Only One Original
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.”
—Matthew 13:24–25
You know something is popular when you start seeing its imitations everywhere. When someone comes up with a new design for something, it isn’t long before everyone has created a version of it.
In the same way, we can look at so-called religions today and see imitations of the real thing. Whenever there is a genuine work of the Holy Spirit of God, we can always expect to see the devil’s imitation. If there is a revival sent from God, there will be a false revival. If there are miracles from heaven, there will be miracles from hell. If you begin to see the movement of God in a certain area, then you will also see the movement of the devil.
Jesus told the story of the wheat and the tares, in which a man went out and planted a field of wheat. But in the night, his enemy came and planted tares among the wheat. The tares, also known as darnel, actually resembled wheat in the early stages of growth. If you were to see the two plants side by side, you would not be able to notice a difference. But after a period of time, the darnel would show itself for what it really was. It actually would uproot the wheat. So Jesus said this enemy plants the tares among the wheat.
The devil has flooded the world with imitations, if you will. And the fact there are so many imitations only confirms there is an original. You cannot have imitations without the real thing.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org.
Copyright © 2006 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000.
