Origin
Origin
The True and Counterfeit Trinity
There’s truth and there’s counterfeit to just about everything—God’s kingdom versus Satan’s deceit. Satan really is just a copycat. He’s not original. He comes along and tries to mimic what God does and lead us off track. Our job is to distinguish between the two. I believe many of us worry that we will be deceived even as God’s elect or we won’t know the truth. This is what the Scriptures do say: “For false christs and false prophets will arise [God wants us to know that] and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect [even the church]“ (Mt 24:24). So, you can understand why we’re concerned. But our goal today is to leave us with confidence that we have the tools to determine what is truth!
Season 3: The End: A Revelation Study
Episode 5: True & Counterfeit Trinity
Show Notes
Intro:
Hello. This is ReGina Johnston, your podcast host.
Welcome to Origin where we look at current events through the filter of a pre-supposition that there is a plan A, an original plan, that gives context and clarity when it comes to present-day “elephants in the room.” We are women of different seasons with different stories daring to talk about the tensions of the day. This is season 3 of Origin where we will unpack the book of Revelation. In Deuteronomy 30, the Israelites were given two choices—life or death. We have those same choices each day. We challenge you to imagine you’re in the midst of a game and you’ve just been given the two-minute warning. The end of the game is fast approaching. Life or death—which one will you choose? Join us as we begin this series The End: A Revelation Study. Let’s talk about it around the table of Origin.
Who we are:
ReGina Johnston
Kyli Rose
Jina McAfee
Welcome back to the table of Origin. I have my friends with me today, Kyli Rose and Jina McAfee. I’m ReGina Johnston, your podcast host. Today, we’re going to jump right into Episode 5, The True & Counterfeit Trinity.
As we’ve been studying the book of Revelation, you may find yourself with some fear and uncertainty because we don’t understand it. There are a lot of “what ifs” and a lot of “I don’t really knows.” We don’t camp really well with “I don’t know.” We like to know. There is a lot of allegory. There are beasts and dragons. You can find yourself in a bit of an unsettled state, but that’s not God’s intention. His intention in the book of Revelation is to reveal Himself, reveal Jesus to us, as Kyli talked about last session.
I want us to start off this week by having Jina remind us of the first verses in the first chapter of Revelation where we see what’s happening, where we hear a promise from the Lord or a blessing from the Lord. Jina can you help us with that?
Jina: We are going to Revelation, chapter 1, verses 1-3:
This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants [that’s us] the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to His servant John, who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and He blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near. Re 1:1-3
This is what we need to know: There’s truth and there’s counterfeit to just about everything—God’s kingdom versus Satan’s deceit. Satan really is just a copycat. He’s not original. He comes along and tries to mimic what God does and lead us off track. Our job is to distinguish between the two. I believe many of us worry that we will be deceived even as God’s elect or we won’t know the truth. This is what the Scriptures do say: “For false christs and false prophets will arise [God wants us to know that] and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect [even the church]“ (Mt 24:24). So, you can understand why we’re concerned.
ReGina: Right. I hear that Scripture and I’m thinking, “I don’t want to be deceived.” I ask myself the questions: Could I be deceived? And, how am I going to keep from being deceived? I know in the last several years that question has come to my mind more than once. Today, we’re going to look at how we can avoid being the elect that is deceived and falls away and falls for the counterfeit that Satan has to offer.
Kyli, talk to us about what we learned about counterfeit money.
Kyli: When we hear the word “counterfeit,” our minds initially go to counterfeit money. What does the word “counterfeit” mean? According to the dictionary, it is something that is “made in the exact imitation of something valuable or important with the intention to deceive or defraud.” The purpose of the counterfeit is to deceive or defraud. That’s its intention. Here are some interesting facts:
· An estimated $70-200 million in counterfeit bills are in circulation at any given time according to the United States Department of Treasury
· Another fun fact: more than $147 million fake US currency is in circulation globally with 60% circulating in the US according to the US Secret Service
The bottom line is: we’re not very good at spotting the counterfeit. There’s a lot of counterfeit money out there, a lot of money that we don’t see as fake. It looks real, and we’re missing it. And it’s not just money that’s being counterfeited. We see clothes, accessories, footwear, watches, handbags, electronics. I hope you’re trekking with us. We are talking about things that we can touch and see and feel. But there is a lot of counterfeit going on spiritually too. If we’re not careful, as the body of Christ, we will not know it when we see it. We don’t want to give more credit to the enemy than he deserves, but he does deceit well. It’s his one card trick. He’s practiced it for a long time. It’s who he is.
