{Acts1711} Behind the False Teachings

{Acts1711} Fellowship with God

"But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t
need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you
everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a
lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when
he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in
shame." 1 John 2

What does it mean to be in 'fellowship with God'?

Fellowship is defined as "comrades, friends, companions".

Psalm 25 defines friendship with God as "reserved for those who reverence Him".

It means that there is nothing blocking that relationship, ie, with God = sin.

Sin blocks our relationship with God, interferes with it, ruins it.

The psalmist, in Psalm 66, speaks of heartache at his sin blocking his prayers, thus ruining his fellowship with God.

" Come and listen, all
you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. For I cried out to him for
help, praising him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart,
the
Lord would not have listened. But God did listen! He paid
attention to my prayer.
Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw his
unfailing love from me."

So, we see that sin blocks our relationship, fellowship with God. So what happens next?

The Holy Spirit will call to us, called conviction, reminding us of our sin and the pressing urgent need to confess it to God and repent of the behavior - seeking not to repeat it. Over time the Holy Spirit's voice will become quieter and quieter (grieving) until at some point, when we refuse to bend our knee to God in admittance of our sin, He is quiet (quenched).

The Holy Spirit's words will ALWAYS be in line with, or AGREE, with The Bible.

Usually the Holy Spirit will use a specific Scripture to address our situation (fear, pride, greed, money, self, gluttony, selfishness, judgment/criticism, lack of trust, disobedience. ..) because it IS God speaking to our hearts, calling to us to forsake our sin and embrace God.

As James says it in chapter 4, turn from the devil and turn toward God. That is the act of confession and repentance. Scary thought, isn't it? If we are in sin, we're not facing God.

Now we can deny the truth (aka lying) but truth is Truth. Sin is sin.

When we decide to repent, confessing our sins to God, He forgives, cleanses us from sin's unrighteousness (unholiness) , casting our sins as far as the east from the west (1 John 1, Psalm 103).

And if we have sinned against another person, the same applies: confess it, repent from it (turn from it with the intention of not repeating the behavior) and seek restoration of the fellowship of the relationship.

So how do the false teachings relate to this?

The false teachings seductively, deceptively lure us to believe a lie about God so that we do NOT stay in fellowship with Him, do NOT confess/repent of our sins, do NOT prioritize the eternal welfare of others (salvation), do NOT obey Jesus.

False teachings may use Scripture but woven in to the words somewhere is a lie.

NOTE: The Holy Spirit, The Truth, will ALWAYS AGREE with Scripture when He speaks to us, to our hearts, minds, soul.

That's how you can discern the difference between what you 'hear' and what is Truth.

False teachings deny Jesus is God, number one. They also promote money, self, pride, possessions, books other than the Bible, greed, gluttony, lust (sexual or material), unforgiveness. ...

All these things directly CONTRADICT what Jesus commanded and what God says in the Bible.

NOTE: False teachings can also whisper lies to your heart that 'sound like' God but in reality are lies. How to tell? CHECK OUT what you hear with Scripture. Do a 'phrase' look up on www.biblegateway. com to see if what you heard or read is IN the Bible, and if so, how it is used. False teachings, ie lies, twist Scripture, as satan twisted Scripture in his failed attempts to tempt Jesus to sin, Matthew 4.

How to be 'in fellowship' with God?

Obey Jesus, pray the Lord's Prayer every day, PRAY IT don't recite it. Say it with heartfelt meaning.

Deal with your sin DAILY...before God.

Forgive. Apologize.

Learn to live like Jesus - loving, kind, accepting, tolerating, merciful, compassionate, generous, caring for the 'least of these' (those society rejects)...

Jesus also modelled fellowship with God, John 17...involves obedience, submission, and love...

Jesus also KNEW the Truth, the Scriptures.. .so LEARN The Bible, read it through EVERY YEAR.

And most importantly, LOVE the LORD your God with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength. Matthew 22.

For more info, see -->

Being Born Again ---- http://www.billygra ham.org/SH_ StepsToPeace. asp

Living as a Christian --- http://www.ccci. org/training- and-growth/ classics/ the-spirit- filled-life/ index.htm

Copyright 2010 Gretchen Offord, Acts 1711 Ministries. All rights reserved however permission to forward electronically allowed only if no changes made. All other publishing requests, send to author.

