WEBVTT 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:08.368 Your Bible's up and wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad, and say this together Say Heavenly Father, thank God for Sunday night. 00:00:08.368 --> 00:00:15.644 I'm glad to be here and I'm a heart receptive to your Holy Word. 00:00:15.644 --> 00:00:18.667 I'm yielded to the Holy Spirit. 00:00:18.667 --> 00:00:27.129 I intend to get the maximum benefit so I can bear fruit in these last days. 00:00:27.129 --> 00:00:32.128 In Jesus name, amen, amen. 00:00:33.402 --> 00:00:42.591 Well, I want to read out of 2 Corinthians 11 and I'm going to read in Amplified, verse one. 00:00:42.591 --> 00:00:54.887 And then, while you're turning in your Bible, you're turning in your Bible's fine Matthew 24, which you might not have an amplified so you might have probably put it up on the screen. 00:00:54.887 --> 00:00:58.829 Let me read it, verse one Paul writing to the Corinthian church. 00:00:58.829 --> 00:01:03.146 He said I wish you would bear with me while I indulge in a little so-called foolishness. 00:01:03.146 --> 00:01:17.448 Do bear with me, for I am zealous for you with a godly eagerness and a divine jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband and present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 00:01:17.448 --> 00:01:54.322 But now I am fearful lest that, even as the serpent beguiled Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted and seduced from wholehearted and sincere and pure devotion to Christ, for you seem readily to endure it If a man comes and preaches another Jesus from the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the spirit you once received, or a different gospel from the one you then received and welcomed. 00:01:54.322 --> 00:01:57.230 You tolerate all that well enough. 00:01:57.230 --> 00:02:05.689 Yet I consider myself as in no way inferior to these precious extra super false apostles. 00:02:05.689 --> 00:02:08.949 It's dripping with sarcasm, isn't it? 00:02:08.949 --> 00:02:16.610 But even if I am unskilled in speaking, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. 00:02:16.610 --> 00:02:19.848 I know what I'm talking about. 00:02:19.848 --> 00:02:24.830 We have made this evident to you in all things. 00:02:24.830 --> 00:02:26.784 Wow, isn't that powerful. 00:02:26.784 --> 00:02:32.151 And then Matthew 24, verse 24,. 00:02:32.151 --> 00:02:36.568 For there shall arise let's talk about the last days. 00:02:36.568 --> 00:02:54.209 Jesus said it for there shall arise false Christ and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 00:02:55.719 --> 00:03:01.550 And so I wanted to share a message entitled Avoiding False Ministry. 00:03:01.550 --> 00:03:04.706 Avoiding false ministries. 00:03:04.706 --> 00:03:11.389 You know, brother Osteen wrote a little mini book, discerning Between True and False Ministries. 00:03:11.389 --> 00:03:12.604 That's just a big long title. 00:03:12.604 --> 00:03:16.871 So how can we not get deceived? 00:03:16.871 --> 00:03:20.283 You know, that's the thing that Jesus warned about in the last days. 00:03:20.283 --> 00:03:24.751 He said take heed, take heed that you be not deceived. 00:03:24.751 --> 00:03:32.105 And there's such a spirit of deception in the earth today and it's in the church. 00:03:32.105 --> 00:03:36.792 It's in the real church and it's in the pretender church. 00:03:36.792 --> 00:03:41.319 And we need to guard against being deceived. 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:44.419 We need to guard against false ministries. 00:03:44.419 --> 00:03:50.050 You know, there's true ministries, there's false ministries. 00:03:51.727 --> 00:03:53.539 And then there's a third category wrong ministries. 00:03:53.539 --> 00:04:02.759 You know, just because a ministry is wrong and has a different slant or a different belief doesn't make them false. 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:07.379 It doesn't make it to where they're after your soul, to drag you down to hell. 00:04:07.379 --> 00:04:11.491 They don't have a bad motive, they're just wrong. 00:04:11.491 --> 00:04:13.888 I'll just give you an example. 00:04:13.888 --> 00:04:15.620 I'm kind of bold to say it, but it's true. 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:16.797 It's simply of God. 00:04:16.797 --> 00:04:20.240 They have a wrong idea about the devil. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:32.454 They don't understand that Christians can be oppressed by demon powers, and so they say oh no, if a Christian had a demon, they wouldn't be saying well, that's a lie and you're wrong. 00:04:32.454 --> 00:04:36.939 Now they're not being that way because they're making merchandise. 00:04:36.939 --> 00:04:39.788 See, that's a different thing than what we were reading there in Corinthian. 00:04:39.788 --> 00:04:44.273 But what they are is misguided. 00:04:45.564 --> 00:04:47.379 You know one of their famous preachers. 00:04:47.379 --> 00:04:53.199 It's one of the best preachers they ever produced and he got hooked. 