 Very important topic. I want to talk to you about the five different kinds of false teachers that you absolutely need to avoid. Look, the hour calls for discerning Christians who base their lives on the Word, who live by the foundation of the truths of the Word. Now a couple of ground rules for this message, whether you're watching live or in the replay, I don't want you naming names because the reality is that sometimes we label people as false teachers for simply disagreeing with us on some side issue of doctrine. That's not what I'm out to do tonight. Nor am I going to waste my time naming all of the tens of thousands of false teachers who exist in the world, probably more than tens of thousands who exist in this world because then that would just take up the entire message and then I would still have to leave some out. Rather, it's more effective for me to give you biblical truth that you can then apply to any teacher, any ministry with grace to discern whether or not they are truly of God. And I want you to use these measurements against this ministry too. Look, don't just believe things because I tell you, I'm not the source of authority. The Bible is. I'm not your source of truth. The Word of God is. And I pray that I've done a good job of consistently pointing you back to the Scripture. That is ultimately what I want to do. Now, if you want this and you're praying for God to open your eyes, especially in this day and age, where there's so much noise coming at us from all different directions, it can be quite difficult to find our bearings. It can be rather confusing. If that's you, you say, I want to see the truth, then I want you to comment in the comment section right now. Live or on replace three simple words. Open my eyes. That's a prayer you're making. Open my eyes. If you're in agreement with that, if you agree that we need our eyes open, if you agree that we need discernment, if you agree that in this day and age, Christians should be more armed with truth than ever before, then write those three simple words. Open my eyes, whether you're watching live or on replay. Now, the other thing I don't want you to do again, I don't want you to be writing people specifically in the comment section like asking me, well, what do you think about this person or this person or this person? Look, I know a lot of wonderful men and women of God who don't necessarily have their doctrine correct on everything. So there are some men and women of God who I'm not going to speak out against because fundamentally they teach the truth, but I'm also not going to endorse because they may teach some things that are the complete opposite on some side doctrines that I teach. So you're putting me in a difficult position if you say, what do you think about this person? Look, if you were to find someone who's legitimately a false teacher, as I'll show you what those are in a moment or what a false teacher is in a moment, then okay, that's easy for me to do. But if you name someone who I respect as a fellow brother or sister who is not necessarily in agreement, well, I'm not going to call them a false teacher, but I'm also not going to recommend that ministry. So you put me in a tough position if you are asking me about specific ministries in the comment section. So what I want you to do, and I'm not afraid to call out false teachers, so don't get that impression either. But I do understand, as I mentioned earlier, that sometimes we can label people false teachers who are not, and then there are other situations where people are asking me to endorse certain ministries that I would just rather not endorse, that I would rather wait and see the fruit of that ministry and so forth. So just refrain from that. Don't name churches or people because I don't want to cause any public embarrassment to someone who is a fellow brother or sister who may just be struggling to get some things in order for now, okay. On the other hand, if you apply these teachings, you're going to see very clearly who actual false teachers and preachers are. And again, we apply these with grace as I move through these five different kinds of false teachers. I'm also going to balance this out because I think that people can tend to become overly critical and I'm going to show you how to not become overly critical as well. But as we move through this stream, make sure you're commenting and engaging and also make sure you're sharing this, share this with a couple people right now, okay. So the first kind of false teacher you absolutely must avoid. Write this down, number one, the hypocrite. Now this particular individual, the hypocrite, lives a lifestyle that's inconsistent with what they teach. The Bible says this in Matthew chapter 7 verses 15 through 20, beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them, the Bible very clearly tells us, by their fruit. That is by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. Now let's stop there for a moment because I've seen this particular verse abused by people who are actually living hypocritical lives. So what they'll do is they'll point to the success or the perceived success of their ministries or their organizations or their efforts and then they'll use those pieces of success or those metrics to excuse their hypocritical behavior. So for example, let's say there's a hypocrite who's teaching the word but not living the word. They're living a lifestyle that's blatantly anti-scripture, that's blatantly grieving the Holy Spirit and they're living these lives while saying, well just look at the fruit. Thousands watch this, thousands come here, this many people are being touched. I have X amount of followers but this is not what Jesus is talking about when he's talking about fruit. Don't confuse the harvest for fruit. Anyone can reap a harvest. A hypocrite can reap a harvest. Why? Because the Word of God has power. In fact, the gospel is so powerful that it retains that power even when a hypocrite preaches it. So don't confuse the harvest for the fruit just because someone has millions of followers, just because someone is packing out stadiums, just because someone sells millions of books, just because someone has multiple and multiple followers from all around the world doesn't necessarily mean that they're being effective for the kingdom of God and if they are being effective for the kingdom of God, it doesn't excuse the lifestyle of sin. So the Bible very clearly tells us that a good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. So Jesus is not talking about the success or the perceived success of ministries and organizations and efforts and projects. Those are metrics. Those are numbers. How many people are reached? How many people are saved? How many people are healed? Even the miracles that happen. I mean think of Matthew chapter 7. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out many demons in your name? Did we not do many mighty works in your name? So these are individuals who've done good works. They were able to point to the harvest, but they did not bear the fruit of repentance or the fruit of the Spirit. So the fruit has to do with character and purity, not with the effectiveness of a ministry or the effectiveness of an organization. A good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Now I'm going to balance this in a moment because I think that sometimes we use this portion of Scripture to also unnecessarily attack people who are never perfect. So we have to make sure that we're using this with grace as well. But at the same time, don't ever let anyone deceive you by trying to make you accept their teachings or their ungodly lifestyle based upon how God is using them. God will use anyone in anything unto his glory. If we don't cry out in worship, the rocks will cry out. So God's willing to use rocks. God was willing to use a donkey to speak to the prophet. God's willing to use anyone in anything unto his glory. And in fact, he does. So this notion that because I'm effective or because I'm popular or because I see miracles or because I flow in the gifts, that therefore that somehow demonstrates fruit is just not biblical. Don't confuse the harvest for the fruit. The fruit has to do with character and purity, holiness and righteousness as demonstrated in the life of the individual. Now watch this, Matthew 23, 23 to 26. What sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law and you Pharisees, hypocrites. That word hypocrites means actors, pretenders, you're playing a role. You're putting on a character when you go out and do ministry, for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law, justice, mercy and faith. You should tithe, yes, there's an interesting quote there. We won't go there for now, but do not neglect the more important things. Blind guides, Jesus calls them. You strain your water so you won't accidentally swallow a nat, but you swallow a camel. What sorrow awaits you religious teachers of the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites or actors, pretenders, you're putting on the costume of Christianity, for you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy, full of greed and self-indulgence, you blind Pharisee first wash the inside of the cup and the dish and then the outside will become clean too. So here Jesus is talking about people who pretend, these are hypocrites who go into ministry and maybe they were sincere to begin with, but then they begin to live lifestyles that are inconsistent with the Word of God and blatantly so without working through repentance, without fighting against the sin, without trying to get it right, without attempting to rectify the situation, they just continue willfully, blatantly, extravagantly in their sin without any consideration for repentance and then they try to pass off regret as repentance but go on living in that way. Don't mistake regret for repent life will always