Blog - Latest Posts
Crestwood Church Blog
Examining Signs and Wonders
For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones. See, I have warned you about this ahead of time. "So if someone tells you, 'Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,' don’t bother to go and look. Or, 'Look, he is hiding here,' don’t believe it! Matthew 24:24-25
Not too long ago a well known international evangelist announced on TV that Jesus Christ would personally appear before thousands of people in Kenya, Nairobi. Many thousands of "Christian" viewers ploughed vast sums of money into his ministry, because they saw this man as God's anointed - despite the fact that this is impossible! The next time the Lord Jesus appears, it will be to rescue his people and judge those that rejected him. Nevertheless, this amazing claim was still made. Obviously the event took place without the appearance of the Lord.
Meanwhile, other "Christian Stars" portray the work of the Holy Spirit with all kind of strange occurrences: like gold dust from heaven and barking like a dog, to name but a few of the un-God like "signs" and "wonders" that occur in certain sectors of the church.
But the problem is thousands of people still regularly hold the latter as God's anointed and follow after these so called Prophets and seers of the modern church. There are many references to false teaching and false prophets in God's Word and especially concerning the days before the Lord's return, which the verses above are making reference to.
The sad truth to me is the statement in v24, "to deceive, if possible, even God's chosen ones." These people are not just leading non believers astray; but those who love the Lord. When the Lord is seemingly silent with miracles, some feel that they need to imitate the work of the Holy Spirit with these counterfeit signs. Today's church needs to ask the Lord for the gift of discernment so that which is false can be exposed for what it is. Ultimately we have the Word of God, (which the early church never had) and anything that contradicts it, has to be false.
John writes "You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world." 1 John 4:1
I wonder how alert we are and how easily led we are. Let us not be led away by the latest new thing, just because it seems miraculous, but let us seek God's Word and in the Spirit discern the truth. Because often these false things can lead us away from the truth and cause us to miss out on the real miracles that the Lord wants to bestow on his children.
"Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good." 1 Thess 5:21
Labels: Discernment, Falsehoods, Miracles
