New Thoughts (10/26/05-10/30/05)
Degrees of Belief (10/26/05-10/29/05)
The record of this official’s meeting with Jesus gives further evidence to the fact that there is believing, and then there is believing unto salvation – degrees of belief, if you will, or perhaps just different kinds of belief. Here, I find three such degrees or kinds, two of which are explicitly called belief, and one of which must be inferred. In both of the explicit cases, it is the same word by which that belief is declared, yet the impact of that belief is radically different. However, that we may see the progression of belief more clearly, let me begin with the first belief evident in this passage, that one which we can only infer from the unfolding of this man’s tale.
The first thing we learn about this official is that he had learned that Jesus was back in the area, and he went to Him on behalf of his dying son. Well, if he was willing to leave his son in the care of his slaves to go seek out this Man in Cana, which would require a few days at a minimum, he must have had some sort of reason to believe that the trip would be worthwhile. If he did not already believe at a minimum that this man truly could heal his son, he would not have done as he did.
I would call this belief the intellectual belief. It is not that sort of faith that so-called faith healers might engender, however. Recall that this man was stationed in Capernaum, at least the evidence appears to point in that direction. Well, the rest of Galilee may have been coming around in their thinking because of what they had seen of Jesus in Jerusalem, but this man had had the benefit, I suspect, of being on hand during the time Jesus had stayed in Capernaum after the wedding in Cana. Capernaum was the place where Jesus had healed Peter’s mother-in-law (Mt 8:14). Now, this alone was not likely to bring Him to the attention of those within Herod’s employ, but then there came the activities of that evening. All those in town who suffered from demonic attentions or who were ill in any form were coming to Him, and the record states that all who were ill were healed (Mt 8:16). Now this was news. This was not something that would go by unnoticed. Neither was it something that could be discounted as rumor and folklore.
The evident reality of Jesus’ ability to heal the sick walked the streets of Capernaum daily. This man had every reason to believe that Jesus could heal, because he could look around him and see the proof. Lame men whom he had seen begging street-side for years were now out and about, hale and hearty and earning their own keep once again. Capernaum was not a large place. Given the scale of Jesus’ works there, it would be unlikely that there was not at least one person healed with whom this official was personally familiar. This, then, was the belief of the mind, rational belief, or simply being convinced of truth. While it is impossible that anyone should come to saving faith without having a rational conviction that he pursued the True God, that conviction of the reality of Jesus is not, in itself, enough.
There are any number of false belief systems out there that believe Jesus was real. Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists will all quite cheerfully accept the reality of Jesus. Yes, He lived upon the earth. Yes, He was a good man. They may even accept that He was healing many during the course of His life. But, that is as far as their belief can take them. He is worth studying, perhaps, worth emulating as a good man, maybe even worth listening to as being a wise man. But, they do not see Salvation standing there in the form of the Christ. They do not accept Him as the Messiah, and so the belief of the mind fails to become faith believing unto salvation.
His mind won over, he was prepared to go find this Man who so clearly had healed so many. Indeed, that belief gives him a glimmer of hope that he would not have had by any other means. But now we move on to his meeting with Jesus. He had come hoping to bring Jesus to his son, but he must be satisfied with a word from this Healer. He does not even hear Jesus say, “I will heal him,” or “I have healed him.” He must be satisfied with even less than that, no more than, “your son lives.” Well, I tell you, to a man in such state as this, that really is not much to hold onto. He could as easily have taken it as a rejection, telling him to go home while his son was still alive. He could have taken it as simply saying that his son had no real need for healing. He would be fine, anyway, so why bother the healer? But, this man heard it in its intended fashion. Though the words were not all he had hoped for, yet he knew that his hopes would be met when he heard those words.
The belief that held his rational mind has now been moved up a bit. The mind is not left behind, by any means, but now the emotions have become involved as well. Indeed, I tend to look upon this as the religious stage of belief. I’m not sure that his belief at this point was anything much greater than that which had come to the Samaritan woman. He now believed Him to be a prophet, as she had. The belief that had gripped his mind by its evidence now gripped his spirit as well, creating a greater hope within him. Yet, what was this belief at its core? It was the belief in the religiosity of this Man before him. At most, it was belief that this Man spoke – at least on this occasion – by the inspiration of God. Yet, this made Him at most a prophet and perhaps only a poet.