spill over into a message. Look, I'm not saying get all superstitious about it. Now I understand that there's this superstition in the charismatic world where, you know, if I sat in the service and a hypocrite preached or maybe even laid hands on me that somehow they're going to impart something into me that's ultra dark and demonic, that's not necessarily how that works. The way a hypocrite bleeds over onto the people from their impurity is through their teaching because the hypocrisy will always manifest through heresy. The hypocrisy will always manifest in teaching that places people in and under deception. So you have the Holy Spirit, you're protected by the Holy Spirit. If you unintentionally shake hands with a hypocrite or you unintentionally listen to a message from a hypocrite or you unintentionally stand in a prayer line in a hypocrite praise or you find out later that person was a hypocrite, God's not going to say, well, I'm sorry, you had a hypocrite pray for you. I'm taking my protection off of you and we're removing my Holy Spirit from you. I'm taking the anointing. I'm going to let demons move in. That's not what he does. Rather, their effect is more so in what they teach. It has to do with the fact that that deception on them is the deception that comes through them. So be careful with the hypocrite. They may have begun well, but eventually they begin to allow the private sin to destroy a public anointing. Now to balance this out, we have to understand that no preacher is perfect. There's not going to be an individual that you find that's going to walk in absolute perfection to where there's not going to be any flaws. And in fact, a lot of church hurt people use this as an excuse. You know, oh, I knew them by their fruits. And so often I call them, you know, the discerners. And these are people who say, well, I have the gift of discernment. And I often remark that if you truly have the gift of discernment, you don't have to go announcing it. And really what people call the gift of discernment is actually criticism. And they mistake the gift of discernment for the gift of criticism and insult and cynicism and doubt. And they mistake their own suspicions. They mistake their own hesitancies with the gift of discernment. And that's not at all. So they'll look at a preacher, the preacher, maybe have one bad day, say one remark they don't agree with. Maybe they were a little rude because you caught them at a bad moment after a family argument. Who knows what's going on in sometimes the lives of these preachers. But then we say, aha, I knew it. I discerned it. I knew it. I had a check in my—any time you hear someone say that I knew something deep down in my spirit, all along about that person, usually they're mistaking their own emotions and thoughts for the voice of the Holy Spirit. And so without grace, without forgiveness, without the love covering a multitude of sins, we simply dismiss those preachers or these wonderful servants of God. And we say, aha, I knew them. You'll know them by their fruits. And they just showed themselves for who they really are. Well, let's have more great debt repentance and just continue in this lifestyle. So that's number one, the hypocrite, avoid the hypocrite. Now, if they live this way long enough, if they walk in hypocrisy for an extended period of time, eventually they become what we call the hireling. And that sounds very evil and even somewhat spooky, but I'll show you what that means in just a moment. John 10, 11 through 13, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, but he that is an hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not. Seeeth the wolf coming and leaveeth the sheep and fleeeth, and the wolf catches them and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeeth because he is an hireling and careth not for the sheep. Jesus is talking about those who don't truly care for anything that has to do with the material of the world. Ministers of God's Word should not minister specifically for money. Now, it takes finances to operate a ministry. It takes money to operate sometimes some of the projects that are happening in ministries. And it takes money to live off of preacher's need to survive. The scripture teaches very clearly that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel. So there's nothing wrong with the preacher making a living off of the gospel, but if that's the purpose, if that's their heart, if that's all they're after, all they want to go for is the finances. That's the focus of why they do what they do. Well, then you have a hireling on your hand and they do it for fame. They do it for status. They do it for money. They do it for praise. Matthew chapter six verse one says this, watch out, don't do your good deeds publicly to be admired by others for you will lose the reward from your father in heaven. Now Jesus also said to let your good deeds be done before men shining like a light so they may glorify your father who's in heaven. So he's not contradicting himself. What he's talking about here is motive and the reason behind why you do the good that you do, the reason behind why you extend yourself to help your fellow man. We see an example of a hireling. Also I call them the sorcerer in Acts chapter eight verses nine to 24. So a hireling also is a sorcerer if they move in power and are exchanging that power for pay, prophecy for pay, deliverance for pay, healing for pay. Anytime you see any supernatural power of God attached to a price tag, go the other way. That is not a servant of the Lord or it's a servant of the Lord who is greatly deceived who needs to change their practices. No, you do not pay for deliverance. No, you do not pay for healing. No, you do not pay for prophecy. You should bless the prophet. You should bless the minister but God doesn't put the divine behind the pay wall. Acts chapter eight verses nine to 24 says this, a man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. So here's a man who looks at himself in a very high, with a very high esteem. Verse 10, everyone from the least of the greatest often spoke of him as the great one, the power of God. So imagine walking around with that kind of title. That's going to do something to your ego. They called him the great one. In fact, they referred to him as the power of God. What a head trip this guy must have been on. Verse 11, they listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic. But now the people believed Philip's message of good news concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed. Verse 14, when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there. Verse 15, as soon as they arrived, they prayed for these new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. Now watch this, verse 16, the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them for they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands upon these believers and they received the Holy Spirit. So we see Simon the sorcerer, a man highly esteemed by the people, walking in great power, used his demonic magic to entrance the people and demonstrate to them his greatness or so he thought and then comes along the apostles who begin to lay hands on people and they receive power for themselves. Now watch this, verse 18, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. Let me have this power too, he exclaimed, so that when I lay my hands on people they will receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter replied, May your money be destroyed with you, for thinking God's gift can be bought. You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to the Lord, perhaps he will forgive your evil thoughts, for I can see you are full of bitterness and jealousy and are held captive by sin. Pray to the Lord for me, Simon exclaimed, that these terrible things you said won't happen. Now here the sorcerer is confronted by the apostle, here is someone who thought that the power of the Holy Ghost was for sale. Here is someone who thought that they could purchase that which Christ had already purchased with his blood. Something so sacred as the power of the Holy Spirit should not be mixed with monetary gain. Now I'm going to balance this in a moment and talk about when it's okay and how it's okay to take offerings for ministries which you should give to ministries but watch out for the hireling. These are people who are only in it for what they can gain monetarily or materially and again this is not just having to do with money. Some people do it for fame, some people do it for status, some people do it for the praises of men and this type of person will never truly care about God's sheep. They will always look at a crowd and see only crowds, never the people in the crowds. When you look at a group of people do you see a crowd or do you see people? That's the difference between a hireling and a true servant of God and this is what I refer to as charismatic witchcraft so let me just be very clear about this. Someone charging for deliverance, run the other way and no matter how they try to twist that and say that it might be biblical run the other way. Someone's charging you for healing, run the other way. No matter how they try to twist that or try to make it sound like well it's not really the money it's the faith and the faith is what moves God for the healing, nonsense. That's very manipulative and it's wrong it's charismatic witchcraft run the other way. Someone tries to charge you for a prophetic gift well you know I want to make sure they honor my gift or I did it for free and nobody was paying me or I tried to do it that way and nobody was really supporting. Well maybe the prophetic words weren't all that accurate. Well maybe the prophetic words weren't all that effective because effective prophetic words effective healing ministry effective deliverance ministry effective ministry in general will always be supported by