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Matthew 7:15-27
Authorized (King James) Version
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Before I bring the following insight into context with Christ's teaching above about how to identify false prophets, I want to give you the insight in how I identify them. What I've seen is that false prophets want the credit for messages. A true prophet does not. A false prophet sees what the message does and wants everyone to come to him. A true prophet is honest; modest and unassuming, in ownership, because he knows it's his work. The prophet's goal isn't to get your attention with the message. It's to share a message with you for someone else, namely, the Lord. Their thought is "share this" while the false prophet's thought is "steal this". To catch the false prophet in the act of thievery, ask them, "What is the Lord telling you to tell me in this message"? They'll be taken aback because you caught them off guard fighting for ownership instead of telling you what God said. Thieves fight for ownership while genuine owners tell you what God said. False prophets want the credit, not to deliver the message. The false prophet wants to convince you that it's his message. The real prophet wants to make sure you understand what God said in it.
Genuine Creators at Work
Versus False Creators
The Genuine Come to Preach God's Message
The Thief Comes to Steal It
John 10:10
Authorized (King James) Version
A Thief Comes to Steal
Not to Care
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.
Philippians 1:15-18
Authorized (King James) Version
A Real Prophet Cares Only That the Gospel of Christ Gets Out to Everyone
Even the Thieves
The Thieves Want the Money from the Message
Not the Converts
15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
16 the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
17 but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth,
Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
Preaching is Reward
Vs.
Getting Paid for a Message
Real prophets aren't about making money selling their messages. They care that God's message to them is heard by as many as possible. Even thievery is a channel in which to get Christ preached. They don't care if it's stolen by thieves. Only that Christ is preached. That's the mark of authenticity.
Preaching Vs Rewards for Preaching
Working for the Lord is the same as going to a job. You got skills that you employ to make a project (1 Cor. 12:4-30). How do creator's act about their work? They don't fight over ownership like false prophets do for other people's work, because they know that it's their work. The sign of being false is hostility. False prophets put up a fight for ownership because they know that it's not their work. False prophets fight for "credit and ownership" because they know it's not their work. They fight for credit and ownership because they want the money from the message.
Thus, if you see someone putting up a fight for ownership on a project, that's the sign that it's not theirs. This is the evidence that they're false, rip off cons, like the devil. When the work is yours; when you created a project, you don't fight to say that it's yours because you know that it is. Why fight for it when you know it's yours? You have pure motives about it and your goal is to get the message out. Not fight for it.
Preaching Not Patent
Fighting for patent is different altogether. Patent is to stop plagiarizers from stealing your work. False prophets are false creators. They plagiarize you. Genuine creators are modest and humble about ownership because they know it's theirs. They have pure motives. They're concerned about editing & perfecting their work. Not about who wrote it because they know that they wrote it.
Genuine Authorship
Vs False Claim to Title
False prophets are always fighting over who wrote the message. The genuine owners are trying to tell you what the Lord said in the message. Genuine creators are concerned about what God wants you to know. Cons want you to know that it belongs to them, even though it doesn't. When a con says, "I wrote it", that's when you ask him. "Did you write it"?
Editing Vs Selling
Genuine creators aren't concerned about getting ripped off because they have the message and skills inside them, and they can always re-write another one (Phil. 1:18). They'll call the rewritten message, "Edited and better than the original". False prophets don't have the work inside them so they're all about making the work theirs "as is" instead of editing it to make more sense of it. The false prophet wants to make money. So, he wants to sell the message, not edit it.
Creators and Cons
Editing is always the work of a creator while convincing people that it's their work, is always the work of the con because they want to sell it not make it better. A false prophet will put a label on the message, a true prophet will hold the message in their hands and ask you with all humility, "Did it make sense"?
The false prophet wants to steal the message with false claim. The genuine author wants to make sure you understand it. So, the false prophet is trying to make you think it's his while you read it. Not try to make you understand it, while you read it.
Whose Baby Is It?
(1 Kings 3:16-28)
Writing is like making a baby. After you have the kid, you look it over with the thought, "Did it come out alright"? You feel self-conscious around your kids when they're first born because you don't know if it has disabilities. As time goes on you see that others approve of it and your self-consciousness turns to pride. No one who's had a child says first thing after it's born, "This is mine"! They instead want to make sure it's healthy with no defects, or birth defects.
Same with true prophets. God birthed a message through you and your first response is, "Is it OK"? If you say first thing, "This is mine"! to the staff who helped your wife birth your baby, they'll look at you and think, "Yes. We know because we just delivered the baby in front of you. You need therapy". But he doesn't need therapy because it's a false parent stealing the baby.
In 1 Kgs. 3:16-28 is the story of how to find out whose baby it is. The mother who cared was the mother. The one who didn't care if the baby was cut in two, was the false parent. Read that story...because it's the same thing with birthing a message. The one who cares for the message is the true creator. The one who just wants money for it or throw it away, is the false creator. The creator cares for the message because it came from inside him just like parents care for their child for the same reason.
True Prophets Are Shepherds
False Prophets are False Shepherds
In Jn. 10:12, 13 Jesus talked about false shepherds. He said that they don't care for the sheep and let them get killed instead of protect them because they just want the money. False Prophets don't care for the life of the message. If it gets edited and perfected. They want to sell it as is.
In Jn. 10:1-30 Jesus is telling us how to know false shepherds or false prophets. Jesus calls them thieves. To identify a thief is how to identify a false prophet, according to the Lord Jesus. Let's look at John chapter 10 with the Holy Spirit.
John 10:1-30
Authorized (King James) Version
10 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings. 20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? 21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. 24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one.
