This post may offend some people, and that's not my intention. But please, weigh what I'm about to say. Test it. Please read everything I'm going to write below before judging it. Take it to God in prayer. Ask the Lord for spiritual understanding, and the gift of discerning of spirits.
Also know that I'm not speaking against any of the people in this video, only some of their practices.
Jesus said that "False prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand." (Mathew 24:24)
Prophecy is good, and so are all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I'm not against Prophecy or any gift. They are very helpful and very needed.
But did you know that Satan has counterfeits for every spiritual gift? Many of these counterfeits are similar in many ways, but they are not identical.
As Christians, We need to be aware of this reality, and we must ask God for spiritual understanding (Colossians 1:9) so that we can be fully pleasing to him, and so that we aren't numbered among those elect who are deceived by false prophets and false Christ's - the very thing Jesus warned us most about in the end times.
How do we spot a counterfeit?
Well, today, deception is becoming increasingly deceiving. Satan wouldn't be called the Father of lies if his deceptions were easily identifiable.
In this video Shawn begins by claiming he isn't communicating with the dead, and that he isn't practicing necromancy. But later in the video he says; 'I just tapped into Bob Jones prophesying over you'. He then begins to relay that prophesy to Bill.
Now Bob Jones is a man who died in 2014. To give you some added background, when Bob was alive, he taught what many Christians today would consider to be 'Astral Travel', something commonly found in the new age and the occult. He taught that we could ascend into the third heaven at will. You can see a video of this on YouTube with Patricia King, Todd Bentley and Bob Jones.
While we see occasional, sovereignly inspired, heavenly visitations in the bible (e.g. a 2 Corinthians 12:2, or John - Revelation), these on-demand, third heaven visits are text-book new age practices, and are no where to be found in scripture.
God makes it very clear in Deuteronomy 18 that communication with the dead, is evil (vs 11, 12). 1 Samuel 18 is a story about how Israel's first King - Saul spoke with the Prophet Samuel after he had died. Please read the story and see how God feels about this. It's not right to communicate with the dead. Thankfully, Jesus is not dead, but has been raised from the dead - and now sits, at the right hand of the father. Our communication is to God, not to the dead!
It's true that many of the things said in this prophesy were very encouraging. Encouraging other believers is good. In fact, we need to encourage each other more. But doing so via a dead person... this is not good.
This is one of the reasons why counterfeit spirits are so deceptive. They speak with flattery.
Did you know that even demons can speak truth? When Jesus cast out demons, they would say things like; "I know who You are—the Holy One of God!" Jesus response was; “Be quiet, and come out of him!"
When Paul was in Phillipi, a demonised girl followed them, and cried out, saying; “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days! (Acts 16:17)
The reason Jesus and Paul rebuked these spirits isn't because they were telling lies, they weren't, but because they didn't want to give them a platform. They didn't want people listening to them, because their end-game, their goal is to steal, kill and destroy.
Now Shawn (the man giving this prophesy) may have had all the right motives in this video, but the spirit he was in communication with was ungodly.
Did you know that much of the supernatural information relayed here, the NSA could get in seconds? Imagine the kind of information databases the demons would have access to in the spiritual dimension.
Is Prophecy bad? No. But channeling prophesies that have their origins with dead people, to living people is bad.
More than likely the person he was seeing isn't Bob Jones at all, but what the bible describes as a 'familiar spirit'. These kinds of spirits look like people, and have access to a lot of information about those people.
I also felt led to share this video by David Wilkerson, author of the Cross and the Switchblade. He speaks about spiritual manifestations, some of which are encouraged by Bethel Church and many other Churches in Charismatic circles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtTxrYtztQ
To re-iterate. Gods gifts are GOOD. Prophecy is GOOD.
Don't believe every spirit, but test them.
Let's seek God for the real deal. Let's not dilute ourselves and embrace spiritual experiences contrary to Gods character.
Self-Control. Peace. Kindness. Gentleness. These are some of the big ones that counterfeits often violate when they manifest.
