There are many shocking stories of needless strife within church groups all over the world. Churches are infiltrated by every kind of evil, rendering them useless against the powers of darkness.
When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples to preach and heal the sick, they came back surprised at what they could do with the power of God. Jesus told them that their salvation is more important than what they did in His name!
This same message could applies to us Christians today as it did then! If someone tries to tell you a different story, they are either delusional or not operating under God’s will.
Luke 10:17 (NIV) The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Luke 10:20 (NIV) However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Unless we are aware of our place in the body of Christ, we will be caught up in a system of ‘believers’ who are in it for business! They want to make money and will literally enslave the faithfuls by giving them the task of gathering as many God seekers as they can to their churches! They then embark on ‘milking’ them off anything they can part with! Thy have no conscience or sympathy but a cold, selfish, self justifying and defensive attitude!
If you are genuinely seeking God, watch out for these wolves in sheep’s clothing! Wolves are always preoccupied with how to wow the world. They plot to gain power over others and doing anything to satisfy their bloated egos.
One should not be afraid of them because worship of our Creator is about finding the love of God in the most sacred and private part of you. The kind of love that drives away all fear, giving you indescribable peace. Above all, this worship does not heap on us heavy burdens. Matt 11:30 (BSB) For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
When you study the letters of Paul and other apostles in the new testament, it is clear that the biggest enemy of the church is what has crept into our lives and has been accepted or tolerated. This is characterised by human egos, blind religious practices or hypes, materialism and acts of satisfying the flesh!
I recall many years back as a new christian seeing something that deeply disturbed me. This was a trend of heaping praises on church leaders like you would do to a politician. Some of these leaders had no visible fruit of the Holy Spirit in them.
They had obvious problems showing on their faces, pride could not let anyone correct them, they had no peace, not kind and lived with lots of falsehoods in their lives. Their bad fruits put off Christians and non Christians alike but, instead of being rebuked they were tolerated and praised.
Galatians 5: 22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no Law
These people should have been pulled down from any type of leadership positions and placed under close discipleship but instead they were made leaders or imposed themselves as leaders.
My experience tells me that what you see on such people’s faces is just a tip of the iceberg. If you go deeper into their personal lives, you will literally faint from shock, they knock off every fruit of the Holy Spirit from your list.
Whatever they do is either demonically driven or is out of the pride of the flesh.
Such people are eager to be leaders where they are ‘easily noticeable’ in church groups. They are quick to pray for people ( Oh! They love loud prayers!) and laying their hands on the sick and children.
One should ask, if these people are not even approachable, have obvious issues in their personal lives, why are they so spiritually driven to impart what they have on other people by praying and laying of hands? Unless, they are being led by a demon spirit. Think about it!
Now I know better. If you come across persons with bad fruits, however highly placed they are in the church hierarchy, they are either, doing it for money, living in sin, protecting non-confessed personal sins, have bitter roots of unforgiveness, not born again, doing what they are not called for, have deliverance issues, are operating under an anti-Christ spirit that pushes them to lead everyone to hell or have a combination of these factors.
There are many anti-Christ spirits operating within our churches and in the world today.
I wish that you take time and study the photo above. Can you see a wolf? Imagine that wolf is a sheep. After a minute or two you will find yourself accepting it as sheep. That is how we easily accept a spirit in the church.
We hear people cry wolf wolf! When we look, we are hit by this image of a wolf but then we say in our hearts, ‘naah he is not a wolf she is not a wolf’ and we end up compromising with evil.
Remember, it is not the person that is a wolf but the spirit in that person.
If there are problems within a church or a church group, discernment is required and when a spirit is identified it should be dealt with immediately. If it is not dealt with, you will be brewing a spiritual strife in that group.
When we see a wolf, let us not be fooled, we should seek God about it and deal with it. Remember that we have the fruits to compare with. One can fake genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit by displaying counterfeits, but nobody can fake the fruits of the Holy Spirit all the time.
Mathew 7:16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
When we identify a spirit due to the bad fruits coming out of the person, we are not judging we are exposing evil. Why then will Jesus tell us to use fruits to identify evil? We are not here to judge or condemn the world we are here to be used in the redemption of mankind. Exposing evil and condemning people are two different things.
