A Major Feature Heralding the Lord’s Return

A major feature heralding the Lord’s return as shown by the Lord Jesus Christ is the advent of false Christs and false Prophets deceiving many. In Matthew 24:4-5, 11 & 24 Jesus Christ said:

“… Take heed that no man deceive you.

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

… And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

… For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

This explains why an understanding of the contents of this book cannot be overemphasized.  If we understand how to identify false Prophets and false Christs, the likelihood of our falling prey to their deception will be greatly minimized or eliminated altogether.

It would interest you to know that while the anti-Christ has not yet manifested physically, his spirit is already in operation on earth and is using false prophets. In his letter to the early Church, the Apostle John took the time to explain this to the early Church in 1John 2:18-21 thus:

“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.”

From these texts of Scripture, we have some consolations. Jesus made it clear in Matthew 24:24 that it would not be possible to deceive the elect. Who is the elect? You! If you have made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life and are continuing in His word [Jn.8:31-32]. The reason why you cannot be deceived is that you have the Holy Spirit in you directing you as Apostle John lets us know here. That is the reason you are reading this book now because He has orchestrated the events that brought this book about and put it in your hand.

In our Country Nigeria for instance, we have one claiming to work for the Lord and has built a “Church” that has branches in some other nations. He is even purportedly working miracles. However, from the fruits he is bearing, people began to question his authenticity. So the Pentecostal Fellowship of the Country refused to recognize him. When he was interviewed by Time Magazine, he was asked when he got saved and he gave the ridiculous reply that he was saved from his mother’s womb! He was also unable to point to a pastor who mentored him. Only gullible and covetous people are caught in this man’s web in a Country where there is so much light in the Church of Jesus Christ.

As simple as these criteria may seem, they are important pointers to his impersonation. Everyone who has ever been called of God to do His work since the Church was founded had references. Jesus personally mentored the first disciples and through them, the gospel has passed from generation to generation

As powerful as the ministry of Apostle Paul is, you would recall that in Acts 9 the Lord referred Him to Ananias to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit after He had acknowledged the Lordship of Jesus Christ when He encountered Him on his way to Damascus.

The meaning of the words: Prophet and Christ

Prophet

A prophet is a mouthpiece for God or someone through whom God decides to speak to others. For our purpose in this book, prophets shall include everyone in the fivefold ministry of Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher spelt out in Ephesians 4:11-15 thus:

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:”

From our text of scripture here, it is very clear that prophets are given by God to men. For example, the Apostle is a messenger of God assigned with the task of pioneering God’s work. They thus enjoy such grace that enables them to flow in all the fivefold ministry offices depending on the need God wants to use them to meet.

Next to Apostles are Prophets and they, like the Apostles, are foundation layers but they do not flow in all fivefold ministry gifts like Apostles do. In Ephesians 2:20, while describing the place of the Gentile converts in the covenant of grace, Apostle Paul said in verse 19 that they are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the Household of God. Then he describes the household of God or the Church as being built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets: Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Corner Stone.

Next to the Prophets are the Evangelists whose main assignment is to preach to save the lost. God usually grants them grace to work signs and wonders to enable them carry out this task with ease.

The next in line are the Pastors. Their task is to gather the young converts and nurture them to maturity to the point that when mature, these converts can be used of God to raise others.

Finally we have the Teachers. Their main mission is to rightly divide the word bringing clarity and understanding of scriptures in such a way that others can be instructed and know how to live. Their ministry guarantees the continuity of any work of God because without the teaching ministry, no work has a future.

For our purpose, prophets represent all these. One thing we must know about prophets is that they are called by God into that office. In Jeremiah 1:4-5 where the prophet was recalling how he was called to that office, he said:

“Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

This truth that Prophets are called by God was also emphasized by the call of John the Baptist. We are told of the spectacular miracle that surrounded his birth and divine assignment. In fact, his ministry was prophesied about eight hundred years earlier by Isaiah – an Old Testament Prophet. This is why when John was told to identify himself; he identified himself from the prophecy of Isaiah in Isa.40:3.  In Jn.1:23, he said:

“… I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”

All the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ were called by Him into the ministry as the Holy Spirit led him. After His glorification, all those who claimed Apostleship were also called by him. An example of this could be seen in Acts 9 when He called Saul who later became Apostle Paul.

Another distinguishing characteristic of Prophets is that they are led by the Holy Spirit and as such they bear the fruit of the spirit as shown in Gal.5:22-23. They also direct people to God and the Lord Jesus Christ and not to themselves. In Jn.16:13-14, Jesus Christ describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us thus:

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”

In light of this text of Scripture, anyone who is led by the Holy Spirit would therefore not direct people to themselves but to God the Father and Jesus Christ. This was clearly exemplified by Paul and Barnabas when after God worked a miracle through Paul to heal a lame man in Iconium, the people attempted to worship them. They rent their clothes and discouraged the people from worshipping them as gods and took the time to direct them to the living God who they were representing. You will find this story in Acts 14:8-18.  

