Hi everyone.
We live in a time where a lot of people follow a pastor, preacher, or prophet,
or whatever you want to call him, or church, instead of following God's Word, the Bible.
Now, of course, there are a lot of great teachers out there, Godly men.
But then there are also a lot of false teachers out there that you should stay away from.
Jesus said in Matthew 24:11, “Many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.”
But how do you identify a false teacher or church?
You look at their fruit. There are certain signs that you can look out for.
And so, in this video, I want to give you five signs
that might indicate a possible false prophet, teacher, or church.
Let's get to it.
All right, guys.
So, the first thing that you need to do to identify false preachers or false churches,
is to just very simple, study God's Word.
Read it, study it, know it.
Because if you don't know the truth,
how are you going to know if someone says something, or teaches something,
that is not in line with Scripture?
2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, and training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
If you know God's Word,
then it will be a lot easier for you to pick up the signs of a false church or teacher.
And the first big sign is when they continue to preach doctrines that are against God's Word.
2 Peter 2:1 says, “But false prophets also arose among the people,
just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,
even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed.
And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words.
Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
Now, let's take a look at the other signs of a false prophet.
Preaching to itching ears.
Does your pastor only preach what the church leaders want him to preach,
or what you and the members of the church want him to preach?
Or does he preach the full Word of God, the whole truth, in a balanced way?
2 Timothy 4:3 says, ”For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,
but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”
You see, the moment you don't listen to God's Word as it is written...
If you don't agree with something and you don't follow it...
If you don't follow it exactly as it is written,
then you are following your own desires, meaning a made-up religion, in your head.
A false idol.
2 Peter 3:3 says,
“That scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.”
Now, if there are any teachers, or pastors, preachers listening to this video.
I want you to know that just like me, we will stand in front of God one day...
In front of His mighty throne, the God of the universe, and we will be judged.
You will have to give account for every single word that went out of your mouth.
And if you are a false prophet or teacher, I don't want to be you on the day of judgment.
Because James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers,
for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.”
Now, let me ask all of you something.
Do you go to church because of what God can give you? Material things?
Or do you go to church because you want God Himself?
Do you only want signs and miracles and wonders, prosperity, wealth?
Or do you just want God Himself, a deep relationship with Him, He in you, you in Him?
Where you grow stronger Spiritually and where He leads you in life.
Where you are content with everything that He gives you. Are you chasing Jesus Himself?
You know, our aim as real believers in Jesus Christ, our aim is to be more like Jesus.
Are you chasing Holiness? Do you want to live a Holy life, righteous, before God?
Or do you just...
'No, I've got my ticket in heaven, and I'm going to enjoy my life on the pleasures of this world'?
Do you want things, the world, or do you want God?
Jesus says in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
That's another sign of a false preacher when he just teaches certain things of Scripture.
Just the good things that people want to hear.
If he always only just preach prosperity, healing, and blessing,
give motivational messages, but he does not preach that you have to live Holy, righteous,
before God, then he might be a false teacher.
Great signs and wonders.
Can God do great signs and wonders?
Of course, He can, He's God almighty.
But when it happens, it doesn't mean that it is always God.
Jesus says in Matthew 24:24,
“For false christ’s and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders,
so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”
You know, thousands of people run to these types of churches for the wrong reasons.
Running after signs, miracles, wonders, all these things,
instead of running after God, running after Jesus.
And they don't realize that they are false prophets, given power by demons.
Yes, demons can counterfeit the Holy Spirit.
And they do signs to mislead people, so that people will run after these things,
instead of running, really, after God and His Word.
Revelation 16:14 says, “For they are demonic spirits, performing signs.”
So, remember, there can be demons in a church, counterfeit spirits, pretending to be the Holy Spirit,
and doing the Holy Spirit's work to mislead people from sound doctrine through miracles and things.
And usually, when that happens, you also realize that these people, who go after all of these things...
They stop living Holy. They don't live Holy. They don't live righteous before God.
They're all about the miracles and all these things instead of really focusing on God and His Word.
And a lot of people don't even realize it.
When this happens, the Bible doesn't say just go ahead with it, it says that you have to test it.
1 John 4 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God,
for many false prophets have gone out into the world by this you know the Spirit of God;
every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from God,
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming, and now, is in the world already.
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them,
for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.
By this, we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
So, John says, 'If a teacher speaks against the truth, against who Jesus is, what He taught,
and also what His apostles taught, then he's not speaking in the Spirit of truth but the spirit of error.
Listen, if you chase after signs, and wonders, and miracles...
Yes, Jesus can do these things, but it is a bonus, don't chase after these things.
Chase after Jesus Himself. Put Him first, and He promises that He will give you what you need.
Jesus says in Matthew 6:31, “Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?
Or 'What shall we drink?' Or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things,
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all,
but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.”
You can always pray to God about everything.
In fact, He wants you to.
