We've got about a minute more before we're going to start.
Just a heads up, if everyone could make their way back to their seats, find their seats
so we can start right on time, we'd appreciate that.
So go ahead and find your seats and we'll start in just about one minute.
All right, everyone, welcome back, go ahead and grab your seats, those of you joining us online,
if you're listening, you can go ahead and run back into the room.
I do want to say hi to one of my friends online, Kath Walden.
Kath, it is so good to see you.
I've seen you on the screen here.
And for all of you in the room, you may not know Kath, but Kath has been joining us.
It seems like every conference, every Sunday morning, she is online audience.
She is one of our faithful, faithful family members.
And this lady, she's a little more seasoned, Kath, and I hope I can say that to you.
But Kath is probably the youngest at heart of all of our people.
She is so passionate.
She is so hungry.
And I love the fact that she is a consummate learner.
And I would hope that all of us would have that kind of attitude and wouldn't actually take distance as a limitation.
And she has grabbed onto something.
She's done our online school of ministry as well.
And she is just an amazing woman.
Kath, I love you.
It's good to see you.
And yeah, give it up for Kath.
That's good.
She deserves praise.
Well, we get to hear from the one and only Chris Vallotton again, and we're really excited about that.
Will you stand and welcome Chris as he comes to share with us?
Thank you.
I want to say I have a cold.
So I got a cold like three days before I got here.
I got a head cold.
So I've been, thank you.
Be healed.
Yes, I receive it.
Yeah, I took a COVID test.
So I have some other kind of crud besides COVID, I guess.
Yeah, it was negative.
Yeah, I took a test.
It was positive, but I decided I'd share the glory with you.
Anyway, yesterday, this morning, I woke up and Kathy's like, hey, when you like use your handkerchief, don't take it out of your front part because we can see your belly button.
So she told me that this morning.
So I thought, well, you get a certain age and it doesn't really matter.
You know, my grandfather used to wear coveralls when he was old and he didn't wear underwear.
You're like, how do you know that?
Because he didn't button the buttons on the sides.
So I thought to myself, maybe I'm maybe I'm just getting to that age where it doesn't really matter.
You know, I don't know.
I hope not.
And so, well, we should probably pray on that note.
Oh, you want to?
Yeah, bring those.
Thank you.
Kimberly is also single.
Hey, I want to tell you something, like three of my PAs, I got married this way.
So now they all want to be my PA.
Like, I don't have to pay them.
They're like, I'll be your PA.
That's not why she works for me, but she doesn't know it.
But that's why the Lord wants her to work for me.
So I love to give away these books.
So this is.
riches and wealth, moving from a life of lack into true kingdom abundance. And this is actually about,
I think Bethel has been accused of the prosperity gospel for years.
You know, how many know that if you don't like prosperity, you're not going to like heaven?
It's gold streets and pearl gates. And if prosperity, if wealth was inherently evil,
would Jesus describe heaven as gold streets and pearl gates? I'm saying if it was inherently evil.
So, you know, and people say things like, well, wealth has nothing to do with your relationship
with God. And I would say, I understand what we mean by that, because we have very wealthy people
who apparently don't know God. I mean, I don't judge anybody's relationship.
But I think we all know people that don't know God and who are wealthy. So we say,
well, obviously, just because you're wealthy doesn't mean you have a relationship with God.
And we all know people who have no, they have no money, and they have a wonderful relationship
with God. So when we look at it like that, we're like, yeah, I get, I get what we're trying to say.
But the part that I think has been negative in the church is that oftentimes, wealth is directly
connected to God. And the book goes through like seven or eight people that God said to Abraham,
I'm going to make you wealthy. And God made him wealthy. And Solomon, and God made him wealthy.
And Isaac, God made him wealthy. And then I'll say the Jewish people are still enjoying
a level of wealth that no other ethnic group in my mind, you know, a broad stroke wise,
because God said to them, Deuteronomy 818, I'm going to give you the power to make wealth that
I would confirm my covenant with you. And Jewish people, like if you meet a Jewish person, I hope
to sound like it could, you know, my heart. I mean, when you meet a Jewish person who's poor,
it sort of surprises you. Right? Because there is something in the DNA of most Jewish people.
I know I'm stereotyping a little bit. But my point really is that God made many people wealthy,
and it was directly tied to the relationship with God. In the case of Jewish people, it was directly
tied to their relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And even when they don't know the Lord,
they still carry this gift from, as we've been teaching, the gift and callings of God are
irrevocable. So anyway, this is about poverty versus wealth. And you want to give that to
someone? Yeah, maybe a guy you'd like to date would be good. Now, I guarantee she'll give it
to a girl. I guarantee it. Told you. Predictable. I won't do that again. This is called Fashion to
Reign, Empowering Women to Fulfill Their Divine Destiny. And this is actually, well, I think it's
a good book. I wrote it. Yeah, I'm going to write a book on humility, too. How I became humble. I
can't find anybody who's qualified to write the full word, so I'll probably write that, too.
But this book is actually about empowering women, and it actually deals with the scriptures
that seem to be disempowering with women. So the middle part of the book has a lot of
theology in it. But it's a true accusation against the church that women can go out
in the world and be a queen, a king, a president, a prime minister, but they can't be an elder in the
church. And it's honestly a big misunderstanding in scripture. Because in the Old Testament,
which was, you know, Hebrews, well, let me just say this. The Hebrew writer says that the New Testament
is a better covenant, and that the Old Covenant actually, you know, was actually fulfilled.
And so a better covenant means a better covenant for everyone, right? Not just for men.
And why is it that a woman could be a queen in the Old Testament, but she can't be an elder in
the New Testament? That feels more restrictive. And I believe that the blood of Jesus set everyone
free, including creation, into the divine destiny. So this is a really good book. I'd like to give
this to a woman. Your husband's with you, and he's oppressing you.
And the last book, we just, this book is the latest book to come out, Spiritual Intelligence.
And you know about IQ, and now we have EQ, emotional quotient, emotional intelligence.
But I think that what the Bible actually teaches is a third dimension of thinking. In fact,
Paul said, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And I think that most Christians don't realize
that you're the only creature on the planet that thinks tri-dimensionally. And you have
access to the Google of God.
Like the Google, like you have access
to actually the thoughts of God.
So you don't just think like Jesus,
you can actually have access to what Jesus is thinking.
And so this really good book,
we also have a course that we just did.
I don't know how many people we had in it,
hundreds of people.
And Dano and this team teaches in the course.
And yeah, so it's a great course.
Why don't you give that to someone?
You pick whoever you think you might wanna give it to.
Okay.
Let's pray.
Holy Spirit, thank you for what you've done for us already.
And we ask for your leading in this next hour
that we would literally share things
that people need to hear.
And that you would open up revelation
and that each truth that we share would be a seed
that opens up into other new things.
In Jesus name, amen.
Could you give me that tea?
I don't know where it went.
It's behind there.
I wanna talk about two things.
So my subjects are in chapter seven and eight.
You have a prophetic manual.
So we're gonna talk about, thank you very much Ben.
We're gonna talk about prophetic etiquette
and we're gonna talk about false prophets.
Prophetic etiquette and false prophets.
And I think there was some of this prophetic etiquette
probably already been shared in some ways.
But in 1 Samuel 28, the first thing I wanna talk about
is that you can make things happen in the spirit
that God doesn't intend.
And let me give you the examples in 1 Samuel 28,
where Saul, King Saul, who is now out of relationship
with God, goes to the witch of Endor.
And he actually asks her, he disguises himself,
because when Saul was right with God,
he actually made witchcraft illegal,
which it obviously is in the book of Leviticus.
But and cauldron up the dead in Leviticus
is actually against an assault against God.
It's called an abomination actually.
And if you need a verse for that, it's Leviticus 19 31.
So Saul disguised himself, goes to the witch of Endor
because Samuel has died and he has no connection with God.
And much like Dana was talking about,
his relationship with God ended up being through,
like he didn't have a relationship with God
towards the end of his life.
And so when Samuel died, he lost his connection to God.
So he goes to the witch of Endor and he asked her,
and she doesn't know he's the king,
and he asked her if he could speak to Samuel.
And she cauldrons up Samuel.
Now, I've heard lots of commentary on it,
but let me just say exactly what the Bible says.
Because people say, well, that was a demon.
But the Bible actually says
that Samuel came up from the dead.
The Bible doesn't say it was a witch.
He says Samuel came up from the dead
and Samuel interacted with Saul,
basically said, the Lord has cut you off.
