HELEN SANDERS
7-10-2020
RECOGNIZING THE COUNTERFEIT
I had a business many years ago in Southwest Florida. Counterfeit bills were circulating, and many looked so close to the real that even a bank had given out a counterfeit $100 to another friend in business. A police officer stopped by our business and was discussing how you could tell the difference. He said it was not in studying the counterfeit. It was in knowing the genuine so well that you would ultimately know the difference not just by sight but by feel.
I hadn’t thought about it that way. Yet, as he showed me things on a genuine bill and features that I had never known, I became acquainted with it in a better way. Because of this teaching it enabled me to know the counterfeit from the genuine. When you feel a counterfeit bill, you immediately know that something doesn’t “feel” right.
The scriptures tell us that Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth (John 16:13). Also, in John 14:17 He is called the Spirit of Truth. So, if we want to know truth, we must have Holy Spirit be the one to guide us. There is no counterfeit when it comes to Him. He is the real thing!
In studying the scripture, we must also take it in context. There are three different groups that God speaks to and they are: The Jews, The Gentiles, and the Church. Many take things out of context when they do not rightly divide the truth. You must know who God is speaking to, and the season that the message is for.
There are many counterfeits today speaking all is going to be well, tickling the ears of believers with what they think the believer should be hearing to “feel good,” and not speaking what God is saying. We are living in the last of the last days. Israel is our litmus test. The Lord told us that after the fig tree begins to blossom that things in the last days would happen. Israel began blossoming when it was recognized as a nation in l948. That was the start of the end times. Those born during that time are told that they shall see the return of the Lord. We cannot know the day or hour, but we can know the season.
Many are expecting a great end-time harvest when the scriptures plainly say that there will be a great falling away (apostasy) before the man of lawlessness is revealed. We are seeing that now. The Church has become like Laodicea, neither hot nor cold. Jesus warns us in Revelation that that condition will cause Him to spit us out of His mouth. Another end time scenario that shows there will be no great end time revival is the days of Noah. Jesus said it would be as in the days of Noah. Only 8 persons were saved before the flood came. That does not sound like a mighty revival, does it?
I honestly believe that the Charismatic movement brought many into the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Many received the power to be a witness but were not trained to witness. We slowly got away from God’s heart, and God’s word, looking to the gifts given to the church instead of the one that gave the gifts. We could have taken that power to evangelize the world, instead we used it to build our own kingdoms. Counterfeit churches with counterfeit worship bring counterfeit Christians. I am sure that God weeps over this. Oh, that we had listened to Holy Spirit telling us to spend time in the secret place and be equipped to be what Jesus gave His life for. Oh, that the church would have prepared the saints to do the work of the ministry. Perhaps if we had, then we would see revival before the apostasy came. Sadly, we did not.
So now, we have to face the fact that we are living in the days of lawlessness like it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let’s not be counterfeit in our faith towards God. Let us repent for not being what we should have been and determine to do what we can, while we can, wherever we can.
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