December 4

Daniel 11 (cont.) -12

What has been decreed must be accomplished (11:36). Much of Daniel’s vision is given detail in Revelation. The end of time looks like God removing all His protection, allowing sin to run its course. People in Jesus are saved while life for the wicked grows painful. We do not know when it’s coming, just that it’s closer today than yesterday.

1 John 4

Test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (4:1). There are as many false prophets as there are ways to lie. What you are doing, day-by-day deepening your understanding of the Bible is the very thing God uses to protect you from false prophets. The Holy Spirit guides us, but we can quench the Spirit, fail to hear Him clearly, or let our flesh lead us into error. The craftiness of lies make some hard to discern, especially when we’re lounging in naivete and ignorance.

Therefore, it really helps to follow the discipleship process that Jesus used. He taught His disciples to know God’s word (not tradition, His word). The Bible means what it means, and you are capable of sound interpretation. He taught them to know Him–not know about Him! We know Him by faith, and believe He is the One God sent. He told us to ask for the Holy Spirit and promised that the Spirit will lead us into all truth.

My experience was that once I received Jesus and the Holy Spirit became my Teacher, the Bible was relatively easy to understand. I’ve run into hundreds of false prophets over the years. Some were outrageous liars, others were subtle, but the Spirit warned me, and the Word confirmed when a problem existed or when I needed to learn.

Proverbs 29:2-4

When the righteous flourish, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan. We groan a lot. We keep putting wicked people in power–well, maybe not “we” but fellow citizens whom we are called to love even when they make us groan. Rather than become cynical or condescending, let’s pray for them more than we groan about them.