The Scam: The Greatest Scam Ever Perpetrated on Christians … Stolen Identity …

By Wayne Kniffen

Can you imagine anything more sobering than to live your entire life thinking you were “this person,” then discover at the end of your life you were actually “that person” instead? To make things more gut wrenching, you discover “that person” had a better life, and you never enjoyed the benefits and privileges that life offered. Most Christians will live their entire lives and never make the discovery of who Christ has made them to be.

The Scam originates from the crucible of author Wayne Kniffen’s own experience. He spent thirty years pastoring local churches when the Holy Spirit began to reveal to him his true identity in Christ.

Divided into three sections, this guide helps you find your way in life. In “The Connection,” Kniffen exposes you to the beginning of all things which came from God. “The Disconnection” discusses where humankind is and how we got here. “The Reconnection” shares the details of what God did, how he did it, and why he did it.

In The Scam, Kniffen demonstrates that the reason most Christians don’t reign in this life is because they are victims of identity theft. We’ve been scammed, and we don’t know it. He insists it’s time we started living up to our calling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781973698173

Wayne Kniffen

Wayne Kniffen, a senior pastor for more than fifty years, is known for his quick wit and infectious humor. He uses these gifts to keep an audience’s attention as he takes things that are simply profound and makes them profoundly simple. His infectious love for the word of God is contagious. This makes it easy for him to connect with people. A prolific author, he has written more than ten books.

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Copyright © 2020 Wayne Kniffen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-9818-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-9819-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-9817-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020913093

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/31/2020

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Preface

SECTION ONE THE CONNECTION

Chapter 1 The Unseen Is Now on the Scene

Chapter 2 God’s MO

Chapter 3 Creation of Man

Chapter 4 God’s Conversation with Adam about Death

Chapter 5 The Aloneness of Man

SECTION TWO THE DISCONNECTION

Chapter 6 The Swindle Begins

Chapter 7 Satan’s MO

Chapter 8 Three Gates

Chapter 9 The Great Cover-Up

Chapter 10 Two Trees

Chapter 11 Dead Men Can Have Children

SECTION THREE THE RECONNECTION

Chapter 12 In the Fullness of Time

Chapter 13 The Child Was Born; the Son Was Given

Chapter 14 When Did the New Begin?

Chapter 15 Our Identity Is Determined by Birth, Not Behavior

Chapter 16 The Enemy Will See You the Way You See Yourself

Chapter 17 The 1 John 4:17 Revelation

Chapter 18 A Child of God Has Only One Nature

Chapter 19 The Exchange: God’s Quid Pro Quo

Chapter 20 Life of the New You

Chapter 21 Three Frames of Exchange

Chapter 22 The New You

Chapter 23 Run to the Roar

Summation

Kniff’s Knotes

Kniffenisms

About the Author

FOREWORD

Brett McGraw

Deception. The danger of deception is that it’s so deceiving. Typically, you’re deep into it before you realize you’ve been deceived. You’re convinced you will never get out of it. Deception, it’s tough.

As a boy growing up and as a young man, I was convinced that I was put on this earth to be an athlete, a football player. It’s as crazy as it sounds, but that’s what I thought and pursued right up to the point of breaking the threshold of the NFL. Unfortunately, due to a knee injury right out of the gate, my football career ended, and so did my identity. All of a sudden I had no idea who I was, what I was going to do, or who I was supposed to be. I was lost. The search was on for my new identity, a replacement for the football life (and, I should also add, for the partying, the drinking, the drugs, the red carpet, and so on). That’s what I was looking for, acceptance at any cost.

The search was on. I was presented with an opportunity to buy into a vodka company. I thought, This is it. I’ll be somebody again. I needed to get back into my element, back to rubbing elbows with the rich and famous. I would be the cool guy that everyone wants to know and talk to again.

My newfound identity took me all over the country. Life was one big party, day and night. I was the celebrity people wanted to rub elbows with. I was right where I thought I belonged, burning the candle at both ends, willing to be whoever I needed to be in order to conform to the environment I was in—and lost as the day is long. When the party started to dwindle and the money began to run out, I was right where I began: no identity, no foundation, and no direction. Drug addiction had become my constant companion. The cycle continued.

One day as I was traveling from Las Vegas to Dallas for a meeting, I decided to stop at my parents’ home in Garden City, Kansas. Completely exhausted, I lay down on the couch in the basement. Three days later I woke up with my mom standing over me with a portrait in her hands of my old high school sweetheart and myself. She said, You see this girl right here? She’s the only person in the world who’s ever loved you. Now get off my couch, and get out of my house. Go find her.

I got up, still exhausted from days, weeks, and months of no sleep, walked out of my mom’s house, and went to a hotel room where I sat until about ten thirty that night. I’d heard that Lori, my high school sweetheart, was living in Hereford, Texas. I called directory assistance, and they connected me to her number. Lori and I stayed on the phone that night until four o’clock the next morning.

Two days later I was on her doorstep. The boy that she knew back in high school, the All-America athlete who had the world in the palm of his hand, was not the same person who was standing on her porch. She had no idea what a fraud I had become. When I broke the threshold of her front door, trouble came with me. Lori was a God-loving, Spirit-filled single momma. Lori and Ashton had no idea how hard life was about to become.

Not long after I arrived we got married. I looked at this young woman that I had loved since the first time I saw her as kids, and thought to myself, If anyone in this world can save me at this point, I believe it’s her.

Nine months into our marriage we had our second daughter, Brooklyn. Life was tough, and Lori could not figure out what was wrong with the man she had given her life to, the man she had hoped would come into her and Ashton’s life and be the husband and father they deserved. For close to a year and a half our lives were in turmoil; all the while Lori was praying. She prayed day and night that God would show her what had me so twisted up, show her why I wouldn’t come to bed, why I was so disconnected and distant. She prayed God would expose it, and finally He did.

On a Sunday morning in October 2004 Lori and the girls were in the living room playing. I came out of the kitchen, kissed everybody, and went to my office for my daily dose of meth which I needed to normalize. On my way to the office I was pulled over for what I assumed was a routine traffic stop for not wearing a seat belt. The officer approached the window, pistol drawn, and directed me to get out of the vehicle and get on the ground.

While this was taking place, a dozen agents were beating on the front door of my home. When Lori opened the door, the officers grabbed her, read her her rights, and explained that they were there to search the home because she was married to a major drug dealer. She laughed and said, You have the wrong guy. You have the wrong house. Let me show you my husband; you’ll see. You have the wrong guy. She got a picture and showed it to them. She said, This is my husband. You have the wrong house.

The agents looked at the picture and said, I’m sorry, Lori, but we do have the right guy. Her world collapsed. This was not the exposure she was thinking about when she ask God to expose what