INSTITUTE OF LOVE

Deceiving Scenarios
Text Box: Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart. You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. Matthew 7:15-16 NLT This is a prophetic study that deals with highly charismatic prophets and pastors who, acting in greed, attach themselves to financial successful believers as they infiltrate - and in some cases literally occupy - their businesses in order to fleece them from their money. They use false visions and messages to entice their followers as they lead their lives to ruin and destruction, financially and emotionally. Your leaders are like wolves, who tear apart their victims. They actually destroy people's lives for profit! And your prophets announce false visions and speak false messages. They say, 'My message is from the Sovereign LORD,' when the LORD hasn't spoken a single word to them. Ezekiel 22:27-28 NLT In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. 2. Peter 2:3 NLT These false prophets always seem to have some strange new teaching or mysterious revelation as they skillfully distort God’s word in order to draw people to them. I know full well that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. Even some of you will distort the truth in order to draw a following. Acts 20:29-30 NLT By their wrong teaching, they have already turned whole families away from the truth. Such teachers only want your money. Titus 1:11-12 NLT They are the kind who work their way into people's homes (businesses) and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by many desires. Such women are forever following new teachings, but they never understand the truth. 2. Timothy 3:6-7 NLT They make a game of luring unstable people into sin. 2. Peter 2:14 NLT They craftily cause their church members to glorify and worship them as they overpower and control them. The church members are afraid to do anything without their consent or approval, even when it comes to their own private business affairs. These false teachers like to conveniently travel to far places, living double lives, as they fool around with other people. At the same time they reject and refuse to acknowledge and receive the true traveling prophets of God. They discredit them and tell their followers not to support them. Here is an example of a church leader in the Bible who was doing the same wicked thing: I sent a brief letter to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the leader, does not acknowledge our authority. When I come, I will report some of the things he is doing and the wicked things he is saying about us. He not only refuses to welcome the traveling teachers, he also tells others not to help them. And when they do help, he puts them out of the church. 3. John 9-10 NLT Their wives are usually quiet and reserved as they, behind their façade-smiles, continue to suffer for not knowing what their prophet preacher husbands are really up to, as they are actually also being deceived by them. These are clear warnings and signs given to us by God for these last days we are living in: You should also know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. 2. Timothy 3:1-2 NLT Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from what we believe; they will follow lying spirits and teachings that come from demons. These teachers are hypocrites and liars. They pretend to be religious, but their consciences are dead. 1. Timothy 4:1-2NLT The Bible warns us not to allow ourselves to be influenced by this bad example: Dear friend, don't let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God's children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God. 3. John 11 NLT God’s true prophets do not preach to make money, but to express their love for God. They know that God who sends them will take care of them and therefore they trust God for His provision and do not need to beg for money as is written in Psalm 37:25 NLT: Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly forsaken, nor seen their children begging for bread. In closing; prophets who trust in their living God, Jesus Christ, can confidently, just like the apostle Paul, say: You see, we are not like those hucksters — and there are many of them — who preach just to make money. We preach God's message with sincerity and with Christ's authority. And we know that the God who sent us is watching us. 2. Corinthians 2:17 NLT Copyright©2009 Sophia & Edwin Christiaan Text Box: By Edwin Christiaan