C46) Interfaith and the Dangers of Self Promotion Amongst Some Christians, (S. Dobbs, 2005).
(This links to words No's A43, C27, A25, A37, A48, C33 , A50, A7, B5, C41, C42, A22, A24,)
This word also appears as word No A40]
Introduction; I received this word in Feb 2005. Although hard to explain in places it is probably one of the most significant words I've ever had. It came as a series of pictures, images and words as if written down. The interpretation to these was very clear. I have put in brackets the parts that included an element of my own opinions, so the reader can then take this into account as they weigh this up for themselves, so my own opinions wont influence the word itself. It may help to study Revelation Ch 13v 11-18, on the beast from the earth, and word No A25 on this website along with this word.
Rev 13 v 11 “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon”. v;12 “And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast,…”. v;13 “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven in the sight of men. v; 14 “And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs…”.(N.K.J.V)
In the previous word, (No A25,“A Counterfeit Christianity”), the Lord showed me that the beast from the earth symbolises an inter faith organisation that will evolve over time, eventually emerging as the antichrists one world religion in the end times. This present prophecy shows how parts of the body of Christ are already being softened up in advance of this by the enemy today. Many Christians will end up compromising with this inter faith religion in the future as they abandon true faith in Christ. The Lord showed me that this is “ON OUR DOORSTEP”, i.e. it is about to start appearing in the world around us very soon; (I judged this to mean in the next few years).
First I would like to refer here to two scriptures that I and another Christian felt God had given us as they are relevant.
Matt 24:24 “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect”. (N.K.J.V).
1 Jn 2:18 & 19 “ Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us;” (N.K.J.V).
The Beast from the earth: The first image that the Holy Spirit gave me was of an outline drawing of the beast from the earth, its body, head and two horns, as if viewed from the front. The two horns symbolised its overall leadership, [as well as, I believe, the top two individual leaders of this religious organisation]. Inside this outline, where the beasts belly would be, there was a swirling liquid vortex of activity, this was related to attitudes of “self promotion”. This molten liquid moved up two narrow channels through the beasts body and head and from there into its two horns. It then emerged from the tips of these horns as two fountains that sprayed out upon the world.
Self promotion within the church: What surprised me the most was that this vortex of activity related to the self promotion that takes place in the church amongst "Christians", all that was of “the kingdom of men” in the church and not of the kingdom of God, e.g. “Christians” wanting to promote themselves and their "ministries" before the eyes of men. I saw that many such "Christians" will fall away from the faith in the future and be joined to this beast instead. Many "Christians" will stray from the truth* and become a part of this interfaith religion. It will be the desire of these backslidden "Christians" for self promotion that will fuel the development of the interfaith movement. They will rise up in its ranks and end up controlling much of it as they themselves become apostate.
“Christians” joining the interfaith movement: I saw that there were many people in the body of Christ who were more interested in self promotion and moving their own ministries forward than they were in truth or error. That as this interfaith organisation started to emerge in the world some of them would try to promote their ministries in that organisation as well as in Gods church. [I believe that most would do this in ignorance at first, not realising that this organisation was leading towards the beasts one world religion]. This however would greatly compromise and weaken their faith further as they descended into apostasy.
Backslidden “Christians” leading this movement: The two channels that rose into the horns of this beast showed how some “Christian” ministries would rise in influence within this interfaith organisation, some eventually emerging as its leaders. In the end times they*1 would then be responsible for implementing its policies in the world on behalf of the antichrist. [By this time though such ministries will have been so deceived and have compromised to such a degree that they will have abandoned genuine faith in Christ and only maintained the outward appearance of this. It is possible the two horns, the two top leaders of this religion, will both have once had “Christian ministries” in the body of Christ before falling away from the faith]. I had the impression that this process will happen gradually, with the worlds’ religions coming together in stages, with many believers joining it and losing their faith by degrees as well.
New Age infiltrations into the church generally: Next the Lord gave me a picture of some dough which was intended to be made into unleavened bread, (that is bread that does not rise, like that used in the Jewish Passover celebrations). I saw that the enemy however had been sowing yeast into this dough. This symbolised the infiltration of New Age spiritual influences, attitudes and even practices, into parts of the body of Christ, especially in recent decades. I saw that at some critical point this was suddenly going to cause the bread to rise, that it was going to manifest in parts of the body of Christ in a very vivid way.
