Renewal and revival counters deception...

Dear Friends, Believers and Seekers, last week's call to discernment stirred us to examine fundamental issues of faith, such as what separates obedient believers from those who are not and who are opening themselves to deceptions.

Many critical discourses of the New Testament address the problem of deception because it is so rampant in the experience of the church.

Passages in Second Corinthians, Matthew and Revelation tell a story of how believers must approach truth, what is the barrier and enemy to being able to see truth, and what this means about deception.

II Cor 4:16-18 reminds us that understanding truth is basically about spiritual insight,

"Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look - not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen

Matthew 24:11-13 and 24 warn that we open ourselves up to deception only when we yield to sins and neglect practicing and immersing ourselves in God's truth,

"Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Rev 19:20 tells the final story of how deception takes those who yield to sin,

"Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

What depths of insight and happiness are in store for those allowing God to seal us in His truth! May your experience in Him and His Word grow deeper every day.

Your life as a witness

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them ... and teaching them ... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (Mat 28:19)

Your life is a witness. whether you are proud of it or not - are intentional or not, your living out of gospel reality shows who you are. It shows what you believe about the Person at the heart of the gospel. God's command to go is given to all those who hear his voice - everyone with the smallest "mustard-seed" faith has this task! And because He extends his spiritual leadership and help to us - because he is with us always, our witness can have His power behind it. 

Clearly though, our lives of witness are not always consistent - they are not always reflections of God's spirit. I say to myself, Take heart, seeking saint, obedience grows as it is practiced:

Lk 24:45, And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Ac 1:8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Notice how God intentionally imparts greater spiritual insight to what we know; the scriptural clarity we gain strengthens what we have been doing.  Just as at Pentecost, His Spirit infuses our lives with power - and heightens everything we have been doing.

Final thought: as we become more and more intentional about our witness, we see God's presence more clearly.  Into the intensity of our experiences comes divine intervention. The band of disciples at Pentecost were "all with one accord at the same place."  And this was the time when God's spirit showed up as a sound of "violent breath."  It filled the house.  What an awesome experience that must have been.  

And it is still our privilege to experience Him, as we grow in our lives of witness.