Believers can be "oppressed", meaning that they can hear the silent whispers of the devil thinking their thoughts are their own. Those who are not walking closely with Christ are vulnerable to the wiles of the devil because they do not know the Word of God or worse they know it but refuse to obey.
When we know the Word and obey it, we cannot be taken in by the lies of the devil.
There are many pretenders who are pawns of the devil, they serve to cause trouble, usually over nothing important while actually believing they are right, but we know they are not because they violate the Word more times than they obey it.
Matthew 15:7-9 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8 ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”…"
Evidence that someone is born again is in the Fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Think on this: One can do good deeds, act in kind ways and still not possess the fruit of a righteous character as mentioned in Galatians.
When we possess the fruit of God's Spirit, we are not different with one person than we are with another. Our character does not change when no one can see us, it is steady all the time with anyone.
Luke 8:17-18 "17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be known and illuminated. 18 Pay attention, therefore, to how you listen. Whoever has will be given more, but whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”…"
No comments:
Post a Comment