the people of God period. So this is a charismatic witchcraft and it needs to be done away with and it's about time somebody says this because especially in the healing ministry there's this idea and and and you know what it's sad but but there's this idea that the healing ministry works this way that you pay and then you're healed you pay and then you receive your miracle I'm here to tell you as someone who's in the healing ministry who regularly holds miracle services around the world I'm telling you right now you cannot buy your healing you cannot pay for your miracle that is witchcraft and and don't let anyone try to twist that don't let anyone try to explain that don't let anyone try to get around that if there's a price tag in front of the supernatural they're a hireling period end of story and and and I'm putting this line in the sand because I'm tired of seeing God's people taken advantage of I'm tired of seeing God's people manipulated I'm tired of seeing God's people who are in desperate situations emptying their savings account because they think that it's going to help their sick child I'm tired of seeing God's people go to these places where they're being manipulated and take advantage of they're being fleeced skinned is more like it and they leave disappointed saying I did everything that they told me to do but I left without my miracle that is nonsense you do not pay even if you are broke even if you don't have a penny to your name Jesus will heal you Jesus will deliver you Jesus will speak to you about your future and you can keep the penny too the Jesus I know doesn't discriminate between rich and poor the Jesus I know doesn't look at your pocketbook before he looks at your faith the Jesus I know already paid the price for the supernatural to be manifested in your life so stop listening to hirelings stop listening to people who charge you for your breakthrough I get very passionate about this and I'm not going to apologize for this and and I will apologize if you think that I would ever apologize for this because that means I did something that would make you think I would ever compromise God's word I am so tired of seeing God's people taken advantage of I'm done I'm I'm just I have to do this this is something the Holy Spirit has given me to speak because it's it's it's time that the church of God it's time that God's people be free of deception it's time we stop falling for the same tricks again and again and again you don't realize how people pray on your desperation you don't realize how people pray forgive me in many instances and this is not applicable to everybody watching but the truth is that many times these manipulative people will pray upon your ignorance they'll pray upon your mental issues they'll pray upon your health issues also they can line their pockets now for some ministry is not a calling it's a career they saw it as a career and it needs to stop at least this is why I'm telling you so that I can warn you against the sorcerer I can warn you against the hireling at work in the church again don't let it be explained around if there's a paywall between you and the supernatural that's that's a red flag that is a hireling now I want to balance this because in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 verse 6 to 14 for example this is just one example in the Bible Paul the apostle takes an offering and Paul the apostle teaches that as you give God will bless you financially now here's where the manipulation has come in because the seeds that you sow biblically speaking and this is a spiritual law that we see modeled in the Bible the seeds that you sow come back is what you sow so if you're sowing finances you reaping finances you can't sow finances to reap healing you can't sow finances to reap deliverance you can't sow finances to receive a prophetic mantle or a word or anything like that that's just not even in scripture like like like I can't sow apple seeds and expect to grow strawberries the seeds I sow is what grows and so the Bible very clearly lays out and this is where we have to balance this because some people again become hyper critical of ministries the moment a ministry takes an offering they fold their arms and they say aha see I knew it that's not what it means to be a hireling because you have to pay for your staff salary you have to pay for the events that you hold around the world you have to pay for the production of the content that's going to bless the people it's just you don't want to charge people and tell them in order to be healed you're going to get money and that's a distinction that's very very very important that a lot of people miss some people are either extreme they either believe you can sow for anything or they believe you shouldn't sow for anything at all and so there is a biblical balance to be found so in the Bible we see politic offerings we see that the Bible says those who preach the God I've seen some and I don't do this but I've seen some ministry they do different types of fundraisers like say a golf tournament to help raise money for the ministry where the people are going to golf they're paying and it goes to the ministry everyone's okay with that no but nobody's saying you shouldn't raise finances what I'm saying is you shouldn't pray upon people's desire for deliverance healing and prophecy to exchange that or try to get them to think that they can exchange that for the miraculous their money it's just not biblical so watch out for the hireling they'll always charge you for the supernatural and again I balance this by saying that ministries do take offerings that is perfectly biblical and by telling you that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel and by telling you that the scripture definitely does teach that there are principles of stewardship it is absolutely biblical that if you so financially God will increase your material wealth that's in the Bible is that the center of the gospel no is that a promise for healing miracles no is that the obsession of the believer's life no does that mean we'll never suffer no does that mean we'll live a perfect life just the way we want it 100 percent ideal to our standards absolutely not but it does mean that if you're a good steward of your resources and generous toward the kingdom of God that God will increase your resources so please let's balance these thoughts and these truths of scripture that we might not fall into the prosperity gospel or the poverty gospel and that we might avoid the manipulation of the hireling who would try to charge you for God's power number three and this one's going to be rather interesting in fact I'm going to spend some time on this one if this is opening your eyes let me know in the comment section right now what what truths are really helping to break through the deception let me know tell me in the comments live or on replay okay number three I'm going to spend some time on this because I definitely don't want this to be misunderstood number three is the heresy hunter these are people who think they have the authority and the duty to police everyone's doctrines we're going to go there tonight and I wanted to balance this because I think it is important to note that there is a time to call out false teachers there is a time to call out false prophets there are ministries or organizations I wouldn't even call them ministries there are organizations that have gone so far off biblical foundation and they become a danger to others that most certainly they should be called out absolutely but I'm going to balance this as I've been balancing with every other point so the heresy hunter again is the one who thinks they have the authority and the duty to police everyone's doctrines so this is not a matter of defending just the gospel this is not a matter of protecting God's people from real harmful deception this is just a matter of well I'm going to police everyone who doesn't agree with me 100 and that's where you get into spiritual pride so let me profile the heresy hunter for a second now this is a generalization let me be very clear what I'm about to give you is a generalization it does not apply to everyone who falls into this unfortunate category but for the most part you start to see patterns here are some profile markers if you will of the heresy hunter someone who is fixated on policing everyone's doctrine someone who thinks that they have the authority to do this I'm going to show you some profile markers that indicate to you just why they behave this way and where this this this sense of authority comes from and I don't want to be too harsh but this is what I've observed and I want to approach this with love because many of these people who operate this way are our brothers and sisters but I would caution you from just receiving ministry from tabloid christian news sources that pass themselves off as ministries and what I mean by that is really they're just gossip ministries disguised as doctrinal policing they're gossip ministries who thrive on gossip and maybe they don't think that about themselves that's just the reality it's tabloidism it's below the sacredness of the pulpit and so here are some profile markers some things that I've noticed about people who fall into this and maybe and the reason I'm saying this is not to you know criticize unnecessarily not to bully people in these positions it's just to help you understand how these mindsets form and again I say this with love so so you'll notice this profile markers of the heresy hunter you'll notice they emphasize intellect because of their insecurities now I believe that God gave us an intellect I love philosophy I've studied debate and philosophy I love these sorts of expressions of intellect I love when people engage in dialogues that are somewhat how shall I say I don't want to say confrontational but you know when you have two people coming into a