How to Tell Who is Real and Who is Fake

We live in a difficult world. In the Age of Information there are more and more people pretending to be someone else. All you need is a laptop and a half an hour and you can make yourself popular with today’s social media platforms. There are hundreds of apps out there where you can say whatever you want to say and be whoever you want to be. It’s frightening.There are hundreds of stories of people meeting from this app or that app and end up dead or abused or hurt. Acording to Naked Security by Sophos, with the finding of a survey released on Wednesday by Custard, a British digital marketing company.

• In a survey of 2000 Brits, more than 75% admitted to lying about themselves on social profiles.
• Only 18% said that their Twitter and Facebook profiles accurately represent them.
• Some 31% said that their Facebook profiles are “pretty much my life but without the boring bits.” And 14% said that Facebook makes them look much more socially active than they are.
• Men are more prone than women when it comes to dressing up the shop window. Nearly half – 43% – of men polled admitted to fabricating facts

The Bible teaches us to test the spirits. God already knew that we would run into liars, or people who like to stretch the truth. We run into fake people everywhere, even at Church. God wanted to warn us that not everyone who goes to Church is real. And the opposite is true, not everyone who doesn’t go to Church is fake. We are to test each person, ask God, and use wisdom.

My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.

Here’s how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought! – 1 John 4:1-3MSG

I have learned this the hard way. I am such a trusting, gullible person sometimes. I used to trust everyone with everything. Until I got burned. Maybe it happened to you too. If so, I am sorry. I learned to step back and watch and ask God for wisdom. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would teach us ALL things. I have discovered that I can just ask Him and He will let me know.The other cool thing I learned is that I am NOT the Holy Spirit. It is not my job to prove to the fake people they are fake. Have you ever heard the expression – just give them enough rope and they will hang themselves? My Mom taught me that one! It is true. Just because someone is a fool doesn’t mean I have to expose them or embarrass them. I can pray for God to touch that person and give them wisdom. That way God can deal with them and I don’t have to!I have also learned that when they teach Bank Tellers to spot fraudulant money, they don’t focus on the fake money – they teach them what REAL money looks like. If you know what REAL looks like, you don’t accept FAKE.Jesus says He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. I belive Him. Jesus also said He would give us a comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would TEACH us all things. Christ in us – the Hope of Glory. As a believer with the Holy Spirit, REAL knows REAL. The Holy Spirit in us will recognize the Holy Spirit in someone else.There are times I would be walking in a store and felt the presence of God on someone I passed by. Our eyes would meet and we knew we were both believers of Christ. Same thing happened to me at work. There was one aisle I loved to walk down because there were multiple people filled with the Holy Ghost and I could smell Jesus everytime I walked through. REAL knows REAL.The definition of a fool is:

• a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person or
• someone who tricks or deceives (someone); dupe.

God hates fools and liars, just like we do. He knows, He sees, and He will deal with it. I don’t have to listen to liars. I just tune them out.What about you? How do you deal with fake people?