That's a deceptive message - it's plausible, and it gathers a crowd, because it appeals to people. In other words… tell me how I can get ahead, but don't talk to me about changing my life. That's very widespread - and don't talk to me about deliverance, especially! You'd be amazed how many churches are totally resistant to the deliverance ministry.
Deliverance has to do with transformation of the heart, transformation of your character, transformation of your life - about freedom. If there's no message that Jesus paid the price for you to be delivered from demons, then that means you're going to just continue with them. That's a false peace! It's a false peace!
Here's another way of saying it… Let’s say that I had rust in the car, and I say: we can just sand it a bit, and paint over it. That's what they're talking about here - healing the people's needs lightly, instead of… Everyone knows that if there's rust in a car, you have to cut out the rust, put in some fresh metal, paint it over - and then you've got something that'll last. If you just paint over it, then it does look good, but the rust is continuing, and soon the problem will be severe, to the point the car may be off the road.
Jeremiah 23:16-17 – ““Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’ And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts, they say: ‘No harm will come to you.’”
It says that false prophets will “speak visions from their own heart and not from the Lord”.
They're speaking what's come out of their own heart; but they are saying it like “oh, God is saying this, God is saying that, I believe… blah blah blah”. But they're failing to address the real issues of people - that people live a life that says, by the way they live, that they deny or despise God, and despise His word.
If you're a follower of Christ, you follow Him - you keep His commands. You take the word, and you apply it into your life. Simply saying that you're following Jesus means nothing, unless you actually follow Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we're serving Him and letting Him change us – that His word is very important in our life. It's very important to see these things.
He's talking about the false prophetic - a message that promises much, but doesn't end with transformation, and doesn't warn people about things that are to come.
For example, what if you knew that only had 24 hours – that you were going to finish your life on earth, and stand before God; and every detail of your life would be before Him, to see what you qualified for in eternity. What would you go home and change? That tells you where you're living! We are to live with eternity in mind, all the time; and then it's not whether anyone's watching me. I'm always under the eye of the Lord, and I'm always living to please Him.
How I do marriage, family, finances; how I treat people, relate to people, build my life, and priorities has all got one fundamental thing... I've got an audience of One, that I'm trying to please, every day of my life, in every moment. Why am I trying to please Him? Because He's sacrificed so much for me, and I love Him. There's a big outcome for me, for eternity, in this. How I respond to Him will affect me for all eternity - my destination, not just heaven and hell, but the realm that I will live in, for eternity.
False prophets speak a vision of their own heart. In Matthew 7, Jesus said they present as sheep, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. What does that mean?
They present a sheep means - they look like Christians. They come and praise the Lord, brother! They come in with their stuff, but inwardly they have an agenda. A wolf wants to devour, to take something from you.
The true prophetic will have Jesus as the focus, and lead people to experience Him, and they will confront anything that's in the way. That's why deliverance always takes place around the true prophetic ministries, because there's a real need for the demonic to be shifted off your life, in order to encounter they greater atmospheres of God.