Devotional Song: ... Go to this link … Please take the time to take in a video of the group Selah singing the classic old hymn … Be Thou My Vision, which is a prayer to our High King for Him to be our vision in the face of our enemy who wants to counterfeit truth.
Highlight Passage John 16: 13 [NKJV] …
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
… The Holy Spirit, in our hearts as Christians, is our “parakletos”, [Greek for “one who comes along to guide”], showing us truth in the face of the deceit of our enemy, Satan …
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Highlight Context - John 16: 7-15 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus teaching on the coming of the Holy Spirit as our teacher/director
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Reference Passage #1 - 2nd Corinthians 11: 13-15 [NKJV] …
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
… There are those who are counterfeit teachers, masquerading as messengers of truth and are in truth messengers of lies from hell …
Reference Passage #2 - 1st John 4: 1 [NKJV] …
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
… John’s warning that we, who are in Christ, are to test the spirits to discern if they are bringing us truth.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Bill Crowder, writes about the Foley Artists, who created the sounds we heard as real but were actually counterfeit sounds. Crowder writes, "Crunch. Crunch. Whoosh! In the early days of film, Foley artists created sounds to support the story’s action. Squeezing a leather pouch filled with cornstarch made the sound of snow crunching, shaking a pair of gloves sounded like bird wings flapping, and waving a thin stick made a whoosh sound. To make movies as realistic as possible, these artists used creative techniques to replicate sounds."
Today Foley artistry is still in the movies (see attached photo), trying to get us to believe that counterfeit sounds are the “real deal.” And this counterfeiting of sound is actually a good word picture to depict how Satan has always masqueraded himself as an “angel of light,” along with his counterfeiting minions, his demons, which so often come to us with Satan’s counterfeiting of the truth and him trying to get us to buy into false truths [see 2nd Corinthians 11: 13-15 above]. The Apostles, John and Paul, tried to warn the early Church, and in God’s word, to warn us today [see the passages above], that false teachers had come then and still come now to be Satan’s counterfeit liars, trying to make themselves seem to be truth messengers.
But we should know, as Christians, that we have the Lord’s teacher and illuminator, the Holy Spirit, in our hearts to help us see the truth in spite of the counterfeiting Satan puts forth. Jesus, encouraged His disciples [see the John 16 passage above], just before going to the cross, that He would send the “parakletos,” which is Greek for “one who comes along side,” to give us clarity, direction, and truth. That of course is the Holy Spirit of Truth; and if we pay attention to Him, He will ALWAYS show us the “real deal,” which our Lord wants us to see.
So, as John instructs (see 1st John 4: 1) let us go forth, every vigilant, always testing the spirits of what we see in the world, … knowing that Satan will always try to counterfeit the truth with his lies, … yet trusting that God’s Spirit will always be with a true believer to show us the “real deal” path in life.
My Prayer Today: Dear Holy Spirit, give me YOUR vision so that I can see the true way in this path of life. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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