“Our Daily Bread” http://odb.org/
The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht
Written by bruce r. mills for “God’s group” @ www.Godsmanforever.com [Revised from 3/03/2014]
“Are You Being Deceived, or Discipled ??”
Jemiah 17:9… The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (NKJV) The heart of a non-believer is absolutely deceiving the mind of the unredeemed sinner at every turn in their daily lives… Satan has the bonds of sin and shame totally blinding these poor souls with lies and deceit (2 Corinthians 4:4) from seeing the truth God wants all of us to understand, that will set the sinner free…as written in God’s inerrant Word, the Bible…
John 8:31-32… Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (NKJV)
My writing today was inspired by an answered question about the deceitful heart, that was answered by Pastor John Piper @ this link… http://soundcloud.com/askpastorjohn/is-the-believers-heart This is an excellent response to how a deceitful heart can trick us…
Pastor John explained about the difference between hearts of the unredeemed sinner, and the true child of God that has a heart filled with the love of Christ; and gave several scripture references about the heart…
Here is scripture describing the unredeemed sinner’s heart changed by God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit… Ezekiel 36:26… I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (NKJV) See note at the end [P.S.] for more about God’s grace through saving faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, that will change the heart of stone in the unbeliever into a true child of God…
2 Corinthians 4:6… For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (KJV)
Galatians 4:6… And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (KJV)
Here is one of my favorite pieces of scripture written by the apostle Paul; about the Spirit filled Christian…
Ephesians 3:16-19… that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (NKJV)
Friends, you don’t always become a Christian just by answering an alter call, by saying a “Sinners Prayer”… I have heard many a preacher say that if you made this prayer seeking Jesus Christ to become your personal Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9-10)…you are now a child of God… The unredeemed sinner hears the truth of the Word through the general call of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ… But before they can be graced with salvation, God must first draw the sinner to Himself…
John 6:44… No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. (NKJV)
Making a profession of faith without God regenerating an unbelievers heart first (filling their heart with the Holy Spirit), will only lead to a mind change, with the unredeemed sinner believing that they are now a Christian, when in reality; they are still headed for eternal damnation…
Only those who have heard the gospel of Christ with ears that hear and understand, will become a child of God after confessing their sins to God with godly sorrow and a repentant heart… They will be graced by God with salvation, and become one of God’s “born again “, redeemed children… [See P.S. below for a gospel presentation]
But once we become Christians in God’s eyes, there should be a real change in our lives, as our old life passes away, and we are re-born as a child of God…2 Corinthians 5:17… Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (KJV)
There is much written in God’s Word about the need to produce good fruit, as confirmation that one is indeed cleansed of their sins though washing and regeneration by God…Titus 3:5… not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (NKJV)
We see this in the parable of the 4 soils soil, in…Matthew 13:23… “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (NKJV)
We also see these words spoken by Jesus, as recorded by the apostle John in…John 15:5-6… “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (NKJV)
And lastly, we have these words penned by the apostle James (Jesus’ half brother) explaining the need for the true child of God to bear fruit, with these words in…James 2:14-26… Here is the link… https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jam2%3A14-26&version=NKJV
The most important 2 verses in this scripture are...James 2:20 & 26...But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (NKJV) When the Christian is walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16)…this means that they are filled with (being totally controlled by) the Holy Spirit…Ephesians 5:18-20…there will be no question with this “fullness of God” we see from Ephesians 3:19 above, that our heart is not being deceived by our flesh or by Satan… We see this very clearly in…1 John 4:4… You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (NKJV) Here is an excellent post describing God’s power over Satan, titled “How much power does Satan possess” found @ https://www.gotquestions.org/Satan-power.html
With this fullness of Christ with-in the true Christian, the Holy Spirit confirms with our spirit that we are indeed a child of God…Romans 8:15-16… For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (NKJV) Friends, when we are a true follower (disciple) of Jesus Christ, we will indeed have become a new creature in Christ…we will be doing our best, through total submission to the full power of the Holy Spirit, to be living our lives for Christ… And when we are truly walking in the Spirit, we will experience this God given peace that the apostle Paul writes about in…Philippians 4:6-7… which surpasses all mortal understanding… Philippians 4:6-7… Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (NKJV)
Heavenly Father, I pray that Your living and powerful Word (Hebrews 4:11-13) would cut right to the very core, like a two-edged sword, of the soul of those who falsely believe that they are Christians…because their stony hearts and their blinded minds are being deceived by Satan… I pray Lord, that You would draw these unredeemed sinners to Yourself (John 6:44), and that they would seek Jesus to become new redeemed children headed for an eternity in heaven with You when they die… I pray for this fullness of Christ in all of our lives, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake..Amen… Blessings in Christ, bruce
P.S. Here is a link for this most important days writing, about how God’s grace is received to become a Christian in God’s eyes; through understanding and obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, after first being drawn in by God…John 6:44… https://godsmanforever.com/2016/12/19/the-gospel-of-our-lord-jesus-christ-12182016-written-by-bruce-r-mills/
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