Some tips on discerning what is of God and what is of Satan.A quick look around you very quickly reveals that all is not right with the church. There is no end to conflicting doctrines and promoted theology. Some items presented are blatantly obvious as coming from the pits of hell but a great deal are extremely subtle and far harder to detect. However Jesus did give us a form of measurement concerning the difference between the correct and the incorrect in the form of the fruits produced.
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Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Now that passage in itself should be quite straight forward but for one matter. What exactly constitutes good fruit and what makes bad fruit. Keep in mind that the best of the bad is wrapped in religiosity and looks and smells and tastes almost like the real thing.
The first thing to look at is the focus of attention. There is one main difference between the kingdom of God and the spirit of this world which always shows out no matter how it gets packaged. In the kingdom of God everything is centered around God. God is the only fixed point and all else is positioned either closer or further from Him. We draw near to God or we fall away from him. Our spiritual standing is measured in relation to where we are in respect to where God is.
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Exo 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exo 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
This is not only demonstrated in the Ten commandments but in What Jesus instructed and taught us as well. Notice in the following passage that Jesus came so that we can get to the Father, His whole mission was to redeem men back to God.
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Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Joh 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
The spirit of this world or the theology presented by the kingdom of Satan is all centered around self. Self development, what God can do for you and how to use God to get what you want and need. How you benefit and how all the promises in the scripture apply to you so that you gain etc. Where the teachings of the east are introduced you get the progression of self to higher plains and greater enlightenment as in self development.
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Gen 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Gen 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
As can be seen from that passage of scripture the enticement to sin is based on self. In this case the desire to be wise and to develop self so as to become like God. The first test is obviously very simple, is what you are being told God centered or is it self centered.
The next way to tell and sometimes a lot more difficult is scriptural harmonics. Sound doctrine has to harmonise with all scripture, not just a part of it. For example look at the old prosperity teaching, Only the verses that support the idea get covered but the verses warning about Mammon get left out to the point where most caught up in this do not even know what the word means. The newer example is the controversy over the oneness and Trinity doctrines that is raging now. Just how such well known verses such as John 3:16 can be so blatantly ignored is unbelievable but the unbelievable happens. Then we have the Hebrew roots movements. Is the New covenant to be pushed aside for the old which does not even apply to the gentile nations anyway?
The lesson to be observed is if only select verses are promoted and defended to the detriment of all other verses then suspect that there is something going wrong, It makes no difference how righteous the argument is made to appear if the doctrine is opening the door to even worse errors down the road.
Then there is the fruit to be found manifesting in the character of the individual as well. Since when did beating people over the head with a bible lead anyone to Christ and repentance. Is the flock really being protected when they get scattered all over the place or herded into small clicks to be dominated over by self appointed herdsmen. Leaving a trail of destruction and wounded saints lying bleeding in the path while proclaiming the glory of Christ as you march on is not the fruit of the spirit of God, it’s the act of a deceived bully. This is demonstrated well in this passage.
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Luk 9:53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
Luk 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
Luk 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
The disciples had the idea that because this village had rejected Jesus in such a manner they deserved to be punished so as to make an example out of them but Jesus made it quite clear that this spirit of retribution was not of him. Souls are won through love, forgiveness and longsuffering. Not force and retribution. The fact is most souls only turn to Christ when they reach the point where there really is nowhere else left to them. Our job is to make sure they know about Christ before they reach that stage.
The observation to note is that when you see such displays of religiosity and attitudes of superiority over regular members of society or other saints then recognize the spirit of this world at work in that person for what it is and do not allow yourself to be influenced by it.
Just wanted to share this...
And remember,
Is it "self" centered, or is it "God" centered?This post was edited by Torm1 on Aug 25 2011 11:49pm