And he didn't have a good word.
But Old Covenant, right?
Thankfully, we're in a new one.
My point would be that even though God,
even though God did not want Samuel to come up from the dead,
the witch of Endor was actually able to cauldron him up.
Why am I using it, what does that have to do with us?
Just because you can make things happen in the spirit
doesn't mean God wants you to.
You know, God could give you a gift.
Let's talk about a natural gift
because the Bible says all gifts, all gifts come from God.
He could give you the gift to sing
and you could sing about the devil.
God didn't want you to sing about the devil,
he gave you a gift.
We should understand that God is in charge
but he's not in control.
This is a very, every time, if I put this on,
every time I put this on any social page,
it creates some of the most feedback, negative feedback.
Well, that's not true, God's in charge of,
God's in control of everything.
God's ultimately in control of everything.
But how many understand that if God was in control,
there would be no murder, there'd be no molestation,
there'd be, and we can go on.
People ask questions like, if God's good,
then why does he let these things happen?
Because love, God is love and God wants also to be loved
and God can, he could program you to like him
but love requires free will
and free will means you can make a choice.
Remember, God planted two trees in the garden,
have you ever thought about that?
Why did God plant, I mean, obviously the devil,
talked Eve, deceived Eve and Adam
into eating the second tree that God said, don't eat.
But how many understand God's the one who planted them?
Have you ever thought of that?
Yes, Chris, we have.
No, Chris, we haven't.
Okay, I'm teaching you how to feed back.
This is day two, like a little bit of feedback,
like even this is good or thumbs up or down
or not the middle finger,
we don't like to do that here at all.
We don't do that in the kingdom, those kind of gestures.
Thank you.
The point is, is that the only way,
you know, God is the God of reward, right?
He says he's coming back and his reward is with him.
The only way you can get a reward for doing the right thing
is to have the opportunity to do the wrong one.
So just because there's a door open,
doesn't mean you should go through it.
Have you ever noticed, I'm way off subject.
I'm way off subject, I'll get there though,
because I got notes right here, I'll get back.
Have you ever noticed when you ask God for something like,
let's say he tells you to leave your business
and go do this other thing.
By the way, I think business is ministry.
So I think when you leave your business,
you're not leaving the ministry to do something else.
If you leave your business,
like we left our business to come here
and people are like,
how did it feel to go from business to ministry?
I'm like, I didn't go from business to ministry,
I went from ministry to ministry.
But have you ever noticed when you decide
to give up something because you feel God on it,
that what happens the next week
is you have the best opportunity
in the old business you're in.
And you're like, wow, this is, God must want me here.
God wants to know how serious you are
about listening to his voice.
So he opens a door to a multi-thousand,
maybe you make a hundred grand a year
and he opens the door to a $300,000 job
after you decide to follow God here.
And now you get the reward for a $300,000 job
you didn't have to give up because you never had it.
You didn't get that.
But anyway, my real point is that God is in charge
and ultimately he's in control.
When you think about eternity,
but from the standpoint of daily life,
God's in charge, but he's not in control.
The heavens, the highest heavens,
the psalmist wrote, belong to the Lord,
but the earth has been given to the sons of men.
So why am I sharing this with you?
Because you can make things happen in the spirit
just like you can make things happen in the natural.
And just because you can make it happen
doesn't mean God wants it to happen.
Okay, good point.
Yeah.
So we're talking about prophetic etiquette.
So Proverbs 25, 11, we love this verse.
Like apples of gold and settings of silver
is the word spoken in the right circumstances.
Like apples of gold and settings of silver.
I want you to catch the second part, settings of silver.
So sometimes you can have the right word,
but it's the wrong season.
Sometimes you can have the wrong word in the right season,
but the goal is to have the right word
in the right circumstances.
So prophetic etiquette matters a lot.
And I think that it's important to understand
in 1 Corinthians 14, verses 39 and 40,
therefore my brethren, desire earnestly spiritual gifts,
do not forbid to speak in tongues,
but let all things be done properly and in order.
Well, let me point out that first you have to do them
before you have to worry about order.
So a lot of churches are like, we have order.
You have order because you have nothing.
And we, you know, Proverbs says where there's no ox
in the manger is clean,
but much increase comes with the oxen.
We all know what's in the manger when the oxen are there.
And I'd like to say a whole bunch of crap.
Okay, potty, whatever.
Anyway, I didn't make up the illustration, the Bible did.
But my point is that yes, it's gonna be messy,
but there should be some boundaries to the river
because without boundaries, it's not a river,
it's a flood, right?
So the Bible says that the spirit of the prophet
is subject to the prophet.
What does that mean?
That means that you can't say God made me do it.
See, I grew up in a God made me do it culture.
I was with the Jesus people.
The Jesus people were awesome.
I love Jesus people.
They didn't know the Bible very well, but they love God.
Their teaching was always weird.
Like they'd like get a revelation
that was kind of in the Bible
and then add a bunch of stuff to it.
And so I got saved in the Jesus movement.
Then I was with the Charismatics.
They were kind of cool
because everything was like, dude, yeah, man.
And then I hung out with the Pentecostals
for about five years.
And those guys, they had a whole different idea
about how the spirit moved.
And this is what I'm speaking to.
They were like, they would call it
when the anointing is on you.
Like when the anointing comes,
you have to do whatever the spirit tells you to do.
might be in the middle of the preacher preaching.
The anointing comes and you're like,
okay, spirit's moving, and they literally get up
and interrupt the preacher.
When we were in Weaverville,
when I first got to Weaverville,
we were in this little Assembly of God church.
It was very, Assemblies of God tend to be,
they could be charismatic assemblies,
they could be Jesus people, I mean, they literally,
like, being in Assemblies of God
doesn't really mean anything anymore
as far as, because they're so diverse.
But we were in a Pentecostal Assemblies of God
with 40 people in it.
Ben was raised there.
And we had, and there was nobody
who actually moved in the gifts,
except for Grandma Kale.
Grandma Kale was about, I don't know, 65, maybe.
She was pretty heavyset.
And she, we always could tell when the spirit was moving
because she would stand up
and she always began her prophecies with tongues,
which is another Pentecostal trait, right?
And so she'd get up and she would yell in tongues.
Your heart would stop.
I mean, nobody sat around her because it was like,
it was like, so, she had such a reputation.
So she'd stand up, Ben's just cracking up
because he was really young when this happened,
but she would stand up and she would go,
shut up, I ain't got that much.
And then she'd start shaking, shut up, I ain't got that much.
She kind of had the kind of body,
even when she stopped shaking,
she was still like a little bit jello-y.
I have a little bit of that now too,
so I have to be a little careful.
And then she would do that for, I don't know,
a minute or two, yell, and then she would prophesy.
And she had three themes.
She didn't like movies, she didn't like women in makeup,
and she didn't like women who wore pants.
And she'd rotate the subjects every Sunday.
Ah, ah.
So then Bill Johnson became our pastor.
He's a hippie pastor from the Jesus Movement.
And you guys probably know Bill,
you've probably seen him teach.
He's the most unemotional,
especially when you compare him to Pentecostals, right?
And he just stands behind the podium
and just sends one-liners out.
Well, anyway, his very first Sunday, I'll never forget.
And we're all like, oh gosh,
Grandma Cale hasn't prophesied today yet,
and Bill's preaching, this is not good.
And Bill's, you know, we say Bill's preaching.
He doesn't really preach, right, he just talks.
So he's up there, like, sharing,
and she stands up in the middle of his sermon.
And she's like that, shut up, I did it!
Bill's like, and everybody's like, yeah, well.
Welcome to your new church.
And the Lord saith unto you today,
that if you are in the movie theater when he returns,
you shall be left behind.
Knoweth thou this, you shall be condemned to hell!
Right, this is a true story.
Anyway, she did that three weeks in a row,
interrupting Bill's sermon every time.
So the fourth week, Bill evidently had talked to the elders,
so she got up and shabbad.
Oh, I forgot to tell you this one part.
The beginning of the fourth week,
Bill said, hey, he opened the service by saying,
if you have a prophetic word,
write it down and send it forward.
Well, you can't shabbad on paper.
So we're all like, this is gonna,
I don't even know if Grandma Cale can write.
So like, everybody in the car,
you know how you have things going on
nobody else really knows about,
but it's kind of an inside thing, you know?
And we're all like, we all have this tension,
because we know where this is going, right?
There's no way that Grandma's gonna shabbad on paper.
It ain't gonna happen.
So this is not just about protocol, right?
This is about a power struggle.
