It might be expedient at this time to talk about the modern testimony and the church. While for every authentic, Satan produces a replica. There is a testimony that accompanies the cheap gospel. Since the cheap gospel, known by many names i.e. cheap easy believism, decisionism, the gospel of acceptance, etc...is alive and well and is the foremost deception of Satan in the age in which we live, and he has always marketed some strategy throughout the ages that is mixed with just enough truth to deceive the multitudes, it should (will) be exposed readily and often whenever the testimony of the Spirit is given.
As the word (is) had need to be redefined by a very high profile politician and no better incident than to signal an age of confused definitions that have roots much deeper and earlier than when it surfaced, so too, words like church, saints, believer, christian, born again, and a sundry other terms spoken by Christians would need further definition to represent their true meanings. All due to the grand design of one who is a thief, liar, and murderer of men. His plan has decimated the ranks of the true church. Untold and unidentified millions and millions even hundreds of millions have been seduced and tricked
in this grand scheme. One must even give him credit, as foul as that may seem, for devising yet another strategy that solicits those who are religious and best guised for this great proliferation.
As we desire to hear the testimonies of the saints, that in the pure motivation speak to the work of God and and create praise and awe in the believer, and witness to the unbeliever, we see that God works in wonderful and mysterious ways in the lives of men. Testimonies cover a great many circumstances and conditions of those who were lost and then found. They speak to the graceful work of Christ in a plethora of varied circumstances among a great and varied number of people. Just as Christ has worked among believers who represent so many different circumstances in their lost state, so we should expect that the evil one will also see to it that the testimonies of the flesh are just as varied.
These seeded lies go so deep. The network of the great deception sees the goats in with the sheep. This might well be seen as the wheat and the tares but in this case the tares are ignorant to their deception. They have not rejected Christ. They call him Lord but in reality He is not Lord of their lives. They pray, study, attend what is to be the gathering of the saints, they sing, they teach, they pastor, they send men upon the mission field and volunteer for it themselves, they do works in their communities, they hold bible schools and yes they evangelize and they make a great number of converts not unlike themselves.
I laud those who seek the true confession, for a great distinction in churches today will be determined by their value of the testimony of the saints. Even in this there can be a great imitation. To the saint the testimony is a miracle of God on his life. To the deceived church, it is old hat. It is something common and it is nothing that deserves more than a few moments of mention. A saint values it, for he knows that just like the miracles Christ performed as he walked among us, this miracle commands even greater emphasis. Christ healed the blind, He raised the dead, He brought life to limbs that were withered, but the saint was spiritually dead, blinded by the world, and lifeless in his existence. Christ did interject Himself and raised the dead sinner giving him a totally different life. One that contrasts the prior purpose for which the sinner lived. The saint has been ruined to the world and the Spirit sees to his keeping. He has eyes that are keener than any x-ray vision. He sees through the world with a Spiritual vision that originates in the heart. The new heart. To the deceived church it is of little value. There is little room or time to afford it. It can be relegated and confined to a time limit that will not interfere with matters of greater priority such as the rehashing of the cheap gospel that is just as sickening to the true saint as manna and quail was to the Israelites sickened by God's provision and longing for the variety of Egypt.
What the deceived will not understand is the real change that signals the new birth. The false convert will offer change and discipline as evidence of conversion, but it is no different than the alcoholic who recognizes his dependency and sets about to control it by discipline. One can confine their tongue, ears, and eyes and so shall the true convert via the genuine affection, but what is born in the heart in the rebirth is by The Holy Spirit and not by the fleshly imitation that tries to mimic it in every way so as to not be exposed for the lie it is. That is why the testimony of the Spirit is so sacred and valuable to the saint. It is the work of God not of themselves. It is not receiving as though God needed our permission, it is not opening a door as though one could open a door that weighs more than all of the planets combined that exist in the universe, it is not confessing Christ as though He needed our confession, it is not accepting Christ as though He need man's acceptance. How ridiculous the lie has become. The miracle of God is praise worthy because of His work and not ours. If left up to us, really what could we do? Oh yes....we could discipline and systematize, and organize, and create an unwritten laws and traditions so that we might conform to some ideal of righteousness that has no foundation in the righteousness that is Christ's. In a way, Satan has devised a brilliant plan of deception and in another way, everything old is new again.