What Fruit do they have?
Matthew 7:15-20
15 “Beware of the false prophets! They come to you wearing sheep’s clothing, but underneath they are hungry wolves! 16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every healthy tree produces good fruit, but a poor tree produces bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit. 19 Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire! 20 So you will recognize them by their fruit.
Anytime there is a pandemic, or major earth catastrophe, people begin to speak "Words from the Lord." Are they real? Are they from God? How do we know???
Prophecy is real. There are people today who believe that prophets were only during the time of Christ and before. I do not believe this. I believe that God still desires to speak to us through His people, and some have the gift of prophecy.
There are those, however, who are not true prophets from Adonai. They seek to gain their own reward and speak words that are not from God. Having both camps surrounding us can make it difficult to know what is Truth and what is a lie.
What is really challenging is when people are speaking the Truth to us, but because it is a little different than what we know or understand, we perceive them to be false prophets.
Jesus tells them people to "look at the fruit." What are they producing? Do they bring peace, joy, love, kindness...? Are the Fruits of the Spirit evident in their lives? Jesus exemplified all the fruits of the Spirit and people chose to follow Him.
These verses should cause us to "dig deep" and understand the Truth so that we know when people come to us if they are sharing Truth with us. If we KNOW the Words of God, than we can be Truthful with those around us. We will SHARE His Words with others and bear fruit.
Love and blessings,
Rose
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Photo Credit to Serena Geiger. It is from a juice stand in Old City, Jerusalem, Israel.
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