My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Matthew 24  (NIV)

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

²³ At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you ahead of time.

John 10:29 (KJV)

My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

We are living in most dangerous deceptive times there are counterfeits everywhere.

It’s is hard to separate the truth from the false the real from the unreal.

There are many religions and many religious leaders all claiming to be the truth, there are many these days who even claim to be God and Jesus Christ performing many deceptive things that to the untrained eye would be very convincing.

As a bank teller must be trained to know the difference from the counterfeit bill as compared to the real.

As the antique dealer must be able to spot the true antique from the counterfeit.

We Christians must also be able to determine the false from the truth.

Now the first step in doing that is we must first know the truth.

John 14:6 (NIV)

 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The second step is to understand that the real Jesus has a personal relationship with His followers.

We must understand that God is not flesh and blood as we are He is Spirit and He is love.

When we truly receive Him into our lives His Holy Spirit begins to live in us teaching us the truth contained in the Holy Bible giving us the ability to see and understand the truth from the false.

Jesus said, John 10:27 (KJV)

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Having a personal relationship with someone means that we know that person as well or better than we know ourselves.

When my wife and I first met and began our lives together there were many things we didn’t know about each other.

But as we have lived together these many years and studied each other thoroughly we now know each other very well.

I doubt that another man trying to pass himself off as me would fool her because she knows me too well to be deceived even if the man had a physical appearance like me.

And I know her well enough to know that she is one of a kind and couldn’t be fooled by a counterfeit.

When we walk with Jesus we know Him and He knows us He knows exactly where our heart is we can’t fool Him.

There is only one like Jesus and if we really know Him we are not going to follow after the false.

Because Jesus said, John 10:29 (KJV)

My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

If you do not know the real from the false if you cannot determine the true from the counterfeit then you don’t know Jesus and will certainly fall for the lies and deceptions that are being spread everywhere.

If one really wants to know God and the Lord and savior Jesus Christ there is only one way to make that happen.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.