Discerning False Prophets - Apostle Peterson O. Abu

A false prophet is not necessarily someone whose prophecies don't come true. It could be a sincere prophet who misinterprets what they hear from God. Hearing and interpretation are both important aspects of prophecy. Sometimes, a prophet may have incomplete or unclear visions, leading to inaccurate prophecies. Moses and the magicians of Pharaoh both produced the same results, but only Moses was a true prophet. Results alone don't define a false prophet, but their character does. A false prophet lacks the life and spirit of God in them. We shouldn't focus on results but on the person. Celebrating false prophets who produce accurate prophecies is dangerous. Their lifestyles and the source of their power are important to consider. The devil can also produce results, but he cannot live a Christian life or produce the fruit of the Spirit. Christians can fall into sin, but that doesn't make them false Christians. A false prophet is one who lacks the life and spirit of God. Okay, let me answer the question now. I love responding to questions and that is why I do tell people online too. They are always free to send me messages either to my WhatsApp contact or they send me direct SMS messages. I love responding to questions because those that ask questions, I discover they are asking too low. So, in response to this question, how to spot a false prophet? How to spot a false prophet? And who is a false prophet? That should be the first question I should ask the person. Who is a false prophet? Because we define false prophets according to our own side of perspective or understanding concerning who a false prophet is. And there are many churches that teach different things concerning false prophets. For myself, I do not call a man a false prophet because he gave a prophecy that never came to pass. It can be that that man may not have been sent by God to say what he said. It might be that such a prophet never saw well because I also sometimes give prophecies. And there are times it may appear you see something but you didn't really see it well. And God may be wanting you to see well before you speak. So, there are times that a prophet may just act with incomplete message. While there are times you just need to settle down to have proper understanding of the things you are saying before you give it out. And there are times where the open vision would be very, very clear. As you are seeing it so clear, so when you give the word of God, when you give a prophecy, somebody immediately will confirm it. But who is a false prophet? If we talk about that a false prophet is someone that necessarily do not... His prophecy never come to pass and we say this is a prophet, a false prophet. We might not be correct sometimes. Because there are sincere, godly and true prophets who sometimes give prophecy maybe because they never had understanding of the things they saw in the spirit. You must understand that when it comes to prophecy, number one, it is hearing. Number one is hearing. A prophet must hear from God. A prophet must be a man or a woman that hears from God. It is very, that is a cardinal point of the prophetic. So, a prophet must hear from God. A prophetess must hear from God, must be hearing from God. But there is another thing you must understand. The hearing may not be the problem but the interpretation also matters. So, a prophet should be able to accurately interpret what he hears because where many prophets make mistakes is in the area of interpretation. The area of interpretation. I remember many years ago, many years ago, I think about 7, 8 or 9 years ago. I had a revelation. That was the time I was interceding for Nigeria almost every day. I took it as a duty to be interceding for Nigeria. I would spend hours praying for Nigeria. So, there was this particular day, I think on Thursday. I prayed, I prayed, I prayed so, so much. And my prayer was so long, I think 4 to 5 hours. And after the prayer, because it was raining, I fell asleep. And when I fell asleep in the revelation, I saw Nigeria flag on the floor. I saw Nigeria flag on the floor. And on top of the Nigeria flag, I saw a Bible, Quran and Hadith. Bible, Quran and Hadith on the flag of Nigeria. And I saw in the marketplace blood sharing. I saw people slaughtering and killing. They were killing one another and slaughtering the people that came to the marketplace. So, it appeared as if the people that came to the marketplace, many of them were killed. So, it was blood sharing. Everywhere blood. Blood were flowing like river. You would see blood flowing as if it was raining. So, I never understood the things I saw. That was many years ago, about 8 to 9 years ago. I couldn't interpret what I saw. So, it really prevented me from really interceding. I never knew that there would be a time where the Muslim, you know, will start slaughtering the Christians. Because I saw Quran, I saw Hadith and I saw the Bible. And I saw them, these three books on the Nigeria flag. And the Nigeria flag was on the floor. It was not flying, it was on the floor. So, sometimes we hear, but we may not be able to interpret what we hear. So, a prophet, a true prophet hears from God. But, if they fail in interpretation, does it mean they are false prophets? So, when we talk about false prophets, we are talking about the person. We are not talking about the prophecies. We are talking about the person and not the prophesying. You judge a false prophet by the prophesying. I judge a false prophet by his personality. Because two people can produce the same result, but they are not from God. Let me say, for example, look at Moses. He went and met Pharaoh. And he told Pharaoh, toss here to the Lord, let my people go. And then Moses turned his rod to become serpent. And this was the accurate pattern that the Lord gave to Moses. The Lord told Moses to cast his rod on the floor. And the rod became serpent. That was the pattern that God gave to Moses. And when Moses came and appeared before Pharaoh, it functioned in the same order. And it produced the same