conversation and maybe they don't see eye to eye 100% on everything it's good iron sharpens iron discussions need to be had but but I've noticed that that often the heresy hunter has a real deep insecurity in the area of their intellect and and they want to be seen as an intellectual they want to be seen as the one who has the answers they want to be seen as an authority figure and this really comes from as I said insecurity that's probably burrowed itself deep within them from things that have happened throughout their lives they desperately desire here's another indicator of a heresy hunter they desperately desire to be perceived of as sharp-witted or intellectual they want to be the one with a comeback or who always wins the argument or always has the better observation this is a misplaced sense of authority that they develop over others and oftentimes I've noticed they come from backgrounds where maybe they suffered a lot of rejection maybe they didn't really succeed in a lot of the things that they wanted to succeed in maybe socially speaking they were outcasts awkward not really a part of the group and so this newfound authority that they think they have really gives them this this high right with people listening to me I have power I have authority I can tell people what to do it's almost like and forgive me again this is not meant to be overly critical but this is a profile I've noticed and I'm bringing this up only that you might identify it and avoid it and that you might identify it and fix it within yourself almost like boys trying to compensate for their insecurity in their manhood they come across as real aggressive and real they want to be intimidating in fact they have this desire to be the one that people fear they imagine that people fear them they imagine that when they speak everyone listens they imagine that there's this real heavy weight to when they get involved you know oh everyone else was discussing it but now here comes my opinion and now everyone's gonna listen and now I'm gonna settle the debate and now I'm gonna walk in and everyone's gonna tremble as I come in and demonstrate my sharp intellect and my vast amount of biblical knowledge and it's going to silence everyone else and I'm going to be the one holding the truth and this is again the profile of a heresy hunter unsuccessful in other aspects of life typically not always again socially unaccepted typically not always struggled to gain traction in their own ministries typically not always now again this is different than someone who methodically addresses true heresy this is not to say that there is never a time to call out a false teacher or a false preacher but these are how people who become heresy hunters develop this thing in them that just gives them this need to be seen in this way and again they may tell themselves no I just have a passion for truth or no I just have a passion to see God's word correctly taught but as I'll show you in a moment that's not always the case often they say they rarely criticize people but they always do often they say they don't get involved in drama but they always do often they say I never call people out but this time I am but they always do call people out this is the toxic side of ministry the toxic side of facebook the toxic side of youtube the toxic side of ministry in general where there is this this this constant arguing constant bickering constant one-up minship I got one on you or I had a comeback well my comeback was better and and this is why when you see debates online they don't end because each time they think they're going to make the comment that just ends it just gets them and this is really going to be the one that finalizes my point and ends the debate and there's this need to be right it's not a need uh to correctly explain the word of God and again this doesn't apply to everyone because I truly believe there are some heresy hunters who are genuinely concerned for the body of Christ but that's misplaced passion at least in how they go about in their method of protecting the body of Christ um and this is on both sides this is not just one sided so when I say heresy hunter you may be thinking cessationist or forgive me I'm not saying this is all there as to it um they may say oh well the reformed theologians right well that's one side of the spectrum we also have extremism on the other side there are heresy hunters in all different expressions of doctrine there are heresy hunters in all denominations it's not just the people who don't believe in the spiritual gifts that do this there are others even in our circles charismatic circles pentecostal circles who have this argumentative prideful egocentric spirit that just constant arguing constant figuring constantly needing to be right and it's really toxic and and to I'm going to be honest with you I've had to distance myself from it throughout the years don't ask me who don't ask me who was he who was she because it's been many people throughout the years where they started well I would work with them endorse them and and it was great and then you just saw this toxicity slip in something was lost it was very sad and I've had to separate myself from it to maintain the purity of what God is doing in this ministry lest I be dragged down too and we have to as believers sympathize with the heresy hunter I know our first reaction is to become argumentative back and that's not that's not really how you you can't win an argument with someone who bases their identity on winning arguments because even if they lose they don't know they lost because they have to lie to themselves if they're going to maintain this sense of self and we have to approach this with great compassion we have to approach this knowing these are brothers and sisters in Christ who are caught up in this based upon insecurity and based upon fear and spiritual pride and conspiracy theory like thinking and it really is sad the best thing to do is pray you know that when someone is struggling with pride it's pride in others that agitates their pride have you ever seen someone whose pride agitates you do you know what part of your soul they're agitating they're agitating your pride so we have to be like Jesus and not allow our pride to be agitated by the pride in others but instead to look at them with compassion and love and grace yes avoid that I'm telling you right now avoid that drama stop clicking through these videos that are just trash talking preachers for the sake of trash talk though they lie to themselves and say this is why I'm doing it many of them not all of them there really is this deep sense of insecurity this deep need to be seen again as the intellectual now I can show you for example let's dig into this because again I told you I was going to park it here for a little bit because I really do want to bring a detailed explanation of how this looks and I want to make sure that we're also not just saying that there is no need to call anybody look I'll be honest with you there are people who've called me out who were correct now is that for a shocker you're not going to hear people say that quite often but it's true and it and there's a lot of preachers I know who would say that but it's not often talked about there are people who've called me out who were correct and after they called me out I said you know what they're right and I've had to adjust so there is a time and a place and I'm not talking about people who've made videos and so forth I'm talking about people in my life whom God has sent who have actual authority over me who will call me out on something and I'll say okay that's true I need to I need to correct that I need to get that in order I need to make sure that I'm aligning that with the word of God so there is a time to correct and this is what the Bible says first John 4 one watch this dear friends do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the spirit you must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God for there are many false prophets in the world now again the Bible does give us this license if you will to test the spirits but don't confuse testing the spirits for being hyper critical which many people do Jude 1 3 beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was need for me for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith or fight for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints so we are to judge we are to look at their fruits we are to call out heretics that's a fact there is a time and a place for that so I'm not saying all of the calling of heresy or all of the calling out of heretics is somehow unbiblical no you'll see it time and time again in scripture there's a time to do that but let's really look at what the Bible is saying here the scripture tells us to judge the scripture tells us to judge what righteous judgment again and again and again you'll see all throughout the New Testament the Bible telling us to call out false teaching that's a fact but is this a license to criticize everyone is this a license to isolate and divide now trust me I've seen frauds in fact there's somebody who posted a video that was cleverly edited by the way where they were giving me a prophetic word and long story short it was a situation that I couldn't really get out of I was kind of stuck in the situation some would give me prophetic words and I knew I knew that they were lifting information off my Facebook primarily because the whole prophetic word they gave me as if it was God speaking to me now was based on information that was years old and outdated and no longer accurate because of my Facebook page I didn't update it and so they were lifting information on my Facebook false prophet I called that guy out and I and I made sure that I called him out and in fact they tried to post a video where this guy's prophesying over me and I I wrote there on YouTube a comment take