When we preach rapture, rapture, rapture, grace, grace, grace, the result is not a righteous, holy people walking in stern obedience to the Father, bearing their cross behind the Lord Jesus. We preachers are at fault in this. We have produced moral chaos by our teaching of Jesus as the ticket to Heaven.

It appears the American people are sick and tired of hearing about how they must be "born again" when the born-again people are no more righteous than the people of the world. (I can hear you saying "Amen!")

What are we to do? We who are teachers and preachers need to turn again to the New Testament and see if the emphasis is on actual righteousness of behavior or on imputed righteousness. Also we will find no emphasis whatever on an ascension of the believers to escape Antichrist and the great tribulation.

We are following our traditions instead of the Word of God. The inevitable has taken place. The Presence of God has withdrawn.

Now there is a vacuum. We no longer have the richness of the Spirit of God because of our emphasis on lawless grace and the pre-tribulation disappearance of the believers. Yet we are desirous of crowds of people because this is the sign of spiritual success in America.

Is it possible that into this vacuum is entering practices and beliefs that are not of Christ, not of His Apostles, not of the New Testament? Are people so starved they are "eating the blood along with the flesh" as took place during the rule of self-willed King Saul?

The Church of Ephesus tested the apostles and were commended for so doing. Are we testing carefully every spirit that pretends to be from Jesus or are we following every feeling that comes to us? If we are opening ourselves to spirits and following the feelings that come to us we are departing from the guidelines that have been established by teachers, such as Jessie Penn-Lewis, who have instructed us from the Scriptures concerning passivity and deception. We are opening ourselves to deception. We are destroying the witness of God. The Christian Church is to be the moral light of the world, the testimony of God's Person, God's will, His way, and His eternal purposes in Christ.

We ourselves will end up paddling around in a lagoon, getting nowhere, not growing in Christ, in the ability to distinguish good and evil and in the strength and willingness to choose the good and reject the evil.

Don't go to any Christian meeting because of curiosity or to "see what they are doing over there." Stay with the group you are with no matter how small, with people you know, love, and trust, under the guidance of elders whom you know to be experienced and godly.

Then you will grow strong in the Lord. Christ will be formed in you.

Keep away from the various experiences taking place today until you are absolutely sure of what you are doing, until you have God's peace, until you are comfortable with what is taking place, until you feel that this is Christ's will for you.

The level of deception is so high today it is blinding even the elders. Pray, take up your cross and follow Jesus, meditate in the Bible, meet as often as you can with godly disciples, give of your means as God has blessed you, and seek an area of service. The Lord will be with you and keep you from all evil until He returns in glory. (from Be Careful How You Drink the Water!)