00:04:53.199 --> 00:05:00.884 He got hooked into lust a number of years ago, lost his reputation. 00:05:00.884 --> 00:05:04.766 I won't mention his name, it doesn't matter what his name is. 00:05:04.766 --> 00:05:12.451 It was heartbreaking, and I blamed it on their lack of understanding of demons. 00:05:12.451 --> 00:05:30.949 He just had a lustful demon that needed to be cast out of it and it was in his mind, gnawing in his mind, and he got drawn away from it, and so there's consequences to wrong ministries, but what I want to talk tonight are about the false ministries. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.610 This is a whole another level of deception. 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:40.966 It's a whole another level of bad motive involved in false ministries. 00:05:40.966 --> 00:05:47.826 So Jesus said false prophets, false ministries, false apostles, false teachers. 00:05:47.826 --> 00:05:53.545 Jude said the same thing, peter said the same thing, paul said the same thing. 00:05:53.545 --> 00:05:58.848 We have plenty of Bible for this situation that we have. 00:05:58.848 --> 00:06:00.130 There's nothing new. 00:06:00.130 --> 00:06:03.146 We've had them for 2000 years. 00:06:04.699 --> 00:06:31.100 But I think, especially now with the internet, especially now with YouTube and Facebook and many other ways of false teaching and false preaching available to us, especially when people have come out of churches that were closed up and they were desperate to have some sort of ministry that's searched on the internet Listen, that's the wild west. 00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:34.192 You don't know what you're getting. 00:06:34.192 --> 00:06:44.149 And my remarks tonight are more about, though, people that have been deceived in ministries, not on the internet, I mean. 00:06:44.149 --> 00:06:45.060 It's a whole different ball game. 00:06:45.060 --> 00:06:47.274 It just goes without saying. 00:06:47.274 --> 00:06:48.060 You've got to be careful about it. 00:06:48.060 --> 00:06:53.884 You've got to be careful about listening to anybody that you don't know their life, you don't know where they live, you don't know how they live. 00:06:53.884 --> 00:06:58.550 You had better be careful on the internet. 00:06:58.550 --> 00:07:01.543 Oh, did you see? 00:07:01.543 --> 00:07:10.247 So I haven't heard of so and so and I don't have time to vet him or her and find out whether they're for real. 00:07:10.247 --> 00:07:14.184 There's enough false ones that are out there going into hotels. 00:07:14.184 --> 00:07:15.108 You know that's another thing. 00:07:15.108 --> 00:07:19.045 You're gonna go to a hotel ballroom and listen to somebody you never heard of. 00:07:19.045 --> 00:07:20.783 You better be careful. 00:07:20.783 --> 00:07:26.505 I mean, it's not best practices, not when you've got a local church. 00:07:26.505 --> 00:07:26.821 Of course. 00:07:26.821 --> 00:07:28.406 A lot of people don't have a local church. 00:07:28.406 --> 00:07:30.084 Their local church left them. 00:07:30.084 --> 00:07:35.624 That's why this message is because we have a lot of new people that are in that case. 00:07:35.624 --> 00:07:44.766 Their church left them and they found us, and they're coming out of some situations that have been abusive, if nothing else. 00:07:44.766 --> 00:07:46.985 So there's nothing new. 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:54.848 These false ministers are in the world today, they're in the church and I, like 1 John 219. 00:07:54.848 --> 00:07:57.944 John said they might have come out from us, but they are not of us. 00:07:57.944 --> 00:08:00.805 They are not of us. 00:08:00.805 --> 00:08:08.387 So now the Corinthian church, and interesting because their background was the occult. 00:08:08.387 --> 00:08:13.089 Their background was like much of the world in that day. 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:21.050 They were false gods, worshiping Diana and worshiping all these different Greek gods and stuff. 00:08:21.050 --> 00:08:31.860 They were very practiced in the dark, occult practices and so. 00:08:31.901 --> 00:08:38.926 But yet Paul said to them in 1 Corinthians 1.7, come behind and no good gifts. 00:08:38.926 --> 00:08:42.544 So they had the gifts of the spirit flowing, but then he went in another way. 00:08:42.544 --> 00:08:51.404 He said you know, you're just your carnal, your body rule, so you can have gifts of the spirit and still be immature. 00:08:51.404 --> 00:08:54.606 And what do we do with babies? 00:08:54.606 --> 00:08:55.828 Well, you've got to protect them. 00:08:55.828 --> 00:09:02.427 You've got babies will get into all kind of things if you just leave them, you know, at their own. 00:09:02.427 --> 00:09:06.634 You know you take a toddler or one that's crawling on the floor. 00:09:06.634 --> 00:09:10.044 By the time they crawl on the floor, they can get into trouble real quick. 00:09:10.044 --> 00:09:15.485 I mean, they could not only make a mess, but they could do things that are dangerous. 