this down this was not true prophecy please do this before I have to go public and say to take it because I didn't want that video floating around you know him saying that I'm endorsing his prophetic word no way I knew he was a false prophet so in that regard that's a false you got to call that stuff out it's nonsense I've seen people who who say that there are many ways to God and they claim the name of Christ that's a false prophet that's a heretic but let's look at these verses again who should we be calling out when is the time to call out false prophets when is the time to call out false teachers well first John 4 1 through 3 dear friends do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the spirit you must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God for there are many false prophets in the world now this is a portion of scripture often used by heresy hunters but let's really take a look at now heresy hunters are really big on context right so let's take a look at the context this is how we know if they have the spirit of God wait a minute they're giving the the Bible is giving us the standard right here the standard of judgment this is how we know if they have the spirit of God if a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body that person has the spirit of God does it say that if a person teaches that tongues are no longer for today that that person has the spirit of God does it say that if the person does all the ministry methods that you do they have the spirit of God does it say that if the person believes every bit of doctrine just as you teach it then that person has the spirit of God no that person acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body that person has the spirit of God but if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus that person is not from God such a person has the spirit of the antichrist which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here take away principle it's what they do with Jesus it's what they preach about Jesus that makes them true or false i'll give you another example jude 1 3 through 4 beloved when i gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation and this is a very commonly used scripture or portion of scriptures by heresy hunters it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith or fight for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of god into lasciviousness and denying the only lord god and our lord jesus christ in other words these people teach that the grace of god allows you to live however you want to live well there you go that's the definition of someone who should be called out someone against whom we should fight for the faith it doesn't say anything here about any of the doctrines concerning the spiritual gifts it doesn't say anything here about church planting methodology or worship style or clothing anything like that so the bible time and time again as you look at these portions of scripture that talk about defending the faith or correcting those who preach another gospel it's always talking about the fundamentals never the peripheral what do i mean by that well in christianity there are primary doctrines and there are peripheral doctrines i'll give you some examples here examples of primary doctrines the incarnation of christ we all have to agree on that the deity of christ the crucifixion of christ the bodily resurrection of christ the exclusivity of christ or salvation alone through christ jesus salvation by grace through faith a literal heaven and hell the teaching of the doctrine of the trinity these are fundamentals of the christian faith so anyone who violates the fundamentals these are people to be called out now if you're talking about a peripheral doctrine like take for example what someone teaches about finances what someone teaches about healing what someone teaches about the gifts of the spirit what someone teaches about church methodology what someone teaches about worship style what someone teaches about evangelism methods i could go on naming all of the different doctrines that are peripheral that's not where you're calling people out it's when they violate a fundamental of the faith that they are then fighting against the core which is the gospel and therefore are deserving of being called out so that's a basic standard the definition of a heretic is not anyone who disagrees with me on any biblical point that's arrogance that's pride for or what you believe to be the true peripheral now watch this watch this here's another thing to watch out for with heresy hunters the conflation of the gospel with peripheral doctrines what do i mean by that i'm going to show you something it's very tricky but once you see it you won't be able to unsee it i'm going to expose something right now and it's a method that is so manipulative it plays on the emotions of god's people and it needs to stop let me show you what's done what they will do is they will take a peripheral doctrine and then mix that in with the person or the individual that they're criticizing their teachings with the gospel okay so what is the gospel the gospel is the good news about jesus christ how he came to earth lived a sinless life died on the cross rose again from the dead in bodily form paid the penalty for our sin defeated death hell in the grave and if we place our faith in him that we can be saved from our sins there's no other way to be saved we're hopeless without him and if we place our faith in him he will take our sins forgive them and we get his righteousness in short jesus gives you his eternal life in exchange for your temporary one okay so that's the gospel message in short now some might describe it somewhat differently but we're describing the same thing um but that that's uh that's how i succinctly put it now that basic message of the gospel i rarely see that changed i rarely see that changed from denomination to denomination from church to church from ministry to ministry i rarely see that change now when i do see it change that deserves to be called out but here's the conflation now here's the tricky thing that's done what they will do is they'll take a teaching say for and i've seen this one done the most say they'll take a famous preacher and they'll say this preacher teaches this about money let's say that preacher does teach a little heavy on if you give god will bless you well i showed you in the bible where paul talks about the seed being sown financially in the new reaping and then what they'll do is they'll take the peripheral doctrine and completely ignore what they teach as the gospel and they'll say look this is what they teach the gospel is in other words they take the person's side doctrines and accuse them of teaching their side doctrines as the gospel when that's not the case you could very easily reverse that you could very easily take for example their obsession with making sure everyone doctrinally agrees with them and then accuse them now of preaching the doctrine-based gospel that you have to know all of the correct doctrines in order to be saved well that's not what they're doing right no but because they have an heavy emphasis on doctrine now i can take what they teach on doctrine conflate it with what they teach on the gospel and accuse them of a doctrine-based gospel or accuse them of teaching that you have to believe all their doctrines before you can be saved which they don't teach that so why do we do that with people who minister healing all they they teach the miracle-based god they're just they're so focused on miracles and i've seen it time and time again i can preach a message on healing and someone will say this is the false gospel the gospel is not about miracles well no one said that i was just happening to teach on healing that day or if i teach on financial blessing this is the false gospel this is the prosperity gospel uh the the bible doesn't teach that the gospel is about health and wealth well no one said that this is just what i teach on the financial end but if you look at the gospel the actual simple message of salvation you'll find the more often than not we agree now heresy hunter is not going to do that heresy hunter is going to take any doctrine you teach that they disagree with pull it out highlight it and then accuse you as if you taught that peripheral doctrine as the gospel and so that's what i mean by the conflation of the gospel it's very tricky it's very subtle and even in explaining it i don't even know how effective i'm being in explaining it but once you kind of see them doing that you go oh i get it like i watch this documentary where they took preacher after preacher after preacher and they took things they said about money or they took things they said about miracles or they took things they said about our authority and identity in christ and they took that as if to say look this is all they teach and therefore that's what they teach on the gospel totally ignoring what all of these preachers had said on suffering on salvation on repentance from sin and it's really tricky and honestly it's kind of gross because it's right along the lines of what modern-day media does in order to control a narrative and so then they'll use buzzwords also to justify the criticism so for example i use the word activate when i teach on the spiritual gifts now by no means am i saying that i'm giving you secrets that nobody else knows that are not found in scripture but by activate we simply mean stir up and isn't that something that's used in scripture i mean paul the apostle wrote to timothy stir up the gift that's in you that's really all that's meant by activate but they'll take buzzwords and they'll say ah okay well because of that buzzword can be misconstrued and understood in this way therefore we're going to accuse you of teaching it that way and that's definitely not a healthy and effective way of going about