Because they did not receive a love of the truth, God sent them a strong delusion that they might believe a lie.
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Sunday Morning Class Index Site Contents
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True Christian Experience --"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." 1 Tim. 2:15 --"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." 2 Tim. 3:16-17 Today I want us to take a look at the idea of spiritual experience, the reality of God’s presence and power in our lives. It’s very important to get a balanced, scriptural view of this matter given the great variety of strange phenomena occurring in some of the churches that call themselves ‘revival churches.’ Indeed, some of the most exciting churches, churches that seem most given to praise and worship, and where there are some healings and blessings, are also given to bizarre phenomena such as hysterical laughing, shaking, animal noises, contorted bodies, falling unconscious ‘in the Spirit,’ ‘glory clouds,’ gold dust appearing on the worshippers. Notice the similarities between today’s ‘revival’ and the ‘wild-fire’ revivals of the 1800s. You may have heard of the Cane Ridge Revivals. --TODAY. “As they were slain in the spirit, they would go into a fetal position and tremble and shake. Some of the women would go into a sitting down birthing position to give birth to whatever. This was accompanied with grunts, moans and shrill screeching...” --1800s. "Some would fall prostrate and lie helpless for hours at a time... The whole congregation by some inexplicable nervous action would sometimes be thrown into sidesplitting convulsions of laughter and when it started, no power could check or control it until it ran its course. At other times the nervous excitement set the muscles to twitching and jerking at a fearful rate and finally settle down to regular, straight-forward dancing... [It] was impossible for him to stop until exhausted nature broke down in a death-like swoon..." I was raised to be suspicious of all Christian experience, all supernatural phenomena, and all outward displays of emotion. The Restoration Movement arose during a time of extreme revivalism (such as it described above) and which was much like we are seeing today. The founders over-reacted to the excessive emotion and unscriptural experiences common in their day, so that, during my youth, all experience was considered suspect; and it was very bad taste to show joy or passion in worship. Like old-fashioned lovers, we were careful not to express our feelings (for God) in public. And any extraordinary display of power or knowledge was probably ‘of the devil.’ But God is demonstrably involved in our lives as He was in the Bible, and (with reasonable exceptions) we should expect their experience and follow their model. --"Being warned of
God in a dream.” Matt. 2:12; an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream." Matt. 2:13. “And behold an angel of the Lord stood by him,
and a light shined in the cell and he smote Peter on the side, and awoke
him, saying, Rise up quickly: And the chains fell off from his hands.
And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals."
Acts 12:7,8. "When they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they
were gathered; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." Acts
4:31. There is nothing in the New or Old Testament to suggest that God no longer reveals Himself through dreams, visions, revelations, and angelic visitations. In fact, we are specifically told otherwise: “In the last days [that is, the Christian dispensation from Pentecost to Christ’s return] I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions;, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy” (Acts 2:17-18). However, there is always a great possibility of deception: --“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” II Cor. 11:13-14. --“Test everything. Hold on to the good.” 1 Thess. 5:21 --“For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect — if that were possible.” Mt. 24:24. --“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Mt. 7:11 These sobering passages, however, must not cause us to draw back from valid experiences. Let the following suggestions serve as guidelines in determining the true from the false. --Realize that we cannot be certain of any experience, however pleasurable and seemingly ‘spiritual’ it feels, if it does not line up with the plain meaning of Scripture. Remember, even when people are worshipping an praising God sincerely, they may still be deceived. Satan can easily fabricate wonderful experiences by the scores in order to deceive God’s people. --We must come to know God and what to expect in our experiences with Him through prayer, Bible reading, worship, and living by faith. Whenever God answers prayer, we learn more of His ways. Leave to distinguish His voice. --If we rely on our own confused, partial and distorted ideas of who and what God is, we will open ourselves to deception by evil spirits. Test everything by the whole Bible. --If we long too much for supernatural experiences, we will almost certainly be deceived. We can know the comfort and joy of the Holy Spirit, the assurance of salvation, the fellowship of the saints. Some things we do not need to know. Let us be content with what God reveals. We may experience guidance, dreams, visions, prophecies, supernatural knowledge and revelation. But if we chase after these things we risk being deceived. The book that was so popular a while back, The God Chasers, seemed very spiritual, but it was shot through with error and heresy. We do not have to chase around and find churches where people are experiencing gold dust, angelic appearances, glory clouds, falling out ‘in the Spirit,’ or even healings. We have the Spirit of God in us and in our midst. If we demand His ‘manifest presence,’ we may have someone else, and ‘angel of light,’ show up. --As long as you have doubts about anything, even something going on in church, do not participate in it. Ask God to show you the truth of the matter from Scripture. --If you hear a word that flatters or exalts you, be fairly certain it is not from God. --Don’t be swayed by the crowd, by the apparent assurance of ‘anointed’ leaders, or by the excitement of the moment. Be sober, wise; understand what the will of God is. Eph. 5:17. The promises of Scripture are exceeding great and precious. God is able and willing to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. If we set our expectations too low, our lives will be powerless, un-victorious, cheerless affairs. If we set them too high—that is, if we demand of God more than He has promised or desires to give at any particular moment—we will be disappointed (at best) and deceived (at worst). My approach is summed up by the two following quotations. "I am a Bible Christian and if an archangel with a wingspread as broad as a constellation shining like the sun were to come and offer me some new truth, I'd ask him for a reference. If he could not show me where it is found in the Bible, I would bow him out and say, 'I'm awfully sorry, you don't bring any references with you.”’ A. J. Tozer “If ever there was a Living God, if ever there were angels, if ever there was a wonder-working Christ, if the Holy Spirit was ever given, if the Bible is a supernatural revelation from God, then such trances, visions, revelations, and workings of the Holy Spirit as have been given are supernatural visitations from God such as we should expect” Unknown Amen, God bless you
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