Test the Spirits "How Can You Know if Someone Who Claims to Be a Prophet Is Genuine or Not?

By Amen Mpofu

What's the last conflict that will involve the whole world? Is it a nuclear war that'll annihilate the inhabitants of planet earth? Or is it another pandemic like Covid-19? In this book, the author clearly shows that the last conflict that'll engulf the whole world is a religious one. This is because Christ and many apostles in the bible mentioned that they'll be a tsunami of deception that'll sweep across the globe. It'll be masterminded by none other than the devil himself and his cohort of evil angels.
This calls for true bible knowledge that'll equip the reader so that they can identify true messengers of God. The book provides the reader with tools, which they can use to separate the wheat from the chaff.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amen Mpofu
• Release date: May 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463820964

Amen Mpofu

Amen Mpofu is an author of religious books, particularly Christian literature and a blogger of end-time events affecting the world. He's held evangelism activities inside and outside South Africa and is also passionate about preaching the good news of God's grace.

Book preview

Amen Mpofu

Test the Spirits

How can you know if someone who claims to be a prophet is genuine or false?

UUID: 7bd99a45-8649-4d94-bbfc-892359ee3ae1

This ebook was created with StreetLib Write

http://write.streetlib.com

Table of contents

Test the Spirits

Dedication & Acknowledgments

​Foreword

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 BIBLICAL TESTS OF A PROPHET

Chapter 2 IDENTITY MATTERS

Chapter 3 EFFECTIVE HABITS OF A CHRISTIAN

Chapter 4 LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU…

Chapter 5 JESUS IN THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL- UNMASKING GOD'S CHARACTER (ACTS 28:16)

Chapter 6 HOW TO COME TO CHRIST

Chapter 7 THE MOST FORGOTTEN DAY

Chapter 8 A DARING CHANGE

Chapter 9 IDENTIFYING GOD’S TRUE CHURCH

Appendix

Test the Spirits

How can you know if someone who claims to be a prophet is genuine or false?

by

Amen Mpofu

LAST DAY EVENTS MINISTRY

www.lastday-events.com

Cover art direction, design by Amen Mpofu

Copyright © 2020 Last-Day Events Ministry

Unless otherwise stated, all scripture references are taken from the New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible.

New Living Translation copyright (NLT) © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale Publishers Inc. Carol Stream, IIIIinos 60188. All rights reserved.

New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV ® Copyright© 1973,1978,1984,2011 by Biblica, Inc. ® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Kings James Version (KJV) Holy Bible. King James Version® Copyright©1994 by Zondervan Corporation. Used by permission. All rights reserved

Edited by Colfax Sibhula Ndhlovu

Dedication & Acknowledgments

To my Supreme Lord and Inspiration; Jesus Christ- who inspired me to write this book- which I believe is relevant for people living in these last days. My heartfelt gratitude also goes to my daughter, Linda, who was a constant encouragement to see the book finished and published. I’m thankful to my whole family and particularly my wife, Mary, for the prayers they offered on my behalf as well. The following people also rendered support in many ways: Pastor Richard Gyma, Precious Moyo, Joe Sandawana Dube, Ian Nqaba, La- Rochelle Seventh-day Men’s Prayer Ministry and my editor; Colfax Ndlovu. I’m grateful for their help. Not be left out are the Facebook readers of my blog; their reading of the many topics I wrote on my Facebook page motivated me to put some of the thoughts together in this book.

I dedicate this book to my son, Caleb, who has shown interest in spiritual matters; it’s my prayer that this book will show him the truth about the so-called prophets and at the same time lead him to Christ, the Truth. It is also dedicated to seekers of truth; those who are puzzled by the miracle–focused and money-centered prophets and are therefore looking for answers. May God leads all of you to the truth and the Truth is Christ.

​Foreword

IT IS ALMOST probably that every thinking child of God (Christian) has a constant concern about whether they are standing in the truth or not. This thinking would be more so given the fact that prophecy warns us of the coming deception: Matthew 24 vs 4; Mark 13vs 5 and Luke 2 vs 8. But, who will be these deceivers? The author takes the reader through a clear and detailed exposition about how to discern between The Truth and false ‘Christs’ and false prophets.

