THE instructions of the Lord must not be uttered, adjusted or amended in any form. The word of God has warned us sternly in Rev. 22:18-19 therefore: “ I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this look: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if any one takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy; God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Of course, it is always a problem when we try to slow down the instruction because the message of the King requires haste and it has to be treated as such. Going by the call of Moses and the several instructions given to him by the Almighty God of Israel, he carried them out accordingly without any iota of selfishness and disobedience.
Nowadays, there are a lot of prophets and prophetesses that have lost relevance in the scheme of God. They go extra miles in search of strange powers to deceive many unrooted believers, and even rooted believers at most times. through miracles, signs and wonders whose origin are completely not from God. These people who fall into their hands are desperately in search for breakthrough and do not mind how it will come and where it will come from.
However, believers and the Bible scholars are not put in the dark. Jesus Christ our Lord did not fail to explain to us in His teachings to the disciples in Math 24:11 2 that many false prophets will arise and lead many astray” He also went further to add therefore in verse 24: “for false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray if possible even the deal. Lo, I have told you before hand.”
Some characteristics of the false and fake prophets are as follows:
They are more interested in their own agenda than that of the Lord’s. They organise programmes to suit their purposes and interest; tagging them with suitable and convincing themes of reference. They go extra miles to carry out adverts on radio and television with frequent announcements loaded with words of encomium for the prophets rather than Christ the Lord.
They are interested in the offerings and tithes of the people rather than their salvation. They usually come up with sweet words of prayers to tie down their fellow members, through their tricky words of prayers. They sell sachet water, bottled water, oils of different colours and of different sizes, dried herbs as perfumes to their members at exhorbitant prices. No wonder! Paul Apostle said to the Romans “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.”
Beloved, examine your faith and think about your present fellowship centre. Are you not given to a debased mind to do what you ought not to do?
Fellow believers, it is good you check yourselves to know whether you are worshipping under a fake and false prophet. Take time to examine your faith, activities, participations in worship services you attend weekly and stop for a while to think about the quoted scriptures above. Do not be deceived, each of us will give account of all we do in the flesh one day. Please be aware of that fact. Stop wasting your limited resources in an unfruitful arena.
Let me ask you these questions: Are you one of the perishing souls? Do you seek for signs and wonders by all means? Do you belong to the group, whom strong delusions were sent to? Examine your life; faith and thoughts; in order not to fall prey to the hands of the fake and false prophets of these end times.
The fake and false prophets are all over the place, taking their seats in the temple of God, choking people up with flattery and false doctrines by way of extorting them.
They are more interested in the membership than discipleship. Most of them conjure the power of discerning spirits to easily get to know the future lives of their members telling them the mysteries at stake. No one would hear about his future occurrences either good or bad who would not be thrilled and excited to take the next available step. Such an individual would be happy indeed to share and propagate the prophet to some quarters that are friendly to him/her. This, in no time, will promote the increase of the membership. There are many other forms of evil drawing powers to overpopulate the church of such ministers. They do not care about discipleship but are deeply interested in members because of the gains they wish to make.
Be careful not to fall prey to “false prophets.” You must not allow any form of distractions from any quarter to knock you down. Run with the vision. In this present age, we need to be spiritually sensitive in order to know and to recognise the wiles of the devil any time, any day. Beware of false prophets; they are all over the place.
Pastor Jejeola Theophilus Olatunji is a cleric with Immanuel Baptist Church, Saki, Oyo State.