I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.
Memory Verse: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; Ephesians 6:17.
Two words that are extremely difficult to separate in meaning are ‘replica’ and ‘counterfeit’. While both of them may be interchangeably used in very similar sentences, they are in fact very different.
The Cambridge dictionary explains Replica as being an exact copy of an original item. For clarity, when we buy replicas, we know that we are not buying originals because they are usually created to model the original but are never passed off as the real deal. So the buyer and the seller have an understanding that they are buying an inferior item and have clarity in terms of expectations. In this instance a counterfeit item is absolutely different.
A counterfeit item made as an exact copy of the original and are modelled with the intent to mislead the buyer that they are the real deal. The seller often has an understanding, but the buyer may be unaware that they are buying the exact opposite and as a result pay out a huge sum of money just slightly lesser than the original price to buy a counterfeit.
As a result, the counterfeit and replica industries continue to thrive while the original brands continue to be negatively impacted and this is a major problem, we have in the body of Christ today!
Many Christians in today’s world are being deceived or choose to take the nonchalant path in their relationship with God. Some have been Christians for years but have refused to get or accept instructions from the Holyspirt, neither interest in knowing the mind of God through His word. As a result, such Christians continue to get second-hand information often misinterpreted since they make no effort to have a bond personally with God.
From the beginning of time, God has been known to fellowship with men because even though He lives up in Heaven, He came down to spend time with Adam and Eve, Genesis 3:8. The devil came to tempt Eve, he never came as God, but he offered what seemed like a replica. Eve knew it wasn’t God talking to her, but she decided to go with the flow.
There is a lot of danger in second-hand information mostly because we don’t know the intention of the speaker and even with the best of intentions, a lot of information is often missing in transit and as a result we never fully benefit from the information and this is why Apostle Paul spoke about in today’s bible verse, 2Timothy 4:1-5.
The time is now! Watch out for second-hand information! Any Information passed on to you by a third party is no longer new. They may have been amended with or without intentions but the Holyspirt will give you an unused and unedited information, therefore He is your only true guide.
There is however one way to check the legitimacy, any information that is contrary to the word of God is direct counterfeit so when in doubt seek His will from His word (The bible).
PRAYERS:
- Lord I am grateful for your faithfulness
- Forgive my sins Lord and give me a new heart
- Help me from today to study your word, fully rely on the Holyspirit and not on my own understanding
- Guide me Lord and help me to sense when the wrong information is given to me
- Father let my life be an expression of your grace and let your favour be my portion.
- Forgive my sins Lord and answer my prayers, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