The author gives the reader the apparatus/tools by which they can test for themselves whether anyone or anybody who claims to be a prophet or assumes to give a prophecy is really sent of God Almighty in Heaven. Also, to ascertain if they are being moved by the Spirit of the Living God.

A number of questions are answered in this book, and to name just but a few: 1. Can we be sure without a shadow of a doubt that the ‘prophet’ is authentic? 2. Does the lifestyle of the said ‘prophet’ matter? 3.How about their relationship with Jesus Christ? 4. Can a prophecy hold true regardless of whether it mirrors the Scriptures or not? 5.How about if what has been prophesied about doesn’t come to pass? All these questions and more are adequately addressed by the author in this beautiful book.

This book is useful to Bible students new and old alike, whether preparing a sermon for reference, revision for personal study, and /or any such like Bible study. I am confident that everyone will find this book not falling short.

Lastly, I want to say many will be excited by the style of the author in that he pulls no punches. And, I would say these needs be because to be deceived and be lost is no small matter. Here is a book that has come in good time to answer pertinent questions and concerns in these last days of Earth’s history when many voices are claiming to have ‘heard from God’ and personalities claiming to be speaking on behalf of God Almighty in Heaven. Be blessed as you read the book, In The Name of Jesus Christ our Redeemer.

Colfax Sibhula Ndhlovu

INTRODUCTION

The Standard of Testing Truth

NEWSFLASH: A Self-proclaimed prophet was reported on social media to have commanded his church members to do the following bizarre things: drink petrol and an insecticide known as DOOM and also eat rats and grass in the name of God. Another one was said to have slept with minors in his church. The minors were so brainwashed that they even accepted to be the prophet’s ‘wives’. They saw nothing wrong with this form of sexual immorality. Here are other observations about the so-called prophets made by Esther Makoni in the Standard paper , November 15, 2015:

Follow and see so-called prophet ***** holding out a bottle of petrol in front of his church, with bizarrely contorted congregants shaking uncontrollably before him, and competing with each to get a sip of the petrol, and then, on his instruction, several of them dashing off en masse, in a seemingly choreographed and unnaturally uniformed zombie stampede, to go and eat leaves and to graze on the grass outside the church.

Prophet***** stripping the clothes off his women congregants, in church, feeding them snakes and human hair, and having men lying prostrate and licking [his] pointed shoes"

There is the shocking clip of the West African prophet continually and rhythmically pumping the pregnant stomach of a woman in front of the church, with his pointed shoe, in due course raising the tempo of the stepping ritual as if in a bizarre sexual act, and the woman kneels in gratitude before him after the act

There is the disturbing clip of the charlatan *****standing in his pulpit, directing pregnant women to have the babies in their wombs dance for the Lord, and the pregnant women in the congregation responding by falling into a deep sleep and making apparently involuntary sexualized motions until abruptly ordered to stop by their hypnotist through his microphone.

There is the rich Nigerian prophet slapping a woman hard on her cheek for not answering a question the way he wants it answered, in front of his congregation. There is ****** in Kenya bawdily touching a woman’s breast on the pulpit, and defying her pitiable search for modesty when she has turned her back to the congregation, by force-turning her back again to face the hall as he continues wantonly to fondle her".

There is so-called prophet ******standing congregants in a queue, and then administering a spiritual two feet on each of them and tripping them, sweeping them off their feet by kicking hard in the air and inducing a falling response as if he has actually kicked them physically. And then, unaccountably, packing his bags and leaving his congregation soon thereafter to base himself overseas. ( Please take note that the names of the prophets have been omitted. All the above occurrences are in the public domain-Author)

Is this the gospel? Are people safe from these prophets who pretend to be saints and yet they are wolves inside? No wonder Jesus said: "Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves’’ (Matt.7:15).

