The Holy Spirit recently brought to mind a couple memories of interactions I’ve had with pastors who demonstrated false care in order to ensnare me as a believer. I remember visiting a church in the UK with my husband many years ago and the senior pastor made quite a lasting impression on me. He and his team were standing at the exit door after the service and they were trying to get all our details in order to join us up to their church. We politely declined and then the pastor took my hand, trying to manipulate me as the female in front of my husband. I remember having to forcibly remove my hand from his grip as he clearly wanted to hook us into their organisation. It was very uncomfortable and overly controlling. The attempts to dominate us in that scenario were very obvious and we had no problem discerning the controlling spirits at work in that place.
The second memory the Holy Spirit reminded me of was of one occassion when my previous senior pastor took my hand and thanked me for a word I had shared around the time of communion. I remember eventually pulling my hand back and having a strong sense in the Holy Spirit that there was a wrong spirit at work in him.
Flattery is a red flag
Both of those interactions had a lasting impression on me, but the second one was nowhere near as obvious. He was flattering and trying to manipulate me in some way. While it felt momentarily gratifying to be thanked for my timely message, it left me with a sense that something was wrong about that interaction. It wasn’t long after that God led my husband and I to leave that church due to spirits of control and intimidation at work within the leadership.
Many believers fall for flattery and false care, which makes them very susceptible to being ensnared by pastors who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. That is why we need to look to Jesus and the heavenly Father for affirmation, care and protection. He is the Good Shepherd and is the one who truly cares for you and for me.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep."
John 10v11-13
False teachers are everywhere
Deceivers are often very good at deceiving people. They smile while presenting very appealing messages, and they masterfully hook in the emotions of their listeners. My husband and I recently watched a sermon online and the whole message was on how not to be deceived. The presentation actually hooked us in for a short time, but then we had an argument for no reason afterwards. The Holy Spirit very quickly revealed to us that the message we had just watched was through a false teacher. How cunning - the false teacher, teaching on deception!
“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
2 Corinthians 11v13-15
It had so much appeal, even for those of us who have been out of the false church system for many years. It was just so cunning and slippery and that’s how the devil operates. He’s a master manipulator! We repented for opening ourselves up to false teaching and then the Lord gave me a vision where He clearly showed me how to pick out false teachers.
Vision I received on how to pick out deceivers in the church:
I saw a picture of a room with a desk and a chair and various pieces of furniture, and all the real items in the room had a white outline overlayed over them. All the wooden furniture had an outline and you could clearly see and distinguish what was right in that room. The Holy Spirit said to me, “Anything without a white outline is not true and is an infiltrator; anything false has no white outline. Simple. Easy.”
The Lord said to me, “I’m going to give you an outline of every deceiver in the ministry and there are not just few, but many. And you will hear from Me and I will say, ‘pick him out from the crowd and call them out so people can easily see and learn the lessons for themselves on how to pick them out!!’ They must be picked out of the crowd for they are many my dear!”
At exactly 6:44am the Lord said, “You’ve got to call them out. As my people are in slavery and they’re not free. They must devote themselves to me and not to false gods, prophets, teachers, apostles, leaders, seers.”
“Go to the streets and tell them. They are deceived. They must see, they must hear, they must obey my teachings or it’ll be to their peril and they’ll perish.”
“Trust, honour and obey.”
“There’s a sea of false teachers.”
Here’s how you pick them out:
“They ‘bleed’ all over the people with extraverted emotions of caring for the people. They use animated actions in their sermon style to draw attention to how much they ‘care’ about the scriptures. They use animated kind of gestures to create a unique image for themselves so people really point them out by their unique, overt gestures. They want people to talk about their unique style and to say something like ‘Oh yes, Pastor such and such always points and slaps down his finger on the bible and does this gesture etc,’ and you’re left feeling really impressed with the preacher, and yet you go away not living your life any differently. They draw a lot of attention to their preaching skills and engaging style, but the believers in their congregations are not being activated or seeing fruit in the gifts of healing, delivering people from demons, or preaching repentance themselves.”
“They have false humility. They say on their websites that they’re the ‘Number one volunteer’ of their church brand (not a volunteer for Christ). In doing so they highlight themselves as being great servants, and that others in their congregation are not as great as them. So, in essence, they have elevated themselves above the people. That’s false humility. Also, they highlight and draw attention to their church empire brand, rather than draw attention to Christ.”
“Then they expose their self-pride by putting ‘Dr’, ‘Phd’ and ‘Apostle’ titles alongside their name. Their name is over everything. They make sure of it. They make sure everyone can see that THEY are the ‘Founding Pastors’.”
Didn’t the church start with Jesus as the head, and His followers as his body? Aren’t those church leaders simply continuing what started 2000 years ago? No, they have set up something completely unique and separate from the true church, they have set up their own empire using Jesus’ name as their vehicle to get there.
“They name orphanages after themselves but they don’t actually serve in the orphanages, except stand in briefly for photo opportunities. They organise special VIP dinners and meetings and create a culture where everyone wants to be invited, but only a few are ever chosen. Us and them culture. Kings and slaves.”
“They have a clear ‘Donate’ or ‘Give’ button on their website.”
(God doesn’t ask for donations, He asks you to serve Him and Him alone. He’ll direct you where to give your money as we are simply stewards of what he gives us.)
“They insist on tithes behind closed doors, even if they’ve now taken it off their websites. They will make you feel very guilty if you don’t give your money to their kingdom. Manipulators are very good at this and it is a spirit of witchcraft that continues this in ‘churches’ today.”
“They smile too much. They’re uncomfortable to be around the ‘little’ people for long periods of time, other than fleeting hellos, and ensure they’re surrounded by the ‘important’ people. Always on the prowl, obsessed with the next strategy to get numbers of people join them and see them preach; constantly organising events where they can be seen and heard. They drain the people of their time, energy and money for these purposes. The people always feel they are not meeting the great commission but they keep getting deceived into believing that the next event is the one where God will ‘magically’ bring revival through their church guru / god / leader. That revival never comes. There’s a reason why.”
“They dangle the carrot just out of reach and say, ‘Yes, we’re about to see God move. Yes, we’re about to see revival if you come to this next conference. Yes, you’re going to hear God like you’ve never heard Him before, but only if you come to this conference.’”
(It’s all done with coercive control, implying that you’ll miss out of what God’s saying if you don’t attend their conferences and services). This is false teaching and is completely damaging to a person’s relationship with God.
What happened to all believers hearing from God for themselves?
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
John 14v26 (NKJV)
“Finally, the way to pick out deceivers is that they have no lasting fruit: healings, miracles, signs, casting out demons, preaching of repentance to salvation.”
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."
Matthew 7v15-20
“For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.”