God’s Word-The Plumbline

There have been many words recently about deception and being guarded against deception. Jesus himself warns us against being deceived particularly in the time before He returns. We can easily get carried away as “charismatic” believers particularly when we belong to a Spirit filled church and it is so important that the Spirit and the Word are in harmony with the right emphasis on both. The Word of God is our plumb line and any tongue and interpretation, prophecy or teaching that does not line up with the word of God is false.

The apostle Paul teaches us that the enemy has strategies against us and one of his key ones is deception. He loves to lead us astray and cause confusion. Any moves of the Spirit need to be discerned to make sure it is the Holy Spirit and not the wrong spirit at work. It is so important in these times to be rooted in God’s Word and filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.  God’s Word as the belt of truth and our sword is such an essential part of our armour for defence and attack. Every other piece would not fit together or be effective without the belt or sword but how we can rush or just neglect that part of our preparation. It takes discipline to study the bible but I encourage you to do it and to ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in all truth particularly at this time.

I had a picture once of the plumb line. It only takes a tiny bit of deception to lead you away from truth but the more you follow that wrong idea or false teaching the further and further you eventually end up away from the truth. If you draw a line on a piece of paper you will see what I mean. Draw the plumb-line and then draw another line from the bottom at a slight initial angle away from the line and see how far it is away from the plumb line at the end.

The thing with deception is how subtle it is. Be on your guard against it. Deception is so close to the truth that we can readily accept it as the truth because it sounds right but when you hold it up to the Word of God you will see the error.  Satan knows the Word of God too.  He quoted it to Jesus but Jesus knew that he had twisted it’s true purpose and quoted it correctly back.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us to help us and He as the Spirit of Truth will lead and guide us into all truth. That is why the Word and the Spirit are so essential to the believer and our walk of faith. Be filled and baptised with the Holy Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of discernment. When you operate in the gift of discernment you get that sense in your spirit that something is just not right. People refer to gut feelings and it can be like that. I have heard false tongues and just knew in my spirit that it was false and not the Holy Spirit. You hear an interpretation and again it just doesn’t sit right. That is the Holy Spirit helping you to discern the truth. When you talk to other believers they will often have discerned the same. Read and study the bible so that you will have the tools to recognise false teaching or false words.