By Brenda Groves
The Post Newspaper Contributing Writer
True or False
As another November comes to an end, many households have already switched their fall colors to red and green, and gift shopping is well under way. Whether you shop in person or at home, modern technology has made it super convenient and vulnerable to thieves.
But financial institutions work diligently to keep our information safe and can instantly inform us of fraudulent activity.
Sadly, false scam alerts seeking our information have become a real threat as well. These fake notifications sound and look true.
But in all things, truth itself does not make us free. It is the knowledge of truth that makes us free. So banks are trying to get the word out and educate us how to avoid the counterfeits.
You know, I remember a time when a counterfeit faith targeted me, and I was tempted to believe a lie simply for lack of knowledge.
This was several years ago, and at the time I was still a baby Christian. I knew I had met Jesus in the Spirit. I was truly born again. I had made peace with my Heavenly Father but I also wondered about others outside of Christianity that called on “God.” What about them? Who were they speaking to?
As I dove into my Christian faith and began reading my Bible in earnest I became very excited and hungry for more of the things of God. Then a stranger started talking to me.
I met this woman through a local organization. She was well-known and liked in the business and social world in that town. Her husband was a prominent doctor in the area and they both had good reputations.
As I was stepping out in faith and eager to share my testimony of Jesus, she was listening and latched onto me. She invited me to a local Bible study group and I was very excited to meet with other “believers” as I had not yet found a home church/family.
At the study they read from the Bible and talked about Jesus. It looked good. It looked like the truth. They even prayed in tongues (which I had not yet received the baptism of the Holy Spirit), and I was totally willing to receive from them.
I started spending time with my new friend and looked up to her as a mature Christian, but noticed she said some strange things that were hard for me to hear. She talked negatively about Jesus in the position of King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I was beginning to feel very uneasy about what she was saying, at the same time I was reading my Bible and learning. But confusion and doubt about what I was feeling inside and their doctrines was causing much conflict in my soul.
One morning a leader from their “church” called me and told me they wanted me to attend an intense Bible study that lasted several weekends. It was not open to just anyone but only those who “are hungry for God” (Hmmm. Red flags there. Pride was trying to tempt me. The Gospel is free to all who have ears to hear).
In our conversation, she revealed something. “Now, just so you know,” she began, “we do not believe in the Trinity. We believe Jesus is the Son of God but we do not worship Him as God.”
Well, at that time I did not know how to respond but told her I needed to think about that for awhile before I went to anymore Bible studies. She said that she respected my decision.
I mentioned the uneasiness I felt to my friend the next time we met and she laughed and said, “Oh, if you go to this class you will get over that. We all did.”
Right then, I started to weep uncontrollably. I could not help it and I remember saying these words: “To think like you do, I feel like I am getting a divorce.”
It just popped out. I knew nothing yet about the church being the bride of Christ. Those words came from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit living in me. His is “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17).
The Holy Spirit will ALWAYS exalt Jesus. They are One. Only a counterfeit spirit, spirit of the antichrist, will exalt another way.
The Lord Jesus said, “I am THE way.” Jesus was not just “a” way.
But praise God, because He is able to keep us from being snatched out of His hand.
(“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.” John 10:27-30)
One morning I was really struggling with their doctrines. The woman I had been friends with told me they had also believed in the Trinity at one time because that is how they were taught in church growing up, but now they knew the “real” truth. She said the Trinity message was, “all garbage and lies.”
As I sat in my living room chair pouring over the Bible searching for the truth, I cried out to God from such an unrest and lack of peace and immediately He took me to this verse in 1 Timothy 3:16.
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed in the world, Received up in glory.”
I remember jumping up from my chair as the Holy Spirit in me confirmed what I was reading as TRUTH! I let out a shout and then the Holy Spirit lead me to the first chapter of John …
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made …. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
That sealed it for me! I now had the revelation of the Word of God to back up what I felt in my heart. No one can talk me out of it.
I went back to my friend and told her I could not attend anymore studies nor fellowship with her because “Jesus is God.”
She told me I had the spirit of the antichrist working in me.
I responded with something brilliant like, “Uh no I don’t! You do!!!”
I saw her at public events from time to time over the next few years. I did not hate her. The thief stole the word from her, she allowed it, but she was a victim of false doctrine. I felt sorry for her confusion. Sadly, she died of cancer a few years back.
There are many false religions/cults out there and I found out later the name of that particular one is “The Way International.”
But the Lord has shown me that all we need to know is the Word of God. That is knowing Him and His truth and we will not be misled by false doctrines and teachings.
We will spot a counterfeit a mile away and any group that denies the deity of Jesus Christ is a spirit of antichrist (1st John 2:18, 2:22, 2nd John 7).
For we know the Author and the Finisher of our faith unto salvation (Heb. 12:2).
“For this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6
God Bless you and your families with a deeper knowledge of His love, grace, mercy and truth in Jesus name.
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” Philippians 2:9-11.
(All scripture taken from NKJV)
Contact Brenda Groves at: bkgroves@yahoo.com
