S58P6 – This precious light: must be tested

2 Cor. 11:12-15

And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

When he got saved, it was not in a church with a congregation to take him under their wing and teach and support him.  He stumbled upon a Christian concert in the park while walking alone and responded to an altar call.  He left that concert not knowing one Christian or one church to attend.  What followed was a mission of his to find other believers with whom he could learn and grow.  The first church he tried seemed like a place filled with good people.  Everyone was friendly and kind. He felt acceptance without judgement.  However, the service had not progressed very far before teachings other than those of Jesus’s began to permeate the message.  This church taught that Jesus was merely one of many ways we could follow for spiritual enlightenment.  Even he in his Christian infancy knew there was something amiss there.

Not every light we see comes from God.  The enemy is pretty crafty, and he knows how to manipulate evil and make it appear to be good.  If we read over the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, we can see that Satan will even twist scripture to try to convince us it means something other than what it actually does.  Jesus taught us to love all people where we find them.  However, the enemy takes that message and tries to twist it and convince us that we also should accept people’s sin.  He has orchestrated a movement that views truthful speech about sinful behavior as judgement and hate speech.  We see this in our world today.  The acceptance and even championing of sin is disguised as loving tolerance, which it is not. It is only one way that we are presented with what appears to be light when in fact it is utter darkness designed to deceive us and keep us away from God.

We have heard of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and we have been taught to test the spirits with which we are faced.  When someone proclaims to speak God’s truth, we measure that against his word.  We ask for the Holy Spirit’s discernment to know when we have encountered false light.  We cannot forget, however, that we are more than able to deceive ourselves.  We also must test that which comes out of us to make sure that it is true light according to the word of God.  It should be our regular earnest prayer that God would reveal to us the deceptions placed before us as well as those coming from within us.  Father, give us the discernment to know when we encounter darkness disguised as light, that we would not be deceived even by ourselves.