“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.
Deuteronomy 13:1-5
We can’t allow anything to separate us from the Father; even those who are greatly gifted no matter how persuasive or how much we love them. They especially mustn’t be allowed influence us to pursue other things as our first priority. Our love for Him must encompass all of our lives as they radiate from our very person.
If we have a friend or a brother or sister who weakens our relationship with Jesus then we must separate from them; especially if there is an intention of leading us away from the Lord. Even if that person seems to have it all together and make pragmatic sense we shouldn’t let them lead us. We of course have to have contact with people who have their own beliefs. We have to allow for differences but we can’t be lead by anyone away from our center, Christ.
When this type of situation arises we are to recognize it as a test so we can walk through it following Jesus with more intimacy than before. The ultimate grade in this test is “do we love the Lord”. This is demonstrated by our reverence for Him that causes us to obey His commandments, the written word and hold fast to His person, the voice He speaks to us in. This isn’t just an Old Testament teaching Paul teaches us the same thing in Galatians 1:8, But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
Answering the Test,
Pastor Jason
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