understanding each other's doctrines but this is one of the method all or one of the methods of a heresy on it they will go and do this they will pull outside doctrines flip it on you and say well that's what you teach as the primary gospel so again as an example if i talk about healing they say oh you preach the healing gospel if i talk about miracles oh you think it's all about miracles if i happen to teach on money they say oh you're the prosperity preacher if i talk about the power and authority we have in christ i say oh you're teaching the little god's word of faith doctrine no when you talk about the various different aspects of truth that are found in scripture you're not always going to be covering specifically the one gospel message now there is only one gospel but say for example um what the bible says about speaking in tongues that's not the gospel the bible says about the spiritual gifts that's not the gospel what the bible says about money that's not the gospel you can go on and on and on talking about the church discipline that's not the gospel we have to teach it sometimes don't we so be careful because this is a real manipulative tactic that's used it's it's the conflation of the gospel and they accuse you and your peripheral doctrines of being your primary uh gospel message so it's the manipulation of framing it this way that causes it to become really unhealthy ways of going about discussion the heresy hunter is not interested in winning a brother or sister they're interested in winning an argument now there may be people who are listening to this and say hey i call people out but i do it sincerely well then i'm not talking about you i'm talking about a very specific type of false teacher that you absolutely must avoid um and this unbiblical mindset that you know we have to be mean and harsh that has to be completely ignored too there's this notion that the meaner i am the more truth i'm telling you don't confuse harshness with truth they're not the same thing here's what the bible says Ephesians 4 1 through 4 therefore i a prisoner for serving the lord beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling for you have been called by god always be humble and gentle be patient with each other watch this now tell me if you think heresy hunting can be how shall i say this eradicated if we just follow this always be humble and gentle be patient with each other making allowance for each other's faults because of your love verse 3 make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit binding yourselves together with peace for there is one body and one spirit just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future think about this every effort it seems to me that the heresy hunter doesn't make every effort to agree the heresy hunter makes every effort to disagree this is why no explanation is ever good enough they could say well you taught this and you could say well actually this is what i meant and instead of admitting that they were wrong they'll say no that's manipulation here's what you actually it's funny because the heresy hunter will always tell you what you meant so that it fits their narrative now some even accuse other believers who want unity while you're making unity into an idol they'll say i'd rather have truth than unity well wait a minute we are united in truth and the two are not contradictory to one another they're not mutually exclusive you can have both truth and unity so long as we unify on the primaries now there is a time i want to say this i'm gonna be very clear let me balance this now there is a time to call out heresy i am not talking about everyone who's ever called out a false teacher that's necessary i'm talking about the unbiblical approach of calling out fellow brothers and sisters labeling them as false teachers simply because they don't align with you on every doctrine that's arrogance and it comes from fear ultimately and this is why it's so difficult to defeat because it's a it's a self-defending mindset where the moment they begin to let their guard down and say hey maybe i'm wrong let's say oh no you're gonna be deceived so to admit you're wrong is to make yourself susceptible to deception at least in their minds you're never gonna get out of that unless the holy spirit really touches your heart which is why i say don't argue with them just avoid them and i thank god actually i thank god that this really is trending downwards this idea of heresy hunting and the toxicity and the drama and the tabloidism that really is on the downturn people are tuning out of that and starting to catch on to more of you know center christianity center of it not the extremism on either side just centered christianity biblical fundamentals loving one another speaking the truth and of course calling out people who violate the fundamentals now i want to see in the chat section let me know chat pull that up just for a second tim i want to see guys is this opening your eyes let me know i'm looking at the come with the comments but should you do this for someone prays differently or if they're not like you should you just pray to god first well praying differently is is a whole different case you know sometimes people have different approaches to prayer so long as they're all founded fundamentally on the primary teachings of scripture concerning prayer then you're okay james george says yes the clickbait i agree but you know not everyone does it for clickbait i'm sure you know this james and i want to say this just because it's true not everyone does it for clickbait not everyone's motive is oh i want more views use use some are sincerely truly under the impression that they're doing god's work and and that's that's of course that's why you have to pray getting a lot of responses here yes it's opening my eyes the heresy hunters can breed toxicity true which is why it's important that we don't return toxicity back i never reply to heresy hunters i just don't because it you're never going to win it's it's adding gasoline to a fire just leave it alone let the lord deal with it let god work on their hearts and again sometimes they actually call out true heretics which is which is it's an important work look it's an important work to call out heresy it's an important work to call out heretics what i'm saying here is sometimes the extremism takes you to such a far end that you're calling out fellow brothers and sisters and just nitpicking on things that don't matter spirit of god open my eyes amen team thank you for writing the verses down and then dina says yes this teaching is amazing well good i'm glad you guys are receiving it okay i want to show you another couple of the false each so just to recap the false teachers number one the hypocrite number two the hireling number three the heresy hunter recap and balance real quick the hypocrite someone who lives a lifestyle inconsistent with the message that they preach the balance not everyone is perfect there has to be some grace but a hypocrite is someone who blatantly consistently and without any attempt at repentance continues in sin while teaching the word number two the hireling these are the people who charge for miracles charge for the word of god they're only in it for the money the balance you should be giving money to preachers you should be giving money to ministries you should be supporting the work of god through your finances and it's okay to for preachers to ask this is more about the heart where are the motives number three the heresy hunter these are the individuals who think they have the authority and the duty to please everyone's doctrines the balance you have to call out heresy when you see it but the other balance the counterbalance to the balance is that not every point of disagreement is heresy and we shouldn't conflate what people teach on the side issues with what they teach as the center of the gospel which is often a very manipulative tactic that's being used maybe unknowingly by heresy hunters number four the heretic as if uh to completely counter my third point or seemingly counter my third point the heretic who's the heretic the heretic is the one who violates the fundamentals of the faith i gave some to you there are a lot more but things like again the incarnation of christ the deity of christ the bodily resurrection of christ the exclusivity of christ salvation by grace through faith literal heaven and hell trinity these are fundamentals of the faith and anyone who teaches against these should be confronted i think first privately go to them say hey here's where you're off and if they won't turn from that then you go and you have to publicly correct it now we have to be careful with this because another thing that i noticed that's done is sometimes we try to frame people's disagreement as if it's sin in other words if you disagree with me you're in sin if you don't teach the exact same thing as me that's sin and so i've seen this done watch this here's another manipulation that plays out you've probably seen it on social media a preacher will hear another preacher and say hmm i don't like what they teach because it contradicts what i teach so here's what i'm going to do i'm going to make a video specifically calling that preacher out and then i'm going to post it publicly as if it's a sin i tried getting them to repent i'm trying to get them to stop teaching this and let's hope they humble themselves and agree with me we'll think of the arrogance in that that you think someone has pride if they dare to disagree with you that's just nonsensical so we can't treat every disagreement as if it's sin that needs to be repented oh you know i went to them privately they won't change their doctrine i try to get them to change it but they just won't so now i got to blast them publicly well that's just immaturity that's spiritual pride and i find more often than not that the people who do