In summation here therefore, Prophets are God’s agents called of God to represent His interest on earth. They speak and act on behalf of God to bring help to mankind and God anoints them with power confirming what they say and do with signs following. They also bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit and direct the heart of people to God and not to themselves because they are led by the Spirit of God.

Christ

The suffering of humanity today and the various atrocities perpetrated among the human race leaves one in no doubt of the need of a Saviour or Messiah. Clearly, the foundation of man’s problem is sin and anyone who will liberate man from sin, would have taken care of the foundation of man’s problem effectively. Only one sacrifice was required for this and this must be a sinless man who must bear the sin of the whole human race on himself even though He has not sinned.

The word “Christ” means the anointed one or the Messiah. This anointed one or Messiah; for our purpose, refers to the only person whose mission it is to liberate the whole world from their sin. There is only one person who was found worthy to do this and this is the man Jesus Christ who also is God. The bible refers to Him as the word of God and God in John 1:1 and the word which became flesh in Jn.1:14.  Then He is also described as the only begotten Son of God in whom we must believe and be saved in Jn.3:16.

The importance of recognizing only Jesus Christ as the Messiah or Christ cannot be overemphasized as it is the foundation of the faith of God that guarantees eternal life.  This is clearly seen in Matthew 16:13-19 where Jesus exclaimed that Peter could only have known Him by a divine revelation when Peter told Him that He was the Christ. The text reads thus:

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In His response, Jesus made it very clear here that He would build His Church and the gates of hell will attempt to stop Him but will not prevail. One of the means by which the gates of hell will attempt to do this is through the ministry of false Prophets and false Christs.

This truth that Jesus is the Christ; the Son of the Living God is what the early Church fathers lived and died for. This is the truth Jesus proved by His death on the Cross, His burial and resurrection on the third day. This is the truth Jesus Christ confirmed on the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2 when He sent the Holy Spirit to birth the Church. This truth is what the devil seeks to attack through the ministry of false Prophets and Christs.  This is the truth that made Apostle John raise an alarm that the spirit of the anti-Christ was in their midst when he saw many deceivers entering among the brethren to deceive them. In 1Jn.4:1-4, we read:

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”

False prophets as we can see from this text; are controlled by the spirit of the anti-Christ. The word anti-Christ means against Christ. More will be said on this in a later chapter.

The Christ therefore refers to Jesus the son of the living God who came by blood and water and through whom eternal life is delivered to mankind after a confession of faith in Him (see Jn.17:3; Rm.10:8-11 and 1Jn.5:6).

HOW TO IDENTIFY FALSE CHRISTS AND PROPHETS

 {an excerpt from my book of this title}
DEDICATION
To all the saints of God in Northern Nigeria who have suffered untold hardship in the hands of the anti-Christ masquerading with religion. When I think of your suffering for the Cross of Christ, I cannot stop thinking that in heaven some will be more equal than others. You are my true Heroes!
To all the ...

saints of God who have suffered in the hands of false Prophets, Teachers and Apostles due to ignorance born out of want of true spiritual leadership. It is my heart felt prayer that the light from this book will liberate you and set you free to be a servant of the Lord.
INTRODUCTION
Just yesterday, as I write, I heard this story about an event in Northern Nigeria that was even videoed and sent to a man of God in England who visited Nigeria and was addressing us at a gathering of Ministers of the Gospel. He recounted how he was shown a film by a man of God from Plateau State in Nigeria of the persecution of the saints of God in the Northern part of the country. He said that in the film, he saw how Christians were cut on the forehead with cutlass by the children of the bondwoman and forced to run while bleeding. These agents of the devil did not stop at that, but kept on cutting them from behind while they ran until they dropped dead.
Another scene he described was that of a Pastor’s wife whom they forced to lie on her back and drove a bottle into her vagina and forced her up again and ordered her to run. She was running with her legs apart with blood oozing out of her body. This brought tears to my eyes as I imagined the excruciating pain this woman of God must have had to endure for the Cross of Christ.
Another story I heard from a sister yesterday as I write is about a man in Lagos Nigeria; who went in search of a solution from a false prophet. The false prophet gave him an evil prescription which included that he had his bath with soap and sponge given to him by this false prophet. This gullible man did as he was told and sank into the ground where he went to take his bath. Only the sponge and soap were found at the scene until his body was later exhumed from the ground.
As I write, my heart bleeds. I had a restless night as I thought on these events, but I woke up with this song: “IT WONT BE LONG” by Andrae Crouch this morning and my heart was comforted.
From these two real life stories we cannot deny the devastating consequence of ignorance brought upon a people resulting in the thriving of the evil machinations of the anti-Christ and false prophets. This, I believe, is in part due to a want of real spiritual leadership for some and for others an outright rejection of the truth because they want to get something for nothing.
My intention through this book is to unmask false Prophets, false Apostles, false Teachers, false pastors, false evangelists and false Christs. This is with the intent that everyone who truly seeks to know the one true God of the universe in experience be liberated and released to know Him.
By way of introduction, let us look at the definition of our book title HOW TO IDENTIFY FALSE PROPHETS AND FALSE CHRISTS. For the purpose of clarity, I would like to break down the words and define them separately before putting them together again to get a clear picture of what we are looking at here. Your destiny may well depend on your understanding this truth.
To identify means to be able to say for sure or to recognize. False Prophets are people who claim to be prophets of God and are not. False Christs refers to anyone handing himself out as the Messiah or Saviour of mankind apart from Jesus Christ. Thus the title of this book means how to recognize those pretending to be prophets and Christ when they are not.