Still, a prophet’s words were not to be scorned, particularly in this land that had seen no prophets for some time. He believes what Jesus says. I wonder whether he understood what Jesus meant, but he believed what was said. He believed his son was alive, perhaps that he would remain so. It is quite unclear, though, whether he believed that Jesus had actually done anything. Perhaps he was entirely satisfied to know that his fears had been unfounded, the fever his son was suffering from not as life threatening as it appeared to be.
What I see in this is that he has come to a religious belief. What began as a belief in the abilities of the man has moved on to a belief in the spirituality of the man. It would need something more, though, to bring this courtier to saving faith. It would take the inward working of the Holy Spirit, He who calls each son of God to belief. Faith finds its source not in our mental persuasions, not in the power of the intellect. Neither is the source of faith to be found in our emotional response to some spiritual leader. No, faith, that greatest form of belief, comes to us as a gift from the God who chose to save us (Eph 2:8). It is by His grace, and only by His grace that we are saved through that very faith that He imparts into our soul.
Had it not been for that inward working of God, this man would have met his slaves, heard their report, and simply gone his way home. At most, he might have made note of the unusual coincidence that his son’s fever had broken even as Jesus was speaking to him. It might have confirmed to him that this man was truly a prophet. But, because God had him in mind, because God chose to impart that precious gift of real belief to this man, he understood as he heard that report. He understood that there is no such thing as coincidence.
How, you might ask, had he come to this understanding? I cannot tell you for certain, but I can tell you that I have known that very same proposition put to me. It was not put to me by some well meaning friend, nor by any human agency. It was a proposition spoken directly to my thoughts, yet it was no thought of my own. Perhaps somebody would care to explain that to me. The psychiatrist could doubtless have a field day with it, but it was put out as a proposition, and what remained was to observe all that followed. Could it be that this official heard a similar proposition as he made his way homeward? I find, because of my own experience, I can very well understand what his thoughts would have been like as he absorbed this unspoken idea. I am sure he spent some time wondering where that thought had come from, it wasn’t like him to worry about such things, and surely it was nothing he had heard from his travel companions. Neither was it an idea he had picked up around the palace somewhere. It was for all intents and purposes an alien concept to him and he would recognize it as such. Yet – and again, it is only by the working of the Spirit upon this man that it could be so – he would give it a fair hearing. He would test out this proposition, see if it held up or not. There could be no harm in that, after all.
In this state of mind, he came upon his slaves coming to find him. What a coincidence! Ah, but there’s no such thing… Next comes the news of that healing… Hmm, a test for that theory. Just when did he recover? Why! It was at that moment that Jesus had told him his son lived. What a … no, that was too coincidental to be coincidence. This was something else, something other. This Man whom he had gone to seek was something more than a man, something greater than a prophet. Suddenly, and yes, I believe it was a very sudden realization – a revelation if you will – he recognizes the truth. He has met the Messiah, the Redeemer! What is more, because he is being taught by the Spirit of the Living God, I would suggest that he understands the Messiah as the Messiah rather than as the Avenger that most of Israel was waiting for. The Messiah he had met and now knew was not a mighty warrior come to throw off the chains of Roman bondage. He was something for more important than that. He was the Redeemer, the Savior, come to throw of the chains of sin and death.
You may doubt that he could suddenly have known all this, yet I tell you that’s how it is. I have known that sudden moment. One moment I stood a skeptic, agnostic at best, with no appreciation or use for God and His Christ, the next it was very clearly real and true, and I knew that this Jesus who died and rose again was my greatest need. I do not claim to have suddenly understood the Scriptures, but it was suddenly exceedingly clear that what I had heard taught from its pages was Truth. It was abundantly clear that the humanist ideas I had were off base. There was something greater than man, and He remained in control even though we have by and large refused His command and denied His reality. I could see that He had been active in my own life for quite some time, could recognize those places where it was His intervention that had saved me from myself. And all this time, I had been patting myself on the back for it. Yet, here He was with that one proposition, proving Himself by simply causing more coincidences to occur than coincidence could account for. This was so far outside the bell curve that it could not even be counted as an anomaly, a statistical blip. It was off the chart completely, beyond the realm of probability that so many perfect alignments of events could come about by accident. In that regard I find I feel a certain kinship with this father.