Fight the good fight of Faith. Stand firm in the Lord and in the power of his might!
Also know that I'm not speaking against any of the people in this video, only some of their practices.
Jesus said that "False prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand." (Mathew 24:24)
Prophecy is good, and so are all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I'm not against Prophecy or any gift. They are very helpful and very needed.
But did you know that Satan has counterfeits for every spiritual gift? Many of these counterfeits are similar in many ways, but they are not identical.
As Christians, We need to be aware of this reality, and we must ask God for spiritual understanding (Colossians 1:9) so that we can be fully pleasing to him, and so that we aren't numbered among those elect who are deceived by false prophets and false Christ's - the very thing Jesus warned us most about in the end times.
How do we spot a counterfeit?
Well, today, deception is becoming increasingly deceiving. Satan wouldn't be called the Father of lies if his deceptions were easily identifiable.
In this video Shawn begins by claiming he isn't communicating with the dead, and that he isn't practicing necromancy. But later in the video he says; 'I just tapped into Bob Jones prophesying over you'. He then begins to relay that prophesy to Bill.
Now Bob Jones is a man who died in 2014. To give you some added background, when Bob was alive, he taught what many Christians today would consider to be 'Astral Travel', something commonly found in the new age and the occult. He taught that we could ascend into the third heaven at will. You can see a video of this on YouTube with Patricia King, Todd Bentley and Bob Jones.
While we see occasional, sovereignly inspired, heavenly visitations in the bible (e.g. a 2 Corinthians 12:2, or John - Revelation), these on-demand, third heaven visits are text-book new age practices, and are no where to be found in scripture.
God makes it very clear in Deuteronomy 18 that communication with the dead, is evil (vs 11, 12). 1 Samuel 18 is a story about how Israel's first King - Saul spoke with the Prophet Samuel after he had died. Please read the story and see how God feels about this. It's not right to communicate with the dead. Thankfully, Jesus is not dead, but has been raised from the dead - and now sits, at the right hand of the father. Our communication is to God, not to the dead!
It's true that many of the things said in this prophesy were very encouraging. Encouraging other believers is good. In fact, we need to encourage each other more. But doing so via a dead person... this is not good.
This is one of the reasons why counterfeit spirits are so deceptive. They speak with flattery.
Did you know that even demons can speak truth? When Jesus cast out demons, they would say things like; "I know who You are—the Holy One of God!" Jesus response was; “Be quiet, and come out of him!"
When Paul was in Phillipi, a demonised girl followed them, and cried out, saying; “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days! (Acts 16:17)
The reason Jesus and Paul rebuked these spirits isn't because they were telling lies, they weren't, but because they didn't want to give them a platform. They didn't want people listening to them, because their end-game, their goal is to steal, kill and destroy.
Now Shawn (the man giving this prophesy) may have had all the right motives in this video, but the spirit he was in communication with was ungodly.
Did you know that much of the supernatural information relayed here, the NSA could get in seconds? Imagine the kind of information databases the demons would have access to in the spiritual dimension.
Is Prophecy bad? No. But channeling prophesies that have their origins with dead people, to living people is bad.
More than likely the person he was seeing isn't Bob Jones at all, but what the bible describes as a 'familiar spirit'. These kinds of spirits look like people, and have access to a lot of information about those people.
I also felt led to share this video by David Wilkerson, author of the Cross and the Switchblade. He speaks about spiritual manifestations, some of which are encouraged by Bethel Church and many other Churches in Charismatic circles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtTxrYtztQ
To re-iterate. Gods gifts are GOOD. Prophecy is GOOD.
Don't believe every spirit, but test them.
Let's seek God for the real deal. Let's not dilute ourselves and embrace spiritual experiences contrary to Gods character.
Self-Control. Peace. Kindness. Gentleness. These are some of the big ones that counterfeits often violate when they manifest.
Fight the good fight of Faith. Stand firm in the Lord and in the power of his might!