Call To Discernment!

16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that very hour.” Acts 16:16-18

Oh how we need to long for the discernment of our Lord and Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit! I was riding in the car with a believer one day and they so happened to have a cd of an objectional band. As we were driving down the road, he is telling me about this song they wrote about God and seemed to be trying to see what I thought about it in the hopes that I would be like “yeah, great words, they have to be Spirit inspired!”. They appeared to say the right things, so what could possibly be wrong anyway? Earlier, in this mans life, someone had told them it was demonic and he didn’t really understand why. What came to me next was such a beautiful revelation from the Lord in use to respond to this curious man. Follow me real quick….the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11:14, “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light”, I think a lot of us know this verse but what does it look like all fleshed out? Voila! Acts 16:16-18 to the rescue! The story in Acts is very intriguing, you have a woman following Paul saying all of the right things yet being so off target because of the foundation by which they are based. That foundation was shown to be demonic and Paul without the Spirit, would never have been able to discern it otherwise. The principle I pull out of it is this, the reason Paul cast it out of her instead of leaving it alone was for people not to think that mixing fortune telling (and or anything else worldly) and the gospel of Christ was an o.k. thing. I brought up this story in Acts because it appears the heart behind what is said is what tags it spiritually whether to the good (heart humble before the Lord in repentance) or to the bad, and only the Holy Spirit can discern that for us .

Another story to illustrate this point of "spiritual tagging" was when David played his harp for King Saul. The reference is 1 Samuel 16:23, it reads, 23And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. So we see that just music, not even words to it, was able to suppress a demonic spirit temporarily. The main point I am making is this, that what the heart of a person looks like, is what will determine the spiritual tempo of what they put their hands to. Now a good heart will be one of genuine contrite repentance to the Lord and when they say good things they will truly be penetrating truths, but when someone out of a corrupt heart says the same thing, the same power is just not there. That is why scripture is so obsessed about us producing good fruit and opening the doors to Jesus (See devotional entitled "He's Knocking"), it is not only a by product of the Spirit within, but also it is growth attained through appropriating discipleship.
We must watch what we allow into our lives as Christians, if we do not we will open doors to the enemy and deceit will begin to creep in. Is there anything in your life that you have been defending and you shouldn’t based upon its fruits? Whether it be a musician or band, a movie star, a boyfriend or girlfriend, that is bearing absolutely no fruit whatsoever but is still saying all the right things? "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 miracles? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” Matthew 7:22 and 23. Basically, what I feel they are saying is, "LORD! Didn't we do and say all the right things??" And Jesus sadly says depart from me you WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS. They were practicing lawlessness, therefore, their deeds were not done in what the Bible calls active faith. You see it goes merely beyond just believing, the demons believe and tremble, it is us partnering with God through acts of righteousness THROUGH FAITH that make it a live active faith! See if I put my faith in those acts alone, they are dead works and cannot save the soul. Only with heart-filled, appropriated obedience to Jesus can my faith be made alive.
1 Corinthians 10:12 “Wherefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall

The enemy is very clever, he is not called a deceiver for nothing and the only way to outwit him is to call upon the Lord in prayer. Deceit suggests a very clever lie, and not only that but a lie bought into. I think it is so important for the church of God to find their discernment roots again, and the only way we can receive that is humbling ourselves in prayer, aligning ourselves to His heart once again (See an understanding heart). In 1 John he says to test the spirits, why? Because even Satan can appear as an angel of light. If I base all of my decision making based upon what appears to look good, I could get myself into a spiritual predicament scripturally speaking. With much love, your brother in Christ Jesus, Chris Goff