Jesus cautioned, "Be careful what we hear," because words are seeds that get planted in the spirit (heart) of everyone, including Christians and non-Christians. We've allowed evolution to be taught to our children in public schools. It sowed seed in their hearts making them question the truth that God is the Creator of everything.
2Timothy 4:3-5 (Amplified) says, "For the time is coming when (people) will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but having ears itching (for something pleasing and gratifying) they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold." Verses 4-5 say, "And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions. As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry."
We live in the age that Paul spoke about, where so many different things are being sown into the airways of social media. We've all heard about the DaVinci Code and Chrislam. Some Christians have been calm and cool in the face of all these false doctrines of men that surround us, but others have been choked out by the thorns and are no longer bearing fruit in their lives.
Presently, the Church has been bombarded with more false doctrines as a whole, than any other generation. The Web has become our source of information and quoted as being the truth. Man's opinion has outweighed the Word of God. The seed of man's opinion being sown into the world isn't being judged in the Light of the Truth, for the most part. Many new believers have the good seed in very limited amounts or have unlimited amounts of the wrong seed.
Many things being sown into the world are seeds that will completely choke out the seed of the Kingdom that's also being sown. There are some Christian people who will accept Chrislam as being truth and will accept the we all serve the same God. Anyone who believes that teaching has never known the Father and we should pray for them. This teaching might speak to the emotions of man and please his sense of goodness, but it is so wrong. We've arrived at the place where it doesn't matter what you believe just as long as you believe...so they hear.
If these teachings take root in the soil of our hearts, then they will choke out and stop the fruit of the harvest. We have the teaching of universal reconciliation (everyone will get to heaven, with or without Jesus), being bandying about that gets planted into our hearts if we don't guard it. We've come to an age of majority (mob) rule being used to discern right or wrong.
God's kingdom isn't a democracy. We don't vote on what is God or what we want to "be God." His way is the only way. When we don't heed what we hear, we are open to receiving almost anything that sounds good to us. We are willing to go-along with whatever comes down rather than face confrontation.
Undermining the Word of God can only come by receiving something that chokes out the truth. We've seemed blind to the seeds constantly being sown from everywhere (including politicians the the news media). Contrary to common belief, everything we hear on television or the web isn't truth. Much of the television content now is either obscene or just plain stupidity. Common sense, proverbs and wisdom have been replaced by social media's chatter. "As for me and my house, we choose to serve the Lord."
We walk in bondage because we cannot handle the liberty we've been given. We no longer want to accept responsibility for our own lives and actions and strive to make others responsible. We hired politicians to handle our liberty as a nation and they bark their own opinions as to what we should do. We've allowed our freedom of speech to be superseded by political correctness.
We've allowed seeds or words of the world to be sown into the soil of our hearts (spirits). We've even become limited in what we are allowed to preach, so that we don't offend or convict someone of their sins. We've almost reached the point where we must say, "There is no longer any sin" or have varying opinions as to what sin is. These are "seeds" that do not belong in the Garden of the Lord. These are some of the things Jesus told us to "Heed what you hear" and be careful what you're listening to (even in Christian circles).
These are signs of the "thistles and the thorns" choking out the seed. I'm not saying that we should be judgmental of the world, but that we should "judge" our own heart and lives. If we "judge ourselves, then we will have no need to be judged."
We don't need to tell the world how bad they are, we only need to tell them how good Jesus is. We must guard ourselves from being conformed to this world. We're not competing with the world and we don't need to use the world's tricks and tools to reveal Jesus to others. We only have to tend the garden so that it produces fruit.
Hugh Smith taught a message years ago called, "Hoe Your Own Row" about how each person must take care of his own garden. He advised us to take care of our own garden and don't try taking care of the other guy's garden. I can't and won't tell you what to hear, do or say. Each of us have the Holy Spirit and the Word to do that. 1John 2:27 (Amplified) says, "But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which you received from Him abides (permanently) in you, (So) then you have no need that anyone should instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is true and is no falsehood, So you must abide in (live in, never depart from) Him (being rooted in Him, knit to Him) just as (His anointing) has taught you (to do)."
There are false teachings out there denying Jesus is the Son of God. There are teachings out there denying Jesus is coming back, heaven exists, and hell is real. Some say that the cross was all a conspiracy and that Jesus never died and never rose from the dead. Others say that the tribulation isn't coming and that we will fix the earth and present it to God as our achievement.'
Many such things falsehoods are being sown. We must guard our heart with vigilance and above everything else that you guard. Don't allow such seeds of doubt as, "God no longer does these things" or "God is more your problem than your answer" or "The gifts of the Spirit have all passed away" to grow in your heart. We must be on guard constantly against the onslaught of the devil. Just because we're not being tortured here in America like in the Middle East, doesn't mean we're not under attack. The "serpent" has been more subtle here than he is in other parts of the world, but he's still the deceiver.
Judge yourself. Do you allow things in your life that you wouldn't have allowed when you first believed? Have you stopped guarding your heart? Do you watch things you wouldn't have watched when you first were saved?
The most dangerous things about these untruths is the subtlety in which they come. They always come in the disguise of good. They infer you're disagreeing with them means that you're not walking in love anymore. The Church as been accused of preaching "The Gospel of hate" because we exclude those who reject Jesus. Their idea of the Gospel is being "all inclusive" and accepting people of every faith and creed and lifestyle and worshiping other gods as Christians. This isn't what Jesus said. He said that, "If we will leave our old faith (whatever it may or may not be) and divorce ourselves from our old lifestyle and accept Him as our sin bearer and Lord, then we will be saved. We were to become "new creatures in Christ" and not the same ones on our own terms.
Whether we agree or not, the cross is still the only way and His truth is all that will stand. Guard your heart!
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