Oh, and how I can imagine his homecoming after this. Again, I can relate to my own. There was such an excitement in him. He had, after all, just discovered how very much God loved him. He had just met God face to face, as it were, for to see Jesus is to see the Father, for He and the Father are One. This man may not have had the theology down yet, but he understood the concepts. He had to tell somebody what had transpired. Somebody? He had to tell everybody! It’s that same reaction we see over and over again during the ministry of Jesus. It is the seed germinating, and look at that harvest! Because of this impossible coincidence he found himself recipient of real belief, unshakable belief. And, because of that faith that had suddenly bubbled up within him, because of the power of the Spirit that was suddenly within him, he could express what he had experienced with such power of conviction and belief that his whole family – and not just his family, but even his slaves – believed as well! An entire household saved because one father accepted the proposition God put to him. “Test Me in this…”
How grateful I am, Holy Father, that You ask us to test You, that we might know that You are You. How blessed I am to know that You have called me Your own child. You made it so abundantly clear to me that this was nothing of my own doing, it was nothing of my own deserving, it was simply You deciding that it was time I knew You. Oh! How many times You had acted to preserve my life that I might see that day when everything changed. Yes, and so often I forget the sheer joy and wonder of that moment. How can I? God, forgive me. No, I can not bear to be ungrateful for what You did, though I know there are times when it is that way with me. Yet, not ungrateful, but unmindful. It is bad enough. Oh! How often You still preserve me, still guard me from my own foolish ways, turn my feet from the path of destruction I’ve set them on. Indeed, that wellspring of life that You have implanted in me continually wells up to overflowing. Praise You, Lord! All praise and honor be to You, for You have done great things, and I will bless Your Name forever.
One thing that impresses me about this official is that he does not attempt to use his position as leverage in dealing with Jesus. He doesn’t pull rank, as it were, and insist that Jesus accompany him. He comes to Jesus as simply a man like any other, a man in need. Indeed, he addresses Jesus as ‘Sir.’ That could as easily be translates as ‘Lord,’ yet I don’t think he was ready for that as yet. He would recognize his Lord later, when his slaves had caught up with him.
This is an important thing for us to grasp. This man had position, but that position did not give him any leverage with Jesus, and he knew it. We are really no different. Even as children of God, we do not have such a position as would give us leverage with Jesus. What do I mean by this? Does He not hear our prayers and answer as He wills? Of course He does. But, we are by no means of such standing that we can tell Jesus what He must do at our command. Yet I know those who do just that, and think it righteousness. I understand their position, I think. They are, in their own mind, simply reminding Jesus of who He is and what He has promised. I really don’t think He needs such reminders, but this is all right as far as it goes. But the attitude that comes across in these reminders: it reflects something I see in no Scriptural example of the godly man or woman. It reflects a pride of self which is beyond justification. It is as though we come to Jesus and say, ‘do you know who I am?’ As if who we are is reason for Him to do anything! Indeed, if we have truly acknowledged this One as Lord and Master, how dare we behave in this fashion before Him?
If I look to the apostles, those upon whom the Church has its foundation, I find no such arrogance displayed. No! To a man, the apostles declared themselves bond-servants of Christ, slaves of this holy Master. The slave does not rise up and command his master, however correct the command might be. It is not his position to do so. His is a position of humble obedience, accepting the master’s will as his own. This is what the apostles were expressing when they declared themselves slaves of Christ. This is what anybody hearing them understood them to be saying, because anybody hearing them was perfectly well aware of the social order, perfectly aware of what slaves expected from masters, and what masters expected from slaves.
If we really think that we are on such terms with our Lord and Master that we can order Him around to do our bidding, we are more than sadly mistaken, we are denying the very words by which we declare Him Master. If I were to borrow a phrase from the Samaritan woman, are you better than the apostles who founded the Church? Are you indeed holier than Peter, wiser than Paul, more loving than John? Not one of these men would have even considered demanding that Jesus do even one least little thing. They might well ask Him with all confidence that He would be willing to do as they asked, but this is because they could be confident that what they asked was in full accord with His will in the first place. They did not ask favors of Him, they asked for assistance in doing those things He had commanded His slaves to do. Those are the prayers God loves to honor. Even in this, though, there was not to be found a demanding tone, but a beseeching of the Lord’s help in fulfilling the Lord’s command. It is He who wills, and it is He who works in you that you might do His will (Php 2:13).
The Father of Fathers (10/29/05)
Along those lines, I notice a change in the way John speaks of this man who came to seek Jesus out. As he is introduced, we are told he is an official of some sort. Even as he pleads for his son’s cause, he is still spoken of as the official, the king’s man. But, notice what happens when he comes to believe Messiah: now he is the father (v53). What leads John to make this change in his identifying this man? It might even be found in those words that he echoes here, “your son lives.” Perhaps thinking about those words has led him to thinking about the Father, and His Son. Could it be that the thought of this man and his son’s regained life has triggered memories in John? Could it be that this one who took upon himself the care of Jesus’ mother is thinking about Jesus’ Father? “Ah, Father God! Your Son lives!”
