The Deceiver And The Deceived.

Hello everyone. How are you doing today? Let me share this with you. I hope it is helpful in some way.

The deceiver and the deceived, the scammer and the scammed, the hypnotist and the hypnotized, the slave master and the slave, the conman and the conned, the victimiser and the victim, the pulpit extortionist and his willing audience both deserve each other. They are magnetized to each other by their shared values, shared beliefs and shared philosophy.

When God Wants To Birth Greatness Through You

 

Genesis 17:18
And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before you!

Ishmael was the son of Abraham given birth to by Hagar. It took Abraham many years of waiting before he got this child. He was already ninety nine years old and the chances of having another child were next to impossible. The fact that he could father a child with Hagar was a miracle in itself. As far as Abraham was concerned Ishmael was ‘the one.’ He was done waiting for another child. Anything God wanted to do he could do through Ishmael. But God was telling him that his wife Sarai will conceive and give birth to a child when she was past menopause. This was too much for Abraham to receive.

Genesis 17:6
And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

God told Abraham that he was going to become great, become a father of many nations. As he listened to God speak all he heard was that through ISHMAEL he would become a father of many nations. His mind was clouded by Ishmael and he could not go beyond him to understand what The Lord was telling him. Ishmael totally dominated his thinking and limited his capacity to connect with the mind of God and comprehend the purpose of God for his life.

Overcoming The Elijah Complex

 

Elijah had just won a showdown with the prophets of Baal. 450 prophets of Baal gathered on top of mount Carmel to challenge Elijah’s God to a public display of power. Whoever won the contest was the true God. The prophets cried from morning till evening cutting themselves with knives, spilling their blood on the altar, invoking baal to show up with fire to consume the sacrifice. But Baal did not show up. The sacrificed bull remained bleeding on the altar, covered with flies and the blood of the false prophets of baal.
Elijah built an altar with twelve stones, placed the wood upon it in order, cut the sacrifice on it, dug a hole around the altar and filled it with water, then he prayed and asked God to consume the sacrifice with fire from heaven, and God did.
Elijah ordered all the prophets of baal to be slain. Not one of them escaped.

Jezebel heard about the slaughter of the prophets of baal and she went completely crazy. She threatened Elijah and the prophet ran for his life. Interesting how he just finished confronting and destroying 450 false prophets of baal but couldn’t stand against one woman. Jezebel’s reputation for extraordinary wickedness preceded her. Elijah knew that if he didn’t heed her threat he was as good as dead. So he fled.

1 Kings 19:1-3
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

Elijah ran to Beersheba where he had an angelic encounter. He ate supernatural food provided by the angel and he went on the strength of that food for forty days until he arrived at Horeb, the mount of God. Then things began to unravel for him.

1 Kings 19:10
And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts:for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

Elijah told God that the children of Israel had forsaken His covenant, destroyed sacred altars, murdered all the prophets and he was the only one left and they also wanted to murder him. He repeated this twice to God in the same chapter.
But it wasn’t true. He was living inside a bubble of self deception and pride.
That was the Elijah complex.

The Deception At Jezebel’s Table

 

1 Kings 18:19
Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.

In the days of Elijah the Tishbite, there were three categories of prophets in the land of Israel.
The prophets of Baal.
The prophets who ate at Jezebel’s table
Elijah and the prophets of The Lord.

The prophets of Baal openly served their sex and fertility god called Ashtoreth. Their worship of this evil deity wasn’t hidden. It was known to all that these particular prophets were absolutely dedicated to the worship of Ashtoreth. These were evil men who didn’t even pretend to follow Jehovah in any way.

Then there were the four hundred prophets who ate at Jezebel’s table. Jezebel was the daughter of a king who worshipped Ashtoreth. She married Ahab king of Israel and brought her Ashtoreth/baal worship along with her. Jezebel was a wicked woman who loved to be in control of both the political and spiritual aspects of the kingdom. These prophets allied and aligned themselves with this wicked woman because of what she offered them. She offered them royal dainties from her table. She offered them a royal lifestyle powered from her throne of wickedness. These prophets ate whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, however they wanted. There was unlimited provision at Jezebel’s table. There was no restraint whatsoever at Jezebel’s table. Eating at Jezebel’s table represents the unrestricted satisfaction of the desires of the flesh.

