Who is a False Prophet?

False Prophets

A false prophet is anyone who pretends to be a man or woman of God when they are not. They claim to be called of God and sent to help mankind whereas, they are either doing that for covetous purposes or directly on behalf of the devil with the intent to deceive people and turn their hearts from God to the devil. They either never heard the call of God or heard at some point but later deviated into apostasy.

The definition of a false Prophet is brought out clearly in this statement of the Lord in Matt.7:15-23:

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

From this text of Scripture, we learn the following truths about false Prophets:

False prophets are described as ravening wolves that come to us in sheep’s clothing. This is a figurative expression describing a hypocrite. A friend of mine, who is a Pastor now, once told me a story of a Church his wife took him to when he was still a young convert. The lady pastoring the Church according to him came up with a very funny “revelation”. According to him, this lady pastor told him that from that day, he was to start treating her like his wife. That whatever he did for the wife, he should also do for her. He said he could not take it alone, so he called the wife to hear it and this “lady Pastor” had the effrontery to repeat he “revelation”! He said his wife did not say anything to this lady pastor that day. Then one day, the lady pastor came to their house; presumably to implement the “revelation”. This brother’s wife gave her a sound beating and threw her out of their house!

While this may sound funny, it is not something to be taken lightly at all because they later discovered that this same lady Pastor was committing adultery with another man in the same Church. Her ridiculous explanation for this adultery was that that was the means through which she transferred the man’s “blessings” to him! Sadly, this is not an isolated case. It is a common occurrence in the African Continent. Many people due to poverty and a desire to get something for nothing have become preys to these ravening wolves (greedy and voracious agents of the devil).

Interestingly, these occurrences are not new. In the book of Revelation, Jesus warned the Church in Thyatira of his impending judgment of a false prophetess luring His servants into adultery and feeding them food sacrificed to idols. In Rev.2:20-23, Jesus Christ said to the Church:

“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.”

From this text, we can see that this so called prophetess is the one who calls herself so; the Lord did not call her a prophetess but Jezebel. This refers to a spirit in some women who seek to gain undue control over a congregation (over which they have no spiritual authority) mostly through their lying dreams and visions. You would recall that Jezebel in the Old Testament was the wife of Ahab; a king who once reigned in Israel. She was so domineering that she controlled the affairs of the kingdom of Israel during their reign through her sorceries and witchcraft. You will find her account in 1Kings 16-22.

In 2Cor.11:13-15, Apostle Paul describes these false Prophets as false Apostle. He said:

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

In my Country, you have some of these title crazy people who are not really servants of God, but pretend to be. There is a notorious one whose chief activity is adultery and extortion. As this nefarious activity persisted, his associate Pastors who really wanted to serve the Lord began to resign one after the other.

If a lady goes to a pastor for counseling for instance and the man’s prescription is sex as a means of transferring the ‘blessing’, she should escape for her life because it is a hallmark of false prophets to “renew” their evil powers through sexual intercourse with unsuspecting victims. They are aptly described by Apostle Peter in 2Pet.2:1-3, 12-19:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

       … But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”

Here, Apostle Peter describes them as false teachers peddling damnable heresies denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ all for covetous motives. Their conscience has become so desensitized by sin that the Apostle describes them as blemishes in their feasts with eyes full of adultery and are so given to vanity that they cannot speak of anything else but vanities. When you hear them speak, you could hardly hear any edifying words flow through them because they are empty. They cannot give what they do not have. He also describes them as wells without water and clouds without rain. This describes a people who can make many promises and deliver on none of them because they are incapable of deliveries due to carnality. Spirituality is the fertile soil for spiritual productivity and they are not spiritual at all; they are carnal like the devil. He sums their description by pointing out that they promise liberty while they themselves are the agents of corruption! What a paradox!

Welcome to November 2012 Our month of Refreshing

Our text scripture for the month is Acts 3:19-21 and I will quote from both the KJV and Amplified bible. That text reads:

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” KJV

The Amplified Bible puts it this way:

“So repent (change your mind and purpose), turn around and return [to God], that your sin may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air), may come from the presence of the Lord:

And that He may send [to you] the Christ (the Messiah). Who before was designated and appointed for you even-Jesus.

Whom heaven must receive [and retain] until the time of the complete restoration of all that God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets from ages past [from the most ancient time in the memory of man].”