00:09:15.485 --> 00:09:19.322 And so you have to watch them. 00:09:19.322 --> 00:09:30.191 And they were the Corinthian church and in general, all baby Christians are susceptible to false ministers. 00:09:30.191 --> 00:09:32.634 They're easily deceived. 00:09:33.056 --> 00:09:35.523 Now let me tell you all that glitters is not gold. 00:09:35.523 --> 00:09:38.697 I don't think we've seen the. 00:09:38.697 --> 00:09:45.528 I don't think we've seen the maximum of false wonders and signs yet. 00:09:45.528 --> 00:09:48.634 I believe that'll be the next thing we see. 00:09:48.634 --> 00:09:51.615 We're going to see some wild stuff. 00:09:51.615 --> 00:09:59.504 It's going to attract following and all I can tell you is all that glitters is not gold. 00:10:02.115 --> 00:10:09.846 And you know, I think about when we are not, when we don't feed our spirit and follow the spirit of God on the inside of us. 00:10:09.846 --> 00:10:22.730 We live like a lot of Christians do, with our spirits locked up, as it were, in prison, and we become victims of unscrupulous and ungodly men. 00:10:22.730 --> 00:10:24.634 Because why? 00:10:24.634 --> 00:10:29.509 Because we're gullible and we don't know how to listen to our spirit. 00:10:29.509 --> 00:10:42.109 See, it's right, we've got to feed our spirit, we've got to get spiritually developed so that our spirit can bear witness with us that what we're hearing and seeing is the truth and not deceiving. 00:10:44.437 --> 00:10:49.147 So what are some of these tactics? 00:10:49.147 --> 00:11:06.720 And if we'll keep reading there in 2 Corinthians, you keep reading in verse 20, it shows you, tells you specifically what some of these false ministers do For you, endure it. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:11.760 If a man assumes control of your soul Souls is what? 00:11:11.760 --> 00:11:20.043 Not your spirit, your mind, mind control, manipulation, control, emotional abuse. 00:11:20.043 --> 00:11:40.360 If a man assumes control of your souls and makes slaves of you, or devours your substance and spends your money and prays upon you, or deceives and takes advantage of you, or is arrogant and puts on errors, or strikes you with a gun, or strikes you in the face. 00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:47.245 Wow, that's not only verbally abusive, but physically abusive. 00:11:50.283 --> 00:11:51.466 So what are the tactics? 00:11:51.466 --> 00:11:52.639 Well, it's bondage. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:12:03.529 They seek for you to be dependent on them, for you to depend entirely upon them, and they want to dominate your time. 00:12:03.529 --> 00:12:06.543 They want to cut you off from anyone else. 00:12:06.543 --> 00:12:21.150 Now you know, a legitimate ministry wants you to cut off your associations with ungodly people, people that don't have any godly purpose in your life, especially people from your unsafe life. 00:12:21.150 --> 00:12:24.533 A lot of people try to hang on to old friends. 00:12:24.533 --> 00:12:25.947 That's not what you do. 00:12:25.947 --> 00:12:28.461 When you get saved, you're going to have to have a new set of friends. 00:12:28.461 --> 00:12:31.322 You're going to have to close the door on that life. 00:12:31.322 --> 00:12:39.589 But with the false ministries the bondage extends to family. 00:12:39.589 --> 00:12:42.143 It extends to all of your time. 00:12:42.143 --> 00:12:46.125 You basically just get immersed. 00:12:46.125 --> 00:12:48.634 They devour your substance. 00:12:49.116 --> 00:12:54.698 I knew of one minister that asked for somebody's credit card, ran up the credit card Never did pay it back. 00:12:54.698 --> 00:12:57.461 They took advantage. 00:12:57.461 --> 00:13:00.577 I mean, that's not just offering. 00:13:00.577 --> 00:13:01.779 They're not talking about offerings. 00:13:01.779 --> 00:13:14.634 They're taking your credit card and going and buying clothes and whatever they take of you theft, deceit and, of course, emotional manipulation. 00:13:14.634 --> 00:13:22.634 These ministries are entitled, they feel entitled to take from you. 00:13:22.634 --> 00:13:26.043 That's God's reward for their faithfulness. 00:13:26.043 --> 00:13:29.198 That's how they think about it. 00:13:29.198 --> 00:13:31.384 So they're deceived. 00:13:31.384 --> 00:13:33.899 Amen, arrogance. 00:13:33.899 --> 00:13:36.178 They exalt themselves. 00:13:39.336 --> 00:13:42.804 Most of the time they're talking about some revelation that nobody else had. 00:13:42.804 --> 00:13:46.384 Nobody's got this revelation that I have. 00:13:46.384 --> 00:13:53.168 Well, you better be aware, because any revelation is, you know, it's not copyrighted. 00:13:53.168 --> 00:13:56.342 The Holy Ghost doesn't just show one person. 00:13:56.342 --> 00:13:57.044 A revelation. 00:13:57.044 --> 00:13:59.562 A revelation has crossed the body of Christ. 00:13:59.562 --> 00:14:02.634 What I'm preaching has been around for a long time. 00:14:02.634 --> 00:14:08.047 It's gotten rarer in the last number of years, since Brother Hagin went to heaven. 