The best way to fight back is to educate yourself about some of the most counterfeited products. How do we know when something is a fake? We study the real thing.
ReGina: Study. When you say study, we’re not just saying a quick read through, a speed read, a fast glance, an “I read that 50 years ago, so I already know what it says.” It is looking intently. It’s beholding.
Kyli: Whenever people are studying money, they hold it. Sometimes they don’t even have to look at it. They know the feel of it. Do we know Jesus so well that we are acquainted with the details, the nuances of His voice, the way He speaks and moves? A sideways glance on a Sunday morning will not equip you to spot a counterfeit in these final days. It’s not enough.
ReGina: Our girlfriend Amanda taught on this subject matter, so we will link her in the show notes. One of the things she did was to give us a list of original products and how to distinguish the counterfeit. There are several things you can look for. You can look for:
· Unbelievable discounts—too good to be true
· Flimsy packaging
· Grammatical and spelling mistakes in the names or in the descriptions
· False websites
· Poor quality of products
· Flawed fonts or logos
· No contact details
Kyli: If you’re being lured into an alley, don’t go.
ReGina: If you know the real deal, you will be less likely to be deceived by what’s fake. We don’t want to be deceived by the enemy, so we want to know our God. If we know Him well, we can take peace that we will not be deceived.
Jina, talk to us for a bit about the True Trinity.
Jina: We will start with the true. When training people to recognize counterfeit money, they start with the real. So, that’s what we’re going to do today. There is a True Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We will start with God the Father. He is the One true God, the “I AM” God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. We settle it. He is good, and His mercy endures forever. Believers would say it back and forth to each other over the centuries: He is good, and His mercy endures forever. Sometimes we have stomped our feet and said, “He is GOOD.” Or, “He IS good.”
ReGina: The enemy is trying to make you think He is not as good as He really is. He whispers in your ear, “Has God not said….? Why is He not answering that for you?”
Jina: Let’s go to Isaiah 43:10-11:
“You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and My servants whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no Savior.”
This is very clear. There is only one God, and He’s it! He wants us to know Him.
Let’s go to the second person of the Trinity—God the Son, Jesus Christ. Both Son of God and Son of Man. Born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, performed many miracles. The One who died on a cross and rose again from the dead. He’s now seated at the right hand of God. He makes intercession for us day and night. There is no other like Him.
John 1:1-4 says of Jesus:
In the beginning, the Word [which is Jesus] already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through Him, and nothing was created except through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and His life brought light to everyone. Jn 1:1-4
There is only One Christ, One Light, One Savior for the world. The Scriptures are very clear.
ReGina: I like that we are hearing John say, “He was there in the beginning.” So, He is not just a New Testament God. Jesus was in the Old Testament—there in the beginning.
Jina: He is part of God’s plan to redeem us so that we could again have relationship with Him after sin came in. We spent one year going through the Word looking for Jesus in every page.
Kyli: As we read through these, I want you to be thinking about how you see the counterfeit of the enemy. We know there is One God and He exists in perfect community with Jesus. And Jesus is the only way to the Father. What is a very relevant lie that we hear, a counterfeit that we hear constantly? That’s rigid. That’s your truth. But we see here: there is only one truth.
Jina: Throughout this study, we’re seeing there’s a choice. It’s life, or it’s death. It’s God, or it’s anything and everything else.
ReGina: So we see God the Father and Jesus the Son. We need a third.
Jina: The third part of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. He is our Teacher, our Comforter. He knows God’s thoughts. He speaks the truth to us. He intercedes on our behalf.
John 15:26 says, “When the Father sends the Advocate as My representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
How is He going to remind you? Through the Holy Spirit. But you have to have already read the Word. You’ve got to know the Word to be reminded of it.
ReGina: Holy Spirit also introduces people to Jesus. He draws people to Jesus.
Jina: And awakens us. He opens our eyes.