So anyway, she stands up in the middle of service
while Bill's preaching, and she shabbads.
Shabbad, shabbad, shabbad, shabbad.
You know, start doing her thing.
And six elders come, and they ask her,
you know, you need to leave.
But she keeps screaming.
So she doesn't want to move, so finally they pick her up.
Literally, she's a very heavy lady, six men.
They pick her up, and she's horizontal,
going out, and she's still prophesying.
Shabbad, shabbad, shabbad, shabbad.
It's that old church where you have
those slide slit windows,
and you can see her going out the side.
Shabbad, shabbad, shabbad.
Shabbad, shabbad, shabbad, shabbad.
Yeah she never came back. Let's talk about a few guidelines for prophetic
ministry and some of them were kind of answered in the Q&A time, but here's a
few examples of any inappropriate times to give a prophetic word. One, when you're
angry or you have strong native emotions or feelings towards a person or towards
a, you know, a government or whatever. Like you're, it's very difficult
to separate you from the prophetic word, especially when you have strong feelings
about it. Number two, when you use prophecy as a platform to validate your
personal doctrines or belief systems. I can't even tell you how many times I've
seen this. It's like someone doesn't agree with the pastor's whatever, you
know, eschatology or doctrine on something and sure enough they stand up
and prophesy and the Lord says, and what they're really saying is, I don't agree
with you. So, you know, when we have to say the Lord says, let me just do this
number three. The more you have to say, and thus saith the Lord, the more
it's probably not the Lord. If I have to come to the podium and go, I'm a man, and
pretty soon you're like, is there some reason why he's telling us he's a man? In
California you might have to do that, but oh boy, politically correct, I am not. So,
you know, I would recommend that you say something like this when you give
in a prophetic word. It doesn't have to be these exact words, but you know, I feel
like the Lord is saying, because what that does is it invites people in to do
what they're supposed to do, and that is judge the prophetic word. That two or
three prophets speak and let the others pass judgment. Listen, don't matter how
you say it, right, it should be judged. You say it in first person, I the Lord say
to you, and I've done that a few times in an appropriate way, I wouldn't say it
quite like that, but what it does, let me say, what happens a lot is that people
use the Lord to give their opinion, and I feel like the more you need to say,
thus saith the Lord, by the way, when you say thus, it just tells us what Bible you
use. Really funny that, I mean, this is a little history, right, when some of the
older people know this, but you know, I grew up with the King James Bible
because there was only King James and Message Bible when I was young, and my
mentor said, Message Bible isn't a real Bible, Jesus didn't speak like that, he
spoke like this, which I didn't realize until years later that he spoke, you know,
Greek and Aramaic, so he didn't speak like that at all. So I mean, when you
spoke for the Lord, you tended to like shift over to Shakespeare, and that's
kind of how people were supposed to know, like, you're actually giving a prophetic
word. I can't even do it anymore, like, I used to be able to kind of mimic it
and be funny, but, you know, but I can't, I don't read those Bibles anymore, so I
read the Bible, but anyway, okay, so, so it's important, listen, you dramatizing
the word doesn't make it God either. So shouting, yelling, whispering, none of
those things make it the Lord. That doesn't make it the Lord that you say
thus saith the Lord, doesn't make it the Lord that you sound like Shakespeare or
Orson Welles, it doesn't make it the Lord that, you know, that you shout, it
doesn't make it the Lord that you have this big display, and by the way, I love
it all. Like, I like the drama, I'm Spaniard. I grew up the Pentecostals, like,
I love it all, it just doesn't make it prophecy. And the other thing it does is
it narrows your scope or your sphere of influence, because if you're in a
Pentecostal church, and I still go to them, I love them, I really do like the
drama. Like, I actually like all the, you know, I get it, you know, but the thing is,
is that the people who need the gifts of the Spirit the most don't come into the
building. And like, you go to the mall, and you shabba, and they're gonna think
you're having a seizure, and take you out. You go to the political world, and
you go in there, and you yell, and they're gonna call security. So, you know,
your etiquette does either open or close doors for you. And I don't know if you, I
think we gave you the book, School of the Prophets, but, you know, I think etiquette
down to, somebody shouldn't get, have to get past the way you dress to receive
your word. So when we go to meet with political people, most of the time,
Especially in an official position, we wear suits,
and we ask the ladies to wear dresses.
In most countries, dresses are our only thing that's,
whatever's appropriate is my point.
And modest, dress modestly for ladies and men too.
My point is, we don't want them to have to get over you
to get to the Word.
That's the point.
I think we've already said this, but it's worth repeating.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Proverbs 18, 21.
The more anointed you are, the more dangerous you are.
So, remember I said to you just in the opening
that you can make things happen,
God never wanted it to happen?
And I think Bethany, I think, was the one
that I walked in when she was finishing sharing this,
but when you prophesy negative stuff over people,
if you're anointed and gifted,
it has a power that God didn't intend.
And so, you know, we just did the flesh thing
a few minutes ago.
Listen, I get prophetic words at least daily.
I've gotten three since I've been here this morning,
and that's very common for me.
Most of them are very encouraging, and I'm very thankful.
But at least weekly, I get something that isn't.
And I'll start to read it if it's a text,
it's by text or whatever.
And if I can see where it's going, I just delete it.
I don't even read the rest of it.
I get letters that are negative,
and I have Kimberly open them.
All my mail, she opens, so if you send me a letter,
she's gonna open it.
And if she sees it's negative, I don't wanna see it,
just throw it away.
I don't wanna deal with it.
And you're like, well, you don't let people
give you feedback.
Yeah, I have accountability system.
They can tell me, and our accountability here is brutal.
Like, I actually don't need someone who doesn't know me
to tell me what I'm doing wrong.
I have Nathan and Gads around me.
And so does this whole team.
So does our entire team.
And we become that for each other.
But I have a leader who I'm accountable to,
and I have leadership I'm accountable to.
And I'll say honestly, and I mean it in a good way,
that they are brutal when they see an attitude
before it ever becomes an action.
They're like, hey, you were in staff today.
I don't know what that thing is on you.
I didn't even do anything wrong.
Just like your attitude, something's going on with you.
And I wanna live in a culture that talks to my attitude
before it ever becomes an action.
So I talk a little bit about judging prophetic words.
There's a difference between a warning and a judgment word.
Did you guys talk about this in any session?
Okay.
And a warning, well, let's talk about judgment.
Judgment means that you're decreeing
that somebody's action, mostly sin,
is creating a judgment from God.
So, and a warning, okay, so that's a judgment, right?
So it's directly connected to God's gonna get you
because you did this.
A warning is attached to something bad's gonna happen,
but the warning is there so that it doesn't happen
and it's not related to God's mad at you.
It's related to like,
someone's breaking into your house tomorrow.
Be ready, stop them, right?
Jesus said, if the strong man would have known
when the thief was gonna come in, he'd be prepared.
It's that kind of thing, right?
So for example, Agabus,
who's one of the only named prophets in the New Testament,
he warned of a famine.
Now, in the Old Testament,
you would never get a prophet warning about a famine
who didn't attach it to their sin.
Like, there's a famine coming
because you were worshiping Baal.
There's a famine coming because you did this.
But Agabus doesn't connect the famine
to anyone's bad behavior.
And they immediately say, okay, there's a famine coming.
Let's take an offering.
This is really powerful.
Let's take an offering for our senior church in Jerusalem.
So their response to the famine was interesting to me
because they apparently didn't seem to pray about it,
which I think would be appropriate.
But what they did do is say, what can we do?
Well, we can be generous to our senior leaders.
And they took an offering.
It's a kind of a strange response to a warning.
Are you with me?
But my point that I'm really making is Agabus
does not attach the warning
to anything they need to repent for.
No Old Testament prophet would allow a bad disaster
to not be attached to bad behavior.
So I'd like to point out that warning.
you can do warnings in the New Testament.
Now, you have to look at your own prophetic journal,
and if you have lots of warnings,
I propose that the problem's you.
Here we go.
You're gonna wear your leaders out with warnings
if you do that.
And what happens is you cry wolf so many times,
no one wants to listen to you anymore.
When I first came here,
there was no prophetic culture here when I came here.
It's one of the reasons why Bill brought us.
And person, I would say two-thirds of the prophetic words
were what I would call old covenant words.
They were warnings, they were, you know,
this woman's gonna come in and seduce the pastor.
It was like this, it was continual.
And we finally, you know, I was here a month
and we started training people,
and we had lots of people get mad
and walk out of the trainings.
