ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Are You a Deceiver or Are You Being Deceived?

Updated on November 14, 2019
Demons attempting to confuse the Christian.
Demons attempting to confuse the Christian.

2Ti 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
2Ti 3:13 “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

As long as I can remember, I have heard about how the Church is in need of revival. Yes, it is true that many Christians have lost their way and need to be reminded of their holy calling and vocation. The church is ill. It has been filled with unbelievers for the sake of cash, forgetting the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Ti 6:5 “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself.”

Yes the church should be a hospital for the soul of the ungodly, but the message of the church can never change “Ye must be born again”. Joh 3:7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” Revivals can stir the Christian soul and get us moving in the right direction. But revival, as we call it, can never stand alone.

What is the desired result of revival? Vowing to live with more love? Vowing to give more to the poor? Vowing to reconcile with an estranged Christian friend? Vowing to take more to the Food Bank? Vowing to give more money to the church? All of these things are noble and just, but there is one thing that will result outwardly if there is true revival in the Church, and by that I mean, the true Church that every saved believer in Christ belongs:

2Ti 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Paul tells us here that it is inevitable; inescapable. It will happen as sure as the sun will rise in the morning. Today’s church has been so frightened by Satan and persecution that they will not step out for fear of suffering; they will not utter even one word of the great commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. They are satisfied that the word “world” means the Earth, and they leave that to the missionaries. Sorry, I’m here to tell you that it means the “world system”: the unbeliever; anywhere and everywhere they can be found, including your very community, including your very church.

This is what true revival will bring: persecution. Revival is not a verb, something that the church does to bring in more people or provide more money to the speaker. It is not for an attempt to introduce to the community your particular denomination or new building with 750 classrooms teaching 750 different doctrines. It is not to hear something new in hopes of making a better “Id”. And it surely is not to bring people in to the new church coffee shop for idle chit chat before the service. Revival is a noun, not a new production of an old play (which happens in many lives), but an “instance of something becoming important again” (Google of course). Remembering Rev. 2:5 “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Therefore, if true revival occurs in the true Church, it will bring with it persecution from within the church, and from without. And let me remind you that if you research church history, you will see what bouts of persecution brought to the Church: purging and cleansing. So, if we do not truly repent and seek the first works, purging and cleansing will no doubt come from God Himself so that the diamonds will shine amongst the common stones. “Remove thy candlestick out of his place” does not mean it will be removed and thrown away. It means to displace it. To move it away from its comfortable spot and cause it to shake and settle. Is this what we want from God? We are forcing His hand to perform it in the American Church today. But beware; just because you are not being shaken does not mean you are doing His will: it may mean that your not a church at all ,but a den of robbers and thieves, preying upon each other.

Oh Lord Jesus, the Church today is in need of persecution, cleansing, purging. I have no doubt that this is soon coming to our own church communities but for the wrong reasons. How do I know? Because the Word promises such: Rev 2:5 “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
AMEN.

© 2019 Michael Mitchell

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)