So, here we have the True Trinity: God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We are going to talk about how they’re characterized. Remember, they’re all One, One God. They’re all characterized by: INFINITE TRUTH, LOVE AND GOODNESS. When you think of God, you know you’ve got truth, you’ve got love, and you’ve got goodness.
Infinite Truth:
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.” Jn 14:6
Love:
“We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” 1Jn 4:16
Goodness:
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good.” Mk 10:18
Basically, He is saying, “I am God. If only God is good, and I’m good, then I’m God.”
These are just a small sample of the Scriptures that clearly define this Holy Trinity and what they stand for. Scripture is very clear about the True Trinity. Make sure you know Him.
ReGina: Not to be repetitive, but to be repetitive, we have got to look intently, regularly, committedly, faithfully at God, at who He is, at what His Word says about Him, at His character, at His works. It has to be a lifestyle of everyday experience.
Jina: We have said that we need to settle it up front who God is and what’s coming and what do we know but know but know. But every morning, I need the reminder. I really need to hear again.
ReGina: Absolutely. We can get in a situation where we’re pressed, maybe our hopes have been dashed, or there has been betrayal in our relationships, and we are shaken. When we’re shaken, that opens the door for the enemy to speak lies to us. If we don’t reinforce what God really says in those situations, we can find ourselves on a loop replaying that lie, agreeing with it, and then basically we don’t need the devil anymore because we’re saying it to ourselves.
Jina: The enemy will also take the truth and change it just a little bit. Like we said with a product, it may look like the original but not quite. If we don’t really know the truth, we can get off.
ReGina: Satan did the same thing with Jesus in the wilderness when he tempted Him. He took truth out of context, and he hung it up there for Jesus to wrap His heart around. Jesus being the Word, yet at that time being Man as well, had to activate the Word to overcome the enemy.
Kyli: In the very opening pages of Scripture, you see Satan planting this lie, “God is holding out on you. There is something He is withholding.” We are raising our boys. They are 5 and 7. There are a lot of bumpers we’re putting in place right now. You can sometimes see my oldest, his little wheels turning like, “It feels like you’re withholding something good from me.” This age-old lie. I think as things intensify, we will have to be really careful not to numb when we feel that pressure you’re talking about. We like to isolate, and we like to numb. It’s easier not to feel than to feel all of the things that we’re bombarded with. Whenever we start to numb, if Facebook is our pacifier, social media, it’s easy to hide. We don’t want to feel all of the things we’re feeling. As the end approaches, things will intensify even more. We are on dangerous ground. We will not be able to know truth if we are numb. We won’t be able to hear it or see it. What do we do when we feel pressure? What do we turn to? Where do we go? We’re in a season where it’s easy to escape; there’s always something accessible to us. We don’t sit with our thoughts very well. We don’t know what to do with ourselves when there isn’t noise. You cannot discern truth and cultivate the Holy Spirit if you don’t.
ReGina: Kyli, tell us about the Counterfeit Trinity.
Kyli: We know that Satan is always trying to imitate the real thing. The first person we meet in the Counterfeit Trinity is Satan himself. A lot of times, people will describe Satan as the opposite but equal to God. He is opposite in every way, but he is equal in no ways. He is not equal—opposite, but not equal. We see Satan or the dragon found in Revelation 12:
Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them down to the earth. He stood in front of the woman as she was about to give birth, ready to devour her baby as soon as it was born. Re 12:3-4
This is typically where we sign off in Revelation. But just hang in here with us. We see here that he is ready to consume the baby, but he doesn’t consume the baby. Then we see this epic battle take place. We’re going to pick up verses 7-9:
Then there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his
angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Re 12:7-9
We are introduced to the first part of the Counterfeit Trinity. Next, we meet the Antichrist, also known as the Beast. He comes up out of the sea.
Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God….And the dragon gave the beast his own power and throne and great authority. Re 13:1-2
So, here we have a world government rising up. There is a lot of symbolism here. Satan is the one to give him his power, his throne and his authority. There is something else to note here about this Beast. We’re going to pick up in Scripture.
I saw that one of the heads of the beast seemed wounded beyond recovery—but the fatal wound was healed! The whole world marveled at this miracle and gave allegiance two the beast. They worshiped the dragon for giving the beast such great power, and they also worshiped the beast. Re 13:11-14
So we see the Antichrist here will come back from the dead and people will worship Satan for it. We almost see Satan and the Antichrist as caricatures and think, “I’ll so be able to spot them.” He is not going to be running around in a red suit with a tail and a pitchfork. We have got to know that we know how he works. We have got to know the real thing.