these sort of things and engage in this sort of nonsense really don't have the authority to do it no one sees them as an apostolic authority no one really sees them as a pastoral authority they just kind of came out of nowhere and suddenly calling you out and that's that's also not very healthy but i also believe that if someone is being heretical in that they're completely violating a fundamental you absolutely must call them out but i say go to them first say hey you got this really wrong here's why and then maybe they humble themselves maybe they don't but you know my policy and and and i and i think there are some hints of this in scripture is that if it's not within my circle of influence i just kind of stay out of it because if i really i'm going to call out every heretic that's all i'm going to do for the rest of my life and i'll never preach the gospel i'll never get down to teaching and discipling believers it'll always just be calling everyone out you know why because there is no shortage of heretics there will always be heretics in and multitudes of heretics so if i wanted to do a video on a heretic every single day i would have to do a video every day for the rest of my life and i still wouldn't be able to cover them all so what do i do if someone i'm in relationship with falls into heresy well that relationship is part of my authority submit yourselves one to another that relationship is my authority to to go to them and ask them to change their ways if someone in my ministry who who's under my ordination or who's under our payroll who's under our our our covering our spiritual covering goes off and starts teaching something if for example britain or sergio or some of these guys who are under our spiritual covering which they don't teach anything heretical but if they did i would go to them and say hey this has to be corrected and then they would correct it we'd move on and everyone would be good but but but beyond that i just don't get involved in all these different things i just instead unplug and avoid but still there are times to call it out now if it's something like at the body of christ that large is dealing with then maybe i'll deal with it like for example there was some um there was some deliverance doctrines that i wouldn't regard necessarily as heresy but they were really harmful and so about a year ago i took the time to really deal with some of the deliverance doctrines that went on the extreme now you know i believe in and practice deliverance but there were some things that were being taught there were so extreme so bizarre so unhealthy and unbiblical i thought okay i have to at least teach on these and i did and for the most part it helped a lot of and i'm talking thousands of people go there's one video we did i'll recommend it at the end of this stream over a million views just on that one video on strongholds look at the comments thousands of people saying this changed my thinking i got messages from pastors in deliverance ministry saying hey we're going to reform the way we do things now we're going to correct the way we do deliverance and why because i saw it as a problem and and i wouldn't have said anything if it wasn't affecting the people who follow the ministry that god gave me stewardship over so people were coming to me questions brother david this is confusing brother david is this true and it was by the multitudes of people who were confused in this area i said hey i have to stand on the side of god and i have to stand on the side of the word and i have to at least address it now i didn't need to call anybody out i didn't need to go making uh you know tabloid like videos and trash talking people i just had to present the truth and that was enough and there was a correction we saw in the community it shifted toward the more biblical way and i thank god for that now that was one example of something i addressed but i didn't have to go and get all dramatic and toxic and address people and call them out by name no it was just a simple presentation of the truth that ultimately corrected it now watch this hebrews 13 9 says do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings which is exactly what's occupied we're not benefited so this scripture is talking about being carried away by strange teachings as some of us often are i've heard this said and i don't know how much i agree with this but it's a quote that at least got me thinking all heresy is error but not all error is heresy like for example i have some cessation is friends very close friends of mine who are cessations they don't believe in the gifts of the spirit now i believe they are engraved error but i wouldn't call them heretics heretics violate again the fundamentals we can have unity despite it so there really are two different types of heresies that i've noticed one heresy that twists the scripture to make a point you know context completely messed up the scripture completely abused it's like i say it's their theological pretzel their their their their their uh scriptural gymnastics to try to make their point work and it just doesn't and you can see it that's one type of heresy and then the other is an absolute outright violation of the fundamentals an absolute outright violation of the fundamentals both of these need to be corrected and i would even say that there is a scale like like i would say red light yellow light green light there are some things that people teach i say hey green light we're all all together and let's go go go and there are some things that people teach it's a yellow light like oh okay i'm not going to completely stop fellowship with you but i'm going to start i'm going to start hesitating just a little bit because there are some things that are just way out there we got we got it we got it we got to see where we stand on this and then there are other things that people teach red light where it's just nope you're a heretic and you need to stop and so it depends upon what it is like for example um let's look at salvation by grace through faith okay we know salvation is by grace through faith but if someone starts teaching a workspace gospel they may not straight out say that but they may kind of hint at it so they're kind of they're kind of teetering right there on the brink and you have to say hey you're getting a little close there right that's a yellow light scenario but it all comes down to really looking at the scripture and then looking at what violates the scripture so the heretic is always going to be in direct violation of these fundamentals and we have grace for one another in doctrinal disagreements but not on the fundamentals let me be clear on that so to recap what i'm telling you about the heretic the heretic is someone who will twist the scripture knowingly to prove their point or who will outright violate the fundamentals of the faith i also sometimes but the time to call it out is when it violates a fundamental now here's the balance make sure they're actually violating a fundamental and not just being unclear i'll give you an example um there's this teaching that is somewhat difficult to do because you have to be like a surgeon very precise you ever heard the phrase truly god truly man talking about the divinity of christ and the humanity of christ in one right i heard one person put it as jesus was was so much god that as though he were not man and he was so much man as though he were not god and and i get that and that's that's like a mystery within a mystery it's it's it's uh it's gonna take a a surgeon like approach to teach on something like that so i heard somebody teach on this idea that jesus was truly god truly man but they leaned a little too heavy on his humanity and almost made it sound like jesus wasn't god now i know this person i know that's not at all what they were saying but because they leaned a little heavy on christ's humanity all you bet the heresy hunters went to town with that they took his teachings they said see he's saying that jesus was just a man and therefore we can be gods and i was thinking oh my goodness i listened to the message myself and even while i was listening to it i said they're going to take this out of context people are going to take i know what he means well people are going to take this out of context so make sure that they're actually heretics and they're not just miscommunicating something that is actually pretty difficult to communicate so that's something that we have to be careful of as well and we show grace in that area now if a heretic is not dealt with i'm going to show you the final false teacher here so far we've seen the hypocrite the hireling the heresy hunter and the heretic and again a heretic is someone who violates the fundamental of the faith there will always be doctrinal disagreements among brethren and that's okay as long as they're not violating a fundamental of faith and make sure if you cut off a heretic that they are in fact violating a fundamental of the faith and you're not just cutting them off because of what someone else told you their teaching go and listen to their teaching yourself but if a heretic isn't dealt with we get number five before i tell you what number five is i want everyone watching right now to leave a like on this video you can leave a like on the live or on the replay and if you can if you haven't done so already make sure you're also subscribed to encounter tv click on that notification bell when you do these teachings are jesus centered spirit filled bible based balanced in the holy spirit okay number five is the cult leader now this one a heretic has to go for a long time and they have to gain traction they have to gain followings you want to know something scary i've seen genuine ministries begin as powerful they became a cult leader and and and later on this week i'll be releasing a teaching on how to know you're in a cult and not a church that's