Gold and silver are great commodities to purchase right now considering the value of the dollar is continuing to fall. These precious metals have great value. However, some of the rare coins being sold and purchased don't have the true amount of gold or silver as you would expect them to have. A lot of coin jockeys have begun pushing older silver coins. The truth is, some of them aren't as valuable as a newly minted American Silver Eagle. The content of the silver in the rare coins could be 25% less. Additionally, these rare coins sell for 35-45% more per coin. So, essentially, you end up paying more for less. The dealers make you think that the rare coins have some significant worth.
Unless you do some real investigating, you could fall prey to deception and really be taken. You could pay the price for something that is light in weight or have the proper weight, yet with great mixture. For the novice or fool making the purchase, you may just get a total counterfeit. There has to be a way of testing the rare coin to see if it is authentic to its perceived identity before you make the purchase. What is its true weight? Is it pure or is it mixed? Is it really a precious metal at all or a counterfeit? What do I know about the person selling this precious coin?
We are living in a day of testing. God Himself is testing! We personally are being tested of the Lord, and we personally need to test the doctrines, spirits, and the men and women who are bringing alleged new things into the body of Christ. These alleged new things are normally old practices of deception returning. They are just packaged a little different.
The test is: are we going to love God, and Him alone, or are we going to run after other gods? God wants to know. He is doing the testing. He is watching to see who will be content and satisfied with Him and Him alone. He wants a special people called His own who are not running after or needing the mixture or counterfeit.
I would like to look at two tests God initiated that are found in the Old Testament. The first one we will look at is found in Judges chapter 7.
The Israelite army, under Gideon's command, was camped beside the well of Harod (the name means “fountain of trembling”). God said the people were too many to go into battle against the Midianites, lest Israel win this battle, claim the glory for themselves and say they did it by their own strength. God told Gideon to take them down to the water and I will test them there.
This test, that God designed, is at the watering hole (or the place of refreshing). They are going to drink water from the fountain of trembling.
This was a test to see not only how much they would drink, but also their approach of drinking in. It was supposed to be a time of refreshing, not “slosh-festing”. God's chosen ones for the battle ahead were:
1. The ones who maintained a state of awareness to their surroundings
2. Those who controlled their intake (you might say they were cautious in their consuming).
I fully believe God wants us to drink deep of the pure fountain of living waters. Even then, in our times of true refreshing, God is distinguishing and marking between those who are disciplined and those who are ungoverned. We have to be extremely careful because the enemy has a way of slipping into our environment when we aren't observant. Our enemy is extremely deceptive.
It is saddening and disturbing to see brothers and sisters in the Lord drinking in, unaware of the polluted waters they are drinking from. Yes, the enemy has gotten in and slipped a mickey. These polluted waters could be identified as false doctrines, vain philosophies, and as “God's new thing.”
There's an old adage that says, “Nothing new is true and nothing true is new.”
We have a lot of spiritual coin jockeys exploiting the body of Christ. They are presenting their “rare” coins, if you will, and people are paying a big price for mixture and counterfeit. These jockeys are cheaters and deceivers, rare in themselves, in that they are presenting phenomenon. Yes, they are legitimately observing and displaying unusual appearances. What they call “being God” I call another god. I question their source.
The second test is found in Deuteronomy chapter 13.
Moses is speaking to the second generation; those that are going into the Promised Land. He says to them, “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, “and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods' -which you have not known–' and let us serve them,' “you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”1
Marital infidelity can be defined as unfaithfulness, a violation of covenant, committing adultery. Now let's talk about spiritual adultery. It is committing spiritual intercourse with another god or better said, with another spirit.
We have false prophets and dreamers arising in our midst today from among us. They are seducing God's children to run after and serve other gods and to enter into intimacy with them. These false prophets and dreamers are “rare” and are selling “rare” coins. Enamored with angels and leading people into a state of drunken stupor, these personality driven performers, who have no resemblance of the true apostles, prophets or evangelists of the early church, continue to deceive God's children with their hyper-spiritualism.
Yes, there are mystics in our midst who are mystifying the body of Christ. These “rare” ones are able to flow in the supernatural, yet are unable themselves to reveal the mysteries of God which Paul mentions: God and man walking together; Christ in you, the hope of glory, both of which are characterized by a holy people not those who are seduced by foreign spirits or by selfish ambitions. These holy people are totally sold out to God and for God, empowered by His Spirit, with no cravings for any other power except for the power to stay pure and true to Him. God is looking for a people infatuated with Himself and His presence, and with no desire for the imitation. GOD IS TESTING!
God is testing to see who will love Him singularly. God is testing to see if the Holy Spirit He has given us is going to be embraced and obeyed. The test is: can we be content with God Himself and His ways?
Here are some questions we need to ask ourselves: Are we bored with our marriage to God or will we remain faithful? Do we need to experience something new and exciting? Has our love grown cold? Are we entering into or involved in spiritual infidelity?
We are living in times of testing for a near battle. We are also living in times of testing for eternity. My hope and prayer is that we will not compromise in the day of testing.
1Deuteronomy 13:1-3
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