Revelations From A Tree Stand

This blog post is for all the hunters out there.  I myself like to hunt, but here lately I’ve been more of a nature observer than a hunter.  But that is why they call it hunting and not grocery shopping!  However, I love sitting in the tree stand throughout the season to admire and appreciate God’s creation.  It was early one morning last week when God used that opportunity to reveal himself in a new way.I personally love archery hunting and it’s my preferred method of hunting whenever I legally can.  The challenge and close up action of archery hunting is like nothing else I have experienced.  If you have no experience with archery or hunting in general don’t worry, this post won’t be overly technical.The picture attached to this post is the actual sight I use to aim my bow and arrow at my target.  The green and red dots are aiming points at different distances and they will not be illuminated unless they are exposed to light.As I was sitting in my tree stand waiting for the sun to rise, I was depressing the black knob in the upper right corner of my sight pins.  This knob acts as a built-in flashlight and applies direct light to those pins and “charges” them so they will glow and be visible in low light conditions.After holding this knob down for what seemed like eternity I let go and looked down at my sight pins.  Guess what, they were barley lite!  They were so dim that there was no way I could aim with them.  That was very disappointing and frustrating.However, about 5 minutes later (roughly 30 minutes before sunrise), light from the sun began to break through the darkness.  Before any part of the sun crested the horizon, I looked back down at my sight and my pins where completely illuminated and ready to go!This is when God stepped in.

Jeremiah 23:16 - Don’t pay attention to what those prophets are saying to you.  They are trying to fool you.  They talk about visions their own minds made up, not about visions from me. (NCV)  

The built-in flashlight acted as a false prophet.  It tried to fill my pins with “light” but it was battery powered and could only emit so much.  Basically, it was flawed and couldn’t get the job done.But even before the sun showed itself, it’s light was enough to fill the pins to the fullest and then some.  This is what God does for us.  He can’t reveal himself fully but yet the tiny bit he does show us is more than enough to cause our cup to overflow.The bible mentions multiple times to watch out for false prophets that mascaraed around in the name of Jesus.  But how do we tell if these people are emitting a false light?  Let’s look to the book of 1 John for the answer;

1 John 4:1 - Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. (NIV)       

We must test these prophets to know if they truly are from God.  The only way we can test them is if we ourselves are armed with Truth.  We, as Christians, need to be reading and studying the bible every single day to ward off these intruders.  With the advancements in social media, and communication as a whole, it is extremely easy for people to spew false teachings for any and all to read.

Related Content: When it Seems Like God is Silent

If you haven’t already, start reading the bible.  Grab a daily devotional (I recommend starting with Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) to help walk you through Jesus’s life and teachings.As always feel free to reach out to us here at Paradigm Shift to help with any questions you may have or if you want any additional resources to put in your weaponry to fight off false prophets!