False Teachers and Prophets - Methods of Operation

by Jean Joubert

It is very sad to see people who call themselves Christians being so ignorant of the Scripture and then they land up in all these “problem” situations like Toronto and Lakeland.

Here in South Africa we have similar “problem” ministries and people doing the rounds. The most famous currently is Angus Buchan with his Shalom ministries and Mighty Men Conferences. He is currently “spreading his wings” internationally so you might hear of him shortly also in your country.

As I am leading a few house church groups, I have been praying for wisdom on how to warn people of these false teachers/prophets and ministries and what to lookout for. Apart from checking their doctrine, I have been led to investigate something I call “their methods of operation”.

I believe God has shown me something regarding their methods and I want to share it with you.

These false prophets and teachers always focus on the flesh and the desires of the flesh. The Bible however clearly states:

1 Pe 4:2 That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

We know that these false prophets and teachers use Amen’s, Hallelujahs, music and repeated choruses to get emotions going and to get the people’s minds from a Beta state to an Alpha state so that they then just go with the flow without discerning what is being said or preached. [DTW: music plays a huge part in getting the crowd: relaxed, hyped up, excited, emotional, expectant etc)

All of these false teachers and prophets however also like to make use of the following phrase in one form or another for example:. "I can feel the Spirit in this place", "this place is pregnant with the spirit", "I can feel the anointing in this place" or "I sense a Spirit of healing in this place" etc. Angus Buchan himself also likes to use these phrases.  [DTW: This is a very cunning thing to say for a few reasons: 1) He is preparing you psychologically to accept strange happenings if and when they do occur, 2) If the pastor says the Holy Spirit is here, then surely He must be for why would the pastor lie? 4) People want to know that the Holy Spirit is in the building because they do not have the Holy Spirit IN them and know no better.]

They always say something about “sensing” or “feeling” the Spirit. They regularly use this then to mislead and confuse the people by telling them that the atmosphere which they are feeling is in fact the Holy Spirit that is present in the place. They thus say that the building contains the Holy Spirit or that the Spirit can be felt physically. They usually abuse and twist the scripture that says:

Mat 18:20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

The truth regarding this “feeling” of the Spirit I believe is the following. Scripture teaches us:

Eph 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

Eph 2:2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

Eph 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

• The word air in verse 2 is the Greek word – and means: The air we breathe or the atmosphere surrounding us.

• The word cravings in verse 3 is the Greek word – epithumia – and means: desire, craving, longing, desire for what is forbidden, lust

• The word following in verse 3 is the Greek word – poieo – and means: to produce, construct, form, fashion, to make a thing out of something, to be the authors of a thing, to perform to a promise . .etc

• The word desires in verse 3 is the Greek word - thelema – and means: what one wishes or has determined shall be done

[DTW:  Many pastors now a days are referring to the atmosphere in their teachings, be it 'releasing faith into the atmosphere', 'expecting things to happen in the atmosphere', 'atmosphere is full of the Glory of God', 'spiritual warfare taking place in the atmosphere', 'opening the heavens (or atmosphere)'. This is new age teaching and anti-Christ.]

What do we learn from this?

• The atmosphere does NOT contain the Spirit of God.
• Satan is the ruler of the atmosphere.
• If I have a physical sensing of a spirit in the atmosphere, it will not be the Holy Spirit.
• The fleshly person cannot say no to the cravings of their flesh and they will always follow it’s desires.

Now let us apply this to a meeting . . .

If we, by choice, allow ourselves to be influenced through our senses by the surrounding atmosphere in a church or stadium (created by worship leaders, false prophets or teachers) our fleshly desires (good feelings or feeling good) will become our main objective/desire in these meetings to such an extend that we will even produce the desired effects/feelings so that our desires can be fulfilled. We will thus wilfully ignore the gentle warning prompting of the Holy Spirit and rather “enjoy” these good feelings because we want it.

The focus is on ME and not on God. I want to be blessed, I want to feel the Spirit, I want to be physically touched, I want the anointing, I want to be “slain in the Spirit” ..etc.

The people that flock to these anointing meetings are actually saying:

“My flesh is alive and well and it is desiring/demanding to be satisfied and I will allow it to be satisfied because I want it to be so!”

The scary part for me is that we end up worshipping and praying to this God / Spirit that we feel in the atmosphere!

That might explain why an attendee of the Angus Buchan Mighty Men Conference (MMC 2008) said: “We took the God of Angus home with us . . “

These false prophets/teachers themselves are also feeding the lust of their flesh themselves because, they know that if they can give the people a feel good experience they will be popular with the people and because of that they will get good revenues.

