Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
We've heard about people proclaiming themselves to be God or the second coming Christ in many different places, and they have deceived many to follow them. In 1 John 4:1, "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God." As there are many false prophets, how do we discern? John said, "Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ as come in the flesh is from God; but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God." The best way to discern is to discerning them in worship, for we are exalting Jesus during our worship.
In 1 John 3:8, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." When the authority of Jesus manifests on us, the enemy must flee. We need to be careful as we live in this end time, for sufferings are near and persecutions may come anytime because of our faith. When we are in difficult environments as such, first we ought not to lose our faith. We need to understand that the stronger the attack is, the closer we are to the end of darkness and dawn of day is coming soon. Therefore let us boldly resist the work of the evil one. Secondly, if we have to stand before those that persecute us, we don't need to worry about what to say, for the Holy Spirit will put the appropriate words in us. With that being said, we need to learn how to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives, if not we will just be filled with our own words, not His words. May the Lord help us to learn to stay close to God and listen to Him, so that He can prepare our hearts.
This is the end time, there are famines and earthquakes everywhere, and they are becoming both more frequent and more serious. As we witness these natural disasters, hatred among each others, and many false prophets, we truly know that His second coming is near. May the Lord help us to be alert while waiting for His second coming!
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