As I awoke this morning, my heart was ringing with this song by Panam Percy Paul:

Few years turning into few months; in just few days

Jesus will come

No more crying; we shall be rejoicing

In just few days we will go home.

When I woke up fully, I added my favorite song by Pastor Andrae Crouch:

“Soon and very soon we are going to see the King 2ice

Halleluiah, halleluiah we are going to see the king

No my dying there we are going to see the King

No more weeping there we are going to see the king.

Halleluiah, halleluiah we are going to see the king!

Should there be any river we must cross

Should there be any mountain we must climb

God will supply all the strength that we need

Give us grace till we reach the other side…”

As I meditated on these lyrics together with the word of the Lord which came to me from Joel 2:18-26 when we were praying in Church yesterday putting it together with our text scripture for the month, I cannot help but feel a sense of excitement that the Church is in her greatest period in time.

Jesus Christ is coming soon to fulfill all that God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets preceding us from the farthest time in the memory of man. The bible says He is coming for a glorious Church – without spot or wrinkle. As the days progress more, I understand better now why the Lord has been so emphatic on our getting rid of carnality and living spiritual lives.

The work load on us as a ministry this year has been huge in spite of the strength of the work force, but God has made up for us by supplying all our needs. He has enabled us to broadcast the gospel on television, internet and radio and the print media this year more than ever before. He has also enabled us to take on building projects beyond our human capacity and is blessing the work with His favour beyond our wildest dreams.

And now, the compassionate God that He is has shown up again, He wants us to clean up and come and be refreshed and recover from the effects of heat brought on us through labour and self-inflicted stress due to missing the mark or not going by divine direction.  He indeed wants us rejuvenated for our own good; what a good God we serve!!!

In light of this, our focus this month shall be on the most important person on earth right now. So I shall be teaching on the gifts and the Ministry of the Holy Spirit from one of my latest books so titled. The reason is that it is His job to bring us this much needed refreshing and we would do well to tune in by knowledge. The more of Him we know, the more refreshing we can enjoy! You can keep up with these teachings by logging on to www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl and www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com or www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com.

If you are not born again and you are reading this piece, I would like you to know that you are not reading by accident. Events were orchestrated from the realm of the spirit that caused you to be reading now. Jesus wants to give you rest from all your troubles. In Matthew 11:28, He said: “come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” To receive that rest, please say the following prayer out loud and mean it with all your heart to God and a new day will dawn for you:

            Heavenly father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. I repent of my sin and receive the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross for my salvation. I believe He died for me and on the third day, you raised Him from the dead for my salvation. From today, I receive Him as the Saviour and Lord of my Life.

Thank you father for forgiving me and writing my name in the book of life with the blood of Jesus. I pledge allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ from this day forever in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen!!!

If you just said this prayer, congratulations! You are now born again.  Please let me know by emailing Flourishinggirl@gmail.com and I will send you an e copy of our “Believers’ Guide to Growth” to enable you take off on this glorious adventure of the new creation. God bless you!!!

HOW TO IDENTIFY FALSE CHRISTS AND PROPHETS

By Pastor Alero Flourish Nanna

(An excerpt from my book of this title)

DEDICATION

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

To all the saints of God who have suffered in the hands of false Prophets, Teachers and Apostles due to ignorance born out of want of true spiritual leadership. It is my heart felt prayer that the light from this book will liberate you and set you free to be a servant of the Lord.

INTRODUCTION

Just yesterday, as I write, I heard this story about an event in Northern Nigeria that was even videoed and sent to a man of God in England who visited Nigeria and was addressing us at a gathering of Ministers of the Gospel. He recounted how he was shown a film by a man of God from Plateau State in Nigeria of the persecution of the saints of God in the Northern part of the country. He said that in the film, he saw how Christians were cut on the forehead with cutlass by the children of the bondwoman and forced to run while bleeding. These agents of the devil did not stop at that, but kept on cutting them from behind while they ran until they dropped dead.

Another scene he described was that of a Pastor’s wife whom they forced to lie on her back and drove a bottle into her vagina and forced her up again and ordered her to run. She was running with her legs apart with blood oozing out of her body. This brought tears to my eyes as I imagined the excruciating pain this woman of God must have had to endure for the Cross of Christ.

Another story I heard from a sister yesterday as I write is about a man in Lagos Nigeria; who went in search of a solution from a false prophet. The false prophet gave him an evil prescription which included that he had his bath with soap and sponge given to him by this false prophet. This gullible man did as he was told and sank into the ground where he went to take his bath. Only the sponge and soap were found at the scene until his body was later exhumed from the ground.