You know, when your ministry is built around
your, the power you feel by knowing things
no one else knows, and most of them are like,
there's a warning here, there's a,
and you take away the ability for people
to make judgments, they kind of lose their ministry.
We, the very first, I think it was the first
three or four years, I taught this message
every time in the School of the Prophets.
The first message I taught was called Graceland,
and it was like two hours long.
And we took you through the theology
of moving from the old covenant to the new covenant.
And we would have people get up, yell at us,
and walk out of the room, over and over.
We lost like 25% of our first class.
I think they came back, actually,
but they left the session mad.
Just got up and walked out.
And it's like, if you not being able to judge people
ruins your ministry, you never fricking had one.
If you get a lot of joy out of bringing judgments
to people so much that you get angry,
I can understand you may not agree,
and you can stand up, and we've had
many theological debates, it's all good.
I told you, it's all good.
But when you get angry because someone takes away
your right to bring judgment on nations and people,
I would check what's going on with you.
Okay, good point, Chris.
Let's see.
The last thing I'll say on etiquette is
that you only have as much authority
in your life as you submit to.
And the greater your gift,
the more accountability you need.
Now, let me be clear.
Most of what we call accountability
is actually a count of disability.
Like, we're actually, we feel like we're in someone's life
to find out what's wrong with them.
I used to have accountability group 40 years ago
where we'd sit with, there was 12 of us,
and we'd sit in a circle, and the first thing we would do,
the first 10 minutes was confess our sins to one another.
The thing is, it was all based on the idea
that we were sinners.
And if you didn't have a sin, it felt really weird
that 11 other people confessed theirs,
and you're like, well, I didn't do one this week.
So you're confessing sins, you know, prophetically.
Like, this is what I might commit, you know, next week.
And we created an account for your disability.
But actually, if you think about it,
the goal is to create a culture
that calls out greatness in people
and empowers them to fulfill their divine destiny.
So when Paul, for example, was discipling Timothy,
he writes to Timothy about the gift that was in him.
He's calling him to account for his ability.
And he tells Timothy, take the gift that was given to you
by the laying on of the presbytery,
and I'll just put it in simple terms,
and do something with it.
And I want you to do something with it
to the place where everyone sees your progress.
That seems really like anti the church.
Like, everyone sees your progress.
Timothy, I want you to use the gifts
that were given to you through the laying on of the hands.
I mean, they were airdropped to him.
Take the airdropped gift that was given to you,
or gifts, he actually says gifts,
and work with them, labor with them,
till you get really good at it,
so everybody can see your progress.
This is the culture that we need to have.
And then if I'm giving an account for my ability to a team,
and I have a disability, like I have.
bad attitude, or I'm mad at somebody, or whatever,
then it's real easy to listen to that team
because they have been encouraging me all year long.
So when somebody I know believes in me,
tells me, man, that wasn't good what you did up there,
or that you should've done that a different way,
I'm not in defense mode,
because I know these people love me.
Are you with me?
Good point, Chris.
Amen.
I'm gonna read you a non-politically correct scripture.
Hebrews 13, 17, obey your leaders and submit to them,
for they keep watch over your souls
as those who would give an account.
Let them do this with joy and not with grief,
for this would be unprofitable for you.
I've hardly ever heard this taught on,
or even read in church.
This is so anti, I know many of you are from other nations,
but this is so anti-American.
Like, the Lord is my shepherd.
Well, he happens to be invisible, huh?
So how do we know you're actually following him?
The Lord has actually put leaders in our life,
spiritual leaders in our life,
and the Hebrew writer says that they actually
are gonna give an account to Jesus for my soul.
And I think whoever God has given oversight to,
he's given insight to.
Let me say that again.
Like, there's a great advantage
to having someone have oversight over you,
because whoever God gives oversight to,
he gives insight to.
Now, I understand spiritual abuse, I get all that,
I get someone's trying to control me,
I've been abused, I've been hurt, I've been all this,
and you know, I get that.
But I mean, some people's idea
is to defund the police department.
It's a metaphor.
It's like, police did bad things,
so we should have no police.
I'm like, we're gonna have antarchy if we do that.
You know, I know that there's been lots of bad marriages.
I hope you still believe in marriage.
I've been, you know, I've been mistreated
at the grocery store, but I still go there.
I wanna encourage you and exhort you
as a brother and a father,
I'm probably not your father for sure,
but you should have a local church
that you are submitted to.
Well, you know, let me tell you, my pastor,
yeah, your pastor's not perfect,
and you're not in a perfect church,
and if you were, you going there would make it imperfect.
So, here's a question only you can answer,
how righteous does the leadership need to be
for you to be submissive?
Now, you guys know my story.
I grew up with two abusive fathers.
My first father beat me till blood ran down my legs
on numerous occasions.
So, I get abusive authority, I get it.
I get when somebody said, when I got saved,
the day I got saved, they said, you need a father.
The word father was all skewed and messed up in my life
because fathers did not promote me,
they actually rejected me and abused me.
But I can't take my experience
and let it override the truth.
And thankfully, the Lord gave me three spiritual fathers
in my life, and I've buried two of them,
and we're just wonderful, godly men.
Not perfect, I didn't always take their counsel,
but they love me well.
And to this day, Pastor Bill still loves me well.
So, I just want to really encourage you.
What's scary, let me say this,
how committed are we to this?
Daniel and I, when we started school ministry,
if you didn't have a letter from your pastor,
you couldn't come to school.
Right?
So, it eliminated hundreds of people over the years.
And then we started realizing that there was a lot of people
that couldn't get a letter from their pastor,
not because they had a bad relationship with them,
but because we did.
Like, as Bethel grew, they were like,
oh, those Bethel people are a cult.
So, they had a great relationship with their leadership,
but their leadership's like, we're afraid of those guys.
And so, we're like, yeah, you know,
I don't think this is a great plan.
And then we also had a lot of churches,
a lot of people who were going to churches
that were not charismatic churches,
were anti-charismatic, and they maybe never heard of Bethel,
but they're like, you're gonna go to the school of prophets?
That sounds like, no, they all died with the first century.
You're gonna go talk to dead people.
So, we got rid of that, we got rid of the recommendation.
But my point is this, is that we still feel very much
that prophets and prophetesses especially
need to be connected to the local church.
And your church doesn't have to be perfectly healthy,
but if your church is so unhealthy,
that you can't submit your life to them. Under Jesus, of course, you're gonna
follow them as they follow Jesus. If they go right, Jesus going straight, of
course you've got a brain. You shouldn't be going to that church if you
can't trust the leadership. If you can't find any church to trust, you're probably
the problem. Because trust flows both ways. And we build cases against people
we're afraid of. And I hear it all the time, you know, I've been to five churches
and all the leaders are corrupt. I'm like, all the leaders are
corrupt in five churches. Yeah, it might be that you're something like, you got
boogers on your lens. You sneezed on your glasses. Something, anyway, okay. I
understand there are, you know, there's six hundred people in here. I understand
that there's six hundred different views of what that means. But if you can't find
a place to be spiritually connected, I'm very concerned about your gift growing.
Because people that sit on the outside of the church looking in, they're always
the people that have judgments against the church. I, you know, you guys are
probably on social media on some level, right? And, you know, if I say anything
about submission to church, there will be literally an easy 500 comments. And 490
of them will be bad. And I guarantee you, almost all of them don't have a church.
And they have prophetic words for the church. And listen, if you're not a part
of my family, you don't have any business. You have no authority where you
have no responsibility. So I could give a rip what you think about the church if
you're out there. As a matter of fact, I might agree with you, but don't talk bad
about my family when you're not a part of my family. Now our leaders, we
talk bad about our family all the time. We don't talk bad about our family, you
know what I'm trying to say. I mean, we talk about problems in our family.
We're leaders. We're like, hey, we have an issue here. What are we gonna do about
that? And everybody knows, like, no one's defending their opinion because we're
like, I know Ben loves them, because he's committed to them. And so he's there to
say, hey, this is a problem, let's solve it together. But if you're not a part of my
family, you better not talk about my family. I could talk about my family, but
you better not talk about my family. Okay, good, you all right? Okay, now we're
gonna shift gears and talk about false prophets. If you're a false prophet, could
you stand up? I'd like to talk to you.
I just realized that's a big shift. We're going from prophetic, adequate, let's
talk about false prophets. You know, there is a, well, you hear it all the time, right?