Food for thought

 Quoted 4rm my bb friend

"I Recall as a kid that a man in my Neighborhood became popular for engaging in money rituals just to buy the 80's edition of the Honda Prelude.

You wouldn't buy that car for 50k today!

 

I Remember as a kid, my whole street converged to watch a truck deliver a very large satellite dish to my neighbour's house.
Today a dish one tenth that size delivers 5 times the value and is in almost every student hostel room.

What about the Volkswagen Santana, Mercedes Benz V booth, 505 cocaine, all overtaken by Camry,Honda discussions and Infinity? .... Vanity.

 

A friend declared drinks for the boys because he just launched the Nokia Communicator for over a hundred grand in 2002.

Today that phone would embarrass the owner and is a joke compared to the low cost and everyday phone!

 

What about d MTN sim card dat many people went extra miles b4 dey bought it for over 30k, today u will not buy it at N200.
People are still making the most amazing sacrifices over the 'vainest' of things, make enemies over worthless material things!

 

Pity!What can I Say? Look back at that one thing you want to kill or die or stress yourself for today and see what becomes of it tomorrow!
Think!! Think!! Think!!!
Slow down with the sense of attachment and blind pursuit of things, for today's 'gold' is tomorrow's 'copper'....or worse!
Have a pleasant week ahead!

OCTOBER OUR MONTH OF TRAVAIL

Isa.66:8-9: “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God.”

Gal.4:19: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,”

This month of October has been prophetically declared our month of travail based on the revelation given to me by the Lord drawn from these two scriptures. In the first text, we are made to understand that to birth souls into the kingdom of God; we must travail for them in prayer. The second text also makes us understand that to get these souls to mature in Christ; we must also travail like in child birth. In the text of Isaiah quoted above, we receive an assurance of answered prayers from God where He said He will not bring us to the point of delivery and shut the womb.

The Lord Jesus Christ makes us understand that for us to be effective in Kingdom service; we must learn to pray to the Lord of Harvest to send laborers into His field. You will find this in Lk.10:2 where He said:

“The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

He clarified this further in John 15:16 where He makes us understand that He has chosen and ordained us to the end that we should bear fruit and that our fruit should abide.

We bear fruit by winning the lost to Him and our fruit abide when the souls won to him are established in faith. Both of these responsibilities are not possible without the ministry of the Holy Spirit which we engaged through travail in prayer.

To this end, this month, as we conclude our message on the future of the world, we shall be learning how to pray kingdom driven prayers for the birth and establishment of souls in the Kingdom. We shall also be demonstrating through evangelism and training of the converts with a view to discipling them for Christ so they can in turn be engaged by the Lord as labourers in His vineyard.

Beloved, the Lord revealed to me that the end is nearer than many are aware of and we must put more effort into soul winning and discipling to enable the Lord return for a glorious Church without spot and wrinkle.

If you are reading this article and you are not yet born again, I believe that you are not reading this by accident. This is your divine appointment with your glorious destiny. You can get born again now by saying the prayer below out loud to the Lord and you will be saved.

THE SINNER’S PRAYER

Father in Heaven,

I come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your word says in John 6:37 that you will not cast me out when I come to you. So I thank you that you will take me in.

You also said in Romans 10:9-10 that if I shall confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in my heart that you raised him from the dead, I shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that he was raised from the dead for my justification and I confess him now as my saviour and Lord.

I believe that I have now become your righteousness in Christ whom you made to be sin for me on Calvary’s Cross.

Thank you father that I am saved from this day in Jesus’s name!

If you just said this prayer, CONGRATULATIONS!!! You are now born again. We would like to send you a free e copy of our believers guide to growth. Please indicate your interest by writing to Flourishinggirl@gmail.com or jointheirsfamily@gmail.com. For more of our resource materials please visit and follow our blog at:www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com. or check us out on face book by logging on to and liking:   www.facebook.com/alero.nanna1/kingdomjointheirsfamily. Or /Healing and restoration time with Pastor Alero Nanna.