Dear friends,
one of my favorite questions to ask people I just met – or people whom I want to find out more about is:
“If you had to chose only one cuisine of one country and could never eat anything of another ever again for the rest of your life, which one would it be?”
You may want to find your answer to that question…?
I will give you a minute to think about your choice.
It will have to be a wise one!
You will have to consider not only your favorite meal, but also all kinds and types of appetites you may ever have and then which cuisine would most likely satisfy them all?
What if you love pizza and pasta, but hate tiramisu? Or if all you eat now is rice and curry, but can you imagine the entire rest of your life without ice cream?
It’s easy to chose the GOD you want to serve.
There IS no other choice which makes any sense – and having no GOD at all is not even possible, because if you are an atheist, the devil is automatically the god you serve.
BUT what if you had to chose a gifting in which you were to operate in for the rest of your life?
if you got to chose which of the gifts of the spirit GOD was to give to you today, which one would you pick?
Me, I found that the answer to this question has changed over the years – and with my growth in THE LORD.
When I was a baby Christian, even before I got saved, I considered the gift of prophecy the most desirable gift to have.
As you know if you read my testimony, I even practiced divination and was a medium and talked to all kinds of spirits in order to access supernatural knowledge.
Of course did I not know that this would get me into trouble.
And I also didn’t know that there are two sources from which the supernatural information could possibly come from:
GOD and the devil.
What then is all the information anyone could ever receive worth if they do not know how to differentiate from which of the two sources the information came from?
How about you, my friend?
Do you know how to tell the difference between a false prophecy and a prophecy from GOD?
Do you think it is the content of it?
The person it came from?
The length of the message?
Certain elements of it?
If you want my opinion – and I do believe I am entitled to an opinion, having studied both GOD’s messages and kingdom and the ones of the enemy for many years – I don#t think any of these criteria above can bring you a reliable result.
Or take another gift that I found not only unendingly fascinating, but also greatly desirable, perhaps the most desirable of all gifts – at least for a few years! – the gift of healing.
Until I discovered that the enemy and his agents, too, can heal.
That they have powers, supernatural powers and that there will be an effect of immediate relief of the symptoms for many if not for most people who consult supernatural healers NOT from GOD, let’s call them healers of darkness, sorcerers, witches, witch doctors, psychic healers, shamans, Obea men, Voodoo Priests, Reikhi Masters, whatever you want to call them.
The people who consult them WILL experience some healing sensations.
Only that it’s only the symptom which will dissapear – and turn back up elsewhere or at a later time, mostly in a more severe or incurable manner…
But at first, how is anyone supposed to know if the healing is permanent?
Or if the prophecy is coming form GOD?
What is it that lets us be certain of the godlyness and certainty and permanence of a healing when it takes place?
Right – in the moment when it actually happens, there is nothing which can assure us of any of the above.
Unless…
Unless?
Unless we are sure it came from GOD.
Unless we are sure it was brought about with godly methods, by people of GOD and thus is GOD’s will for this person to be healed.
So the next logical question is this:
How can we be sure that something, e.g. a healing or a prophecy came from GOD?
Only when we are able to discern can we do that.
Discernment is a gift in itself.
And the more I learn, the more I realize that it is the gift of gifts, the one thing which decides everything.
Or why do you think the wisest man ever alive, King Solomon, asked GOD for a discerning heart?
Because he knew!
Because he already had the wisdom to ask for what would make him even wiser.
And in my belief system, everything else and even every other gift is almost worthless without discernment – I am exaggerating here… of course, the other gifts are great and desirable and great to have – not only, but mainly because they come from GOD.
BUT…
There is a big “but” in the equation without discernment:
it comes from who all trouble comes from: the enemy of course.
The danger is that if we are unable to discern if what we do, see, experience, know and feel is from GOD, then we will be easily deceived.
Why is that?
Because the devil has a copy for everything GOD has.