By the way, to be “slain in the Spirit” is also abused by these Prophets and teachers. The Biblical “slain in the Spirit” is very different than that being practised today. Biblical “slain in the spirit” means death! Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Spirit and was slain in the Spirit ! (Acts 5) [DTW: another thing is the 'fire' that these ministers like to call down on people, the only biblical thing about this 'fire' is that this fire is a fire of God's wrath. Matthew 3:11 "I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."Matthew 3:12 "His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."" Jesus will baptise believers with the Holy Spirit and non-believers with fire - So next time you see a supposed 'man of god' throwing fire in your direction, run for your life.]

It seems that this “fleshly” problem of the Ephesians really is seen as a BIG stumbling block. A few chapters further on in Ephesians we read the following:

Eph 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

Eph 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

Eph 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Eph 4:19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

This words futility of their thinking, darkened understanding, ignorance and hardened hearts are all interconnected.

These are all the results of following their fleshly desires. Look also at this following scripture:

Hos 4:11 Harlotry and wine and new wine take away the heart and the mind and the spiritual understanding. (AMP)

• The word harlotry in the above scripture is the word - zenooth – in Hebrew and means: adultery and idolatry – to place something above God or to make an idol of yourself.

• The word wine in the above scripture is the word – yahyin – in Hebrew and means: to be bubbling as if intoxicated ; To be in natural commotion [Deborah's note: The new Apostles and Prophets are always talking about the 'new move' of God, the 'move into the supernatural', a 'Revival', a 'new wine'. Now we know that this 'new wine' takes away the heart, the mind and spiritual understanding]

• The words the heart in the above scripture is the word – leb - in Hebrew and means: inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding

This problem of fleshly desire highlighted here leads to a separation from God. The Ephesians did not heed these warnings. In Rev 2:4-5 we see that 30 years later they were on the verge of losing it all.

I believe a lot of our problems arise because we don’t know how the Holy Spirit operates and how we then interact and react to this prompting or unction of the spirit in our lives.

1Jo 2:20  But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

1Jo 2:27  But the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true and no lie, and as He has taught you, abide in Him.

Note: the Holy Spirit is in me and operates through and inner unction or knowing. There is no sensing or feelings involved.

We know that Satan has always been using our senses and our fleshly lusts to deceive us.

From Eve (looks good to eat, pleasant to the eyes, Gen 3:6) to David (Bathsheba- very beautiful to look upon 2Sam 11:2) right through to Jesus (makes these stone turn to bread Mat 4:3) Satan has made an appeal on our senses to try to get us to follow him. He knows if we bow to our fleshly desires we are following the world and not God’s will.

1 Jo 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,

1 Jo 2:16 because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

We currently have a nice “feel good” religion being preached in the church today that will get you into hell!

Pro 14:12 There is a way which seemed right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

People are baited into churches through entertainment. The only way to keep them there is to keep them entertained by feeding their fleshly desires. We must stop following our fleshly desires/lust and get grounded in solid Word teaching leading to eternal life!

Joh 8:31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him: “If you continue in My Word, you are My disciples indeed And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

I believe that these current false prophets and teachers are just a shadow of the real spirit of the anti-Christ allowed by God to give us “practise” time and to teach us how to discern the truth from the false. These current false prophets and teachers are still obvious in their errors but when the real “angel of light” comes, he will be much more slick and crafty and if you are not “awake” and “prepared” he WILL “catch” you.

If we cannot discern these current false people, how will be able to discern the final false prophet?

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Here is a quote that sums up just how demonic this ’slain in the spirit / calling fire’ thing is from Nancy Flint who worked for John Wimber, Vineyard Movement / Toronto Blessing (see link of list of names below for Interfaith movement) and had this to say about their devious practises;   “… run the gamut from introducing heretical doctrine, to manipulation of spiritual forces through the bringing down of “fire” from heaven, virtually all pockets of resistance to this global movement have been overcome… Literally thousands of church leaders have been trained and “deployed” into “power” positions from this seminary.”

If this above highlighted in red does not scare you, then…I don’t know what will…actually that entire quote above is frightening because it also tells us that these false preachers have infiltrated the very core of the church, that practically every church is infected and any resistance to this poisonous takeover has been overcome.

I just want to point out something. Some people are confusing ‘fleshly’ desires with good works. For example, they are saying, ‘but surely if you are hungry and poor that is a fleshly desire.” This is not what this article is taking about. The fleshly desire that is spoken about here is the desire to associate a false spirit with that of the Holy Spirit. Lastly the sentence above that uses I, WE, OUR; someone said it’s difficult to worship or pray without using the words I, we, our. Again, that is not what this article is saying, of course we use the words I, we, our, in a sentence everyday, all day, how else do you complete a sentence about yourself to someone else. You take this article and you find silly arguments to detract from the seriousness of allowing oneself to be overruled by false spirits because some prefer to disobey the Word of God and follow ‘fleshly desires’. False teaching and false/fleshly desires (deception, allowing yourself to be taken in by false spirits producing false feelings) go hand in hand.]