CHALLENGE YOUR BELIEFS!

Monday 7 April

But test and prove all things [until you can recognize] what is good; [to that] hold fast. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 AMPC

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1 NKJV

There is a saying that goes like this ‘just because a lie has been in office for 50 years does not make it any less of a lie’. Did you know that the way the Nazis got people to accept their propaganda rhetoric was to get people to hear it over and over again until they believed it. This was the way they took blatant lies and promoted them as facts to the next generation.

Now I’m not suggesting that most Christians are intentionally misleading others. The principle of repetition however can be used not only when it comes to reinforcing truth but also error. How do we maximise truth and minimise error? By developing the habit of testing everything that we see and hear.

The Bible says in Isaiah 11:3 about Jesus that ‘His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears’

In other words Jesus never made a decision based upon appearance or hearsay. He is the ultimate example for how we should operate also. If you just take someone’s word for it; that’s the definition of hearsay. The problem with that is some never venture beyond what someone told them which is extremely limiting.

What about making decisions on what you saw? Most people think that would be a reliable source of information with which to form conclusions. Question: what if you didn’t have the understanding or capacity to interpret what you were seeing?

Peter said ‘we were eyewitnesses of His majesty’ and yet even after seeing Jesus transfigured he concluded ‘we have a more sure word of prophecy’. Interestingly, even though Peter was in the experience and seeing it first hand’ he wasn’t able to interpret what was happening at the time.

Our opening verse says we should ‘test and prove all things until we can recognise what is good’ Why? So we can hold onto it. Not everything we currently hold fast to is necessarily right. If this is true then how do we discard what is unnecessary?

Here are a few thoughts.

Don’t settle in your thinking. Never accept that you have reached the pinnacle of understanding in anything. When you think you have it all worked out, there is always something more to learn. This is why our theology must have the right basis to be able to build on.

Be prepared to give up on incorrect ideas when presented with a sound biblical argument. Unfortunately many people are taught not to question what they know even in the Body of Christ. Part of having a teachable spirit is to always be challenging your beliefs and ‘examining yourself to see if you are in the faith’.

An effective method of doing this is to approach the Bible like you know nothing. Looking with fresh eyes is a way to discover and observe truths that your preconceptions were possibly obstructing you from seeing.

Strongholds of the mind can be thought patterns that cause you to be stuck in a rut. Neural pathways that have been created in the brain through repetitive thoughts. We demolish these things through thinking in line with the truth.

Remember we are to excavate not innovate the Word. We cut straight into scripture to let it reveal what is hidden beneath the surface. Innovating the word is where we take truth and reinvent it into something that was never originally there.

We are encouraged to also test the spirits. Think about it. The context is antichrist spirits. Antichrist both means against Christ and in the place of Christ. The essence of it is the word content that will come out of the mouths of those particular spirits.

To a certain degree, it’s possible for a believer to unwittingly be speaking from a wrong spirit when the content of the message is not Christ. We test the spirits; by their words.

How about you? Are you one to never challenge the status quo? It’s important for Christian leaders and Christians in general to question everything and believe nothing until it can be proven in the Word. I wholeheartedly subscribe to this for every believer. Challenge your beliefs. Go on, I dare you!

APPLICATION

Respect every believer in Christ but don’t believe everything you hear or see. Make the rightly divided word of truth your final authority and arbitrator in all things.