--The head may seek God, but it is the heart that finds Him. Jeremiah 29:13 --"This is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth." John 17:3
Acts 1711 Ministries ~ Searching The Scriptures to Find & Know Truth

{Acts1711} Behind the False Teachings

Bible Reading: 1 John 2

"My dear children, I
am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But [when] anyone does sin,
we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus
Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for
our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world."
"And we can be sure that we
know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t
obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the
truth."
"But those who
obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we
know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did." 1 John 2

Perilous times. Paul used that term to warn Timothy of a time where Truth, and truth, would be poisoned, compromised, whitewashed.
What does perilous mean? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, perilous is defined as "dangerous, likely to inflict harm'.
So when Paul is warning Timothy of perilous times, he said that there'd be a time where being a Christian (living as Jesus, reflecting Him) would likely be dangerous.
We can see this throughout history - Christians being fed to lions, beheaded, tortured, burned alive....some references to this barbarism can be found in the Bible (Hebrews 11) but more information is found in history books, and in the lives of Christians all over the world. Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution. com) documents many
cases.
However, in the USA, persecution is a term rarely used. And sadly, on another note, is not handled Biblically by Christians, but legally in the courts.
Americans have little idea about persecution - being attacked for their faith and Christ-like lives. But persecution is here, and worse - it often comes from within the Church because of the false teachings.

Yes, the epidemic, PANdemic in reality, of false teachings running rampant in the American Church. Books and sermons, tapes and CDs and DVDs that are not solid Biblical teaching. Some of these false teachings use a bit of the Bible so they sound 'okay', but there is yeast in the dough. That means there is a lie somewhere that poisons the mix, and deceives the listeners.
Self and money (2 Timothy 3-4) are the prominent motivations behind the false teachings.
But there is another 'motivator' behind the lies.
It is called the 'spirit of antichrist'. John's 2 letter, portion shown above, discusses this reality....a reality whose goal is singular -- silence the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This in order to keep people from becoming Christians, leaving the kingdom of darkness and transferring their membership to God's Kingdom.

"And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who
denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone
who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. So you must remain faithful
to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will
remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship we
enjoy the eternal life he promised us." 1 John 2

Antichrist is opposed fully to the Truth, so one can say it is a Lie. And of course it comes from God's, and our, enemy satan.

But what one MUST be aware --- antichrist based false teachings don't always sound like false teachings. They use Scripture but with a twist, or a little lie.

Many of those who believe the false teachings (mystical prayer/meditation = contemplative; seeker-sensitive whitewash the Gospel = emerging) do not believe that Jesus is God, or that He truly came to earth.

And these false teachings are being promoted nearly everywhere, in churches, Christian colleges & seminaries, bookstores, radio shows.

And what they do is this: they harm. They deceive those who buy into them into thinking that mysticism is okay, that whitewashing the Gospel is okay. And the deceptive teaching leads people into error, and thus tempt to sin (disbelieve, disregard the Truth as a whole).

Sin breaks fellowship with God.

See how satan tempted Jesus in Matthew 4...'Then the devil took
him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the
Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order
his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their
hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord
your God.’”
Satan twists Scripture. False teachings twist Scripture. The motivators? Self, money, pride, power, prestige.
Unconfessed sin blocks our prayers, according to the psalmist in Psalm 66. So we think that the special words that we think we're hearing from God in our hearts are from God, but are we really if we are 'in sin' and our fellowship with God is broken? God's Holy Spirit will call us to repent from our sin, is called 'conviction' , but He will not tease us with false promises...those are a lie from the enemy to keep us in sin and that broken fellowship.

What is perilous, or dangerous, is that false teachings can use 99% of truth in a Scripture and have only 1% a lie, but it is still a lie...a little yeast spoils the whole batch.

Many Christians have read popular, and trendy, books that are supposedly based on The Bible, but have yeast in them. One book in particular has all but one chapter that are Bible based, but the one chapter is based on mysticism - which is unholy and unGodly and unBiblical prayer.
That is YEAST!!!!

How to tell: Search the Scriptures and verify that what you are reading, or hearing, is truly Truth, and of God.
John said it, repeating Jesus' words, many antichrists have gone out into the world. And as John puts it, some have portrayed themselves as believers, but really were not 'born again', John 3.
So that is why CHECK EVERYTHING you read and/or hear with God's Holy Scriptures because not everyone in your worship service, be they attendees or leaders, is truly born again.
John says it well, believers love and live like Jesus - kind, compassionate, generous, thoughtful, humble....

Make sure you ARE born again --> http://www.billygra ham.org/SH_ StepsToPeace. asp

Copyright 2010 Gretchen Offord, Acts 1711 Ministries. All rights reserved, however electronic forwarding allowable; all other forms of reprint require authors permission.

--The head may seek God, but it is the heart that finds Him. Jeremiah 29:13 --"This is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth." John 17:3
Acts 1711 Ministries ~ Searching The Scriptures to Find & Know Truth