WHAT SPIRIT DO YOU LISTEN TO?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the Lord has not sent them, they say, “The Lord declares,” and expect Him to fulfill their words. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, ‘The Lord declares,’ though I have not spoken?”

“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of My people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

Ezekiel 13:1-9

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Each day, we are bombarded with any number of things that we hear or read. Maybe it’s through watching television or listening to the radio. Maybe it’s through any number of online sources. Or maybe it’s through conversation with someone. It’s really almost a matter of information overload these days and this truth does pose one very important question for us:

How do we know that what we are hearing or reading is true?

We all know this, right?

If we don’t, we had better wake up and know it because there is a constant effort of misinformation being sowed each and every day, a litany of lies that are either intended to replace the truth or bend the truth toward someone’s advantage. I’m not going to make this into a political devotion by any means but I think everyone would have to admit that perhaps the battle for what is true and what isn’t seems to rise up more in politics, especially when elections are in progress, as much as anywhere else. It’s just one of many examples.

So how do we prevent from being deceived by false messages?

The answer is simple.

Validate everything.

That’s right. Never take anything at root value but rather validate what someone is saying, whether heard or read. I always tell my Sunday School class (and I extend it to all readers of this devotional blog) to never take everything I say at face value but rather pray over what they learn and check the word of God themselves to ensure I am speaking with accuracy. I spend a lot of time preparing my lessons (or in this case, devotions) and do so to make sure that what I am saying is truth. But it’s critical that we get in the habit of checking everything out ourselves because then we can have the peace of mind in knowing we aren’t being led astray and into sin.

The points I have opened up this devotion with are completely relevant to what we find at the heart of today’s scripture passage, drawn from the opening verses of Ezekiel 13. Look again at those words here:

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: ‘Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Your prophets, Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaches in the wall to repair it for the people of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord. Their visions are false and their divinations a lie. Even though the Lord has not sent them, they say, “The Lord declares,” and expect Him to fulfill their words. Have you not seen false visions and uttered lying divinations when you say, ‘The Lord declares,’ though I have not spoken?”

“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of My people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”  Ezekiel 13:1-9

Note here that there were many false messengers in the midst of the Israelites, messengers who were prophesying out of their own imagination instead out of the guidance of God. They were following their own spirit and thus what they spoke was nothing but falsehood to the people. God confirmed this Himself by telling Ezekiel that the prophet’s visions were “false and their divinations a lie.” Further, although the Lord had not sent them to prophesy, the illegitimate messengers gave proclamations that would lead people to believe they were acting on God’s behalf saying, “The Lord declares.”

Obviously, God was not going to tolerate such behavior and so He gave Ezekiel the following message to deliver to the false prophets, a message that was perfectly true:

“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because of your false words and lying visions, I am against you, declares the Sovereign Lord. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of My people or be listed in the records of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.”

The message was simple.

Any prophet who chose to speak outside of God’s authority had no place with Him or working on His behalf with the Israelites. God promised His hand would be against those who delivered “false words and lying visions”, promising that none of those who chose to deceive would “belong to the council” of His people, be “listed in the records of Israel”, or be allowed to “enter the land of Israel.”

In other words, because these false prophets communicated mistruths in God’s name, God excommunicated them and in a big way.

So what do we take away from this word of God from Ezekiel?

There’s definitely a few important points.

First, do not speak as if you have the authority of God if God has not given you the authority to do so.

That should be a no brainer but it still bears saying because we still have many, many false preachers, teachers, and self-proclaimed prophets who are doing nothing but sinfully misleading the people of God.

And that leads to the second point we need to take away from today’s message, a point I have already made earlier in this devotion:

Validate everything.

To this end, we need to look at one additional scripture passage, one that is available to us, even though it wasn’t yet to the Israelites of Ezekiel’s day. Look at these words from the Book of 1 John:

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.”

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”  1 John 4:1-6

Here in the words of John, we find additional instruction to help us either prove or disprove what someone is telling us either through the spoken or written word. For we are to test the spirit of the messenger to see whether or not the speaker is from God or not.

How do we test the person’s spirit?

God tells us how for all we need to do is ask one simple question to the person we are receiving guidance from:

“Do you acknowledge that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh?”

The way someone answers the question will reveal whether they can be trusted or not.

For every person who acknowledges that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God and has the Spirit of God within them. They can be counted on to deliver truth.

Conversely, every person who does not acknowledge that Jesus is a spirit that is not from God and is the antichrist. And note that we need not wait for the antichrist to come because the word of God tells us that it is already in the world. Thus, we had better be on guard.

Finally, one final point the Lord wants us to have today:
We will always have victory over the deceivers of the world when we stay connected to God and His Spirit. God’s word from 1 John assures us as much:

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.” 

The antichrist, who dwells in the world, can try and deceive us all it wants but we are already overcomers from that false spirit when we allow God’s Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to reign supreme within us. It’s this Spirit that comes from the One who is greater than the one, the antichrist, who is in the world. When we remain in God, then the spirit of falsehood has no power against us.

All this leads me to one final question as I close today’s important message, straight from the Spirit of God, a question God would want you to consider:

“What spirit do you listen to?”

It’s either the Spirit of truth or the spirit of falsehood. Check yourself against God’s word for today to make sure you’re listening to the Spirit of truth.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark
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