00:14:08.047 --> 00:14:13.567 But the Word of Faith Paul talked about this Word of Faith which we preach. 00:14:13.567 --> 00:14:15.279 The Word of Faith is not new. 00:14:15.279 --> 00:14:16.844 The Word of Faith is the Bible. 00:14:16.844 --> 00:14:21.595 Calling the things that be not as though they were is the Bible. 00:14:21.595 --> 00:14:22.943 That's what you know. 00:14:22.943 --> 00:14:24.533 Amen, that's praise. 00:14:24.533 --> 00:14:28.301 God, abraham did that, jesus did that. 00:14:29.895 --> 00:14:39.966 But some of these so-called doctrines, like the greasy grace message God has shown this preacher, it's on television everywhere you look. 00:14:39.966 --> 00:14:43.100 Still, I warned people 10 years ago when he rose up. 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:48.443 I said you better stay away from that, had a young preacher that got snared in that. 00:14:48.443 --> 00:14:58.278 He led some people out of this church, away from me, giving him this other revelation, saying that you didn't have to confess your sins At first. 00:14:58.278 --> 00:15:00.634 John is not written to believers. 00:15:00.634 --> 00:15:02.200 Are you nuts? 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:06.261 You are arrogant, you are off. 00:15:06.261 --> 00:15:10.403 Well, he had leaders that met with him. 00:15:10.403 --> 00:15:17.341 One leader from Ramah or Roberts himself sat down with this guy and I mean hours. 00:15:17.341 --> 00:15:21.634 They went through the Bible and they confronted this young man and he wouldn't repent. 00:15:21.634 --> 00:15:25.363 He said no, I've got too many followers, I'm not going to change what I'm saying. 00:15:25.363 --> 00:15:31.684 Joseph Prince, I don't mind naming names, we're not on television. 00:15:31.684 --> 00:15:35.123 Stay away from him, don't read his books. 00:15:35.123 --> 00:15:38.403 Amen, it's deception. 00:15:38.403 --> 00:15:41.081 I said it's deception. 00:15:42.857 --> 00:15:44.744 How do we avoid these false ministers? 00:15:44.744 --> 00:15:58.546 When people come out with this baloney that they've got a revelation nobody else has, well, you know they're off the reservation, they're thinking too much of themselves. 00:15:58.546 --> 00:16:00.599 They're a legend in their own mind. 00:16:00.599 --> 00:16:07.551 So, and then, of course, the verbal abuse. 00:16:07.551 --> 00:16:12.658 The word mentions physical abuse, and that can happen. 00:16:14.066 --> 00:16:21.599 I knew a pastor, so-called pastor that would counsel with people. 00:16:21.599 --> 00:16:39.250 He would counsel with women by himself just for the opportunity to abuse them, to take advantage of young or women that were having trouble in their marriage and he was finally had did that to one of his staff members and they went to the law and he was charged. 00:16:39.250 --> 00:16:50.995 He plebargained out and left his church here in Houston with $260,000 of the tithe that people had tithed into the ministry and went and started another work in Dallas. 00:16:50.995 --> 00:16:53.552 Well, that's one you want to stay away from. 00:16:53.552 --> 00:16:57.174 You go back in his history when he was a youth pastor. 00:16:57.174 --> 00:17:00.649 He was accused of rape with a young woman in his youth group. 00:17:00.649 --> 00:17:03.653 Don't wonder why nobody heard about that. 00:17:03.653 --> 00:17:05.550 Well, he pleb pleb out of that too. 00:17:05.550 --> 00:17:09.309 Are you with me now Talking about false ministers? 00:17:09.884 --> 00:17:12.976 Now, false means there is a true, you know. 00:17:12.976 --> 00:17:20.894 There's no counterfeit $3 bill, because a $3 bill doesn't exist, so they don't go to the trouble of making one. 00:17:20.894 --> 00:17:24.393 There are no knockoffs of Casio watches. 00:17:24.393 --> 00:17:28.968 You know, did they still make Casio one Casio watch? 00:17:28.968 --> 00:17:30.469 Look at this watch. 00:17:30.469 --> 00:17:33.432 It's a knockoff of a Casio. 00:17:33.432 --> 00:17:38.175 No, they only knockoff true thing. 00:17:38.175 --> 00:17:41.549 They knockoff the expensive, they knockoff the valuable. 00:17:42.525 --> 00:17:48.313 Are y'all following along with me now Avoiding false ministries? 00:17:48.313 --> 00:17:59.757 You know, over this many years, going back to my days at Lakewood when I was trusted to meet with people from all over, I meet with people that would just come to town to meet with brothers. 00:17:59.757 --> 00:18:07.949 They can't meet with everybody, and so if it was a worthy situation, especially if it was a minister, I would get the task of sitting down with them. 00:18:07.949 --> 00:18:13.674 But I met with people that came there that had been abused. 00:18:13.674 --> 00:18:29.791 They had come out of terrible situations, and you learn a lot when you listen to people, their testimony and what all they've gone through, and you know what God is able to heal the broken hearted. 