“So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.” Exodus 7:10-12 (NIV)

As I was reading this, I realized that there are people who can emulate the work of the Lord. They have the gift of charisma, speech, wisdom, and even the supernatural, as mentioned in the verse. To be clear, it is stated in the Bible that we all possess spiritual gifts:

“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,a and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 (NIV)

We are all assigned spiritual gifts from the Lord. (It’s as simple and as obvious as why some people sing professionally as compared to those who sing for leisure.) We are all blessed by the Lord. However, we have to admit that sometimes, we may have used our blessings against our brothers and sisters at one time or another.

We may have used these blessings to stay ahead of others. We may have used our abilities for us to feel better about ourselves. We may have used what is meant to bless others as a means to demean them.

We have witnessed that there are people out there who seem to preach the same Gospel, that comes from Jesus. We have seen them use their God-given gifts to destroy biblical truths rather than it’s promotion. To those who use His gifts to discourage and confuse people on who He truly is, He will bring them to judgement.

They may sound, act, look, preach like Him but they will be exposed for who they truly are… Fakes. They may claim Jesus this and Jesus that, “I am like Jesus”, “same as Jesus did” but those are all suspect to blasphemy.

When God became Man in Christ, God didn’t wish to show people that you can be like Him, that humans can become gods. No! He showed humility, mercy, service and love before us and died for us all.

He who is first became last. He who is without sin, became sin saving us from death. We are to accept and appreciate that He who is God came down and became like us to save us from our sins.

We have heard so many disheartening voices before us. People, so-called friends, destroying and discouraging our faith, altering it in accordance to their own intellect. We know who they are. So, how are we to respond? We are to respond in love and understanding, in forgiveness and mercy, and within the grace of our Lord. For even if all the staffs miraculously became snakes, at the end it is our Lords staff that conquers them all.

“We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 [a]We use God’s mighty weapons (faith, hope and love), not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NLT)