Imagine … the day of reckoning is at hand.

Me: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’

Jesus: ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Mathew 7: 21-23 
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Didn’t the Lord say…

Mark 9:38-41
“Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.”

But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is on our side. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

Acts 19: 11-20
“Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

John 17:6
“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

John 14:12-14
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

John 10:27-28
“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.”

Numbers 20:2-12
Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying:

“If only we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! Why have you brought up the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.”

God told Moses to speak to the rock…

So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and they fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.”

So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?”

Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron,
“Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

Lessons learned. This past Sunday, our pastor was talking on All You Need to Live a Godly Life, but he made mention of his fall back scripture. His was seek ye first… I hadn’t really thought about it, but the scripture I have always navigated to is Psalm 139. The whole psalm speaks to me, but then I get to vs. 23, and I beseech the Lord, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” What’s your one fall back scripture? 

Knowing what God is asking of me I pray about daily. To many voices are calling us out to do this and that for the Lord, otherwise we are being disobedient, rebellious or worse – we are not saved. Seems to be a popular tactic. And I wonder if those voices are of God? I have to be able to discern the things of God, rightly divide the word of God. Scripture commands we test the spirit to make sure they are of God. I do not want to be guilty of spreading a false gospel.

I had to learn that not everyone preaching from the pulpit has my eternal salvation in mind.

I learned that God may ask us to do one thing, and we may do it, but do it our way, which is not God’s way – because it’s not what He asked us to do. I had to learn that we do things in the name of God that He never asked us to do. True, God’s word will never come back void – no matter who preaches it. But Moses lost out on entering the promise land. It made me wonder… I have a lot of examples of this and with confidence I can say that all things done in the name of God, may not be of God.

The most valuable lesson is that to do anything for God, we must belong to Him, be in Christ Jesus and He in us.

My point is to beware of deception in the church. There is much to learn about God, His Son, the things of God. We can’t learn it all at once. I glean from the messages I hear and apply those that align with God’s word. I ask God for wisdom and understanding and allow the Spirit to teach me, show me…

In this last hour, the days are perilous… the deception is great… time is short… if we don’t know what’s in our spiritual diet – we may be doing more harm than good.

Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Matthew 7:15
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Also warning given in Mat 16:5-12; Mathew 23

“But I look back over the events of my life and see the hands that carried Moses to his grave lifting me out of mine. In remembering I go back to these places where God met me and I meet Him again and I lay my head on His breast, and He shows me the land beyond the Jordan and I suck into my lungs the fragrance of His breath, the power of His presence.” ― Rich Mullins