"Spiritual Peril"

"And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean." Ezekiel 44:23

Are we living in a time when Christians don't know the difference between what is right and wrong, holy and profane, clean and unclean? I think we are. We have lost the ability to discern the true from the false. When I got up this morning, my husband was already up and had gone outside but the television was still on in the living room. There was a person on (I will not call him a preacher, although he calls himself one) who was "selling" debt cancelation. He supposedly had received an anointing to cancel people's debts. Sadly, he has quiet a following. But he is not the only one who is out there proclaiming a "false gospel" that does not have its roots in God's word.

If ever there was a time when we need to be discerning it is now. We can't believe everything that is spoken just because the message is what we want to hear. The Bible tells us that in the end time "there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:24)


Paul warned Timothy "that in the last days perilous times shall come." (2 Timothy 3:1) If you read the rest of the chapter, the perilous times that he is referring to are not times that are "physically" perilous (although I believe they will come too), but a time of "spiritual" peril. I believe we are seeing the fulfillment of Paul's warning. Most Christians don't know the truth of God's word. Many can't rightly divide it. Most don't even know the basics of its teachings. A large majority depend on others to tell them what the Bible says and means because they seldom, if ever, read if for themselves. If you are depending on someone else to tell you what it says, how do you know they are telling you the truth? How do you know that they are rightly dividing it? If you don't ever read it, how do you know that what they are reading to you comes from the Bible and not the morning newspaper?

I thank God for those who He has used to bless my life by helping to teach me His word, but the day of depending on someone else to do it all for us has to come to an end. When you don't know God's word for yourself, you are putting yourself in "spiritual peril". You are opening the door for deception. You can be seduced by a lie. You can be led astray. This is why Paul went on to admonish Timothy to get into God's word and learn the scriptures and continue to live by them.

Have a great day. Make sure that who you are listening to is telling you the rightly divided word of God, and the only way to do that is by reading and studying it for yourself as well.

For further reading:
Mark 13:22
Nehemiah 8:7,8
2 Timothy 3; 2:15