Following A Counterfeit

“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore, they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.  We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

~1 John 4:2-6

There are a lot of voices in the world that tell us what we should believe and what we shouldn’t. A lot of those voices are easily dismissed because we know what they say isn’t worth listening to, but some of those voices come from those who claim to know and hear God. It’s pretty easy to discern the Jim Joneses of the world but with others, it’s not quite so easy. They sound like they know what they’re talking about, they look like they know what they’re talking about, and the words flow easily from their mouths. They draw people in proclaiming the word of God, but it’s all just show because everything they say is for their own benefit to fulfill their own desires. Yet they draw people to them because everyone wants something to believe in, and a drowning man will grasp at anything to keep from sinking, even an anchor.

“I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd; and I know My sheep and am known by My own.  As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep (John 10:11-15).”

There is only One who gave up Heaven for a life of hardship and poverty to save humanity. There is only One who ever gave His own life to save humanity. There is only One who rose again to show us the way through this life and if we know Him, we will not follow those who deceive people for their own gain. The only way to know the difference is to know the real thing. When people train to recognize counterfeit money, they don’t study the counterfeit, they study U.S. currency. They study the real thing until they know it so well, the slightest difference in an otherwise “perfect” counterfeit catches their attention. We must be like that when it comes to Jesus Christ. We must know our Master’s voice so well that no matter which voices we hear, we know His so well, we will never be fooled into following a counterfeit.

“Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about Me, but you do not believe because you are not among My sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are One’ (John 10:25-30).”

Read Matthew 6-11

© 2018 Marie McGaha