Don’t Be Spiritual Prey

Scripture:  I John 4:1 (NASB) - Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

When it comes to reading and meditating on God’s Word, do you “cherry-pick?”  Specifically, do you tend to avoid exploring those sections of the Bible that seem more radical, behaviorally speaking, or difficult to embrace and obey?  
   
Many who only read certain portions of God’s Word are easy prey for false prophets and other religious charlatans on various forms of media.  Such “media personalities,” are easy to recognize.   Resembling in speech and appearance more of a typical motivational speaker than a gospel preacher, they tend to major more on getting world-weary and gullible viewers to “sow (monetary) seed” into their ministry than anything else.  You’ll never hear these “wolves in sheep’s clothing” extolling the solemn warnings of our Lord that one MUST BE born again (John 3:3), filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), remain sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in sharing the gospel (Acts 8:26-39; Luke 9:60(b), or praying for our nation’s leaders.  (1 Tim. 2:1, 2)  You’ll seldom  hear them preaching about practicing a proper stewardship of money (Malachi 3:10; 2 Cor. 9:7), or verses similar to Hebrews 11:13, which remind us that there is such a thing as dying in faith, “..not having received the promises,..” or Revelation 21:8, which lists many increasingly accepted and tolerated sins that our holy God condemns!
   
Inasmuch as we are called to GROW in the love and the knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ, we must, with the Spirit’s help, pursue knowledge from His Word about the FULL range of expectations and blessings that attend the Christian life.  “Be diligent to present yourself approved,” as 2 Timothy 2:15 commands.  Let us resist only selectively reading our Bibles.   Let us avoid being as some who seldom open up the Bible for themselves to expand their personal awareness of things that have been freely given to us in Christ!  (2 Cor. 2:12) Stop settling for SECOND-HAND accounts from popular, but false, prophets of what the Bible actually teaches.  Small wonder that so many denominations exist in the world under the umbrella of Christianity—not to mention outright spiritual cults!  

Prayer:  Dear Father, as we read and study Your Holy Word, may we always seek discernment and remain sensitive to voices in the world that craftily distort Your Word for self-promotion rather than spreading the Gospel.
 
(By Sis. Denise Diggs)