00:18:32.365 --> 00:18:36.174 And so how do we recognize true from false? 00:18:36.174 --> 00:18:41.634 How do we recognize authentic from fake? 00:18:41.634 --> 00:18:46.934 And so that's the import of this, of this message, just a simple message. 00:18:46.934 --> 00:18:51.452 First of all, you use Jesus as your standard. 00:18:51.452 --> 00:19:04.318 After all, he's the head of the church and if this ministry, you know, they all come as an angel of life. 00:19:04.318 --> 00:19:09.749 They almost all look good on the outside, so they're attracting. 00:19:09.749 --> 00:19:13.291 For that reason, I mean, nobody would follow a false minister. 00:19:13.291 --> 00:19:21.914 If they started out stealing from you, if they started out verbally abusing you, if they started out with these tactics, you wouldn't get within a hundred yards of them. 00:19:21.914 --> 00:19:26.855 But they look good at first, look good. 00:19:26.855 --> 00:19:31.030 See, jesus didn't just look good, he was good and he is good. 00:19:31.030 --> 00:19:34.688 So on the outside. 00:19:34.949 --> 00:19:37.255 Yet life, their life, is in disarray. 00:19:37.255 --> 00:19:44.278 Often their children are not serving God, often their marriages in trouble. 00:19:44.278 --> 00:19:47.335 You start finding out when you get close enough to them. 00:19:47.335 --> 00:19:53.667 They're looking for somebody that they can pal around with their neck looking for their next victim. 00:19:53.667 --> 00:19:56.087 You could be it. 00:19:56.087 --> 00:20:05.435 You might be flattered that someone, a man or a woman of God, would pay you such close attention and would confide in you and tell you about their troubles. 00:20:05.435 --> 00:20:08.954 That's never God run. 00:20:08.954 --> 00:20:13.869 The first time the pastor starts trying to tell you their troubles, that's not his role in your life. 00:20:13.869 --> 00:20:16.410 That's when the hook is coming in. 00:20:16.410 --> 00:20:20.194 You start feeling oh well, I must be important. 00:20:20.194 --> 00:20:21.848 They're telling me all these things. 00:20:21.848 --> 00:20:25.391 You get a little deeper in there. 00:20:25.391 --> 00:20:28.394 Our next thing you know you find out about money problems. 00:20:28.394 --> 00:20:29.989 You find out about affairs. 00:20:32.005 --> 00:20:33.592 Most of these people are big spenders. 00:20:33.592 --> 00:20:44.457 They spend lots and lots of money Showy cars, showy clothes, fancy house, and yet they're in debt up to their eyebrows. 00:20:44.457 --> 00:21:01.819 See, when you get close enough to a ministry to see that flee I said flee, but true a true ministry gives Jesus all the credit and all the glory. 00:21:01.819 --> 00:21:03.891 He takes none for himself. 00:21:03.891 --> 00:21:07.433 He takes no credit for the gifts because they are gifts. 00:21:07.433 --> 00:21:17.615 They weren't self developed, they were given and Jesus is manifested in their behavior. 00:21:18.085 --> 00:21:23.816 Now I'm not saying their children necessarily don't struggle, because preachers, kids, routinely struggle. 00:21:23.816 --> 00:21:25.159 Why? 00:21:25.159 --> 00:21:30.017 Because they grow up in church and they've got a higher standard they have to live by. 00:21:30.017 --> 00:21:32.492 A lot of them get resentful and so forth and so on. 00:21:32.492 --> 00:21:34.892 So you can't just judge on that alone. 00:21:34.892 --> 00:21:49.169 But what I'm talking about is when a false ministry what they want to do is hook you and start confiding in you, getting you to feel sorry for them, and so they start leaning on you for support, financial and emotional. 00:21:49.169 --> 00:21:54.817 And if you're a woman and they're a man, well, you better be careful because the affair is coming next. 00:21:55.465 --> 00:21:58.955 I knew a pastor who had a good church. 00:21:58.955 --> 00:22:01.872 We went and preached for him one time in Louisiana. 00:22:01.872 --> 00:22:07.575 As a matter of fact, I was still at Lakewood when we were invited and knew his wife. 00:22:07.575 --> 00:22:10.068 She was a prophetess, I mean, she was right on. 00:22:10.068 --> 00:22:15.574 But he had had an affair with a woman in the church for eight years. 00:22:15.574 --> 00:22:30.116 How do you stand up before people and preach the Word and then you're sneaking around with somebody that's sitting there in the pew False ministry. 00:22:30.116 --> 00:22:32.492 I felt sorry for his wife. 00:22:32.492 --> 00:22:36.488 She was genuine and then alright. 00:22:36.488 --> 00:22:40.144 So the second pastor I don't feel comfortable, you know. 00:22:40.144 --> 00:22:42.570 You just need to know that we're living in those days. 00:22:46.164 --> 00:22:54.569 The second way that you can recognize the true ministry from the false is the Holy Ghost is living on the inside of you. 00:22:54.569 --> 00:22:56.989 That's what I talk about. 00:22:56.989 --> 00:23:03.207 That's why we need to develop our spirit and not be locking our spirit up like it's in prison. 