C27) The Church of the U.S.A will be Filtered by Deception: (S. Dobbs, 2005).
(This links to A40, A42, C41, C33 , C42, C37, C41, C30, A43, A50, A48, B11,)
Introduction: I received this from the Holy Spirit in early summer 2005. The Lord showed me that there is going to be a flood of deception* infiltrating much of the U.S church in the near future, (the gift of discernment of spirits is therefore going to become increasingly important).
Why the Lord will allow these deceptions: I was extremely disheartened by this as the U.K receives a lot of help from some good U.S ministries and there are close links between these two nations. The Spirit then ministered to me again and showed me that God was sovereign and that this was His will. I saw that although this increase in deception will test the Christians in the U.S.A it will also filter the global church from the less reliable U.S teaching ministries and reduce their influence in the global body of Christ. Many of the worlds largest and best known teaching ministries come from the U.S.A; I was shown that many were propagating poor, badly emphasized or erroneous teachings. The Lord showed me that He could not allow them to continue influencing the worldwide church as they are at present. This is because we will soon be entering into the end times and this season will test the faith of all of us. God therefore wants His people to be prepared for this with good teachings that have the same emphasis as found in the New Testament.
The filtering process: I was shown that the ministers that teach errors or a poor emphasis will also tend to have this reflected in their own walk with God. They will not therefore be rooted very deeply into the truth themselves even though many of them may be well known teachers or preachers. These people will therefore tend to be amongst those most open to this flood of deception. When exposed to such deception many of them will start to move in increased spiritual error and folly as a result. Many will get deceived as they fail to discern the difference between which spiritual phenomena are of the Lord and which are counterfeit and from the enemy. Their true spiritual maturity will then be revealed for all to see. Many other Christians from around the world, those who are able to discern these things better, will then start to question the maturity and teachings of such ministries. They will start to look more closely at these teachings and notice the errors and wrong emphasizes that already exist, errors that they had not noticed before. People will then start to turn away from the worst teachers and listen instead to those who are teaching the full council of God in line with the whole of scripture. The overall level of teaching in the global body of Christ will improve as a result of this.
How this will realign ministries: The ministries which have the poorest levels of teaching will become less popular around the world as a result of this. Those teaching ministries that are the most mature and have the best quality teaching will become more popular than before. The overall quality of teaching ministries in the global body of Christ will therefore improve as a result of this filtering effect.
The "prosperity gospel": God showed me that one of the main teachings that He is concerned about is that which has become known as the "prosperity gospel". Although truths are taught within this I understood that errors and wrong emphasizes are taught as well. At present this teaching has a great deal of influence in the global body of Christ. This results in many believers around the world taking on board the errors and wrong emphasizes contained within it. I saw that the Lord does not want this situation to continue. We are heading into the end times in the near future and God wants us to be strong, built up with good, solid teachings that prepare us for the difficulties we are going to encounter and the sacrifices we may have to make to follow Christ.
A realigning of national churches at a global level: The Lord wants those national churches that are submitting the most to Him to have the greatest proportion of well known ministries at a global level. The Spirit showed me that at present the U.S.A is over represented by such ministries. This filtering process will reduce the number of influential U.S ministries on the world stage. At the same time other ministries from other nations will become more popular and will increase in influence as a result of this.
The overall church of the U.S.A will also therefore loose some of it's influence within the global body of Christ because of this filtering. The churches of some other nations, (those that have been submitting the most to Christ), will however see an increase in their influence in the global church. This is Gods will and the global body of Christ will be strengthened as a result. The Lord wants the body of Christ to be led by, and follow the example of, the best international ministries. He also wants the global church to be influenced the most by those national churches that are submitting the most to Jesus.
The better ministries from the U.S.A: I was then shown a picture of a vessel of milk which had cream floating to the top of it. The interpretation was that as this filtering takes place, and the overall level of deception* increases in the U.S church, the better U.S ministries will then come to the forefront at a global level. I understood that many of these were presently only medium sized ministries because their popularity was presently overshadowed by some larger but poorer quality U.S ministries. I saw that many of these medium sized ministries already have a better walk with the Lord and that they would therefore be less likely to be influenced by the coming flood of deception. They will be seen to be mature as they discern and avoid these deceptions. In due course this will vindicate them and earn them respect from other believers from around the world. Their ministries will then become more popular and grow in influence because of this. I saw that some of them will then start to minister and preach at the highest levels on the world stage within the body of Christs in the future.
*I understand "deception" to mean all sorts of counterfeits of the Holy Spirit. These will include counterfeit moves of Gods power which will come from other spirits, from New Age/occult spirits, counterfeit healings and miracles even, false teachings, false prophecies, counterfeit visions from the enemy, counterfeit experiences of heaven, fake appearances of Jesus and, please note, many counterfeit appearances of angels which will really be fallen angels come to deceive any believers who are open to them. Of course Christians can have such experiences genuinely from the Lord but there is also going to be an increase in these counterfeits as we move towards the end-times, as the enemy attempts to "deceive if possible even the elect", (Matt 24;24).
* Concerning the U.S church this increase in deception will have it's entitlement at a national/ corporate level. We should not therefore see any deception as a judgement on individuals themselves. At a personal level some believers will be more exposed to these deceptions than others for reasons that are not necessarily their fault, for e.g. if they happen to be in a church where the enemy is moving in a lot of deception. I believe though that those whose hearts are set to follow Christ will eventually come through any serious deception if they persevere in following the Lord and keep on submitting to Him. At an international level though this wave of enemy deception will expose and reduce the global influence of the worst U.S ministries and will bring about the realignment of national churches and ministries that God desires. It will improve the quality of teaching and the quality of the most well known ministries at an international level. This is due to Gods sovereignty, this will strengthen the global body of Christ and prepare Gods people for the difficult years ahead.
S. Dobbs, 30th Oct 2005.