So, if the Holy Spirit leads you, pray about your finances, pray about health, pray about everything,
your family, friends, and always remember to pray for the pastor in your church as well, because he needs it.
But yes, you can pray about everything, but you also need to be okay with His answer.
You need to be content because sometimes it might be no,
sometimes it might be just wait a little, and sometimes it might be yes.
Trust Him - even if it's "No". He knows the future. He knows why He says no.
The biggest challenge for us as Christians is to surrender to God's will and not follow our own will.
Because that's what we usually do, right?
We say, "Oh God, You have to do this, You have to do this"
because you want to plan your future, right?
But, we can't see the whole puzzle. God can. So trust Him with your life.
Surrender to Him. He will not let you down.
Rich preachers running after money instead of running after God because they are greedy.
Ugh, one of the ugliest sins of us humans, pride.
Are you content with what God gives you, even if it's almost nothing? Just Him, and food, and clothing.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 says,
“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the teaching that accords with Godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.
He has an unhealthy craving for controversy for quarrels about words,
which produces envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,
and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth,
imagining that Godliness is a means of gain."
Now, listen to the next part.
Verse 6, "But Godliness with contentment is great gain,
for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content."
Let me ask you again.
Are you content with just food and clothing?
Look, there's nothing wrong with asking God to bless you financially.
If your intentions are right,
if your heart is in the right place, then God can bless you so that you can also bless other people.
But if you are greedy, it's evil.
Verse 9 says, "But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare,
into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction."
You know, I get really angry, at these television preachers,
convincing people to give all their money to God.
Meaning actually to them.
These false preachers so that they can...
These wolves and sheep's clothing, so they can spend it on mansions and private jets.
Listen, talk to God yourself,
pray to Him so that He can guide you in how you should handle your money in God's will.
Prophets and their prophecies these people are very good at deceiving people.
They know that these prophecies will attract a lot of people,
especially people who are new in the faith and who don't really know Scripture.
They've been doing it for years to deceive people, and I tell them that these prophecies are from God.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:15,
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."
Now, you need to know that when you read the whole Bible,
you can clearly see that when God gave a prophet a prophecy, and when He gave it to the people,
it always came true.
If it did not come true, it's a sign of a false prophet.
Deuteronomy 8:22 says, "When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord,
if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken;
the prophet has spoken it presumptuously."
And now, thousands of years later nothing changed.
There is a big trend these last few decades of going to churches just to listen to prophecies.
There are even prophecy schools these days, many of them false prophets.
If just one prophecy does not come true, he is a false prophet.
But if it doesn't come true, they just shrug it off as if it is nothing,
and they just continue on as if it's normal.
But if it doesn't come true, it's not from God.
So, where does the prophecy come from? From who is it?
It is either made up by the prophet, or it comes from a demon.
Yes, demons can counterfeit the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Pretend to tell people things that are from God, and in reality, it is not.
We already see that from the people who gave...
Who's been given these amazing revelations from angels.
Muhammad for example, 2 Thessalonians 2:9 says,
"The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing,
because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved."
Now, there are many 'prophets' out there. You can see them online as well.
These videos that prophesied that Trump would be president in 2021 did not happen.
Now, they have a lot of excuses trying to cover it up,
but it hurt a lot of people because they had huge followings.
But that will happen when you want to follow prophets and prophecies instead of
following God's Word, the Bible.
You should not put pastors, preachers, prophets, on pedestals and just follow them.
You should always just follow Jesus Christ.
And yes, He can use Godly men to preach His Word and truth,
but it's also your responsibility that you should always test it with Scripture.
People, humans with sinful natures, even pastors, might let you down, but God will never.
God says in Isaiah 55:11, "So shall My word be that goes from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
Now, look, of course, God still speaks to us today.
I made a whole video about that, that you can watch later on.
He still speaks to us mainly through the Logos word and the Rhema word through the Holy Spirit.
Of course, you can give a message to someone and tell them to give it to you.
But you should make sure that it is from God. You need to test it.
And remember, 1 John 4 says,
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God."
So if someone gives you a prophecy, don't just blindly accept it and believe it.
Test it first. Go to God in prayer and ask Him to confirm it, and if it is from God, He will confirm it.
Now, when it comes down to identifying a false church, false prophets, teachers,
then it comes down to the truth, God's Word.
Because if you know the truth, it is so easy to spot a lie.
But you need to be like the Bereans, you really need to study God's Word to be able to use it correctly.
2 Timothy 2:15 says, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."
Now, please be wary and pray for protection from the devil
because the devil loves to mix in truth with his lies.
Actually, he uses a lot more truth than lies.
You know rat poison, the poison is only 1%. 99% of the rat poison is good food.
But is that 1% that kills the rat.
It is that little bit of false teaching that will mislead you in your faith.
Read and trust God's Word.
if you have any doubts about whether God's Word really is the truth,
if you can trust it, then please watch this playlist here.
It's going to help you out.
And always remember, God loves you, and I love you too.
Bye!