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Matthew 24:1-5 (NKJV) 1 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
“I am anointed.” This is more in line with what is meant when Jesus said that “false Christs will rise up.” It takes true, Spirit-Led discernment to tell what is true from what is false.
Only a life given to a consecrated fellowship with your God by the Word of God and prayer will be able to tell the difference. The word CHRIST is not Jesus‘ last name. Christ literally means - ‘anointed’.
I have been in the church for 45 years now and I have been under many “anointed” leaders to the Body of Christ in the church of our Lord.
The first time I noticed a real problem that I couldn’t resolve about an anointed man of God over me in leadership began around 1989 and continued to near 1994.
This leader had a strong gift of healings and word of knowledge operating regularly through his life. Church services would regularly run 3-4 hours at least twice a week and yet was only held together by a personal charisma that both was undeniable and manipulative at the same time. Near the last year and half that I was with him I knew there was something seriously wrong about his life and what he was doing but I had this fight of contradiction in my soul about what was going on.
He had a successful TV ministry that raised a lot of money. I learned that the big money that was being raised was without accountability and as years went by, none of it seemed to go toward a promised property and building that never seemed to get off the ground. I learned that he built a very large and expensive home while this was going on and that even contractors on that weren’t being paid.
I saw that he used an iron hand of authority against those closest to him to keep them in line and through all this I kept saying to myself: “but he’s so anointed!?”
This deception of very real gifts and manifestation weighed against his personal character in a way that I couldn’t square with the truth of the Word of God. “How could all of this other stuff be true when he flows in the gifts like this?”
I asked God to leave this church for months. I was involved there in helps and leadership there for more than 3 years until the Lord released me to finally let go so that I could leave without bitterness or offence, which I did.
Gifts are NOT character – nor are they a stamp of approval upon any person or ministry simply because they “appear to be working.”
This man did not start out to manipulate and deceive the crowds. I know that this man had a pure heart when he began that feared and loved his God. Now I can only assume that pressures of finances combined with observing how easy it was to manipulate the people and sheer the sheep for his needs began to override the fear of the Lord and the integrity of a pure heart that serves God and people solely from a heart of love.
Now when any of us allow compromise into our life and our calling with God to override personal, Godly character and consecration, we can all end up in a fall if we do not repent and self-correct.
FALSE CHRIST’S can include the far fringe of cult deception where someone is saying “I AM CHRIST,” but it more accurately means “false anointing.”
This person I was talking about did not begin with a false anointing, but something moves into and over a soul that can masquerade as a work and power of God when the person yields to familiar spirits who step in to help that minister when God “moves out.”
If you are tuned in to modern ministry today you will notice that there seems to be an abundance of “manifestation” without personal accountability or Godly oversight. It costs nothing today to start a YouTube channel, sit in front of a camera and start talking, and if you don’t know what the WORD SAYS, you will be fair ground for deception. There are “ministries” with thousands and even millions of followers on social media that rarely if ever teach on or from directly from scripture. These videos get crazy amounts of views from Christian’s on topics that the Lord has told me “ARE DISTRACTIONS.”
I enjoy an exciting fringe topic as much as anyone else, but if we can’t seem to get by without our regular dose of that unmissable podcast or dynamic YouTuber screaming every week about the return of the nephilim or some other plan of the world’s elite, you are missing it. There is nothing wrong with any of these topics, in fact you should be aware of the plans of your enemies, but if you are not at the same time filling your day with regular and dynamic prayer and deep study of the Word that is based upon relationship with Jesus and not simply obligation, you will eventually become deceived and worse than that, inept and impotent when it comes to your daily life and fulfilling your own mission from God.
I enjoy fringe topics as much as anyone at times, but more often than not, I hear from the Spirit, “turn it off.”
He’s asking me instead to read, study and pray with Him. Surely this will bear more fruit in our lives than 2 hours of podcasts that are talking about trendy, click-baiting topics, when much or even most of their intended audience can’t quote 3 scriptures or know even 10 of the names of the books of the Bible.
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