Safe Grazing!

Matthew 24:11"Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

Again this week I am returning to Matthew 24 and specifically focusing on the term "false prophets".  What a frightening term.  Yet, we dare not wish it away.  Why?  Because Jesus used it!  More and more I am trying to keep in my focus, the Words of Jesus.  While I hear the words, teachings and commentaries of Godly men and women, I'm trying to keep those words in my peripheral vision.  I want only the Words of Jesus to be my guiding light.  1 Timothy 4:1 tells us, "Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons." NLT
"Teachings that come from demons."  Hmmmm, how is that possible?  It is possible because God's word tells us it WILL happen.  It is not something that could happen but will happen.  As we said last week, this downward spiraling process will occur among church people,  not in the world.  

What will these false teachers and false prophets look like?  They will be very attractive people.  I mean that with and emphasis on "attractive".  They will be attractive to Christians.  What would make them attractive?  Their words are enticing to the "itching ears" of believers who do not have a solid foundation, others who have a root of bitterness toward the Church and those that are just plain gullible.   Their teachings will have attractive elements of Truth but will be off base just a little in the beginning.  One of the things that false prophets will do is to undermine the mission and  the authority of Jesus' Church.  The Church was and is being built by Jesus.  He said He would build it.  It is his idea, it has a family structure given from his throne.  It has his mission at its core.  It is centered on Christ and magnifies only Him.  False prophets slowly lead believers away from Jesus and His Church and toward a promised kingdom that is supposedly much more advanced than the church.    They carefully criticize the true Church and church leaders while building their own kingdom and feathering their own nests.  Sound familiar?  It should because it is the same spirit that was in Absalom.  He sat outside the gate of the real Kingdom and declared he had a better idea.  He cast doubt on the credibility of his own Father, the authority structure set in place by God, and led a group of people to disaster.  Such will be the end of those that are captivated by false prophets and teachers.  We must endure till the end!

Make sure you are in a God ordained local church.  By the way, there isn't a perfect one.  Make sure that your primary spiritual diet is not coming from outside the protection of the Church.  If a sheep starts graving too far from the fold it becomes vulnerable to wolves. May God grant us wisdom!