Healthy Choice
Greetings in the Lord!
This week the Lord has given me two dreams with very similar instances in both, and a movie to emphasize the same point: listening to deceiving/enticing spirits. I think this is something that many Christians familiar with the prophetic movement worry about to a certain degree, actually.
Anyhoo, in both dreams a woman came up to me and was whispering very close to my mouth, trying to disarm and lure me with their soothing words. In the first dream the woman was older, probably in her 70s or 80s, but had jet black hair instead of grey and her fingernails were beautifully painted with big diamond rings on her fingers. She was so elegant looking that I wanted to warm up to her, but I ended up being completely repulsed by her every time she spoke. She asked me how old I was and I became angry, knowing that she knew very well how old I was; she was only trying to entice me to listen to her, to warm up to her and give ear to what she had to say. She pretended to have wisdom, but did not. I promptly left.
The second dream was similar, only it was a woman about my same age and there were several of us, all acquaintances and friends, having dinner together. Again I would not listen to her words as she whispered them gently close to me. I was annoyed by her and realized she had a hidden agenda--to be leader of the group. It was then I realized that she had "special" friendships with most of the ladies there--they would listen to her in private. She was merely building a network of followers and support for herself. I left the group.
Finally, to add another dimension of what the Lord was saying, I watched a movie, "Conversations With God," which is based on the New York best selling book of the same title. In it, a man goes through several life-shattering circumstances and finds himself distraught. One day, he hears a voice in his spirit asking him, "Have you had enough?" Perplexed, he gives an ear to this spiritual voice as it begins to tell him soothing, "wise" things, thus beginning a period of conversations with this spiritual being--which he thinks is God. He writes it all down into the best-selling book and begins to travel extensively teaching people what he learned from "God." I discerned right away that it was not God he was listening to--I only had to line up the words spoken by this spiritual being with the actual word of God to know for certain that it was not, for it did not line up. Oh, most of it sounded like good, logical, positive, lovey-dove type things that people want to hear when they are stressed, but it was not Scriptural.
Here's the point and word: we are in a time and season when even Christians are distraught over their present circumstances and perceived ominous future and are more susceptible to these lying, yet soothing voices. Who doesn't want to give audience to soothing words? Who doesn't want to believe any "positive thinking" that comes along...don't some people preach that if you "only believe" it will happen? But believe in what exactly? Where is God in that?
Next too, the movie showed the second problem: many people followed the "advice" given by this man, his soothing yet deceiving doctrine, and were "helped"! The people forgave more quickly, they let go of fear, they allowed themselves to be happy, etc. all because they believed in what this man was telling them...and believed that it was from God. They made a choice to believe in him because the words he spoke were so soothing, logical, and promoted harmony. Therefore, it looked like this man was producing "good fruit," although none of it had anything to do with accepting the salvation of Jesus Christ or restorative work/truth of the Holy Spirit.
Hear me, many Christians have confused the understanding of Matthew 7:15-20, the passage about recognizing false prophets by their fruit. False doctrine is the bad fruit. Period. So many Christians like to make up their own criteria for "bad fruit" but end up just judging people unfairly to their own folly; know this: much bad fruit will be handed out with likable, popular, attractive, humble, sincere, affluent, and charismatic people. They are loved by the world because they are of the world. Therefore, worldly acceptance is not our litmus test for deciding between true and false prophets.
Line up your own theology with the word of God--does it match up? What areas do we see grey? Line up your own feelings with the word of God. Are we believing in His promises as we live according to His word? Do we know who we are in Christ according to what the word says? Our measuring stick is the word of God--thanks be to His eternal, unchanging, and life-giving word through His son Jesus!
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
This week the Lord has given me two dreams with very similar instances in both, and a movie to emphasize the same point: listening to deceiving/enticing spirits. I think this is something that many Christians familiar with the prophetic movement worry about to a certain degree, actually.
Anyhoo, in both dreams a woman came up to me and was whispering very close to my mouth, trying to disarm and lure me with their soothing words. In the first dream the woman was older, probably in her 70s or 80s, but had jet black hair instead of grey and her fingernails were beautifully painted with big diamond rings on her fingers. She was so elegant looking that I wanted to warm up to her, but I ended up being completely repulsed by her every time she spoke. She asked me how old I was and I became angry, knowing that she knew very well how old I was; she was only trying to entice me to listen to her, to warm up to her and give ear to what she had to say. She pretended to have wisdom, but did not. I promptly left.
The second dream was similar, only it was a woman about my same age and there were several of us, all acquaintances and friends, having dinner together. Again I would not listen to her words as she whispered them gently close to me. I was annoyed by her and realized she had a hidden agenda--to be leader of the group. It was then I realized that she had "special" friendships with most of the ladies there--they would listen to her in private. She was merely building a network of followers and support for herself. I left the group.
Finally, to add another dimension of what the Lord was saying, I watched a movie, "Conversations With God," which is based on the New York best selling book of the same title. In it, a man goes through several life-shattering circumstances and finds himself distraught. One day, he hears a voice in his spirit asking him, "Have you had enough?" Perplexed, he gives an ear to this spiritual voice as it begins to tell him soothing, "wise" things, thus beginning a period of conversations with this spiritual being--which he thinks is God. He writes it all down into the best-selling book and begins to travel extensively teaching people what he learned from "God." I discerned right away that it was not God he was listening to--I only had to line up the words spoken by this spiritual being with the actual word of God to know for certain that it was not, for it did not line up. Oh, most of it sounded like good, logical, positive, lovey-dove type things that people want to hear when they are stressed, but it was not Scriptural.
Here's the point and word: we are in a time and season when even Christians are distraught over their present circumstances and perceived ominous future and are more susceptible to these lying, yet soothing voices. Who doesn't want to give audience to soothing words? Who doesn't want to believe any "positive thinking" that comes along...don't some people preach that if you "only believe" it will happen? But believe in what exactly? Where is God in that?
Next too, the movie showed the second problem: many people followed the "advice" given by this man, his soothing yet deceiving doctrine, and were "helped"! The people forgave more quickly, they let go of fear, they allowed themselves to be happy, etc. all because they believed in what this man was telling them...and believed that it was from God. They made a choice to believe in him because the words he spoke were so soothing, logical, and promoted harmony. Therefore, it looked like this man was producing "good fruit," although none of it had anything to do with accepting the salvation of Jesus Christ or restorative work/truth of the Holy Spirit.
Hear me, many Christians have confused the understanding of Matthew 7:15-20, the passage about recognizing false prophets by their fruit. False doctrine is the bad fruit. Period. So many Christians like to make up their own criteria for "bad fruit" but end up just judging people unfairly to their own folly; know this: much bad fruit will be handed out with likable, popular, attractive, humble, sincere, affluent, and charismatic people. They are loved by the world because they are of the world. Therefore, worldly acceptance is not our litmus test for deciding between true and false prophets.
Line up your own theology with the word of God--does it match up? What areas do we see grey? Line up your own feelings with the word of God. Are we believing in His promises as we live according to His word? Do we know who we are in Christ according to what the word says? Our measuring stick is the word of God--thanks be to His eternal, unchanging, and life-giving word through His son Jesus!
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
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