00:23:03.207 --> 00:23:08.375 Your spirit will tell you, and also the Holy Spirit will warn you. 00:23:08.375 --> 00:23:14.372 He loves to warn, but you've got to be in position to know when he's warning you. 00:23:14.372 --> 00:23:17.633 He's not always going to give you a vision. 00:23:17.633 --> 00:23:20.153 He's not always going to talk to you out loud. 00:23:20.153 --> 00:23:22.811 You've got to know down in here and you're nowhere. 00:23:24.884 --> 00:23:32.098 So a false minister will have familiar spirits operating in their life. 00:23:32.098 --> 00:23:33.088 What do I mean by that? 00:23:33.088 --> 00:23:48.570 Demon powers will often operate, and a familiar spirit counterfeit the gifts of the spirit, and so they'll do things like you know. 00:23:48.570 --> 00:23:57.493 The Lord tells me that you've got $50 in your wallet and if you give it to me, god's going to multiply it 100 fold. 00:23:57.493 --> 00:24:02.415 Well, you know, the devil knows you've got $50 in your wallet. 00:24:02.415 --> 00:24:05.114 Some demons saw you put $50 in your wallet. 00:24:05.114 --> 00:24:08.867 What is the purpose of that word of knowledge, it's to enrich them. 00:24:08.867 --> 00:24:14.450 That's not a gift of the spirit, that's not a word of knowledge, that is a familiar spirit. 00:24:14.450 --> 00:24:16.528 Are you with me now? 00:24:17.965 --> 00:24:28.174 Brother Hagin tells of the man who was a young traveling preacher and he told the pastor of the church where he was invited to minister. 00:24:28.174 --> 00:24:37.436 He said you know, the Lord shows me that you've got a beautiful diamond ring sitting on your bureau and it's inside of a you know described the jewelry box. 00:24:37.436 --> 00:24:44.114 And he said you know, I believe the Lord wants you to give that to me and it was just exactly like he described. 00:24:44.114 --> 00:24:45.992 He saw this ring. 00:24:45.992 --> 00:24:47.230 He described the ring. 00:24:47.230 --> 00:24:49.748 He described where the man took and he took that. 00:24:49.748 --> 00:24:51.173 He took that ring. 00:24:51.173 --> 00:24:52.529 It's a very expensive ring. 00:24:52.529 --> 00:24:56.012 See, that's familiar spirits. 00:24:56.012 --> 00:25:03.912 And that minister went out ministering in familiar spirits and he got some young people into sin. 00:25:03.912 --> 00:25:07.451 He got some young people into sin. 00:25:07.451 --> 00:25:12.693 So there's definitely wreckage, huge wreckage, besides just the financial part. 00:25:15.924 --> 00:25:25.250 Familiar spirits always appeal to the flesh andrition queen and then excessive flattery. 00:25:25.250 --> 00:25:30.763 Then they start controlling it because you start needing the flattery, you need the approval. 00:25:30.763 --> 00:25:33.426 I'll tell you, the devil doesn't play fair. 00:25:33.426 --> 00:25:44.009 He knows your buttons, he knows your issues, he knows your weaknesses and familiar spirits will get in there and you'll get a soul tie. 00:25:44.009 --> 00:25:45.545 Do you know what a soul tie is? 00:25:45.545 --> 00:25:48.488 An emotional dependence on someone? 00:25:48.488 --> 00:26:00.470 And that rope or that tie is the pathway for familiar spirits to control you and you can actually get oppressed, not possessed. 00:26:00.470 --> 00:26:06.991 There's three levels of spirit and evil spirits. 00:26:06.991 --> 00:26:15.948 There's oppression, then there's obsession and then there's possession, and of course possession means you're not going to heaven. 00:26:15.948 --> 00:26:18.786 I mean, I spirit, soul and body is possession. 00:26:18.786 --> 00:26:19.750 There's very few of that. 00:26:19.750 --> 00:26:20.904 There's very little of that. 00:26:20.904 --> 00:26:26.429 It's not impossible though I've never come across it myself, but I've read about it. 00:26:26.429 --> 00:26:41.484 So you can get obsessed with someone, that soul tie, you get dependent on their approval, you get close to them and so these familiar spirits start exercising control and you get into bondage. 00:26:41.484 --> 00:26:45.830 Thank God, there's a recipe for getting free. 00:26:45.830 --> 00:26:49.628 So the Holy Spirit in, you see. 00:26:49.628 --> 00:26:53.920 But the Holy Spirit was shed light. 00:26:53.920 --> 00:26:55.406 There's unction, there's unction. 00:26:55.406 --> 00:27:00.859 You just know, you have a knowing, you have an alarm. 00:27:00.859 --> 00:27:08.086 If you'll listen to that alarm and not listen to the flattery, not listen to this thing, just run the other way, amen. 00:27:14.468 --> 00:27:19.507 First John, chapter two let's look at that one. 00:27:19.507 --> 00:27:24.039 You getting anything out of this tonight? 00:27:24.039 --> 00:27:27.079 Well, it might be a kind of a sober message. 00:27:27.079 --> 00:27:33.890 But we need to arm ourselves and also you're a point persons. 00:27:33.890 --> 00:27:46.019 Now you get this message and you, god can use you to get people delivered out of this bondage and get them rescued out of the clutches of these evil people. 00:27:47.584 --> 00:27:49.852 First, john, chapter two, verse 19. 00:27:49.852 --> 00:27:52.079 I read this already. 