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-- © GodSpeak International 2003 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net http://www.godspeak.net
Editor: Elvi Glass

Detecting The Spirit of Deception

Lesson 1
The Spirit Of Deceit And The Prophetic

By Teresa Seputis

The Lord said something a bit alarming to me the other day, and that is what motivated me to write this teaching series. So let me start off the series by sharing what He said to me and the circumstances surrounding the way He said it.

GodSpeak has an email list where we distribute encouraging prophetic words to the body of Christ. Several people submit words to us, hoping we will distribute their word on our list. In fact, a lot of words, many of them excellent words, are submitted each month. The way we process them is to save them in an email folder. Then we prayerfully review the words every five or six weeks or so and select the next batch of words to distribute on the list. Most of the time, I don't read the word when it arrives, I simply file it in the email folder until the next review period. But occasionally I read them before I file them.

A submission came in and I decided to read it before filing it. I did not notice the title, or it would have probably triggered an internal alarm. I simply began reading the text of the submitted "word." However, there was a phrase in the second sentence of the submission that caused my gift of discernment to kick in. Let me share the first two sentences with you and see if you notice what caught my eye:

Your existence on earth is one of the phases of your upward development. Even if you are matured on earth so that you can enter into that realm of Light, your development will still continue further.

Did anything in those first two sentences strike you as odd or alarming? Did anything in there cause you to feel "on your guard?" Was there anything in there that did not quite seem to line up with Scripture when you read it? (Those are some of the ways that the gift of discernment kicks in. They are also ways that the Holy Spirit alerts us when something is not quite right and we need to proceed with caution.)

The phrase that triggered my internal alarm was "that realm of Light." I recognized it as a term commonly used in many New Age circles. I felt like maybe God was alerting me to the fact that there was a problem with this "word." So I stopped and prayed briefly, asking Him to call my attention to anything in it that He wanted to alert me to. (It is always a good idea to talk to God when you discern there may be a problem or wrong spirit present.) After praying, I read and evaluated the "word," slowly with caution and additional prayer.

It became clear that the submission advocated theology that is in direct conflict with the Bible. Let me share a portion of it with you...

The time on earth ... determines the fate of the soul. It decides the further way of development in the Spiritual Kingdom. There is a difference in whether the soul has already reached a higher degree of maturity on earth, or only comes to recognition in the Spiritual Kingdom. Indeed the latter will move upwards to the heights but through exceptionally arduous work. It has to earn what was available on earth in abundance in order to reach a higher degree of Light.

The souls who failed in their test of will on earth, can still come to this realization in the beyond. They now have to develop themselves with the help of other beings so that they become Light themselves, and they can receive the rays of Light.

(It went on to detail how those who don't mature on earth will have to work hard after they die and help others who are in the darkness in order to enter "the realm of Light." It encouraged the reader to use their time on earth "in the right way" so you can go to heaven without going through further struggles after you die. Then it said,

However, the time on earth can also be wasted and the soul has to bear the result of that, it has to struggle further, but it will not perish.

If we were to make a list of theological problems with this submission, it would be a very long list. Let's discuss three of the most obvious and most serious problems:

  1. It tells us that we earn our salvation by embracing truth and maturing while on the earth. The bible tells us that salvation only comes through us receiving Jesus, Who died on the cross as a substitute for our sins then rose again from the dead, breaking the power of sin and death. Jesus said, in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Jesus is the ONLY way that we can be saved and go to heaven.

  2. It tells us that we can still get to Heaven if we mess up our chance on earth, e.g., if we don't receive Christ before we die -- It will be harder to get to heaven after we die, but it can be done. The bible tells us that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment," Heb 9:27. There are no second chances in the "afterlife." Jesus talked about separating the sheep from the goats in Mattew 25:31-46. He did not give the goats a chance to become sheep. Instead He told them, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (verse 41).

  3. It tells us to seek maturity and reach "a higher degree of Light," instead of seeking a personal relationship with God. But God has called us into a personal and intimate relationship with Him, to be in sonship with God, adopted into His family. In fact, Jesus made personal relationship with God a criteria for salvation and said that those who don't have a personal relationship with Him will not make it into Heaven. Matt 7:21-23 says, "Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"

There was no doubt in my mind that this submission was in clear conflict with Scripture, and I had serious questions about the author's salvation. It was clear to me that this "word" was not inspired from the Holy Spirit, which made it a false prophecy. So I emailed the author, saying that we only accept submissions from Christians that are in agreement with the Bible. I asked him not to submit anymore words, that we could not use his words since it was not clear that he was born again and that there was a mixture of non-Christian theology in his submission.

He wrote back saying that he did not understand my email.

The next day he made another submission to the prophetic-word list. This one was also in the format of God talking first person and was again filled with things that contradict the bible. This one was more subtle than the last one, because it had some truth mixed in with it. The whole word was a mixture of truth and lies mixed together. The goal of doing this is: if a person recognizes the truth they may think the word is ok, and then they will become open to receive the lies. It is one of Satan's favorite strategies. Let me share portions with you, so you can see the mixture in it.

This second "word" started with, "Believe, and do not doubt, for My Word, which comes to you from above is Truth and all that has been spoken will come to pass." Now, that is true if "My Word" refers to the bible. But if "My word" refers to the "prophecy," then it is most definitely false. The wording is subtle because you don't know what "My word" refers to. If it is used in the common Christian sense, it refers to Scripture which is infallible and which is truth.

It went to say that God will teach us what we don't understand as we mature in Him. That is also truth. But then it twists and wanders back into error, because it promises to answer our "questions that are asked concerning people [who become] beings in the beyond." Then it floats back into truth, speaking as Jesus and saying, "I Myself work in you through My Spirit as I foretold when I walked on earth. I cannot lie, for I Myself am Truth." That portion lines up with Scripture. But then it goes on to talk about "secrets" that we can only understand as we move closer towards perfection.

It continues, sometimes containing truth and sometimes containing error. It says, "My opponent is subtle. I will oppose him and expose his works, but it is up to the people themselves to listen to Me and believe My Word." Again, that is truth. Then it goes on to give the criteria for salvation as being the ability to discern truth. And that is false, because the Bible tells us that salvation comes by receiving the free gift through the shed blood of Christ.

Then it says, "My opponent who disguises himself as an Angel of Light and will not hesitate even to use My Name so as to deceive men and lead them down a dangerous path, which leads to the depths if they will not recognize his workings in time, and turn back." When I read that, I thought to myself, "Yep, that is the enemy's strategy ok. In fact, that is precisely the strategy he is using in this false prophecy."

This is where God spoke to me. He said, "Teresa, we are going to see more and more of this mixture creep into the realm of the prophetic. This is an area the enemy is starting to move into, to set up false prophets to give words that have a mixture of truth and falsehood in them. And some of My children will not be able to discern the lie from the truth and will receive these mixed words."

I found that alarming, so I spent some time in prayer and waiting on the Lord. I wanted to know why He was telling me this and what He wanted me to do about it. As I waited on Him, I felt like He wanted me to train and equip people to discern and reject mixed words. Also I want to warn people that they may be seeing more of mixtures of truth and lies in "prophetic words".

So that is why I am writing this teaching series. It is not meant to scare you, but to alert you and to better prepare you to detect when the enemy tries to use the prophetic to "deceive people and lead them down a dangerous path."

The remaining lessons will focus on what mixed words are and how to detect them.


-- © GodSpeak International 2003 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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