It's like, in the last days there'll be false Christs and false prophets. Here's
how people outside of the charismatic world read those verses. Anybody who
prophesies or thinks he's a prophet is false, because Jesus said, in the last
days, all the prophets will be false. But he didn't say that. He said, in the last
days, there'll be false prophets and false Christs. And by the way, he went on
to say there'd be false teachers. You don't hear that very often. And the idea
in most of those circles are, if you prophesy or you believe in apostles and
prophets or anything like that, you're false because Jesus said you are. And I'd
like to point out that if Jesus was saying, in the last days, all the prophets
would be false, that would be easy. Right? All Jesus had to say is like, in the last
days, all the prophets will be false. But he didn't do that. The only reason why
there'd be false prophets is that there was true ones. If there were no $20 bills,
if there was none, like they didn't print $20 bills, and there were false $20 bills,
be super simple because you're like, they don't print $20 bills, these are all
false. But I'd like to point out that the reason why there's false prophets is
because there's true ones. The reasons why there's false teachers is because
there's real ones. The reason why there's false Christ is because we have a Christ.
And I think the greatest example, at least one of the best examples, is when
Moses and Aaron, God talks to him in the bush, you know, not George, and he
tells him to take his staff and throw it down. You know, I'm just trying to do this
in two minutes, and it's a 15 minute
Story.
And so they go before Pharaoh,
and they say, let my people go, you know the story.
And Pharaoh says, you know, no.
And Moses goes, Aaron, show them what we learned.
And Aaron throws down his staff and becomes a snake, right?
What do the sorcerers do?
They throw down the staff and becomes two snakes.
Now, just think about this for just a minute,
because this is really profound,
and we're in the middle of it right now.
What did the enemy do?
Duplicate what the Lord was doing.
Why?
To change Pharaoh's mind about who he should follow.
They couldn't stop the move of God,
so they falsified it by doing the same thing.
And by the way, isn't it interesting
that they, the sorcerers, actually could make snakes?
And you remember this?
The first four plagues,
every time Aaron and Moses did something,
the sorcerers could duplicate the same miracles.
I think it was the fifth,
I think it was the fifth one that they did.
They came again with the fifth.
It was, there was 10, ultimately.
I think it was the fifth one,
when they performed the fifth one,
the sorcerers looked at the king and said,
we can't do these, this must be God.
But for the first four, they duplicated the miracles of God.
I'm pointing out that Moses and Aaron
weren't duplicating their stuff.
They were duplicating God's stuff.
The scary thing for me is,
the enemy only duplicates what's powerful.
Like, I don't think anyone would ever make a $1 bill.
Right?
It's too much work for very little, right?
You wouldn't forge a $1 bill,
it's just too much work for not enough.
I'm saying that most of the things
that you see in the New Age,
and in the demonic realm and the Satanist realm,
there's almost everything God does that's powerful
is duplicated in the occult and in the cults.
And the Christian,
Christians are sometimes so stupid, they make me mad.
They run away from that, and they're like,
well, I can't do that because the devil does that.
Well, the devil's not a creator,
where do you think he got the idea?
A great example, trances.
And when you hear the word trance,
if you've been at Bethel for the first time,
you're like, oh my God, they're gonna teach about trances.
Actually, there's only two trances listed in the Bible.
And Paul had one, and Peter had the other.
There's never a mention of a trance in a negative sense
in the entire Old or New Testament.
And yet we're like, well, the occult has trances.
The Bible has trances.
And Peter fell into a trance,
and it opened up the door to the Gentiles.
Paul fell into a trance, and it opened up the door to Asia.
Or you're like, well, you teach on trance.
No, we don't teach people how to have a trance.
I'm pointing out, and I don't think you should,
I don't think you should pray like, God, give me a trance.
I think that's, you know, I know some people do that.
It's just weird to me.
But my point is, my point is,
it is, when I just say the word trance,
even though I've been in hard times,
I've been in hundreds of meetings
where people fall into trances.
When you just say the word trance,
people automate, that's the occult.
The Bethel people are teaching the occult.
No, we're actually teaching the Bible.
Are you with me?
Yes.
So I'm like, check your sources.
And my challenge is, is that most of the stuff
that the anti-charismatic people are running away from,
and I'll say this, a lot of the anti-Bethel people
are running away from are things
that are actually right there in the Bible.
Like, it can take you through and show you these things.
Open visions.
And people say things like,
well, you know, God would never do that.
I'm like, have you been reading the Bible?
Like, God took Ezekiel by the hair
and thrust him through the midheaven.
Can you imagine your pastor?
You're sitting, he starts, he's preaching,
and all of a sudden, he's like.
I mean, listen, I'm not saying do that.
I'm pointing out that when you try to justify
your fear or your discernment by God would never do that.
I mean, have you read Jeremiah?
Yeah.
God made Jeremiah.
Jeremiah, I want you to strip for,
and I want you for, what is it, three and a half years?
And I want you to cook your food
and I want you to put it in the oven
and I want you to put it in the oven.
over dung. That's crap. And actually Jeremiah refused to do it, like, over your
dung, and Jeremiah's like, I'm not doing that. God's like, okay, well you can do
donkey dung then. But he literally had to sleep one side, this is in the Bible, he
had to sleep on one side for a certain amount of time and cook his food over
dung and sleep on it, totally naked. Totally naked. I mean, this is a God, this
is people go, well God would never do that. I'm like, you are, what Bible are you
reading? Like, I'm always afraid God, like, I'm not afraid of what your ideas are, I'm
afraid of his ideas. I can't even tell you how many times I'm like, have the
three of you talked about this? This doesn't seem like a great plan to me.
Have you noticed, like, in the Old Testament, almost every time the Holy
Spirit, every time the Spirit fell on the prophets, they ripped all their clothes
off. I'm like, I'm so glad I'm in the New Covenant, you know? You know what I mean.
Like, yeah, when you're a guy, yeah, when you're a guy, you know, you want to look,
you know, and you're 20, you want to look good without a shirt, you know? When you're
40, you want to look good with a shirt. When you hit 60, you're like, just so much
easier to turn the lights off before you get to bed.
Yes, I want to be a New Testament prophet and part of the body of Christ. Okay,
let's talk about false prophets, now that I only have 20 minutes. Okay, there's two
kinds of false prophets. One of them's listed in Acts 16, verse 16 through 18,
and I'll just read it. It happened as we were going, this is Luke talking about
Paul. It happened as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl having a
spirit of divination met us, who's bringing her masters much profit by
foretelling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, these men are great
bondservants, no, these men are bondservants of the Most High God, who
are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. She continued doing this for
many days, but Paul was greatly annoyed and turned to her and said to the Spirit,
I command you in the name of Jesus, come out of her. And it came out that very
moment. Okay, this is a woman who doesn't know God, who has the spirit of
divination. I want you to notice something. She has a spirit of divination,
but what she's saying is true. So sometimes we say, well, you know what, the
devil, you'll know it's the devil because he always lies. People, Christian
simplicity is one of the reasons we're being killed in warfare. The devil is not
stupid, but he is insane. Are you with me? She was saying, these are great men of
God, and they're proclaiming the kingdom, the way of salvation to you. That's true,
but it was the wrong spirit. So I'd like to point out that there's one kind of
prophet that literally has the wrong spirit. And here's the challenge, what
happens, how do prophetic words come to pass? Have you ever thought about this?
Like, when you prophesy something powerful into the atmosphere, how does it
actually happen? Are you with me at all? You know, 1 Samuel 3, for example, and God
was with Samuel and let none of his words fall to the ground or fail. How did
that happen? Here's how it actually happens. Here's how it practically
happens in the spiritual world, if I could say practical and spiritual. When
you prophesy when it's the Lord, angels actually go out and carry out his words,
Psalms 105, verse 20. They hearken to his voice and they carry out his word. So you
have agents, Hebrews 11, that angels are the servants of those who receive
salvation. So when you prophesy, what's actually happening is you're sending out
God's agents to bring about the prophetic word. What happens when a
psychic prophesies? Well, not only did you just get a word, but you just attach
yourself to the demonic realm. The scariest part of going to a psychic, a
sorcerer, any of those things, is not the word, because they often will have an
accurate word. The challenge is who's making it accurate. So source matters.
Okay, I'm gonna read you a few of Jesus's words. Matthew 7, verses 15 through 27.
I don't know if we'll read them all. Beware of false prophets who come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravaged wolves. You'll know them by their
fruits. He goes on to talk about fruit. He said, then you'll know them by their
fruits. Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but
those who do the will of the Father. Everybody say, do the will of the Father.
Who's he?
heaven. Many will say in that day, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name?