This, after all, lies at the core of the great good news which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It sits as the root of faith, the foundational matter of the great confession of the Church. Jesus, God’s only Son, had come to dwell amongst men, had died at their hands, was buried after the fashion of all flesh, but He rose again to take up His place at the right hand of the Father; that place which had been His from all eternity, and which shall remain His for all eternity. “Father, Your Son lives, and because He lives, we have a certain hope and a future with You!”
Whatever may have been the thought that John had in this moment, one thing that I see from this account is that special place that the Father has for fathers. This is not something unique to the present story. It can be seen elsewhere, as well. For instance, there was also the case of that one who had sent for Peter to come teach him, that he might speak words leading to salvation. This, Peter did at the Spirit’s command, and that man was saved. But, not only was he saved, but his whole household with him (Ac 11:15).
What is it about fathers? It is quite simply that the father is the head of the household. This is the order that God has established as being the earthly model of the heavenly order. Even as He is head over all, so the father is intended to be head over his household. He is not called to be a tyrant, for God is no tyrant. Yet, he is called to lead as the head leads the body about. The body does not tell the head where it must go, but quite the opposite. It is the head which decides the course, and the body which works to obey.
So it is supposed to be with Christ and His Church. He is the head directing the body of believers in the labors of the day. This is what leads me to speak out against the arrogant prayer of demanding. That is but another example of the body attempting to tell the head what to do. It is an illness in the body to behave in this fashion. This is not to suggest that the body has no voice with the head. No, it can provide sound counsel to the head, noting conditions, perceiving more effective ways of achieving what the head wills; but the sound body knows better than to force the head off course. That is a sign of illness, not of power.
In light of these things, I can see why the Father is concerned for the condition of those families on earth who are intended to function in His image. I can also understand why it is we see so great an attack on that family structure. Fatherless households are on the rise because the enemy hates all that reflects the image of God. If we look around at the outcome of those fatherless households, we can see the great damage that has been done. We have raised up a generation without a head, without any sense of headship, without any example of what the head should be like.
God is concerned for fathers because it is the father’s role to provide leadership, to set direction for the family. This is why we find these occasions in Scripture such as the present one. The father comes to salvation, and the whole household follows him into the kingdom. Why? Because he is the leader. If he has examined the case and found it worthy of belief, well then, those who have followed him thus far will find in that sufficient cause to follow him further. If he has been a trustworthy leader for his family in the past, then his word is reason enough to continue where he leads on.
The converse of this situation is that that unbelief of the father is as deadly a poison to the family as his faith is medicine. If my belief as the father of this household is not certain, then every member of the household begins to shake in their resolve. If my daughter cannot look at me and see a man who not only believes the Scriptures, but lives his life accordingly, then she will find no reason to believe herself. If she sees a man who is shaken by events even when he claims to believe the God who says, ‘fear not!’ then what ground will she find to shake off her own fears? If she does not know her father to be setting an example worthy of being followed, why shall she ever seek to draw closer to the Father Himself?
Oh, my God! Such a responsibility You place upon me, You entrust to me! You have set me to be an example of Your own leadership, and how poorly I have faired at it. How can I hope to be the example of Your own being, except You fill me with Your own being? Oh, Lord, I have needed a reminder of this purpose You have put into my life. How I need to remain aware of it, though. Keep me, my Father, keenly aware that I am to be a father after Your own heart. Show me, Holy Spirit, how I can become an example for my daughter of what the Father is about. Teach me to behave in such fashion that she will see the Father as somebody she wants to be near, somebody she can respect and trust to show her the way to go.
Signs & Wonders (10/30/05)
When Jesus declares that we just won’t believe unless we see signs and wonders (v48), I really wonder what exactly He is expressing. Is He truly upset by this? That is certainly the way I’ve always envisioned it. Signs and wonders, though, are so much a part of God’s testimony to Himself and to His coworkers that I find little cause for this frustration, if that is truly what it is. So often, I find myself in awe at the way God has stooped down to make Himself known to us. He who is so far beyond us, whose ways are far greater than our own, has in the first instance caused His testimony to be written in the Scriptures. He has, through the authors of those texts, expressed to us just Who He Is in terms that we are able to understand.