ReGina: I heard you say earlier today that the Gospel is really simple. See how simple the analogy is here. Jesus came back from the dead and people worshipped Him. The Antichrist, the opposing Christ, will come back from the dead, and people will worship him.
Jina: We see all of these images and they look confusing, but the Word really tells us who they are. When you read Revelation 12, it says, “This great dragon, the ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world.” He tells us who this is. We don’t have to wonder. He tells us right there in Scripture who it is.
Kyli: We have to pay attention. It’s not just a few people, but a huge number of people who are deceived. Do we know the real thing? Are we spending time with the real thing? Do we know Jesus? How do you know someone? You spend time with him constantly.
ReGina: You can’t replace that. There’s no magic button.
Jina: One of the things you said in an earlier podcast that stood out to me was, “What if we have this revelation of Jesus but we don’t know Him?” That’s the defining thing about Christianity. We can know God like a friend, like a husband. We can know Him. There’s a knowing. Then we can see something or someone and know, “That’s not God.”
Kyli: We meet the last member of the Counterfeit Trinity—Satan, the Antichrist and now, we’re going to look at the False Prophet.
Then I saw another beast come up out of the earth. He had two horns like those of a lamb, but he spoke with the voice of a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast. And he required all the earth and its people to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. He did astounding miracles, even making fire flash down to earth from the sky while everyone was watching. And with all the miracles he was allowed to perform on behalf of the first beast, he deceived all the people who belong to this world. Re 13:11-14
This is also the one who will require the mark of the beast.
He required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without the mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name.
Re 13:16-17
ReGina: Wow! We see that the Counterfeit Trinity is the complete opposite of the True Trinity. The Counterfeit Trinity is characterized by: DECEPTION, HATRED AND UNADULTERATED EVIL. Let’s talk about that amongst ourselves here. Let’s look at some specific characterizations of the Counterfeit Trinity. How does he show himself.
Jina: I was thinking how we said, “God is truth, and the Counterfeit is deception; God is love, and the Counterfeit is hatred; God is good, and the Counterfeit is unadulterated evil”—the complete opposite.
Kyli: So, we see in 2 Corinthians 11:14: “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” It looks light, but it’s not.
ReGina: That’s the deception at work. Kyli, you said, they’re not going to run around in red suits and pitchforks. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. It sounds good. It looks good. Some of what it seems like is being advanced would be the same things you would advance as a believer, the same things Jesus would advance. But at its root, it is not coming from the same heart of love. Its intent is twisted.
Kyli: When we think of unadulterated evil, we characterize that as looking a certain way, but it’s not always obvious. It’s so deceptive.
Jina: Light is a metaphor for truth in these Scriptures. So, how can you tell God’s light from Satan’s false light? The Scripture tells us in Psalm 119:105: “Your Word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”
ReGina: I think it’s important to note that’s Word in context. Here in the House, we’re doing a study on Wednesday nights that’s called Say What? It’s learning how to interpret the Bible. In order to interpret the Bible appropriately, it has to be in context—in context of the paragraph, the chapter, the book, the testament, and the whole Word. Satan is really good at taking the Word out of context. "Your Word is a lamp to my feet”is “Your Word [in context—the way You meant it to be delivered] is a lamp to my feet.” I have to study it, so I know how He meant for that Word to be delivered.
Kyli: What does D. A. Carson say? Any text without a context is a pretext for a proof text. In other words, if you just grab pieces and parts of it, you’re going to miss it.
Jina: In that same Psalm is one of my favorite verses. Psalm 119 is really about the Word. “The sum of Your Word is truth” (Ps 119:160). You must know the whole Word. You must put it in the context of God is Good, Good is Truth, God is Light and then fit everything into that.
Kyli: We see: Exposure to His voice—in His Word—will help us recognize the difference between the good light of God and that which is counterfeit (Gotquestions.com). You have to know the difference. Satan will come up as the angel of light to draw us to himself. He will look good. He hates us. He won’t come as something or someone that will repel us. It will look and feel good. It will feed your flesh. It will feed your will. So, we have to know the truth.