Didn't we cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? And he will
say and declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
Okay, let me tell you about the second kind of prophet. The second kind of false
prophet is a person who receives a gift from God. Remember that there's a calling,
gifting, and anointing. Your calling gives your identity, your gifting gives your
ability, and your anointing gives your purpose. The gifts and callings of God are
irrevocable. Romans chapter 11 verse 29. The gifts and callings of God are
irrevocable. So if God calls you to be a prophet or prophetess, maybe from birth,
maybe after you receive Christ, maybe 20 years after you receive Christ, once you
receive that call, God never takes it back. That doesn't mean you're gonna
always walk with God because God doesn't control you, remember that? So what
happens when I get a call from God on my life, a prophet, or a gift from God in my
life, prophecy, remember? Haley taught us a gift is something I do, the
call is something I am, and then I walk away from God. Guess what? I get to take
my stuff with me. I get all the stuff in my divorce with God. Now, I still have the
call as a prophet or the gift of prophecy on my life, but who's anointing
it? Are you with me? So how many understand that this isn't the spirit of
divination, this is the Spirit of God anointed by the devil? Are you with me?
Two different kinds of false prophets. Now, Jesus makes this statement about
false prophets. You'll know them because they're in sheep's clothing, but they're
inwardly wolves. I want to just make some quick points. So they look like
sheep, number one. Number two, they can do signs and wonders, because Jesus never
rebuked them, never said to them, no, you didn't do, you didn't prophesy in my
name, you didn't cast out demons. He said, depart from me, you lawless one, I never
knew you. I didn't say you didn't know me, I said I never knew you. And he goes on,
this is the story where he goes on to talk about how one man built his house
on a rock, and the other built his house on sand. This is a very, what I'm
getting at is, we seldom realize that Jesus is still talking about false
prophets and fruit. What is the fruit he's talking about? What is the fruit?
Well, remember he said that they are lawless. He calls them lawless. Now, what
does that mean, lawless? Like, they don't keep the law of Moses, they don't obey
the laws of the land. What is, when Jesus in that context is saying, here's how
you'll know the fruit, they're lawless. And then he gives an example of what he
means by lawless. One person built his house on a sand, another built his house
on a rock. And the person who built his house on the sand was the person
who heard the word, but didn't do it. The person who heard, that built his house on
the rock, is the person who heard the word and did it. My point is, Jesus calls
lawless people, people who hear but don't respond. And he says, false prophets are
like the person who builds on the sand. They hear the Word of the Lord, but they
don't do anything about it. And I'd like to point out that false prophets build
on sand, they build on particles of truth. So they all had their pet doctrines,
often taken out of context. They have pebbles of sand, but they don't have the
rock. They don't take the Bible in context. With our prophetic people, let me
tell you, there is a lot of pressure at Bethel to be revelatory, because of our
leader. Like have heavy revs. You know, I don't know if you ever heard Pastor Bill
teach, but he'll like share one line, then he'll pause. And people are like, whoa,
where'd he get that? I used to do that when I first started teaching, because I
follow my leader. And I'd pause, and it'd be like, oh, they forgot his message.
There's a ton of pressure. There's a ton of pressure to be revelatory in this
church. I want to tell you, I mean, I feel it. Everybody feels it. Everybody feels it.
Like, I've been with Bill 45 years, and when Bill's in the front row, I got to
say, I'm not nervous, but I am concerned.
It's like, we always, we secretly call him Moses. He knows that, but
we call him Moses. Like he goes up, gets a revelatory word, brings it
down, and we're all like... And what's really strange is, he usually just quotes the
Bible pervade him. And you're like, wow, where'd he get that? Somebody's like...
It's Matthew 24, why does it sound so different when he reads it than when I read it?
And what happens is, and this is a warning, the pressure on our teams to be revelatory
makes you weird.
And what I've watched over and over, Ben could tell you this too late, is that our
prophetic people pick weird verses, one-offs, and build a whole ministry around it.
Well the Neopham were sons of God, got to be with the daughters of men, and I'm like,
I don't care if you teach that, but if that's all the kind of stuff you're teaching, you
scare the crap out of me.
If you can't teach John 3, 16 as part of what you do, if you can't, you know, teach things
that aren't obscure, like love your brother, do good to people, forgive, and your entire,
and you know, Ben could tell you, we're pastoring people out of this.
There's just pressure to find a verse that has, you know, the seven spirits of God.
Can't even tell you how many messages I've heard on the seven spirits of God.
And listen, listen, listen, some of them are good, but my challenge is, is that when
that's your meat and potatoes, you scare me, because you're getting weird.
And if you're going to do something weird, I want to know that you do eat meat and potatoes,
and that once in a while you eat, you know, whatever, sushi or something.
That's weird.
I don't like sushi, so it's easy for me to say.
Let me go a little faster.
They look like sheep, but they're called lawless.
What does lawless mean in the Bible?
It means they hear, but they don't do.
Number two, false prophets have pet scriptures that are usually way out there.
You can't really argue with them, because, I mean, how do you argue with the seven spirits
of God?
I don't know.
You know what, I get it.
False prophets have power, but unfortunately their goal is to use their influence to lead
people to themselves instead of to Christ.
Okay, I don't have very much time, so in 1 John 4, it says this,
Beloved, don't believe every spirit.
Okay, let me stop.
John is writing to the church.
This was not written to the world.
So I have people all the time say, well, I'm blood washed, and the devil can't talk to
me.
Well, he talked to Jesus.
Jesus was kind of blood washed.
I'm saying people have theology they haven't thought through.
These are the same people I put on the forearmer of God.
Why do you need that if he can't influence you?
Why does Jesus warn you about false prophets if they have no influence on you?
So here John says, Beloved, Beloved, I'm stalling, Beloved, where did it go?
Beloved, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they're from God.
For many false prophets have went out into the world.
This is a direct warning to the church to not become a false prophet by listening to
the wrong spirit.
And then, I don't know if you know this, but this is the theme of 1 John 4.
I'm saying from the beginning of 1 John 4, where he opens with, Beloved, don't become
a false prophet, Beloved, don't believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they're
from God.
For many false prophets went out into the world.
That is the theme of the entire chapter.
You know that song, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
Some of you are not old enough to know this song.
You might, listen, I'm doing this with a cold.
If you thought that was good, you should hear me when my nasals aren't plugged.
No, you know that song, right?
How many of you know that song?
That's actually about false prophets.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loveth is born
of God and knows God.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God.
That's in John's discussion about false prophets.
And he's saying, how do you know a false prophet?
If they don't love, I don't care what their word is, they're not from God.
I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you, how many am I going to give you?
I'm going to give you five signs of a false prophet according to John.
The first one is, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is
from God.
Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of antichrist, which you've heard, that is coming and is now our
in the world. Okay, number one, does the prophet believe in the redemptive work
of the Son of God? So these are five tests. Does the prophet, does the prophet,
the supposed prophet, does he believe in the redemptive work of the blood of
Jesus? Let me tell you, that eliminates almost all the psychics. So we're like,
okay, we got those guys off, because if you don't believe that the blood of
Jesus frees people, redeems people, and transforms people, you got the
wrong spirit. Are you with me? Okay, number two, let me read the verse. Verse four
through six, you are from God, little children, and you've overcome them, because
greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Remember, he's still
talking about false prophets. They are from the world. Who? The false prophets
are from the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak as from the
world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and he who knows God, listen
to this, this is key, listens to us. He who is not from God does not listen to
us. By this you'll know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I'd like
to point out that false prophets are almost never connected to a church,
because they're more spiritual. They don't listen, because they're not in
submission to anyone. This is what I was sharing with you when we talked about
prophetic etiquette. It is so important that you have accountability.
Accountability means that you trust someone more than you trust yourself.