Jesus' Points in How to Identify False Shepherds
Mark of the True Prophet
Pure Motives
Recognition & Respect
Recognition
Point 1: Jn. 10:1-4, 14, 27. Everyone knows you at your job. Everyone knows you at work. Because you're recognized, they let you in. You know everyone's name and they recognize you. They go with you (follow you around) to do your job (Vv. 2-4, 27).
Point 2: Jn. 10:8. Because you're recognized at your job, everyone listens to you.
Point 3: Jn. 10:9. Because you're recognized at work, everyone has fun with you at work.
Respect
Point 3: Jn. 10:10-18. You care about, or, respect, those at your job.
Mark of the False Prophet
False Motives
Rejection
Point 1: Jn. 10:1, 5.
V. 1. He sneaks in because no one knows him.
V. 5. Everyone runs from him because no one recognizes him.
Let's See if Jesus Talked About This in Mt. 7:15-27 Above
Point 1: Mt. 7:15-20. Trees bear fruit.
What Jesus is saying in Mt. 7:15-20 is that a tree either bears fruit or it doesn't. If it doesn't, it is burned because it's dry wood to make a fire. Its only use is to make a fire because it doesn't produce fruit. If a tree bears fruit, it is used to feed people.
What the Holy Spirit told me is that my insight about the pure motives of a real prophet that I wrote about throughout the message above, is the fruit of real prophets that Jesus spoke about in Mt. 7:15-20. To treat a message like a baby and make sure it has no defects, is the fruit of a real prophet.
Point 2: Mt. 7:21-27. God's word is the moisture that makes branches bear fruit.
Branches receive their nourishment & moisture from the plant. As branches receive their nourishment from the plant, we in Christ (abiding in Christ - Jn. 15:4) receive nourishment from God's word. If a believer is not bearing fruit, or, is not receiving message from God's word from the Holy Spirit inside of him, he is false like a broken branch on a tree. It's dying and becoming firewood. It still has purpose. To be burned to nothing in a fire. False prophets aren't about spreading God's word. They want credit and money.
False Prophets are from the World
Not from Jesus
What makes people true prophets is getting born again and baptized into the Holy Spirit (Jn. 3:1-21/ Ti. 3:4-7/ Eze. 36:25-27/ 1 Pt. 1:23). God within is the source of moisture & nourishment to grow and do your job: to feed people with your fruit (Acts 20:28-31/ Mt. 4:4; 24:45-47/ Jer. 3:14, 15; 15:16). Your fruit are messages from God.
To feed people God's word isn't a motive inside the false prophet. They are like everyone else in the world. They want money and to be in control. So, this is what they want in church. Like ravening wolves, they enter in to fight for credit and the money from your work, and for your spouses. Sex, money and power. False prophets are mean because they're from the world (Jn. 17:14). The world fights over supplies.
Jude
Authorized (King James) Version
1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: 2 mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. 9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
The Ways of the World-System
The Ways of the False Prophet
John 10:10
Authorized (King James) Version
Steal, Kill and destroy
The Ways of the World
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.
"Get All You Can
Can All You Get
The Sit on The Can"
"It's a Dog-Eat-Dog World"
Fending For Supplies
Instead of Asking the Lord for It
People in the world are born not knowing God until they get born again (Rom. 5:6-21). God is the source of all supply (Ps. 145:15, 16). His angels of Light call Him "The Source". People in the world learn to steal, kill and destroy to get their portion in life.
People fight for supplies, wives, cars, homes and everything else people need to live good (Jms. 4:1-10). They fight because they don't know God. When you know God, you ask and receive because He gives us for free all we need to live good (Mt. 6:19-34).
So, the world enters church for supplies. They come to steal, kill and destroy. This is why Jesus describes them as "ravening wolves" in Mt. 7:15. Their raving madness is to fight; kill, steal and destroy, for what they need and want because they don't know God. This is why they steal from you in church. God calls them false prophets in Mt. 7:15 because they are not saved. They are from the world. If they were born again, they would not be raving mad to get what they need. They would quietly ask God in prayer and get what they need and want. Real Christians are happy and at peace because unlike the world of false prophets, we get everything we want and need from The Source. God satisfies us (Ps. 145:16).
Picture the church as the sheep fold and the world outside of the church as the wolf's den. Outside the fold is wolves running around. That's where the false prophets come from to get your supply for themselves; to steal, kill and destroy for it all. Those wolves coming into church are not Christians. They're coming to feed on you. To take what's yours for themselves.
A Personal Testimony
You Can Charge Money for Your Messages from God
To Please God
(Gal. 1:10)
One of the signs of a genuine creator, or a true prophet, is that they don't want money for God's messages because they want to please God by listening to Him about them. God told the prophet to deliver this message to people and thus in doing so, they are filled with satisfaction because they pleased God. Every Christian gets a born again need to please God when they get born again (Eze. 36:25-27). We live to please God not to make money.
To stop thievery of my messages, in 2023 I was told by God to sell my messages online and to stop giving them for free. Check out this scripture passage.
They Which Preach the Gospel Should Live of the Gospel
1 Corinthians 9:3-14
Authorized (King James) Version
3 Mine answer to them that do examine me is this, 4 Have we not power to eat and to drink? 5 Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? 6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working? 7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? 8 Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? 10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. 11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? 12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. 13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? 14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
"Song to my Parents (I only want to see you there)" (Keith Green - 1977)
"The Sheep and the Goats" (Keith Green - 1981)
"Asleep in the Light" (Keith Green - 1978)
"You Love the World" (Keith Green - 1980)
World without end. Amen.