ReGina: One of the verses that really stood out to me about Satan and his deception is John 8:44. It says, “Satan was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Jina: So, we’re saying, “Jesus is truth, there is no truth in Satan. None.”
Kyli: He’s a liar and he has a mission. Here’s his mission:
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. 2Co 4:4
ReGina: Simply put, Satan’s mission is death. God’s mission is life. The exact opposite.
Jina: It is so interesting that it says, “He has blinded the eyes so they can’t even see.” When I pray for people to know the Lord, I often say, “Lord, open their eyes, their blind eyes that they might see; remove the veil that they might see.” We want to represent Jesus. We speak the true so that they can see it.
ReGina: In John 8:32, Christ says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Another goal of Satan is bondage. A goal of Jesus is freedom. So, we see two opposing viewpoints. Two opposing trinities with opposing missions. They’re characterized by opposing qualities: Love versus Hatred, Truth versus Deception. They are pitted against each other in these last days—one working so hard to deceive us in whatever way he can, and One loving us, so desperately loving us, and wanting us to live with Him in heaven for all eternity. He is not willing for any to perish. It all boils down to this in John 10:10:
A thief has only one thing in mind [this is Satan]—he wants to steal, slaughter and destroy. But I have come [this is Jesus] to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!
So the question we have today is: Will we choose to know His Word and His voice so that we’re not deceived? Will we choose life or will we choose death? We get a choice. Will we choose to be destroyed, or will we choose to overflow in the abundance of His goodness and His light?
So, Jina, we hear about the opposing trinities and how to recognize them But, what do with the information we’ve been given today?
Jina: I love that! God doesn’t just leave us a problem with no answer. He gives us the solution right in His Word. I’m going to read Revelation 14:12:
This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying His commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus.
There are three things He gives us right there. We’ve got to:
· Endure persecution patiently
· Obey His commands. He has the answers right there in His Word. He made us. He tells us: This is how I made you. This is the way you should walk. So, just walk in it, and it will be well with you.
· Maintain your faith in Jesus until the end
We see it over and over in Scripture. It is stated almost the same way in Revelation 13:10. The Word is clear. As His holy people, we’ve got to endure persecution patiently, obey His commands and be faithful to the end.
ReGina, You and I were talking about what it means to endure persecution patiently.
ReGina: We don’t want to see ourselves as doormats that keep availing ourselves to inappropriate treatment. When don’t want to be that. When we can, we want to separate ourselves from those who are mistreating us and abusing us, for sure. Satan is an abuser. He’s in this world, and we’re in this world. That’s the bottom line. The Bible says because the world hates Jesus, those who align with Him will be persecuted. There will be persecution. We’ve got to develop some grit, some stay power. Even though I’m standing here crying, I’m standing here. We’ve got to buck up. The first thing you want to do when you feel persecuted is run. Everything within you wants to run, but we’ve got to advance for the kingdom of God.
Kyli: I think we need to pay attention. If you as a believer never experience push back, you never experience any type of questioning about what is happening in the culture around you, I daresay you might be hanging out somewhere in the middle. We talked about a lukewarm church. We’re not looking for a fight. But as believers in this world, we will experience friction. If we’re not butting up against the schemes of the enemy, we might be moving in the same direction. We need to pay attention to that. It matters.
Jina: I know in our very first session, we talked about needing to settle it, settle what we believe, and stand fast.
ReGina: We keep finding it so difficult to obey His commands. We keep thinking we know better. We kind of get this thought process that the Lord is holding out on us. He is withholding from us. What He’s asking of us might have been good years ago, but He really doesn’t mean purity, does He? He really doesn’t mean that. He gets the lust of the flesh. If I’m in a committed relationship, this is fine, right? We just aren’t understanding how we’re killing ourselves by what we’re allowing ourselves to walk in.
Jina: We weren’t made for that.
ReGina: We are not made for that. His whole goal in saying, “These are parameters, walk in them” is our safety, our security, our abundance of life. That’s His whole goal.
Jina: Because He’s good. And He’s love.
Kyli: It won’t always feel good though. And that’s the tension. We live in a world that says, “If it feels good, do it. If it feels right to you, then it’s right.” It’s a slippery slope.
ReGina: There’s a little more Kyli. Tell us more about what we do with the information we have.