00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:55.059 They went out from us, but they were not of us. 00:27:55.059 --> 00:27:59.614 If they had been of us they would have no doubt continued with us. 00:27:59.614 --> 00:28:06.957 But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us, but you talking about the false ones. 00:28:06.957 --> 00:28:12.539 But then he says but you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. 00:28:12.539 --> 00:28:17.519 In other words that unction, you know you don't have to depend on that person to tell you anything. 00:28:17.519 --> 00:28:27.290 The unction or the Holy Ghost inside of you can let you know that what you're experiencing is false. 00:28:29.044 --> 00:28:37.529 Verse 26, these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. 00:28:37.529 --> 00:28:44.218 A lot of seduction going on, a lot of recruiting going on. 00:28:44.218 --> 00:28:44.539 Right now. 00:28:44.539 --> 00:28:54.144 The fact of the matter is, evangelical seminaries have been turning out false ministries far too long, false ministries far decades. 00:28:54.144 --> 00:28:57.105 Evangelical, I said. 00:28:57.105 --> 00:28:59.904 I said evangelical. 00:28:59.904 --> 00:29:05.944 I'm not even talking about Episcopal or Disciples of Christ or something like that. 00:29:05.944 --> 00:29:08.479 I'm talking about Baptist. 00:29:08.479 --> 00:29:17.923 They have been liberal for decades and they are turning people out that don't believe the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, even though that's in the Baptist. 00:29:17.923 --> 00:29:19.586 You know creed. 00:29:19.586 --> 00:29:23.346 They have departed from the faith. 00:29:23.346 --> 00:29:29.268 Apostasy has already taken over, and the younger generation you can bet that they are false. 00:29:29.268 --> 00:29:35.385 Get your friends and help them understand that they're sitting in the wrong place. 00:29:35.385 --> 00:29:38.988 Now I tell you I'm ringing the bell tonight, amen. 00:29:43.532 --> 00:30:02.211 So these things I've written unto you concerning them that seduce you, but the anointing everybody say the anointings in me, the anointing which is you have received of him a bideth in you and you need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teach you through of all things and his truth and his no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in it. 00:30:02.211 --> 00:30:03.559 Abide in the anointing. 00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:06.249 Now he's not talking about teaching like I'm teaching now. 00:30:06.249 --> 00:30:11.579 He's talking about the fact you don't need somebody to hold you by the hand to know what's true and false. 00:30:11.579 --> 00:30:12.344 He's talking. 00:30:12.364 --> 00:30:16.523 The subject of this whole thing is seducing and spiritual. 00:30:16.523 --> 00:30:22.125 Let's just lift our hand. 00:30:22.125 --> 00:30:24.906 Father, thank you for the anointing that abides within us. 00:30:24.906 --> 00:30:27.805 Hallelujah, we don't have to have our hands held. 00:30:27.805 --> 00:30:30.826 We've got the Holy Ghost that lives and abides with us forever. 00:30:30.826 --> 00:30:33.105 We don't have anything to fear. 00:30:33.105 --> 00:30:35.762 Glory to God. 00:30:39.579 --> 00:30:48.579 And so you know, a genuine ministry is going to produce peace, it's going to have fruit of the spirit involved. 00:30:48.579 --> 00:31:01.347 It's not going to be puffed up, it's not going to be touchy, it's not going to be manipulative, it's not going to be abusive, absolutely not going to be abusive. 00:31:01.347 --> 00:31:04.567 I'll be honest with you. 00:31:04.567 --> 00:31:09.306 I've been around ministries that treated their staff in such a way as I was embarrassed. 00:31:09.306 --> 00:31:18.559 I've been around ministries that were so abusive of the congregation that I decided I'm never going to be in another meeting with that preacher. 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:25.145 You know, I'm sorry, but I mean you just off the rails, just off the rails. 00:31:25.145 --> 00:31:27.365 Are you with me now? 00:31:27.365 --> 00:31:34.559 I mean they might not be technically false, but they're so wrong that that's the next step. 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:36.579 They're headed in the wrong direction. 00:31:37.301 --> 00:31:44.479 Listen people, brenham, Lake, you name all the famous preachers that had tremendous revelation. 00:31:44.479 --> 00:31:50.388 They wound up on the scrap heap because they got puffed up in pride. 00:31:50.388 --> 00:31:52.328 Brenham thought he was Elijah. 00:31:52.328 --> 00:31:58.451 You know he had the picture of the halo around his head. 00:31:58.451 --> 00:32:00.579 I mean yeah, I mean that was real. 00:32:00.579 --> 00:32:06.579 I mean he man, you talk about gifts of the spirit, and then the latter part of his ministry is familiar spirits. 00:32:06.579 --> 00:32:10.530 He would have gifts one night, familiar spirits the next night. 