He has false prophets and prophecies, fake healings, he even has angels, too… those of us who have encountered him or his snares know how sophisticated his plots are.
OUR churches, Christian churches are FULL of false teachers and prophets and apostles.
So how else are we going to find out if we are facing the truth or a lie – if not with the help of GOD, the only one who has and even IS the truth?
I will tell you something I encountered recently:
in my workplace, there is a bible study being held regularly and I love(d) to attend it.
We take/took turns leading and there was this one guy who said of himself that he is an apostle.
Me, I am always a bit reluctant when I hear this, because I am not so sure if there are as many true apostles of GOD here in the world nowadays as people claiming to be one, but at the same time, I also haven’t studied it thoroughly and I am not too fussed about someone’s title as long as I believe their doctrine is pure… I do believe someone calling themselves an apostle is an indicator that they may have a pride issue though…
Anyhow, this guy did a good job in leading the studies and I was wondering if he was a true man of GOD.
I then had an opportunity to find out… outside of work… and it did not take long at all to see that he was severely demonized…
And on this occasion, I also found out that he is anything but a man of GOD!
To be real with you, I think we all are demonized to some degree.
Until we deal with it!
But I also think that how we react to confrontations or questions about these issues, that shows our maturity in CHRIST and our godlyness as well.
And I firmly believe when someone MANIFESTS when confronted, then they have a lot of homework to do and are NOT (yet) true people of GOD!
Or can you imagine JESUS when they accused him to drive out devils by Beelzebub to get angry and accuse them all and even cuss at them?????
That’s not what HE did!
HE did the exact opposite!
HE taught them a crucial truth.
HE taught them that if HE (or we) is casting out evil spirits by the SPIRIT OF GOD, then, the kingdom of GOD has come upon us (Matthew 12).
Actually, this wasn’t the first time when a self-proclaimed man of GOD (or even a deliverance minister!) was manifesting in my presence, or provoked by something I said, and I know that this is not me, but THE HOLY SPIRIT in me doing that, because if they were truly clean and delivered and were mature in their walk with CHRIST and aware of demonic activity and if they truly knew how the devil operates, nothing and no one would be able to provoke them, at least not to this degree and for this length of time!
Me, I may not be the greatest expert in the field ever alive and I do get triggered as well, but normally, I can come back rather quickly and find that it was the spirit in them provoking me and more often than not, I can even name the exact spirit behind it and understand what is going on – and can thus stop being angry at the person.
The persons, aka “men of GOD”, who got triggered by “me” though, they are unable to go there and keep being furious with me, which again shows me that they can’t be true men of GOD.
THE HOLY SPIRIT is showing and teaching me a lot in this area and I am not proud of it and not even happy about it, because I had to study these things over the past 8 years, not because I wanted to, but because I HAD to – and the most important thing for me is, no matter WHO or how many people or churches say or teach something, if it is not what THE HOLY SPIRIT is telling ME and if what they are doing is not something I myself experience to be WORKING, I don’t believe it is from GOD and I don’t believe it is THE REAL THING, because only GOD is true and real and omniscient and omnipotent and if the thing doesn’t leave or doesn’t heal, it may not be GOD telling it to, just as if it doesn’t come to pass, it may not have been GOD who said it would!
My conclusion is that discernment is the most important gift to have and to desire and I pray for it every day, especially in these end times when everybody out there will try to deceive us and lead us astray or away from GOD.
Dear friends, there may even come a time when we won’t have access to the internet or perhaps not even to our bibles… what are we going to do then if we have not learned to discern what GOD wants to tell us or what HIS will for us is, what HE is announcing for us to come and what HE wants us to do?
I would love to hear your take on this and would love to hear what your favorite gift is?
I hope and pray that this would inspire, heal and bless you. And that THE LORD will bless you abundantly in all areas of your life, that HE will keep you and shine HIS face upon you and bring you peace. In JESUS’ name I pray. AMEN.
Witness for Jesus 