Jesus continues in that family tradition. Recognizing that the mind of man at its best remains woefully inadequate when it comes to direct contemplation of perfect Truth, He always approaches that Truth from an earthly perspective. He always provides that example from life around us by which we can begin to understand Life itself. Well, then, if the Father has never expressed any sort of impatience with having to perform miracles that His people might more readily believe, how can it be that the Son, who does and says only that which He has seen the Father do and say, speaks out such frustration?
I can find, for instance, sufficient evidence that those signs and wonders which God has done are praiseworthy, and celebrated as such. The very fact that the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New, seek to record the things God has done in the world of men should suffice to show that. Yet, even beyond that simple fact, there are direct and immediate testaments to the goodness of those very events that come about when God intervenes in His creation.
Daniel considered it a good and proper thing to write down for Nebuchadnezzar’s consideration all those things God had done in Daniel’s own life. “It seemed good to me to say, ‘Look what the Most High God has done for me!’” (Dan 4:2-3) He manifests Himself by great signs and mighty wonders, giving evidence of His eternal kingdom, showing proofs that He reigns forever. It is good to declare what God has done. It is a source of strength to persevere when we meditate on the powerful ways in which He has acted to preserve His own. It is strength for the battle. It is that record of His interventions which brings us the certitude of knowing that though we are called upon to walk alone through the valley of death, we are never truly alone for He is with us to the ends of the age (Ps 23:4, Mt 28:20).
The apostles quite clearly did not see miraculous signs as something extraneous, something to be avoided in their own ministry. Paul, for one, pointed to these very miracles and signs of God’s impinging on His world as evidence for the truth of his own words. As he reminds the Corinthians of the testimony they themselves ought to have of his ministry amongst them he makes the point that as he was teaching them, they were witness to signs, wonders and miracles occurring around and through him. These, he wrote, were the signs of a true apostle (2Co 12:12). The author of Hebrews has a similar message for his readers. He says that it is by these signs, wonders and miracles that God testifies His agreement with the testimony of the apostles, just as He testified to His agreement with Jesus the Christ, His Son (Heb 2:4). Here, these modes of God’s testimony are placed side by side with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those, too, are declared as elements of God’s testimony about His chosen ones.
Yet, the miraculous testimony comes with cautionary statements. When Jesus sought to prepare His apostles for life in the end times, one thing He warned them of is that there would be many false Christs and plenty of false prophets who would do their utmost to lead away the elect (Mk 13:22). They would have their own signs and wonders to perform toward this end. “Be warned,” He said, “I have told you all this in advance” (Mk 13:33). Paul confirms this message as he writes to the church in Thessalonica. Here, indeed, he was battling just such things as Jesus had warned of. It takes only a brief look at the writings of the apostles to recognize that they all found themselves dealing with these imposters to faith. The time will come, Paul reminds his charges, when the lawless one will be revealed for what he is (2Th 2:8-9). The Lord will slay him with little effort when He returns, but in the meantime that one remains active in the purposes of Satan, performing all sorts of signs and wonders by those powers he serves.
How are we to take the full testimony of Scripture then? What is the overall counsel that God gives us? It must be taken in that we must not allow ourselves to be taken in by the miraculous. We must find some means by which we can discern between the wonders that serve as God’s confirmation of His spokesmen, and those which seek only to distract and destroy His children. So, the signs and wonders themselves, in the end, prove nothing! At most, we might be able to say that the absence of signs and wonders has some significance.
How are we to define signs and wonders, though? If we rate them too cheaply, we dishonor the God of wonders. Yet, in some fashion it remains true that the very fact that we draw breath today is in its own way a wonder. Miracles are, almost by definition, a disruption or an overruling of the natural order, yet the natural order is in itself a wonder. We are in equal danger, perhaps greater danger in this age of reason, of utterly discounting the miraculous intervention of God. So many insist that there is a rational explanation for everything, and then simply deny whatever defies that rational explanation. Having found the mechanics of the event, it never occurs to them to look further and recognize the timing of the event. It comes back to that issue of knowing that chance and coincidence have no power for they have no real existence. They are nothing, and can cause nothing.
What is absolutely clear to me is that we dare not simply take every sign and wonder as a proof of God’s blessing upon the one who performs them. We must remain vigilant and aware. The enemy of our soul is absolutely jealous of the God Who Is. His every action is aimed towards usurping the power that is God’s alone. In keeping the lost in servitude and subjection to himself, he can use all manner of things. Particularly in this age, he has no great reason to display any sort of power, for so few really believe in the miraculous anyway. Besides, the bulk of those he comes across of little to no connection to the Truth, so he can lie most egregiously and remain undetected. But, when he comes upon a child of God, he dare not say whatever he pleases. He knows that most of his lies would be recognized immediately. He must move into regions of disguise and imitation.