Today’s Christian news is awash with many people who regard themselves as prophets/prophetesses. They claim to be ordained by God. With so many of them, how can we know which ones are genuine or fake? We can draw a lesson from nature so as to answer this question. It abounds with very important principles that can be applied in our spiritual journey. Light and darkness co-exist so are what is genuine and counterfeit (fake). Good and bad, blessings and curses, truth and falsehood always move together in this spiritual drama. It is for this reason that the Apostle John counsels us to test every spirit, teaching, doctrine, message, prophecy, messenger, prophet, and anyone who claims to represent Christ to see whether they are from God. Nothing should be taken for granted.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).

In Matthew 24, our Lord Jesus in describing the signs of the last-days mentioned that false Christs will appear on a large-scale. He repeated this warning several times showing that they will be massive deception in the last days. John, the Revelator, also predicted a tsunami of deception in the form of evil spirits that will take the world by storm (Rev.16:13, 14). Therefore, everything must be put to a Bible test . Nothing and no one should be taken for granted because deception and falsehood lie very close to the truth. Every sincere and Bible-believing Christian must ask themselves these questions with regard to what they believe:

Where is it found in the Scriptures?

Does it agree with the whole plan of Salvation?

Is it taught from the Old Testament (OT) and right through the New Testament (NT)?

Does it uplift Christ as the Saviour and Redeemer of this sin-sick world?

Does it lead them to self-renunciation and denunciation of sin?

Does it lead them to the path of self-sacrificing love and adherence to the commandments of God?

The above principle of verifying truth is based on Luke 24:13-35, where Jesus quoted the Old Testament (OT) in reference to Himself to show that He was the true Messiah who had come to the world to die for sinners. He showed that the old prophets centered their prophecies on Him as the Saviour of the world and that what they said was confirmed by the New Testament (NT). So any teaching to be established as Bible truth should uphold both the OT and the NT as foundational to the plan of Salvation. If we neglect the Scriptures in preference of people’s opinions, we are likely to be deceived by the Devil. The Bible says, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge………….’’ (Hosea 4:6).

In this book, we shall attempt to discuss several ways in which a prophet/prophetess can be tested to see if they are genuine or fake. A prophet/prophetess should meet all the criteria. This is because teaching some truth mixed with unscriptural doctrines equals error and falsehood which eventually leads to deception. The Bible says that we should prove everything and hold fast to true prophecy. And that we should expose works of darkness because the Devil can pretend to be an angel of light ( 1Thes. 5:21; Eph. 5:11; 2 Cor. 11:14). We shall also discuss the primary purpose of salvation and the relationship between the gospel and the Sabbath, the most forgotten day in the Christian world, and many other hot topics.

Our Standard of Testing: The Bible

To know whether or not a citizen, a foreign national, a business person, or a politician abides by the laws of a country, we need to use the country’s constitution as our standard of judgment. Any behavior that is seen to be against the constitution is regarded as unconstitutional. In like manner, to find out if a prophet or anyone who claims to speak for God is genuine or counterfeit, we use the Bible as the only tool of testing or establishing truth.

In Matthew 4, for example, Jesus was tempted by the Devil in different ways. To overcome the Devil's temptations, Christ entirely depended upon the word of God. He quoted scripture and threw them at the Devil and as a result, he could not lead Christ into sin. He finally left Christ alone. As children of God, we cannot rely upon our views , what people say about a certain prophet/prophetess i.e. his or her popularity , riches or poverty , and on any human standard of measurement to know whether or not a prophet is genuine. Our Feelings and Opinions are not reliable and so the only reliable and trustworthy tool we can use to test every prophet is the word of God. David in Psalms 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path’’.

To show that Christ held the word of God in high esteem and used it all the time in His instruction of the disciples, He quoted the Psalms and the five books of Moses on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). Here, the two disciples were sorrowful about the death of Christ. Christ used the OT to show them that He was the Messiah who had come to die for our sins. After hearing this message, the disciples were filled with hope and joy. Similarly, we must entirely use the Scriptures to prove whether or not someone is a true representative of God. Here