As I write, my heart bleeds. I had a restless night as I thought on these events, but I woke up with this song: “IT WONT BE LONG” by Andrae Crouch this morning and my heart was comforted.

From these two real life stories we cannot deny the devastating consequence of ignorance brought upon a people resulting in the thriving of the evil machinations of the anti-Christ and false prophets. This, I believe, is in part due to a want of real spiritual leadership for some and for others an outright rejection of the truth because they want to get something for nothing.

My intention through this book is to unmask false Prophets, false Apostles, false Teachers, false pastors, false evangelists and false Christs.  This is with the intent that everyone who truly seeks to know the one true God of the universe in experience be liberated and released to know Him.

By way of introduction, let us look at the definition of our book title HOW TO IDENTIFY FALSE PROPHETS AND FALSE CHRISTS. For the purpose of clarity, I would like to break down the words and define them separately before putting them together again to get a clear picture of what we are looking at here. Your destiny may well depend on your understanding this truth.

To identify means to be able to say for sure or to recognize. False Prophets are people who claim to be prophets of God and are not. False Christs refers to anyone handing himself out as the Messiah or Saviour of mankind apart from Jesus Christ.  Thus the title of this book means how to recognize those pretending to be prophets and false Christ when they are not.

OCTOBER OUR MONTH OF TRAVAIL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE SINNER’S PRAYER

Father in Heaven,

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

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

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

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

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

September 2012 - Perfection

PERFECTION

Welcome to the month of September! This month has been declared by the word of the Lord to us; our month of PERFECTION. Perfection speaks of maturity or completion. It takes perfection for us to walk in the full benefit of the covenant of the New Creation. Gal.4:1 says the heir to an inheritance cannot walk in the wealth allocated to him until he matures. In light of this, the perfection of a planting season is the harvest; the perfection of a pregnancy is delivery; the perfection of a baby Christian is maturity enough to be productive; the perfection of life on earth is the end of time and the commencement of timeless eternity.

The one responsible for making perfection happen is the God. This is why we are told in Ps.138:8 that the Lord will perfect all that concerns us. In addition, we are told in Hebrews 6:1 to move on from spiritual babyhood to maturity. The reason is that it takes maturity to be productive as a believer and our primary assignment as believers is to bear fruit [see Jn.15:16 & Rm.7:4]. When we bear fruit, we can be described as perfected as far as fruit bearing is concerned.   

Also, today, while waiting to pick up my friend from the airport, I started conversing with the Lord and began to imagine what the rapture would be like. Then I prayed that it should take place in my life time because I would like to experience it. The Lord told me to work harder at netting souls into His kingdom and that we can actually hasten His coming if we give more attention to the harvest of souls into God’s Kingdom. In light of the perfection of all things, this month, we shall be looking at the theme: The Second Coming of The Lord Jesus Christ and the End of Time. We shall be teaching from my new book “Will this World Really Come to an End”. You may have been hearing about the soon return of the Lord; the questions I want to ask you are: are you prepared for it? Do you know what events to watch out for and the step by step events that would lead to His glorious appearing and eventually the white Throne Judgment and the end of time? Are you confused about this or are you afraid to know of it because you think you are not prepared? All your fears would be allayed by a clear understanding of these events from God’s word and that is what this book will give to you as you read.

To purchase your own copy, send a request by email to flourishinggirl@gmail.Com; jointheirsfamily@gmail.com. or call any of our phone lines.

For more information and our resource materials please log on to our blogs at:

www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com  

www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com     

This month of September, the Lord shall perfect all that concerns you and you will reap the harvest of all the precious seeds you have sown in Jesus’ name!

August 2012, New Beginnings

NEW BEGINNINGS

Welcome to August, Destiny 2012 our Month of New Beginnings. As I examined the book of the beginnings lately, I discovered that beginning again did not start with us. God has had to begin again several times. In Genesis 1: 1 we are made to understand that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. In verse 2, we learn that the earth became formless and void and darkness covered the face of the deep and we see the Spirit of God hovering over the devastation that the earth had become. Then in verse 3, God did something very remarkable. He decided to start all over again to create a new earth. Do you know what He began with? He began with creating light.