Three weaknesses in the U.S. church: The Holy Spirit then showed me three main weaknesses.
First God showed me a picture of a white flag. This symbolised the appearance of righteousness but with compromise and no real deep inner holiness. This was accompanied by a picture of a white suit which symbolised Christian ministers who did their best to appear righteous and holy to their audiences as they preached but who were not really attempting to submit their lives to Jesus Christ or pursuing personal sanctification. This obviously doesn’t apply to all ministries but I saw it was a major influence in the U.S.A. nonetheless.
The second weakness was nationalism; I saw that many Christians in the U.S were influenced, in the wrong way, by nationalism. Whilst as Christians we are responsible to pray for our nations we are nonetheless citizens of heaven and owe our allegiance to Jesus not to any carnal earthly dominium. I saw that such nationalism could compromise a Christian’s faith in Christ.
Thirdly I saw that the Church in the U.S.A. was particularly open to deception: I understood that the U.S church was particularly open to deception and very vulnerable in this area.
New Age influences: As I continued to pray the Lord then gave me three examples of ways in which New Age influences were infiltrating parts of the church in the world today, this was particularly true of the western world especially the USA.
Firstly there were fallen angels appearing as angels of light: The first area of deception was depicted as a picture of a church in the U.S.A, (this could perhaps apply to other nations too). This was symbolic of what is going to start happening in many churches, particularly those across the USA. In this picture someone in the congregation declared that God was going to send an angel to them and that it would bring with it a new anointing that would start a revival in that church. Only a couple of Christians were cautious and took time to weigh this word up, the rest just assumed it must be of God without testing it. An angel did then come to that meeting; however it was a fallen angel, sent to deceive. It did bring with it a new anointing, only it was a counterfeit anointing and not of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual manifestations broke out in that meeting, sometimes similar to those one might expect from the Holy Spirit, sometimes different and more obviously demonic. These were all counterfeit and from the kingdom of darkness however, from the occult realm. All but a few of the Christians opened their hearts to this and almost the entire congregation then started following this other spirit. The Lord then gave me a prediction that this was going to happen in many churches scattered across the U.S.A. in the future. There are going to be many false angelic visitations that will bring deceptions and a counterfeit anointing.
Secondly I saw the words “COME HOLY SPIRIT”: I knew that this was referring to a Christian song with that name. It was a song we used to sing a lot in my first church over twenty years ago. When we used to sing that song I was always aware that we received a different type of anointing, for want of a better description it was more sugary and less clear than normal. It was very appealing to ones senses and the flesh. A spirit definitely came upon us in a different way as we sang that particular song. In recent years I am convinced that this “different type of anointing” was not the Holy Spirit at all but was instead a counterfeit from the kingdom of darkness. I now believe that something spiritistic takes place when people do this, that this gives Satan an entitlement and opens the person or meeting up to another spirit altogether. That is what the Lord wanted me to write when He gave me the name of that song.
[Note added Aug 2009: also see other notes*2 below. You may be like me and initially think that no harm could come from singing or praying to the Holy Spirit instead of to the Father or Son as the three are one. The Lord was definitely confirming here though that we should not do this. There is not one example in the O/T or N/T of anyone ever singing praise to, or praying to, the Holy Spirit. In the notes at the end of this word I have quote Derek Prince on this (in many peoples opinion he was one of the UKs best prophetic and teaching ministries and had also warned against this practice). I have done my best to add my own notes as well].
Thirdly Visualisation: The Lord then gave me a picture of a healing prayer meeting I had attended a couple of years ago. The leader had us sitting around in a circle and then asked us to hold hands and visualise light coming into the room. He said that God would then appear as light and start to heal people. Some of the Christians present did then start to experience spiritual manifestations which they claimed were associated with partial healing. [I didn’t join in as I knew that this was not of God but was in fact a New Age visualisation technique. God will move by His Spirit in the way in which He chooses to and it is not for us to tell Him what form this will take. Nor should we try to summon up or invoke the Spirit in this way as if God /Jesus Christ were a familiar spirit of some kind. This is not scriptural but is a practice that spiritualists and mediums engage in. As we know God didn’t come by His Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost because the disciples sat around visualising the wind of His Spirit. I believe that the Lord wanted me to share this to show how misguided believers can inadvertently open themselves and others up to spirits from the occult realm in the same way that those who engage in witchcraft do. This can even lead to counterfeit healings and miracles taking place in Christian meetings, similar to those that occur in some New Age groups, coming from demonic power. This can lead to believers being distracted from following the Holy Spirit and lure them into white magic and following occult spirits instead of God. The Lord was giving this as another example of how New Age influences were infiltrating parts of the body of Christ today, deceiving and weakening some believers in advance of the emergence of the beast from the earth, satans inter faith religion]. This will all be part of the great apostasy, the falling away of some believers from the faith in the end times.
