How To Keep From Deception In These Last Days
Everyone is talking about the “last days.” Many are “bunkered” and “hunkered.”
I have found a foolproof “end time doctrinator.” It’s called “the harvest.”
I’ve noticed that many people who focus on end-time charts and events have very little passion or concern for the world harvest of souls going on right now.
In fact, I’m becoming convinced that if you are NOT focused on the harvest, you are already being deceived.
Jesus’ last words to us were “be His witnesses to Jerusalem…and the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Here is how this thought keeps me balanced:
Any doctrine that deters people from the urgency of winning people to Christ is deception.
My “litmus test” for anybody’s “new doctrine” is does it enflame my heart to reach the unreached before the return of Christ?
Some doctrines tend to leave you indifferent about the harvest. Some make you feel exclusive, secure in your place but unconcerned about others finding their place in Christ.
Every doctrine must spur you on to pray, give, go, send, plant, and help until every person hears about Christ. “How shall they hear without a preacher?”
I must agree with all the body of Christ upon the salvation of the world.
We will never understand and agree upon everything in the Bible about the second coming of Christ. My goal is not to “convince” my fellow brothers and sisters of an image, a chart, or a timeline in Revelation.
My goal is to bring as many people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation to the throne of the Lamb for eternity.
Listen with respect to every opinion, but, when the conversation is over say, “Well, let’s go get back to the work of the harvest!”
I do have the ability to speed up Christ’s coming.
Peter said, “waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3: 12). This Greek word means to “fulfill the conditions of something without which it can not come.”
I believe that as we reach our cities, our states, our nation, and the nations of the world we are fulfilling Christ’s requirement: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Mt. 24: 14).
Satan loves to get us off focus.
Dangling a doctrine, manipulating with money, or tempting with trinkets is Satan’s scheme. He puts anything in the place of your life’s work: “harvest.”
You and I will not be judged by our correctness in end-time doctrine. We WILL be judged by our faithfulness to the Great Commission: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mk. 16: 15)
Whatever doctrine you are currently fascinated with, line it up with the “harvest”:
Does it give you a deeper burden to pray, give, and go to reach the unreached?
If you do that, your chances of deception go to almost “zero.”