In this new beginning, God is beginning with you by enlightening all your dark areas to enable you know where you may have missed it in the past and what you can do to get back on track. He told us as a Ministry that all our past mistakes and reproach has been wiped off together with their consequences. Halleluiah! This is God’s mercy and grace at work for us.

As I continued in my quest in the book of the beginnings, I realized that God gave our patriarchs in the faith new beginnings as well. For instance, Adam and Eve received a New Beginning following the loss of their first two sons after Cain murdered his brother Abel and ran away from home. God gave them Seth from whom the generations were eventually named. In fact when he was born, Eve exclaimed that God had given them another male child to replace Abel whom Cain murdered [Gen.4:25].

Noah received a New Beginning when God decided to wipe out the then world because of violence. In fact with this new beginning came the institution of the law of seed time and harvest in Gen.8:22.

Abraham was given a New Beginning at the age of seventy five when God told him to relocate to the Promised Land. So you are not too old to start again!

Isaac got a New Beginning when in Gen.26, God directed him to remain in Gerar and he sowed and reaped a hundred fold in a year of famine and the bible says he “waxed great and went forward and grew until he became very great”; to the point of arousing the envy of his neighbors.

Jacob got two chances of a New Beginning in his life when he had to flee to Laban and when he came back and wrestled with an angel until he got a change of name and status.

Joseph was also blessed with a new beginning when he was brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream and received for that grace the position of the number 2 man in Egypt of that day.

The Nation of Israel received a New Beginning when they all had to relocate to Egypt owing to the famine in the land of Canaan.

Dear reader, this month, God wants you to begin afresh with Him at a higher level that only His grace can make happen for you. He has pardoned your past mistakes and is willing to give you another and a better chance in life. Welcome to your month of New Beginnings. To this end, we shall be looking at How to walk in God’s perfect will and not stumble in spite of the corruption in this world and the mounting pressure of hell against humans walking in righteousness. We shall be drawing from the experience of the Patriarchs and as such our texts will be from the book of the beginnings.

Once again, welcome to our month of New Beginnings. For more details and our resource materials, log on to www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com. also, check out our page on face book at aleronanna1/kingdom joint heirs family churches. Also see: Healing and Restoration Time with Pastor Alero Nanna on face book.

JULY; OUR MONTH OF HIGHER GROUND!

Welcome to July! This month to us by the word of the Lord is our month of HIGHER GROUND and our text scriptures are: Rev.4:1 and Galatians 2:2

Rev 4:1  “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

Gal.2:2 “And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain”.

A meditation on our text scripture would hatch the following understanding to us:

1.     Higher ground means promotion and it is initiated by God. John said he heard a voice from heaven which told him to step up. Apostle Paul said he went up by revelation. By the way, revelation here means knowledge revealed to Him by the Lord.

2.     For you to hear the voice from heaven that will take you up, you must be in the spirit. This was the experience of the Apostle John. He said he was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day, and then he received a revelation in which he saw an open door in heaven. Remember, the door must be opened by God because He is the one with the key of David that opens a door that no man can shut [see Rev.3:7]. Then He heard the Lord say to him that he should ascend or step up [“come up hither”].

3.     Being in the spirit means having a spiritual mindset or being spiritual [Gal.5:16; 1Cor.2:13-14; Rm.8:7-9; Rm.12:1-2]. We are told that if we remain natural as believers, we cannot receive the things of the spirit. One of the things of the spirit is stepping up to higher ground and this is what God is set to do for us this month of July as we wait on him.

4.     For you to be in the spirit, you must fulfill certain conditions as a believer. These conditions are: Prayer especially praying in the spirit or in tongues, reading and meditating on the word to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit, studying the word, and doing the word of God by giving ourselves wholly to it.

For the above reason among others, we shall be looking at a series this month I have titled: SPIRITUALITY VERSUS CARNALITY. We are going to see how spirituality can help us wait on the Lord until we hear him speak to us and then we can step up by the revelation He gives to us. I believe God that after these series of teaching this month, we would know how to change levels from glory to glory on a regular basis with God.

once again, I welcome you to the month of July our month of HIGHER GROUND. For more information about our ministry and resource materials, please check out our blog at www.jointheirsfamily.blogspot.com. and my memoirs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com. Presently, you may not be able to access our website as it is under reconstruction, but you can visit my face book page and benefit from our resources by liking HEALING AND RESTORATION TIME WITH PASTOR ALERO NANNA and KINGDOM JOINT HEIRS FAMILY CHURCHES under alero.nanna1@facebook.com.