The emergence of this interfaith religion: I then saw the words “GRASSROOTS” appear before me. I immediately understood this to mean that this beast from the earth would start to manifest at grass roots level amongst Christians. It would spring up amongst individual “Christians” rather than be imposed as a new form of religion straight away. In the same way the molten liquid sprang up from below in the first picture of a beast. I understood that some believers and churches were already being softened up so they would be more likely to compromise with this inter faith religion in the future. I saw that this religion would emerge very subtly in an organic way. I saw it would be like lots of small springs of water appearing from under the ground that would leak out onto the surface of the earth. These would then join up and appear as small pools and then lakes as this spiritual trend emerged and gained more and more influence in the world. Eventually it would dominate the affairs of the entire world and operate on behalf of the antichrist and his beast empire. It is therefore going to be backslidden, and ultimately apostate “Christians” who will lead the worlds interfaith religion, this beast from the earth. [Scriptures indicate that all people will then be coerced into following this religion or face persecution, see Rev 13;15.]
Purifying of the church and martyrdom: I saw the words “A SEPARATION OF THOUGHT” and understood that at some point in time these issues would force those who claimed to be Christians to side one way or the other, to accept this interfaith organisation or to stand with those who accept Christ alone as the way to God. There would then be "a parting of the ways" in the body of Christ between those who would go on and remain loyal to the Lord and those would choose to hang on to the things of this life and be prepared to abandon their faith instead. I saw that the ultimate cost of remaining true to the Lord was martyrdom; we have to be prepared to pay this price and may have to do so, (see Rev 13: 16 & 17).
The African and Chinese churches; I perceived that these would be less open to such compromises overall than those in the western world. This was partly because Christians from this part of the world had a poorer quality of life anyway and therefore had less to lose. [These parts of the global church are also often more alive, anointed and therefore better prepared for these end times pressures than in the West].
No judging; Next I was aware that God does not want us to judge those Christians who are falling into error or deception. We are to remember that it is more complex than just the choices they themselves have made. [National and environmental factors, for e.g. are also involved, e.g. what type of church they go to, whether or not this was often exposed to a counterfeit anointing and how good the teaching was etc. Christians can, in some ways, become victims of the bad spiritual environments they operate from. They can also be led astray by poor leadership or by others that they fellowship with]. Only the Lord knows how responsible a person is for the errors they may fall into. Therefore only God can judge them on this, we are not to even attempt to.
Christian teachers; God wants us to pray for them in particular, so they know not only the correct teachings but also how to put them across properly. So they will know how to flow in Gods Spirit in this, e.g. when they should be tough on people and give them stern warnings and when they should be tender and display Gods mercy towards those they see going astray.
Walking with God: We are to all have the correct attitude towards others, including those Christians we see straying away from the gospel and compromising with this interfaith religion. We are to put into practice the teachings of Jesus and the bible towards others and hence operate from a strong foundation. This will then keep us from falling into deception ourselves.
Christian lifeboats; God does not want us to become stumbling blocks to those believers who are getting deceived, (due to our wrong words or attitudes), instead He wants us to become lifeboats for them, reaching out to save them from the waves of deception that will come in the end times.
S. Dobbs.
*1 I had not expected the beasts religion to be led by backslidden / fallen away Christians, especially not as this organisation will ultimately lead the persecution of all true and faithful believers. There are however precedents for this , was it not backslidden or false believers within the leadership of the Catholic church, for example, that used to lead the persecution of other Christians in the past?
*2Note added Dec 2008: Derek Prince was a well respected bible teacher, prophet and scholar and taught "Any spirit that focuses on the Holy Spirit and glorifies the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit. It is contrary to His whole nature and purpose. ...Let me make another statement which may surprise you. I have not found in the Scripture anywhere an example of a prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit. So far as I can understand, no one in the Scripture ever prayed to the Holy Spirit. You probably would do well to check that for yourself, but I have looked carefully and have not found one example". Taken from "Protection from Deception" published July 1996, click here to view this article ].