I tell you, if God had not declared that signs and wonders were His testimony on behalf of His Truth, the enemy of your soul would not waste his energy trying to perform signs and wonders of his own. If they had no meaning, he would have no reason to mimic them. It has ever been his way to come very near to the Truth, but with a seemingly harmless inaccuracy inserted here or there. When we see him at work on Jesus, we find him quoting Scriptures with great accuracy, greater accuracy then you will generally find among the apostles themselves. Yet, the conclusions he seeks to draw from those quotations are utterly at odds with the will and character of God. As he is with the word, so he is with the signs. From our limited perspective we may not be able to discern between the signs God performs, and those performed by his enemies. Power is power, in some sense, and while we can discern power, we are not well equipped for distinguishing between powers.
The greatest tool we have for discernment in this area is of course the Word. If we bear in mind the distinction of purpose behind the wonders, it will out for us the means of their identification. God performs miracles to testify to the one for and through whom those miracles are occurring. Why? Because that one is working and teaching in accord with the will and the purposes of God. In contrast to this, the signs performed by his and our enemy are done to turn our attention away from God, His will and His purposes. In this sense, I really appreciate what Zhodiates writes in regard to miracles. Those miracles that are real and true miracles are signposts pointing to the God who performs them. They are not so much valuable in themselves as they are in what they turn our attention to.
If miracles of healing lead us to great excitement over health, if they become vehicles whose purpose is to declare the greatness of the man standing before us, they are no miracles, but entrapment. Look, when God testified to His apostles as His servants and coworkers, He did not ever, not even once, tell the world how great His servants were. Every last one of them would have denied any such opinion, and oftentimes found they had to do just that. No! Whenever the light of fame and awe fell upon His servants, they were instant in turning the light back upon the One who alone deserves that awe. The one who parades himself before us, pointing to the great things he has done ought be the most suspect in our sight. That one who insists upon receiving the dignity due his great office, who feels it necessary to tell us repeatedly just what office it is he holds, that one is to be watched carefully.
The apostles, I find, held the office of apostle in highest regard. Yet, they found no honor in their own occupancy of that office. They were not the point. They had no inherent dignity. The dignity that made the office worthy of honor came from Him who appoints men to office. The glory of the office does not confer its glory upon the occupant. Bearing the title of President does not necessarily give one the ability, integrity, and character that we know ought to define a president. Neither does the abuse of the office reduce the dignity of the office, for the dignity of office is not to be found in the office holder but in the office giver.
When it comes to the officers of the Church, be they apostles, teachers, preachers, deacons, or what have you, the true officers are those who find in themselves nothing deserving of honor and praise. I don’t speak of that false humility that proudly declares that it’s all God even as the spirit inside swells. Humility does not ever point to itself and say, ‘look how humble I am!’ The miracles of God never point to that one through whom He has sovereignly chosen to work and say, ‘look what this man has done.’ Ever and always, they declare the glories of God Himself.
In that regard, I find it of particular import that God connects these wonders with the gifts of the Spirit. This is particularly critical because where the gifts of the Spirit are truly in action, the fruits of the Spirit must also be evident, and herein lies the proof we need to discern spiritual fact from spiritual fiction. Good fruit cannot grow from evil trees, nor can a good tree produce fruits of death. What does the life of this messenger say of him? Do his ways accord with his words, and do his words accord with the revelation of Scripture? Does his message point us toward God, or distract us from our proper focus? Is he saying, “look at me,” or is he saying, “look at my God”?
Signs and wonders surely follow those who are working in God’s kingdom, but those who labor in vain against His kingdom have their own cheap imitations. Check the label. Know the real that those imitations may not disturb you. Understand the reasons for the letters the apostles wrote. These letters we have were written to believers, yet there is a thread that runs through them, from Peter to Paul to John to Jude. That thread is the thread of antichrist. Even in those early years he was busily seeking to insinuate lies into the truth of the Gospel, and amongst those who had believed, these lies were taking a toll. No, the elect did not fall away, but there were tares amongst the harvest. It was and is imperative to counter those lying intrusions fully and immediately. We dare not allow the weeds of deception to choke out the righteousness of Truth. Do not tolerate imitation. Do not leave the lie unrefuted, but speak truth to false powers. The darkness cannot overcome the light, but if we will not expose the light, what shall penetrate the darkness?
