.
Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
We must become more like the Bereans, not less like them. Because they searched to validate the message they were called more noble than those who did not search and yet condemned the message and the messengers.
God calls us to faith, but faith comes by hearing the Word and being grounded in it. True, the letter kills and the Spirit gives life, but the Spirit gives life to the letter. A person can, like the Pharisees, can have vast bible knowledge parsing the Greek and Hebrew without being saved and come up with many man made doctrines. Yet, the Spirit will not act outside of sound doctrine because He was instrumental in writing the Word. He would never do anything that would contradict it in any way. If He is giving a word of wisdom or knowledge it will be something that clarifies what was written.
It may be new to the person, but it will not be a new truth or revelation. Indeed, if the Holy Spirit gives a message, it will always be accurate as He is never wrong. Thus when a person says that God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit directly spoke to them something they say from the pulpit or some other platform it better be proven accurate or it better come to pass. If not, then God did not say it. The Spirit will never add to or take away from the Word. Adding to is what got Eve into trouble and taking away is what Sadducees did while the Pharisees did a smattering of both. None of that worked well.
The Spirit will never mingle with darkness so if someone or a group is going to dig into the New Age to get back what was stolen from the Church that is not biblical nor wise. If the New Age or some other cult has anything it that it plagiarized from the Word then go to the Word to find or prove that is right. Treasury Agents do not study counterfeit bills to see what they got right. They study the original so the fake stands out. Do not dig in the sewer to find truth. Seek the pure water of the Word.
And that is what we desperately need to do. Many of us need to turn off the TV preachers and throw out a great many books and other teaching materials and get back to studying the original. The fake will stand out very quickly and we will find where our emotions and experiences have allowed us to be taken in by counterfeits. May we do it thoroughly and deeply to protect ourselves and those we love in these dangerous days. Maranatha!!
