It has been said that if you stand for something worthwhile, you will have some people for you and some against you. But if you stand for nothing, you will have nobody against you—but neither will you have anybody for you.

In today’s society there is tremendous pressure to be politically correct and open minded; that is, except towards evangelical Christianity. If you make a stand for Christian convictions, you are just as likely to be labeled intolerant, bigoted and/or narrow minded. Funny how those who so aggressively oppose Christianity don’t see themselves as rigid, inflexible, dogmatic and intolerant!

What many don’t seem to realize is that if you stand for nothing, you can easily fall for anything. Or as E. Stanley Jones put it, “The difference between a swamp and a river is that a river has banks, and a swamp has none—it spreads over everything. Some people are rivers: they know where they want to go, and they confine themselves to the banks that lead to that goal. But some people are swamps: they spread over everything; their minds are so open they cannot hold a conviction.”

I’d much rather be a “river for God” and know where I stand and where I’m going and be labeled narrow minded than to be a swamp for “anything goes” and be popular with the crowd! It is much wiser to be biblically correct than politically correct.

As martyred missionary Jim Elliot, who stood firmly on the Word of God, said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the courage to stand firmly on your foundation of truth based on your Word, the Bible, knowing that in the long run truth will survive the test of time. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 1:8.

A few years ago Ralph Blodgett, who has researched psychic predictions for several years found that in a given year out of 250 specific predictions by 30 of the nation’s leading psychics, less than three percent could be listed as “reasonably fulfilled.”

Blodgett said, “I used to think psychics had to be led by either God or the devil. Now I’m convinced that they are being led most of the time by no one at all.”

Sometimes, too, I can’t help but wonder about some Christians who claim that God has given them a special word. I’ve had articles sent to me in the hopes that I would accept them for publication, the writer of whom assured me that their message was given to them by God and they wanted him to have all the glory for it. Frankly, I don’t think God wanted the glory for some of this material.

On one occasion one fellow informed me that God had told him he was to work for me. I didn’t give him a job. He was neither trained nor qualified for our type of work. I’ve heard others claim they had a word from the Lord … and what they “prophesied” never did happen.

In Old Testament times the test of a true prophet was 100 percent accuracy. The punishment for a false prophet was extremely severe. It was death.²

Today, in New Testament times, we are warned not to believe every spirit, but to put them to the test to make sure their word is from God. Of one thing we can be certain, if what a person claims is a word from God and it is contrary to God’s Word, we know it is not from God.

So does God still speak to people today? Yes, mostly through his Word, the Bible. It can also be through circumstances, through an inner conviction—the still small voice within—and on occasion through an audible voice. I recently wrote about a friend who, during a storm, was awakened in the night by an audible voice that said, “Sit up and take in a deep breath.” She thought she was dreaming so went back to sleep. The third time she heard the voice, she sat up, took in a deep breath—and smelled smoke. Their house had been struck by lightning and was on fire. The entire family barely made it out of the house when it exploded in flames and was totally destroyed.

However God speaks to you and to me, we need to be certain it is in harmony with his Word, the Bible. If not, dismiss it immediately, as there are many crackpots who, among other things, raise a lot of money from ill-informed and sometimes gullible people. Remember, too, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”³—not compulsions!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a desire to read, study and know your Word so that I will not be led astray by false prophets, or by my own mis-leadings. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 John 4:1 (NIV).

2. Deuteronomy 18:20 (NIV).

3. 2 Corinthians 3:17.

I remember reading in Reader’s Digest about a company who glued a mustard seed to a brochure that was advertising the product they were manufacturing. Beneath the mustard seed they had a caption that went something like the following: “If you have faith as much as a grain of mustard seed in our product, you will see a mountain of difference in what you are trying to achieve.”

Some months later a customer wrote back to the company saying, “You will be interested to know that I planted your mustard seed and it has already grown into a very robust plant—bearing healthy tomatoes!”

For our purpose what kind of seed the advertiser used doesn’t really matter, but for us to achieve anything worthwhile with our life, our faith needs to be genuine and based on reality, not on some grandiose fantasy.

Every one of us has a mountain or two in our life that we need to remove, be it a bad habit, an addiction, an impaired or toxic relationship, an unforgiving spirit, or whatever. To assume that God will remove these mountains without our accepting full responsibility for doing our part isn’t faith—it’s presumption—and presumption won’t make it.

Sometimes, too, we want to do something strictly for our own end. To justify it we say it is God’s will or God is leading me or told me to do such and such. When we do this with an impure motive, this too isn’t faith but presumption.

Many people believe that if they do more good deeds than bad deeds, this will qualify them for entering God’s heaven. Others believe that all religions lead to God and, if adhered to religiously, will qualify them for entering God’s heaven. Unfortunately these are presumptions. The only way to qualify for God’s heaven is to have faith in the way God has stated in his Word, the Bible, and that is through Jesus who said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through me.”²

When it comes to life after death, presumption can be fatal—eternally fatal. Faith is crucial but it needs to be in the right “seed”—and that is, in the saving gospel message of Jesus Christ. For help see the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian,” at: www.actsweb.org/christian.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please deliver me from the fatal folly of presumption and help me to always have faith in your ways as found in your Word, the Bible. Sometimes I feel like the man in the Bible who said, ‘Lord I believe. Help thou my unbelief.’ Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Matthew 17:20 (NIV).

2. John 14:6 (NIV).

Napoleon Hill said, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe can be achieved.” While this statement sounds rather grandiose, there is certainly a measure of truth in it. It’s somewhat similar to what Jesus said two thousand years earlier: “According to your faith be it unto you.”² But as James, the brother of Jesus, explained, without action faith is useless.

As the old saying goes, you can’t steer a ship or a bicycle to go anywhere until they’re moving. Zig Ziglar in his book, See You at the Top, put it this way: “The largest locomotive in the world can be held in its tracks while standing still simply by placing a single one-inch block of wood in front of each of the eight drive wheels. The same locomotive moving at 100 miles per hour can crash through a wall of steel reinforced concrete five feet thick.”

The important thing is that we get moving! As James said, “Faith without works is dead.”

Some people are sitting around waiting for some kind of special call or revelation from God before they get involved in his work. It’s not likely to happen because God has already given us lots of instructions in his Word regarding what to do. All we need to do is read these instructions … and start moving into action!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be a doer of your Word and not just a hearer. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. James 2:17 (NIV).

2. Matthew 9:29.