coming out i believe on thursday so if you're watching this on july 5th the video will be out thursday if you're watching this after thursday july 7th the video will already be out but really what begins to happen is a heretic begins to believe the whole lump the whole batch can be spoiled just by a little bit of false teaching and i've seen it to where someone starts off seemingly right but because of one small error because of one doctrine that wasn't correct because of one inclination toward a certain way of seeing things that as time went on they ended up falling off the rails like i've seen preachers this is not a joke i've seen preachers start spirit filled holy ghost and then they end up on the spectrum of believing that jesus is coming back with ufo's and alien beings to pick us up and they kind of tie it in with all these other strange things i've seen that happen i've seen it happen i've seen preachers start with a jesus-centered gospel message and then they end up to this place where they're claiming they're the prophet elisha or they start jesus-centered and then they end up talking about you know serving angels as gods and the angels giving them special powers and it just gets into bizarre stuff not not saying that angels don't interact with us a whole different message for a whole different time but but you get i'm saying it's just this extremism that that begins to develop and what begins to happen is a cult leader is born because the people become loyal not to the word they become loyal to the person not not what does the bible say they want to know what that person says about the bible don't you do it with me please don't do it with me who who cares what i say if it's not bible based don't don't don't ask well what does david hernan is think about that study to show yourself approved i pray you check everything i say with the scripture i pray you check everything i say against the word of god study to show yourself approved i am not your authority i am not your head christ is the head of the church christ is the authority the word is the authority now the cult leader shows several signs here's some signs of a cult leader you're ready write these down the cult leader is constantly talking themselves up all of you knew my authority oh nobody's bold like me nobody has power like me i hope nobody clips this out and just uses it like i'm saying it so here's what the cult leader say they will say nobody has authority like me they will say nobody is as bold as me they will say nobody has power like me they will say no one has accomplished what i've accomplished they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll they'll say how much respect they'll always talk about how much respect people have you know everybody respects me everybody cares what i say you know things change when i come to town things change when i weigh in on a situation it's just constant like ego centric talking themselves up i'm this i'm that i don't take this everybody knows i'm like this and it's just this constant focus on self and it like the the harrass and it's just really gross it's it's it's it's grieving to the holy spirit anyone that has to do that has a major insecurities and b is a cult leader in development cult leaders cultivate an us against them mentality so somebody agrees with the dear leader everybody says oh my goodness they're attacking all of us and it's perceived as an attack cult leaders use a we're being attacked mentality play the victim constantly they claim that nobody else will say what they say oh nobody else is talking about this but me nobody else gives you this truth but me why do they say things like that because they're trying to get you to come back to them and them alone they want you to believe that only they talk about the truth so you only go to them they want you to believe that only they talk about what they talk about because they want you to continue coming back to them no one can do what they do no one can do it the way they do it cult leaders claim secret knowledge that only by following them can you become properly equipped there's a heavy emphasis on leadership or their particular calling they have a claim to special knowledge that's not founded upon scripture roman 16 17 to 20 says this and now i make one more appeal my dear brothers and sisters watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people's faith by teaching things contrary to what you have been taught stay away from them such people are not serving innocent people but everyone knows that you are obedient to the lord this makes me very happy i want you to be wise in doing right and to stay innocent of any wrong the god of peace will soon crush satan under your feet may the grace of our lord jesus be with you now here the bible is talking about people who cause divisions through their teaching of seeing the world i've often heard people say things like well you know it's a new thing they're bringing up or it's a new teaching be very careful with new teachings yes god can reveal things about his word that's true but sometimes things are so new their heresy and it makes you wonder why didn't the church teach that why why was all a woman hosea 4 6 they'll use for example you'll see this often used my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and people quote that as if to excuse bizarre doctrines you ever hear that well i don't see that in the bible people are destroyed for lack of knowledge god gave that to me if you don't know that you're not properly equipped you'll be destroyed talking about israel rejecting god's law and secondly in principle even if that is talking about you know people generally being spiritually destroyed for lack of knowledge this is talking about knowledge that comes from the word not from a guru dangerous this is how it happens people will use the bible to develop this um you know they they they imply that they alone possess this deeper knowledge but nothing in the bible justifies these private this is this is deception and we the people of god must be aware of how the enemy operates in this regard now the balance to this is not all famous or charismatic leaders or cult leaders like i got some friends who are very charismatic and they have a very excited following and base that's not what i'm talking about i'm talking about people who intentionally cultivate this cult like loyalty so that they can get away with anything and you'll know them by the way they talk about themselves talk themselves up constantly point to them selves that's how you know them so to recap five teachers you need to avoid the hypocrite the hireling the hair duration all across the board i want to pray with you don't turn off the video i want to pray with you and then i want to talk to you let's pray that god would open your eyes and help to ground you in the word against deception father in the name of jesus i pray you touch your people cause them to live so close to your word that they live free of deception lord teach them to place their faith in you and not in man or woman teach them to place their faith in your word help their eyes to remain open and vigilant that they might avoid the false teachers who cause a spiritual harm in the mighty name of jesus we pray i want you to say it because you believe it say amen now before you log off i want to talk to you about getting involved in this ministry is for the sake of souls and for the sake of the gospel and you'll look at the bottom of your screen and you'll see a URL that appears at the bottom of the screen right now and that is a website link that you can go to to support this ministry now it's very easy to watch something like this and say well there are so many people watching surely everyone's going to do something i'm going to sit this 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future i see the patrick family gave a gift to the ministry thank you and god bless you garpu kefas the supporter thank you hosé lig liwa became a monthly supporter god bless you jacklyn a monthly supporter thank you so much lillet lillet became a monthly supporter god bless you lillet and several others coming in right now i can see the names again right now david hernan's ministries.com slash donate rana became a monthly supporter thank you so much rana and dora became a monthly supporter hannah gave a one-time gift thank you hannah we appreciate your giving it makes all the difference in the world um i also see uh need and you know it makes all the difference it really really does uh there's no community like the spirit family online you guys are the most generous the most giving the most caring and i want to thank you for that so i appreciate it now if you enjoyed this teaching and i know it was a long one i went i went especially long tonight on this one i didn't realize how long i went but we had to really get detailed with this um i encourage you to watch this teaching and this one actually got over a million views now you can take the comments away thank you tim this one got a million views plus how do i get free from strongholds for good breaking the cycle now this one is the one i was telling you that of all the spiritual warfare teachings and all the other spiritual warfare teachings got a ton of views a lot of traffic and a lot of positive response like 95 positive 95 percent of the people saying this changed my mind this changed the way i'm doing things even deliverance ministers calling us and saying we are completely revamping the way we practice deliverance but really this will give you a deeper look at what strongholds are and how to break them and what christians truly battle in their everyday life and how to get to the root of the problem so that you completely eradicate demonic influence once and for all check that out and thank you all of you for watching this live stream until next time remember nothing is impossible with god