WHICH SPIRIT IS LEADING YOU?

There may be hundreds of examples in the Bible of what I want to share today, but these two examples clearly illustrate my concern for you, as you live your life of faith in Jesus Christ.  The first is from the first book of the Old Testament; it shows Adam and Eve were accountable for which authority they would trust:  their Creator, or Satan. 

"And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:15-17).

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." (Gen. 3:1-7).

In the second, from the first book of the New Testament; we find Peter being inspired by Almighty God one minute, and literally moments later, being guilty of listening to the voice of the evil one!

"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?  And they said, Some say that Thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven" (Mt. 16:13-17). 

"Then charged He His disciples that they should tell no man that He was Jesus the Christ.  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto His disciples, how that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.  Then Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee.  But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Mt. 16:20-23).

From these two examples, we know that man has always had to decide to whom he should listen.  It is no different today.  Born again believers, however, are very blessed in that we have both the Old and the New Testaments as our resource to identify which voice it is that is trying to lead us!

Acts 17:11 -  Use the Scriptures to authenticate "every voice!"