Test Everything You Hear with God’s Word

Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.

1 Thessalonians 5:20–21

I encourage you to test everything you hear with God’s Word. I always tell my church to read the Bible for themselves instead of simply swallowing all that any preacher, including myself, says. Be wise and don't just swallow everything—hook, line, sinker, fisherman and even his boots!

Be discerning when you hear something that does not sit well in your spirit, such as when a preacher tells you that “God gives you sicknesses to teach you a lesson.” Ask yourself, “Is this in line with the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor? Are there new covenant scriptures to back up this teaching?”

The answer is obvious once you align it with Jesus and what He has done on the cross for you!

Why would God give you sicknesses when Jesus has taken every sickness and disease upon His own body at the cross? With full assurance in your heart that sickness is not from God, you can have faith to be healed!

But what assurance can you have if you believe the lie that the condition is from God?

Now, instead of thinking that God is against you, you realize that He is on your side! Your confidence is restored, faith is renewed and His healing can flow unabated through every cell, tissue and organ in your body!

Let me just share with you the words of Miles Coverdale, who said, “It shall greatly help thee to understand Scripture, if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, and unto whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstance, considering what goeth before, and what followeth after.”

Essentially, he was saying that to understand the Bible, we need to read everything in its context. What powerful advice from the man who translated and produced the first English Bible in the 16th century.

My friend, rightly divide the covenants whenever you read the Bible and you will never be ashamed. Now that you have received Jesus into your life, you are under the new covenant and it is your new covenant right to enjoy Jesus’ unmerited favor to succeed in life!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.