Kyli: We have talked about it at length already, but it begs repeating. We’ve got to KNOW Him. The Bible references a knowing with your mind and a knowing with your heart. Sometimes just those few inches between our head and our heart is a huge chasm. He’s calling us, He’s calling you and me to this deeper place of knowing. And really, it’s going to be that deeper knowing that’s going to hold us. It’s going to be that deeper place of knowing Him, knowing His character. This doesn’t feel good, but I know You are good. I don’t want to do this, but I know that goodness will be the outcome because that’s what You’re the author of. I don’t want to obey, but I know that You love me and You’ll keep me safe if I stay right there within the palm of Your parameters.
So, we’ve got to know God and fear Him—not be scared of Him. So many of us are scared of Him because we think He’s this mean God, but He is so kind. He calls us to this place. He is an intimate God, but He is also the God of the Universe and that requires a certain amount of respect and reverence. Just awe and wonder. When is the last time we were in awe over God? Have we become familiar with the God that deserves awe and reverence?
ReGina: We’ve taken advantage of the fact that He came down to our level, and we’ve relegated Him to our level. Therefore, we can just behave however we want to in His presence, without that respect and honor for who He really is.
Kyli: I heard someone say that we were designed with this God-shaped hole inside of our heart, but He doesn’t have that. He is complete and perfect in and of Himself. He doesn’t need us, but He wants us. And He chooses us. And He pursues us. So, we see here in Colossians 2:8:
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
Nonsense can sound very intelligent. We like to know why, but we can “why” God right on out of our daily lives. We want to watch out for smooth talking and flattery. It sounds right, guys, but bring it back to the Word. Does this line up with the Word? He gives us very clear parameters. Then we see in Romans 16:18:
Such people are not serving Christ our Lord; they are serving their own personal interests. By smooth talk and glowing words, they deceive innocent people.
We hear that evil is coming, but evil is here. Love the truth more than anything else. We are called to be truth-seekers. Are you seeking truth? Remember that the end is death for all those who don’t follow Christ. I know that sounds harsh, but it is just simply the truth. There is a time coming when we will stand before Him. Are you ready? Not just you, are there going to be people behind you? You are called to do something. And remember, God’s the One who wins in the end. It is a fixed fight. He wins. We don’t have to be fearful. Because we know how this thing ends. He is so Good. And He is coming back for His Bride, for you and me. We don’t have to fear.
ReGina: The Word says He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. And there, right there in the Scriptures we’ve given, He has given us everything we need to be able to discern the counterfeit from Truth, Truth from counterfeit.
So, Lord, I pray that You would help us today to study Your Word, to study You, to settle it in our hearts who You are. You are a good God. Help us to meditate on You, to hide Your Word in our hearts, to develop a lifestyle of daily interaction with Your Word so that we so know the truth and when the counterfeit comes, we see it. It may shake us for a moment, the deceptive words of the enemy may shake us for a minute, may get us to wrap our hearts around it for a little bit, may get us to confess it in just a few sentences, but then, Lord, the moment it begins to form in our hearts and come out of our mouths, we would recognize that they are not the Words of our loving God, but the words of a counterfeit god, a god whose only goal is to utterly destroy us. God, I pray for those listening who may think they do not have the tools, to hear that they do have the tools. And, Lord, that we would just activate the tools. We would pull them out of our tool belt and use them, Lord Jesus, that we can all discern the enemy, discern his ways, that we can all resist the devil, and he will flee, as the Word says. We all have that ability. We do not have to fear being deceived in the last days. So, Lord, if anyone is walking in that fear today, I pray that they would realize that fear is not of You, that is not Your design as You have revealed Yourself in Revelation. It is not for us to be afraid, maybe to be in awe of who You are, maybe to realize that this life, this thing we’re doing, is real—this is real talk—but God, we are not to walk in a binding fear. We walk in the peace of God as You reveal Yourself to us knowing that as we spend time with You, we know You and we can discern evil, and we can resist it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
You all have a great day. We look forward to being with you next time.
Sources:
Oxford Languages Dictionary
Bible Versions:
English Standard Version
New American Standard Bible
New Living Translation
“True & Counterfeit Trinity” 3/9/2022, Amanda Parker, www.bethele3.org
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