False Christs

Matthew 24:23-25

At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders that would deceive even the elect, if that were possible. 25 See, I have told you in advance.

The urge to look and see what's happening is beyond our control. We are eager, hungry and in need of God everyday. However, that hunger can lead us in the wrong direction. It doesn't take much leaven for the whole loaf to have leaven in it. Which is another way of saying, there's full truth and there's truth mixed with lies. The early church with Paul and Peter and the other apostles battled issues like these in their letters. They warned of antichrists and their false teachings. The thing about false teaching is that it uses just enough truth that it sounds convincing. Just as Eve was deceived by the serpent, so too can we be deceived by one omission of the truth or an addition of a lie. It doesn't take much. 

Look back at 1 and 2 John, he warns the readers to not fall for those that say Christ did not come in the flesh. We look at that today and say how ridiculous. How could anyone believe He didn't come in the flesh. We say that about them but what is being spread around today that denies Him in some way. Can we say that everyone calling themselves Christians believe in the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, that through the Spirit, the life of Christ can be manifest in us and that God himself will live in us. It's in scripture yet there are whole denominations that don't believe that. Gifts of the Spirit is contended as well as most churches belief that gifts of tongues and prophecy and healings were reserved for the early church. Yet, scripture says these things will follow those that believe.

See, we already we have spirits of contention, disbelief and false doctrines at work tearing the church apart. As such, we are all hungry for truth and starvation will lead a person to eat some pretty disguising things. Ever watch Bear Grylls, just plain nasty but in a survival situation it gets you through till you can get a proper meal. Same goes for the current situation in the world today. Darkness is enveloping the world and with it comes desperation. In that desperation for a morsel of light, people will run to anything that looks like the real deal. 

This is why we must stick to truth and not a doctrine that denies things that are clearly written in scripture. Don't seek Christ where He isn't. Christ is in you and we cannot deny that, if we do, we are already deceived. The gift given to Jesus after resurrection was the ability to give the Spirit to those who believed in Him. Before His resurrection, He could not do that. It was only after that He breathed on the disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit. This breath was to regenerate their souls. Before they only had flesh with the Spirit man inside of them completely dormant. We are made of flesh and Spirit and when disobedience came, our flesh became a ruler over us. The Spirit was still there but it wasn't in charge. Our Spirit was quenched by the flesh as we chose to obey it instead of God. So now, when Jesus breathed upon the disciples, their Spirit inside of them was regenerated so it can overcome the flesh. It is just like now, as every believer's Spirit is renewed at the time we believe Jesus came, died and was resurrected for us. Later, at Pentecost, the disciples were given the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the upper room. This was the power of God to do things like Jesus did in His ministry, like healing. 

It's plainly written in scripture but most of todays church doesn't believe in a Baptism of the Holy Spirit yet several times in scripture it is mentioned. As people look towards the things they can see, feel and hear, the Spirit is left out of our narrow-minded modern society. Yet, there's a hunger coming upon the nations that will bring them into deception and has already done so. 

Christ speaks of the elect in the above scripture from Matthew, that even the elect might be deceived. Who is the elect? It can be you. All the things we have discussed has been leading to this. We must believe that we can live a life fully in Christ. Where we do not let flesh rule over us and that we know without a doubt that through the Holy Spirit living in us that the flesh is no longer our worry. That we can walk in Him and He will keep us, lead us and move us in His will. All this is accomplished by faith in Him yet it is our minds that stand in the way of believing. We have been taught all our lives that we are devils, mean, problems, cruel, haters, and more but in Christ, we have hope. We cannot sit and let the world dictate how we understand who we are in Him. 

The sure fire way of knowing a false Christ from the real one is the need to be seen, heard and followed. Jesus, when He was here on Earth, always pointed to the Father and never to Himself. Never once did He say, I do this or I did that. He always stated that He was about His Father's work and that when you saw Him you saw the Father. Jesus never took glory for Himself, He received glory from God but He never asked to be glorified by men. So, if you see someone who is boasting about themselves instead of pointing to God, then they are false. This goes for preachers, teachers, prophets or anyone claiming to be from God. Read the Bible and let the heart of who Jesus is become real to you. Let His voice be the only voice we follow. We can be the elect. We can follow only one voice. We can be overcomers. We can be everything God wants us to be as long as we continue to walk in faith in Him.

To God be the Glory.