Can You Not Discern The Face Of The Sky?
And he said also to the people, When you see a cloud rise out of the west (of Palestine), straightway you say, There comes a shower; and so it is.
And when you see the south wind blow, you say, There will be heat; and it comes to pass.
You hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that you do not discern this time?
Yea, and why even of yourselves judge you not what is right? Luke 12:54-57
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If you were a Jew living in the first century Palestine, apparently, God expected you to know the importance of the time in your life and in the life of humanity itself. He expected you to know it was time for the Messiah to appear. God had given detailed timelines and guidelines of the expected trend of things in the Books of Daniel and other Prophets when His Son should be born. You were severely rebuked and condemned for your inability to know what time you lived.
Do you know what period now is? Do we have any guidelines we can use to deduce what the time really is? Is the Bible detailed enough for us to know our own epoch? Did the Messiah leave us with enough markers and clues on things to look out for?
In addition to the various bogus claims of resurrections and healings by fake Christianity, the push in the last hundred or so years has been on how to procure miracles and keep the audience entertained. Starting from the fake tongues movement of 1901 to the ‘holy laughter’ and now ‘glory clouds’of the early 21st century, the urge is to do away with the culture and practice of inducing godliness by paying close attention to the provisions of the Bible. Charles Parham and William Seymour were at the head of the search for the fake ‘second blessing’ and ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’ while Rodney Howard-Browne claimed he received a ‘special anointing’ to ‘impart’ the spirit of laughter to his audience in the mid-1990s. Please, note, in each case, it is not the spirit of righteousness, soberness and fear of the Lord, but pride and laughter. All of the shakers and movers in the Pentecostal and charismatic movement, from Kenneth Hagin to the least in the throng was infected. Tongues, and then laughter, rather than the reading and preaching of and obedience to the word of God, became the main activity in their worship. This was followed by the so-called ‘glory clouds’. As if the Bible were silent on the existence of demons and evil spirits on the Earth and as if the Lord Jesus Christ’s warning in Matthew 24: 23 mean nothing, these so-called Christian churches are supposedly being visited by God in their worship services in visible clouds of smoke and fumes.
We Were Warned
We must pay close attention to a few verses of the 24th chapter of the Book of Matthew. These verses, apart from the items on wars, famines and natural disasters (disruptions in physical phenomena), spell out in detail, another phenomenon the world has not witnessed until now: the preponderance and pervasiveness of deception in the church of Christ throughout the world. The church would practically become the center of world-wide efforts to deceive people about the Person, Work and the second coming of Christ. We need to check if that time has not arrived.
Are These Not The Verses For Today?
And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. Mat 24:3-5
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And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. Mat 24:11
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For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Behold, I have told you before. Mat 24:24-25
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Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Mat 24:26-27
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And (they) knew not until the flood came, and took them all away Mat 24:39(a).
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But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Mat 24:37-39
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Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
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For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4
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The world had always known evil one way or the other, even of evil parading itself as Christianity. What is new is the ubiquity, the rapacity, the urgency and the world-wide nature of the deception in the church. Almost to the last unit, the average church or ministry you see either worships some demons they call Mary, speaks in tongues you cannot find in the Bible or conjures satanic lying signs and wonders in their services. Most of them openly claim the Bible is not comprehensive or authoritative enough for their spiritual needs: others say their prophets or founders are higher than Christ; a good number confess they get their powers from tombs and cemeteries!
The alternatives are often disco houses and social clubs. From Siberia to Rio de Janeiro, from Washington DC to Cairo, the face of Christianity is either of two evils: Catholicism (Roman or Orthodox) or Tongues. Do a roll call of the pastors, bishops, apostles and evangelists in any country: they are invariably in either or both of these frauds. The lists of false prophets and false Christs are almost like the telephone directories in most places. You need to pay particularly close attention to the Bible, the KJV version!
Check what Williams Kumuyi of The Deeper Life Bible Church teaches and check where he is coming from. Check Mr Kumuyi’s religious connections to Charles Parham, William Seymour and John Alexander Dowie. Forget the hype and the histrionics. Check his connection to and belief in the teachings of the holiness movement of the late 19th Century and the New Apostolic Reformation of 1901. Does he or does he not teach Christians must all speak in tongues? Does the Bible (in the light of clear writings in 1 Cor 12:29-30 and many other places) teach the same? Does Mr Gbile Akanni teach a similar doctrine? Are they unaware Hindus and Muslims and Catholic Charismatics and Aladuras and serious occult people speak the same tongues they teach Christians must speak? Are all these groups born-again Christians, too?
Do Mr Kumuyi and Mr Akanni not distinguish between the tongues of the Bible as languages rather than gibberish you hear in the various ‘churches’, ‘full gospel’ fellowships and covens? Do they not realize those differences mean something important or do they not care? Have you accepted these preachers are holier and more reliable than the Bible?
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And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Rom 13:11-12
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We are in the age of unprecedented satanic deception in the church. Check what every pastor and teacher teaches in the light of the clear provisions of the Bible. Zeal, self-sacrifice, self-discipline and industry are not enough: fidelity with the written word of God is the thing! “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. John 8:32
Read Matthew 24:3-5,11-14, 23-27, 37-39 and the book of Revelation 22:18-19.
The Lord knows we are living in a time of unprecedented spiritual deception. But just like His nature, He has made unprecedented provisions for us to escape deception. No generation had as much free access to the Bible like our own. You must call up the King James Bible in your handset or computers and check up what you read here and what every preacher teaches.
But you must make up your mind before hand you will do God’s will, whatever you find in His word. He promised to guide only those who decide to please Him: He will leave you to your own devices and to self-delusion if your mind is not made up to obey Him. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself”. John 7:17.
The clock is fully on deception.
The Owner of the Earth may be just at the corner.