00:32:10.530 --> 00:32:15.579 Brother Hagin writes about him without naming him because he doesn't want to defame the man's ministry. 00:32:15.579 --> 00:32:18.127 But I'm talking to you kind of in private. 00:32:18.127 --> 00:32:20.935 I'm not putting it out there for everybody to know. 00:32:20.935 --> 00:32:23.425 You're mature, you need to hear what's right. 00:32:23.425 --> 00:32:29.065 And what I've seen is that some of the greatest ministries wind up just like the great kings. 00:32:29.065 --> 00:32:30.490 They wound up on the scrap heap. 00:32:30.490 --> 00:32:41.666 Because there's such a power in the gifts of the spirit, you get to where people depend on you to perform and that's where they all mess up. 00:32:42.579 --> 00:32:47.579 Brother Hagin said back in the voice of healing days they were having a meeting. 00:32:47.579 --> 00:32:49.567 Gordon Lindsey was kind of the leader. 00:32:49.567 --> 00:32:54.150 His ministry was to keep all these egos in check. 00:32:54.150 --> 00:32:57.686 I mean they had 10,000 seat tents. 00:32:57.686 --> 00:33:00.846 You know You're not in that ministry. 00:33:00.846 --> 00:33:16.749 When you're a weakling, okay, you've got to be strong in faith, you've got to have confidence in yourself and it's just a little bit of a distance from there to be an arrogant, from there to being prideful, it's just real easy to think you're God's favorite man. 00:33:16.749 --> 00:33:43.519 And so he, gordon Lindsey, who, christ of the nations, gordon, had the voice of healing magazine and he would recruit them to write an article and he'd have regular meetings and they'd get together in a place, 12, 15 of them that all preached, you know, at the same time, during this wonderful healing manifestation in the 40s, 50s and even in the early 60s. 00:33:44.686 --> 00:33:45.935 Brother Hagin was part of that. 00:33:45.935 --> 00:33:46.579 He never had a tent. 00:33:46.579 --> 00:33:52.008 God told him to go into local churches and so he sacrificed money. 00:33:52.008 --> 00:33:55.539 A big church would be 500 in those days. 00:33:55.539 --> 00:33:57.727 I mean that's a huge church. 00:33:57.727 --> 00:34:00.406 There was no thousands. 00:34:00.406 --> 00:34:12.389 But in these big tent meetings I mean 10,000, oral Roberts sitting on, you know, laying hands on people, and all these Jack Coe and different ones. 00:34:12.449 --> 00:34:18.110 I could name A A Allen, shambox, mentor. 00:34:18.110 --> 00:34:21.188 In fact I heard a tape of A A Allen. 00:34:21.188 --> 00:34:25.150 I mean Shambox sounded exactly like A A Allen. 00:34:25.150 --> 00:34:27.518 You couldn't tell him apart on tape. 00:34:27.518 --> 00:34:29.266 How many of you ever knew that? 00:34:29.266 --> 00:34:33.563 Now he served, he was a worship leader, he was the emcee, you know. 00:34:33.563 --> 00:34:41.025 He handled his meetings for years till A A Allen died of cirrhosis of the leader of the tribe because he was an alcoholic. 00:34:42.681 --> 00:34:56.210 But anyway, getting back, I'm not trying to ruin these people, I'm trying to tell you that people can get off and be wrong without being false, but Brother Hagen would say to them. 00:34:56.210 --> 00:35:01.907 He said I'll you know, when all you guys are on the scrap heap, I'll still be preaching. 00:35:01.907 --> 00:35:06.173 That sounds like pride, doesn't it? 00:35:06.173 --> 00:35:12.050 But see, he's in a room full of prideful, egotistical people. 00:35:12.050 --> 00:35:16.559 Okay, so he could say things like that that would black their fuse. 00:35:16.559 --> 00:35:19.514 I mean, oh, hagen, what do you know? 00:35:19.514 --> 00:35:19.976 What in the world? 00:35:19.976 --> 00:35:20.519 What makes you say that? 00:35:21.525 --> 00:35:31.447 He said because you base your ministry on the gifts, and I base my ministry on the Word, and he proved to be right. 00:35:31.447 --> 00:35:36.786 Basing your ministry on the gifts means that you all what happens if the Spirit doesn't? 00:35:36.786 --> 00:35:38.268 Will the gift show up? 00:35:38.268 --> 00:35:41.947 Then you start trying to perform. 00:35:41.947 --> 00:35:50.351 There's your familiar spirits and there you're moving into that abusive, false side of things. 00:35:50.351 --> 00:35:52.081 Are y'all? 00:35:52.081 --> 00:35:55.579 Are y'all here now Praise God. 00:35:55.579 --> 00:35:56.141 Why are we showing? 00:35:56.141 --> 00:35:58.449 Because you have to know let's, let's grow up. 00:35:58.449 --> 00:35:58.920 We'd be. 00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:00.347 Henceforth be no more children. 00:36:00.347 --> 00:36:01.503 It's a grown up message. 00:36:01.503 --> 00:36:12.807 And henceforth be no more children, but let's grow up into Christ, let's be gatekeepers, let's be watchmen over our families, our friends. 00:36:12.807 --> 00:36:17.559 Amen, our church, all right. 00:36:17.739 --> 00:36:22.291 The third one that we need to go by is the Word or the gospel. 00:36:22.291 --> 00:36:25.244 I mean, you know the gospel, the gospel we. 00:36:25.244 --> 00:36:27.389