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Wisdom is also required and if possible, enlisting of some other Godly persons or leaders is necessary.
If we care enough we should expose evil and not be afraid of the repercussions. We should only fear God and God only.
Jesus Had only one problem with the Church of Thyatira in Revelations 2:20. They compromised with evil instead of dealing with it.
If you are walking in discernment, the first thing that hits your spirit when you walk into a new environment is normally correct. This is because you have no background information about the place or a person to be biased or be prejudiced.
Pray that God will give you a discerning spirit and not a criticizing spirit . A criticizing spirit is not from God. We need a discerning spirit to be spiritual barometers, scanning our environment for any scam from hell.
The anti-Christ spirits can be grouped into various categories. Those that blind non Christians from ever accepting Jesus Christ in their lives and those that are planted by the devil to operate under the label of Christianity to defile the body of Christ leading as many people as they can to hell.
John 10: 12-13 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep
The sheep in the above passage are true believers in Jesus Christ. The wolves are the anti-Christ spirits operating through compromised christians. The hired hands are the fake pastors , bishops and the general church leaders that have been appointed or have elevated themselves to leadership roles. The hirer is the devil.
The hired hands are not true shepherds. They resist the purity in the gospel of Christ and instead encourage religious practices that have no real value in the life of a believer to retain followers in the church.
They yield to the schemes of the devil, resist the Holy Spirit and teach others to do the same. A complete opposite attitude of sincere christians. James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you
They mock anything that has to do with true deliverance and teach others to do that. Teachings on deliverance and healing is met by mocking smiles and utter rejection. Don’t be surprised by this because the spirit that is operating in these leaders and christians is evil and the last thing it wants is to be exposed and cast out of the people and the church.
Don’t be discouraged if your message of deliverance is taken as ridiculous. This is expected if your message is exposing hidden evil in the church. It happened to Jesus in Mathew 12:22-24. Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
In everything Jesus or disciples did as part of their daily Gospel, was casting out evil spirits from among seemingly normal people.
Luke 8: 1-3 The Twelve were with Him, as well as some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary called Magdalene,from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna the wife of Herod’s household manager Chuza, Susanna, and many others. These women were ministering to them out of their own means.…
The real scenario of the work of compromised christians and false prophets in church groups is very well described by Jesus in the parable of the weeds.
Matthew 13:24-43 (NIV) Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
The planted lies succeed to a specific person, a church group, a region or even a country! Jesus forewarned about the coming of these falsehoods!
Acts 20:29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” Matt. 7:15
Let us summarise our discussion by looking at the following fruits normally found in wolves. “You will recognize them by their fruits…” Matt. 7:16
If any of the following define your character then you are a wolf. If any ‘believer’ has such a hidden character, then they are wolves.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19-21
“For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” 2 Cor. 11:14-15
How are we supposed to deal with wolves in the church? We should not be cowards. Cowards are in danger of going to hell.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death Rev 21:8
Expose the wicked among you
Expose the wicked among the sheep. The Holy Spirit will definitely show you how to do it if you are willing to take your position.
The devil has twisted the scripture in Mathew 7:1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged To allow evil to flourish in the body of Christ. It’s quoted all over by even non-believers. This should raise a red flag.If you read the next verse 2 For with the same judgement you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. This was a revelation to me. If you are not a wolf in the church why should you fear to be judged by the same measure? God will never pronounce a punishment to you when you expose evil unless you are lying or also doing the same thing. Ephesians 5:11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. We should not be partakers of evil practices , Paul tells the Ephesians.
Paul clears the misunderstanding of Judge Not in Mathew 7:1 when he wrote to the Corinthians ; What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 1 Cor 5:12-13
We must take our stand and stop living as cowards. Scriptures don’t contradict, they support each other. Otherwise, we will believe things taught by demons! 1 Timothy 4:1 (NIV) Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons.
Before you go, I wish to mention one of the antichrist spirits in our world today! This is a very high level demon first identified by Christ operating within the church called Jezebel in Revelation 2:18-29. The spirit can be highly religious and persons operating under this spirit are hard to tell apart from genuine believers!
Read more on the Jezebel Spirit…
[Article Author: Joseph GM]
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