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-- © GodSpeak International 2006 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis <ts@godspeak.net> http://www.godspeak.net

Prophetic-School Course #38

False Prophecy & Second Heaven Revelation

By Teresa Seputis

Lesson 4
Intentionally Misleading People Through False Prophecy

False prophecy is when someone claims to speak for God, but God is not speaking through that person. The Bible has a lot to say on this topic. In short, God doesn't like it when we do that. In fact, He hates it.

Look at what God says about false prophecy in Jeremiah 14:14, "The prophets are prophesying lies in My name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds." Now look at Jeremiah 23:32, where God goes on to say, "'Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,' declares the Lord. 'They tell them and lead My people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,' declares the Lord."

If God is not speaking through the false prophet, then who is? Sometimes the person is just making the message up on their own, from their own heart and soul. But much of the time, the devil is the one who is speaking through them. Why would the devil bother doing that? It is because he loves to deceive people and lead them astray. We know that he is a liar (John 8:44) and we know that he imitates God's voice with a false message (Mark 13:22). So it should not really surprise us that he will raise up false prophets and try to speak through them as though it were really God speaking.

He has a few strategies that he uses with his false prophets. Sometimes he merely uses persuasive or eloquent words, or maybe he tells people what they want to hear (like "it is OK to do this particular sin.") But other times, the enemy gives special spiritual power to his false prophet. In short, he uses them to deceive God's people into deceit, sin or rebellion. Then he backs up their false message with powerful works to make it seem more convincing, such as demon empowered healings or special demonic revelation. The reason the devil does this is because he wants to confuse those who are not well grounded in their faith; those who don't know God's word very well. He wants them to assume that if they see power demonstrated, then it must really be God, because they don't know that the devil also has power.

The devil wants to get God's people to believe and obey his lies. That is why he loves to use false revelation--to led believers astray. He has been doing this for a long time. Israel's spiritual history is riddled with it, and so is the church's. False teaching and false doctrine were one of the biggest problems Paul had to address over and over again in his writings to the early church. In fact, the Jesus personally warned about this in Matthew 24:24. He said, "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

When someone claims to speak for God and then delivers the devil's message, God doesn't like it. In fact, God warns us not to do that over and over again in His word. For instance, in Deuteronomy 4:2 He said "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you."

Right from the very start, God always intended His prophets to teach His people His ways. They were speak only what He was saying and nothing else. Yet throughout history, there have always been people who were willing to speak the devil's message as though it was the word of God. They did this to lead God's people astray, to get them to disobey God's commandments and alienate themselves from God.

This is still going on today in many different forms. Sometimes the devil uses books, sometimes he uses a false prophet and sometimes he even uses the entertainment media. In fact, this teaching is being written in May of 2006, and the devil has been very busy using the media to carry his false message these past couple of months.

Back in March, he began trying to deceive the intellectual community with a "recent discovery," the book of Jude. This is a scroll that has been dated back to the 1st century using carbon dating. It is supposed to be a "gospel" written by Judas (the disciple who betrayed Jesus). Scholars argue that because it is so old, the manuscript it is authentic. However the message it contains is heresy, giving misinformation about Jesus. It really doesn't matter if the heresy was written in the first century or if it was written more recently, it is still a lie of the devil.

Among other things, the gospel of Judas claims that Jesus instructed Judas to betray him, so he wasn't really a traitor but an obedient servant. It contradicts some of the facts given in the other gospels. The average person was not very interested in this, but public television began doing documentary after documentary about it. The book of Judas generated a lot of interest in the intellectual community. It claimed to release "new truth" that had been hidden for 2,000 years. But all it was is another attempt of the devil to deceive and mislead people about who Jesus really is.

Less than two months later, Hollywood released a movie that targets a similar deceit at the average person. The movie is based on the heresy book written by Dan Brown called "The Da Vinci Code." This is set as a fictional story of a Harvard professor who discovers a code in some of Leanardo Da Vinci's writings and paintings and begins trying to unravel them. This leads him into all sorts of hidden clues and it becomes a mental puzzle to unlock this code. But finally the hidden "truth" is uncovered. What is this truth? The "truth" is about Jesus-- that He was not divine, He was just a good man. By the way, Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a daughter by her, and there are descendants of Jesus still alive on this earth today. In fact, there is a whole secret society devoted to protecting the descendants of Jesus, and Leonardo Di Vinci was a member of that society. That is why he encoded hard to unravel code into his works... to share the "truth" with those who are "worthy" enough to decipher it.

The book is written as fiction, an action-adventure about the Harvard professor who accidentally stumbles on the code and then goes to great lengths to unravel it. However the book has a section that says something to the effect of, "This story is fiction, but it is based on fact." In reality, it is only false doctrine designed to get people to question Jesus' deity and to stop them from worshipping Him. This particular deceit is in the form of a book and movie, but the devil uses a similar tactic with his false prophets.

Some false prophets lead God's people astray by sharing "hidden truths" or "spiritual secrets" that twist what God said in the Bible. A lot of these "secret truths" present sin as "holiness." Others of these hidden truths deny the deity of Jesus or the message of the cross.

Some false prophets teach people on how to become demonized (or "how to receive power and enlightenment from your spirit-guide.") They put it into an attractive sounding package, such as how to gain spiritual power from "ancient ways." But in truth it is nothing more than drawing power from a demon and becoming enslaved by it.

Still Other false prophets claim to be believers, but they speak instruct people to do things that are directly contrary to the Bible and contrary to God's ways. All of this is false prophecy and all of it incurs the wrath of God.


-- © GodSpeak International 2006 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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