Those who ate at Jezebel’s table had certain characteristics.

Spiritual Food For Your Soul

Spiritual food for your soul.

Looking back at my walk with The Lord, I discovered that I have an instinct for spiritual survival. I have a God given instinct to search for and locate where The Lord wants me to be at every point in time. It is this instinct that leads you to a river of spiritual food to nourish your soul. It is this instinct that pulls you into the right circle of believers who seek The Lord out of a pure heart. It is this instinct that leads you into green pastures.

As Elijah was led to the Brook of Cherith in 1Kings 17, so this spiritual instinct leads us to a place or to a person who will nourish our soul with spiritual food in the time of famine. Elijah stayed in that place as long as the brook flowed and produced water. But it came to a time that the brook dried up. When this happened, the Word of The Lord came to him and told him to go elsewhere. Elijah obeyed and moved to the home of the widow of Zarephath and that was where he was nourished until the famine ended.

The Voice Of Strangers.

The Voice Of Strangers.

For many years I wondered why I couldn’t sit under certain ministries. I felt odd and out of place in their midst. It wasn’t as if they were heretics who lived in open sin. They looked good on the outside. They preached ‘feel good’ messages that encouraged believers to ‘live their dream’ and ‘pursue their goals’. Superficially, nothing was wrong with what they preached, but I just couldn’t sit and listen to what they were saying. When many people in the congregation were shouting about how ‘awesome’ these preachers were, my mind was filled with doubt. I couldn’t see Jesus in what they were doing. I felt something was wrong, but I just couldn’t say exactly what.

As I grew in the things of The Lord, I began to understand that not all who call upon the name of Jesus are on His side. I realised that not all who preach in His name were sent by Him. So many people called and sent themselves to preach. It is apparent by the strange fruit which they produce that they are not sent. If you are careful enough to look beyond their rhetoric, you would discover from the fruit of their lives that they are not pursuing the Will of the Father. They are feverishly pursuing their own will and agenda, doing their own thing, building their own kingdoms and filling their temples with disciples made in their own image, not people conformed to the image of The Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said there are many thieves and robbers in the ministry. These are very dangerous people who care only for their belly and care nothing at all for your soul. Jesus called them strangers. The motive of strangers is not to feed and protect the sheep, but to fleece them, steal from them and ultimately destroy them. These strangers use the labour, sweat and blood of sheep to enrich themselves. They are quite charismatic and gifted. It is difficult for sheep to see beyond such disguise and deception, therefore, many are misled on a path of error. On their own, without a true guide, sheep tend to be very stupid creatures. They are gullible, easily deceived and misled. It takes Jesus to protect and guide sheep. If the sheep will submit and yield to The Lord Jesus, the sheep will be safe.

Possessing The Kingdom.

Possessing The kingdom of God

In Matthew 13:44, the Kingdom of God is likened to a man who finds treasure hidden in a field and goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. This parable is simple and clear. To possess the kingdom, we must be willing to sell all that we have and buy into it. Unless we are willing to give up all that we have and who we are, we cannot truly follow The Lord. Unless we are willing to relinquish the right to live as we want, we cannot truly function in and possess the Kingdom.

This passage of scripture has been used to teach success and motivational principles. If you look at it superficially, it talks about focus and total commitment to your objective. Many have used this passage of scripture to teach people how to make money and possess material things. But this passage of scripture has absolutely nothing to do with material and financial success. Watering down kingdom principles to satisfy the longing of the covetous and greedy has been the bane of the church.

This passage of scripture is not talking about acquiring material possessions or becoming financially successful. In fact it talks about the exact OPPOSITE!