Authentic Believer or Pretender Which are You?

Every born-again believer has the fruit of Christ living in them because He is living in them.

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."

If someone does not have the fruit of the Spirit that person is not born again.

Matthew 7:15-17 "15 Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.…"

Matthew 7:20-23

"20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [b]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

We can discern between an authentic believer and a pretender. One way is that when an authentic believer receives counsel from the Word of God when challenged to seek the Scriptures, they will be grateful and heed the warnings.

However, a pretender will fight to defend their sin and even dig their heels in to come against the one who warns them. In my experience, these pretenders will not have a good argument against the Scripture so they will come after our character to malign it, rather than going to prayer seeking God to see if what we say is true.

Authentic born-again believers may not always agree with us but they will not fight and argue to win domination over us. The pretender will discard us and speak ill of us to others with their version of the conversation.

We need not take too seriously a friendship based on eggshell walking. Those who intimidate to control others will not listen, there is no reason to remain friends with these people.

Proverbs 22:24-25 " 24 Do not make friends with an angry man, and do not associate with a hot-tempered man, 25 or you may learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.…"

Those who fight to win without regard to the Scriptures are angry people only interested in appearing superior continually fighting to win rather than find the truth.

We are commanded not to keep company with these people. They will work to goad us into angry responses, do not let them. Remain calm and restate the truth and walk away.

What a joy to know that we have no responsibility to make sure someone realizes the truth. We have only one responsibility and that is, to tell the truth, and leave the results to God.

When we have not responded the way the angry person wants us to, that is in anger, we leave the conversation and the person without any accusations against us, our conscience is clear.

Hallelujah!!!!