Okay, here we go. Do you know what it means to be deceived? It means you're
wrong and you don't know it. If you're wrong and know it, that's not being
deceived. That means stupid. Are you with me? If I know I'm wrong, just think
through this with me. I'm not trying to be, I'm trying to be a little funny just
to entertain you, but if I know I'm wrong and I do it anyway, I don't really need
you to tell me I'm wrong. I might need you to give me a kick in the butt to do
the right thing, but I know I'm wrong. And let me say this, three-quarters of us
know we're wrong when we do something wrong, right? Come on, you got the
conviction. You're like, I'm gonna do it anyway. I'm gonna eat that anyway. I know
I'm gonna have a stomachache tomorrow. I'm gonna say that even though it's
gonna make my wife mad, and I know I'll regret it tomorrow, but I'm gonna do it
anyway. Like, and by the way, you can't sin unintentionally. Let me start, let me say
that again. Paul said, when the law came, capital L, the law of Moses. When the law
came, sin increased. Not because I did more wrong, but because now I knew that
it was wrong. You can't sin by accident. You can only sin on purpose. If I live
with my girlfriend, I never got connected to the Bible, I know
Christianity, I was, you know, I grew up in a commune, and I'm sleeping with my
girlfriend, because people can be that ignorant nowadays. How many understand
that unless I've had Holy Spirit conviction, well I'm living there in the
world, and the Holy Spirit's like, get out of this relationship, I only, if I don't
have any way to know that's wrong, until the Holy Spirit convicts me, maybe it's
through the Bible, or a preacher, whatever, I actually am not sinning. What would be
sin for you isn't sin for them, because sin is an act of the heart. Are you
following me? So if I'm deceived, the only way I can get out of deception is to
actually trust someone more than I trust myself. How do I know I'm deceived? Well,
when someone confronts me, it feels wrong. Here we go. I'm saying, if you are truly
deceived, if I'm truly deceived about something, and Daniel comes and says, hey
you know that thing, I see this thing in your life, it doesn't feel true.
Otherwise I'm not deceived. I'll tell you this quick story, I always tell on
myself anyway, but this is many years, this is probably 12 years ago. So I'm
perfect now, by the way, I fixed it all. Danny Silk, who's one of my very close
friends, I led Danny to the Lord when he was 22, came into my office and he was on
his way, he says, hey I'm gonna fly out in 15 minutes, but I got to tell you this
thing. I said, what is it? He said, I see arrogance and pride in you. I said, okay.
Sit down. He said, I just have a few minutes, so I don't have time to argue
with you. He's always saying that to me. Time to argue. Okay. So he sits down and he
says, and he talks about three incidents, one was in staff meeting, one
was with a traveling speaker who came, and one was an incident with one of our
staff. And he said, I saw arrogance and pride on you in those meetings, and you
were talking da da da, it's all about you, and da da da, he's telling me this thing. And I
said, I don't feel that's true. He said, well
Listen, it's my job to tell you, it's your job to work it out.
And he left, and I was angry.
So I go to bed that night, and I'm like, okay, so, you know, Danny's wrong.
And I'm really thinking that my challenge is to forgive Danny for being wrong.
I thought, this is the big challenge right here, forgive your brother.
But when I lay down, the Lord said to me these words, if you don't trust someone more
than you trust yourself, you can't get out of deception, because the nature of deception
is you don't know you're deceived.
That was what I'd been teaching the students for 10 years.
He quoted me.
And I'm laying there, and I'm like, okay, so the nature of deception is it doesn't feel
real, this doesn't feel real.
And the Lord said to me, does Danny love you?
I know Danny would give his, he would physically give his life for me.
Yes.
Was Danny trying to hurt you?
Well, it was painful, but no, that wouldn't be his intent.
And so he took me through all these things, like, is Danny trustworthy in your life?
Not is he perfect, is he trustworthy in your life?
And all the boxes were yes.
So the Lord said, then why don't you trust him, meaning I had to agree with something
I didn't feel was true.
And so I'm laying there, and I said, all right, in tears, I trust Danny, that there's a problem
with arrogance and pride in my life, craziest thing happened.
I've never had it happen before.
I suddenly could see my sin.
I could see it, like, I could see it.
And not only that, but Danny pointed out three places, and I saw it like 10 places.
And I saw it here, and there, and there, it was like the Lord said, yeah, and Danny
wasn't here when you did all this.
And you know what happens when you're convicted?
You can't wait to make it right, right?
And I laid there, wept through the morning, and the Lord's like, okay, okay, you changed
your attitude, but you haven't cleaned up your mess.
And I wrote letters, and the next staff meeting, which was the next week, I stood up in the
staff meeting and said, this happened to me, I just want to ask you to forgive me for my
arrogance, and I just had to go clean up mess.
I'll tell you what happens is, you sin a lot less when you have to bring forth fruit of
repentance.
But my point is, is that you have to find people that you can trust more than trust
you.
And I want to say one more thing about that.
I know I'm taking a long time for this, but I think this is big with prophets.
You want to find someone you trust before you're in trouble.
Because when you're in trouble, it's really hard to trust anyone.
So this is a culture, like you want to build a culture around you.
And listen, I would say you need two or three people that you trust on that level.
And sometimes you need to get them all in the room at the same time to see if they agree.
Especially when it's a really big thing, where they think you have a really big mess, and
you get your three people in that you trust more than you trust yourself, and you say,
hey, Danny thought this about me.
In this case, I didn't need that.
But I mean, if it would have been a really big mess, I'd be like, hey, Bill and Dan,
can you come in?
This is what Danny's thinking.
I don't see it at all.
Like I don't feel any conviction for it, I don't see it at all.
And they go, oh, yeah, well, we've been wanting to talk to you about that.
Okay, well, if it's a big mess cleanup, like it's going to be very costly.
Now I have three witnesses that I actually have a problem.
This is really big, guys.
It's so missing in the body of Christ.
We have virtual reality relationships, we go to virtual church, with virtual relationships,
with virtual accountability, with virtually no one.
And have real problems, big problems.
And then we shoot at the people who try to bring us a new account.
This is what happens.
I can't even tell you how many times, I'm so far over my time.
I don't know how tight the times are.
Okay, I want to finish this.
I'm going to finish this.
It probably is going to take 10 minutes.
I want to tell you, this is something, this is an observation.
We've had seven false prophets here since I've been here.
That I know of.
I mean, there may have been 50, but I mean, somebody that actually caused a problem.
They all had one thing in common.
You should write this down.
They were hyper-spiritual.
I have never, personally, and I'm sure there are exceptions, I have never met a false prophet
who wasn't hyper-spiritual.
God tells them everything.
Like you sit with them and you're like, you don't even know if you have a relation with
God when you get done talking to them.
God tells them when to go to the bathroom, God tells them what to wear.
Where in the morning?
No, you, I am not exaggerating.
God, yeah, this isn't meaning like,
I had to go to the bathroom,
but the Holy Spirit told me not to.
I don't even ask the Holy Spirit
when I have to go to the bathroom.
Holy Spirit told me what time to get up.
Holy Spirit, listen, I've had seasons like that,
so let me be clear.
I've had seasons where my,
the idea of spirit-led was morning to night,
even my menu, even what I wore.
I'm not talking about an exception.
I'm talking about they live a life of hyper-spirituality.
And let me tell you what it actually means.
It means I have such a good relationship with God
that he tells me everything and I don't need you.
It's actually related to no human is as spiritual as me.
And here's the real problem.
I'm freaking terrified of people.
Almost all, I'm trying to think of,
I'm trying to remember all the names that,
because I know there's been seven,
but I don't have them all in my mind right now.
But almost all of them were deeply abused
by fathers or mothers or someone in authority.
And they grew in the Lord to a place
where they didn't trust anyone.
And so how do they keep from having to take
any input from humans?
That it's God tells them everything.
God tells them everything.
That in my mind, now that I'm doing this a long time,
for me, that's the first sign.
Yeah, and have you ever had a conversation
like this with people?
Some of you are in the room.
Yeah, like God told me to go to bed at 10, 10.01.
Okay, and get up at 7.15 specifically.
And it's out of Isaiah 7.15.
Oh.
Yeah, told me to get these shoes.
I paid $7.15 for them.
They don't fit, but I had to go with 7.15.
They're children's shoes.
Cut the toes out so I could,
like ridiculous, ridiculous stuff.
I'll tell you another thing.
And this is kind of, this is a symptom.
They often can't hold a job down.
Because I mean, literally, nobody can tell them what to do.
Okay, false prophets, number three.
So number two is false prophets don't listen to anyone,
and they're often hyper-spiritual.
Number three is false prophets are not motivated by love,
but are motivated by the need to be noticed.
False prophets are motivated by the need to be noticed.
I don't know if I need to read you the scripture,
but number four, false prophets
commonly use fear to motivate people.
Oh man, this is the clickbait prophecies.
I'll tell you another thing.
Well, let me finish that one.
When people are using fear to motivate you,
it's almost always rooted in the wrong spirit.
Doom and gloom prophets.
Well, America, you know, this is kind of crazy stuff.
America is under the judgment of God for abortion.
So he's gonna kill a bunch of people,
like when the Twin Towers fell.
I can't even tell you how many prophets are like,
the Twin Towers fell because God
is judging America for abortion.
I'm like, okay, let's think this through, guys.
So God so hates that we are killing babies
that he's gonna punish us
by killing a whole bunch of people
to make the point that he believes in life.
It's pretty deep.
Pretty darn deep.
Yeah, yeah.
And he didn't do it to the Chinese
who only allow two children
in a board 100 times more than Americans.
But anyway, I could go on and on.
It's like, we find something goes wrong
and we're like, directly related to the judgment of God.
Let me tell you something, there's gonna be a judgment day.
But right now, how many know that you're not in the last day
you're in the last days.
And the last days are the days of grace.
The last day is the day of judgment.
Okay.
Here's another one.
How many have ever heard this?
God told me some stuff about you,
but I can't tell you.
You're laughing, right?
You've heard it, right?
I had an encounter with God last night about you
and had this dream about you.
Oh yeah, what happened?
I can't tell you.
He told me I can't tell you.
Sealed up like the book of Revelation.
What am I really saying?
I know things you'd like to know but I can't tell you
because I'm so spiritual that I know things about your life
you don't even know about your life
and the whole goal is I have power over you
because I have knowledge about you that you don't have.
Control, it's the spirit of manipulation.
And let me tell you, manipulation is witchcraft.
Witchcraft and witchcrap.
And I'll tell you that oftentimes Christians
enter into witchcraft.
Whenever you're manipulating someone,
you have attached an anointing to the wrong spirit.
Okay.
Okay, I'm gonna read you this last page.
I finished this manual and the original manual,
this was the last chapter of the original manual.
When I got all done, I sent it to the printer
and the Lord's like, there's no hope in that.
And that's your last chapter.
Great manual and let's finish with,
there's no hope for you.
If you see yourself in any of these things, hell bound.
So I actually called it back from the printer
and actually wrote this last couple of paragraphs.
Leading people out of prophetic deception.
Confronting those who believe that they are true prophets
but are not, can be rather difficult.
Most false prophets have been abused by authority
in much of their lives,
and therefore they do not trust anyone.
Fear is the number one reason
why people become hyper spiritual
and it results in religious deception.
To make matters worse,
many false prophets have a martyr's complex.
The more they are confronted about their weirdness,
the more it validates that, I'm sorry,
the more it validates how they feel.
They interpret attempts at correcting them as persecution
that proves that they are standing for God
and against the unrighteous religious system.
They say things like,
I don't believe in organized religion.
When the real problem is they don't like boundaries.
Remember, Jesus calls them lawless.
Lawless people are those
who want to live outside of authority.
So how can they be helped?
First of all, the leaders of the flock
must not be afraid to confront these people,
even though they may appear to be more spiritual
than the leadership they may be intimidating.
Remember, all that wickedness needs to prosper
is for righteous men to do nothing.
It's also important not to react,
but instead respond to these people.
Otherwise, the cure can be worse than the disease.
People like this are accustomed to criticism and rejection
and will use it to validate their ministry.
Then can, however,
boy, this isn't written very well.
How can they be won?
I'm sorry, they can, however,
be won by true godly discipline, not punishment.
The difference between punishment and discipline
is that punishment says I'll get you
for what damage you've caused,
but discipline says I love you too much to leave you broken.
The only hope for these people
is that they begin to feel loved.
As they experience the love of God,
they can begin to trust the leadership
to lead them out of deception.
If they refuse to repent and submit to correction,
they must, this is a big deal,
they must be removed from the fellowship.
Otherwise, they will lead others astray.
As mentioned previously,
the primary weakness of false prophets
is that they draw people to themselves instead of to God.
There is a very narrow window of time
for leadership to deal with false prophets
before they rally people to their defense
against the leadership.
Most of them have an uncanny ability
to attract to themselves the young and the hurting sheep
and are able to divide them from the flock.
Finally, like wolves, they devour the sheep in deception.
I just wanna say that,
I wanna emphasize how true that last line is.
Like false prophets come into the flock,
every single one of them.
And within weeks, I mean weeks,
they use their gift and they'll say things
like this is super common.
I bet there's gonna be people here
that you're actually being influenced by one right now.
Not right now, but before you came.
Be careful, very careful.
The online audience didn't think that was funny.
They begin by telling you things like,
the Lord showed me that you're amazing
and your leaders don't see you.
They always have an angst with the leaders.
Their leaders don't see what I see in you.
And pretty soon they're like,
you know, I think you're a prophetess.
I think you're an apostle.
I actually think that, you know,
I think you're the true leader of this church.
I think you should be in leadership.
I bet your pastor doesn't see that.
And they will get in just very short time.
I'm not talking about months, I'm talking about weeks.
They will have people, 20, 30 people around them.
They will invite them to their home
and there's all these little seeds
of your leaders don't know you like I do.
And the crazy thing is, is that so quickly
the people will fall under the spirit of deception.
And when you come in to try to correct that person,
these people will gather around and they will defend them.
That's happened every single time in this place.
And it's sometimes takes years for,
after that person's, you know, asked to leave,
for these people to come around to realize like,
oh, that person was deceiving them
because ultimately he uses them.
He either draws them into a cult.
And by the way, I'm saying he,
but actually about four of those were women.
Draws them into a cult and begins to feed them
the pet peeves of his doctrine.
And the whole thing is about spiritual arrogance,
spiritual pride, like we know more than everybody.
And we go to heaven and we do these things
and we believe in, you know, my last one was,
he literally has been to Mars.
Sounds crazy when I say it,
but you should hear him say it.
Like he gets a whole bunch of amens.
The UFOs are visiting him.
This is true, I'm telling, I'm not exaggerating.
I'm actually playing it down.
And he's like, yeah, you know what?
Bethel leaders, they don't know about the heavenly things.
They don't know about the heavenly things.
And you know, we finally had to ask him to leave.
He was the son of ours.
And he just got so far out there.
But from the very beginning, when he came to us,
he had one common thread.
He was ultra spiritual,
and he didn't like to be told anything to do.
And I warned him for three years.
And now he's so far out there.
His wife left him, his kids are gone.
He's just completely weird.
And so we don't want you to be completely weird.
We want you to be Bethel weird,
not completely weird.
Why don't you stand and I'll pray for you.
Thank you.
Thanks for sitting so long.
Come on.
Okay, I want to remind you,
I'm not running around hugging you
or shaking hands with you
because I don't want you to catch my cold.
And some of you are like, well, I don't believe I can.
I'm like, oh, that's great.
I don't believe you can either
because I'm not going to touch you or hug you.
So I don't want you to interpret that as he's not friendly
because I'm Spanish and we usually hug and kiss everybody,
which is politically incorrect to do now too.
So, but Lord, I just thank you.
And I pray again for this gift
of distinguishing, discerning of spirits.
Lord, I pray for people, maybe even people in the room
that may be have tendencies towards this.
And probably we all do in some way.
We all want to be loved.
We all want to be powerful.
We all love attention.
Lord, I pray that you would help us
to follow the spirit of truth
and that we would not be afraid,
but at the same time, we would be wise as serpents
and innocent as doves.
And Lord, where we see people like this
beginning to grow in our circles of influence,
that we could be that friend who sits down with them
and says, hey, can I tell you something?
I'm concerned about this.
And that we could verbalize concerns in love
and disciple people back into the truth
that makes them free.
And Lord, may we heal the brokenhearted
who have been so damaged by life
that they don't trust humans.
Lord, may you heal those people,
even those people that are in this room today.
And Lord, I bless.
I bless this school.
And I thank you for it, in Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you so very much.
Thank you.
Wow, powerful moments.
Hey, just quick announcements
before we send you off to dinner.
We will need you to grab all your stuff
because we're gonna close the doors
because we have a sound check
and we wanna prep for tonight for dinner.
And then as well, we have our Arise and Build team
and they're gonna be out in the donut
that little informational lobby out there.
Our Arise and Build team is actually our team
who are pioneering and going after our new building
and it is so amazing.
And we wanna make you aware,
we're gonna actually talk to you more about it
during this evening session,
but we wanted you to be able to meet our team,
hear what we're doing and really catch the vision
for our new facility right out here.
And some of you may have already driven past
and you see our Collier property
and they're breaking ground
and they got big machines out there
and there's amazing stuff going on.
Every day when I drive in in the morning,
I get so excited because of what God's doing
for the generations through Bethel Church
and through our Arise and Build project.
So go meet our friends and our team out there,
enjoy your dinner and we'll see you at seven o'clock.