result. Now, there were two magicians that were there. The magicians of Pharaoh, they did the same thing. And they produced the same result. If we want to judge them now, are we going to say that they are all true prophets? Or are we going to say that Moses was a true prophet and the two magicians were false prophets? So, if you judge results, you may not accurately get or define who a false prophet is. So, a false prophet can produce a genuine result. A result that is so real. So, we don't talk about the results. We talk about the personalities. Like I said, in the prophetic, there is a hearing, there is a knowing, and there is a room for interpretation. You can hear, you can know. But if you cannot interpret the message you hear, you will be giving out a false prophecy. That does not mean you are a false prophet. You only give out a false prophecy. A false prophecy that does not produce results. When I say false prophecy, I mean a prophecy that God does not license and may not come to pass. The prophecy is false, but the prophet is not a false prophet. Just like, for example, as a Christian, you fell into sin. Maybe you got angry and you fought in the marketplace. And you were born again. You are a genuine Christian, but somebody provoked you and you fought with that person. That does not make you to be a false Christian. You only fell to temptation. You yield to temptation. So, temptation does not describe a false prophet, a false Christian. Christians can fall into sin, but they don't live in sin. And that does not mean that I am saying that you must always commit sin. Christians, if they are not careful, they fall into sin. A true Christian can fall into sin. That does not change the genuity of his Christianity. It only reveals that such a Christian was not watchful enough. So, who is a false prophet? A false prophet is that person that does not have the life and the spirit of God in him. I repeat, a false prophet is a person that does not have the life and the spirit of God in him. Jesus said, the word I speak unto you. Who was Jesus speaking to? The disciples, the apostles. He said, this word I speak unto you, behold, they are life and they are spirit. They are life because my word in you will produce the fruit of the spirit. The word of God in the life of a man makes that man to produce the fruit of the spirit. A false prophet does not have the spirit and the life of God. If he has the spirit and the life of God, he is not a false prophet. He is not a false prophet. Because, most especially in Nigeria, they see a prophet to be someone that always calls the full numbers of people. Yes, there are people like that. Those things are not essential. But, I'm not saying that is bad. Someone can call your full numbers, someone can call your names, it's ok. But, this is what Nigerians really call, or let's say Africans, this is what they really call prophets. And that is why the sheikhs in Africa, we have many false prophets that produce these results. They produce these results, they can call your full numbers. But, if you go and meet God and ask God about them, God will tell you he never knows them. Why? Why? They don't have the life and the spirit of God in them. They don't have the life and the spirit of God in them. So, we should change our perspective concerning the prophecies and ignore the personalities. If not, we begin to celebrate false prophets who have accurate prophecies. We begin to celebrate them. Some of you will be calling them your father in the Lord. They can give accurate prophecies like the magicians of Pharaoh. But, they don't have the life and the spirit of God in them. This is why most times we say, let us forget about we are all human beings. Let us forget about the things they are doing, whether they are using magic, whether they are using demonic powers or whether they are sleeping with women to renew their powers. We ignore their lifestyles. We focus on their results. This is why in Africa, we have more false prophets. We ignore their lives. We ignore their lifestyles. We ignore the fact that the things that comes out from them is already identification of them being with the devil. But yet, we ignore those things and we say, as far as they are producing results, let us celebrate them. If we start celebrating results and forget about the personalities involved, we begin to celebrate the devil because even the devil can come as an inch of light. If you talk about results, the devil can give you results. But, where you will know that this is the devil, he doesn't have the life and the spirit of God. The devil cannot live the Christian life. It cannot produce the fruit of the spirit. It is not part of his personality. So, a false prophet may have accurate results, but when you check their lives, their lives are contrary to the word of God. That is why every Christian must be close to the Bible. They must be close to the word of God. They must know the Bible for themselves. Not just to judge their prophecy, but to judge their lives. So, Jesus told them, he said, By their foods, you shall know them. By their lifestyle, by their lives. You see where Jesus pointed at? It is not the prophecy. He said, you shall know them by their foods. You shall know them by their ways of life. He said that a grape tree cannot produce a vine. A grape, let me use a Nigerian term, a mango tree cannot produce an orange fruit. So, what was Jesus pointing at? He said, if my spirit is in them, they cannot produce life that does not marry or in alignment with the scripture. So, Jesus opened our eyes. He said, don't judge their prophecies, judge their lives. If my spirit is in them, you will see my life, the scriptural life in them. So, when you check their lives, and their lives are contrary to scripture, those scriptures don't believe their prophecies. I remember many years ago, one of them came to me, a prophet, many years ago. That was 2017. And he came and he gave me some prophecies that were some are actually accurate. He told me about myself. He told me some things that the Lord has spoken to me, which was accurate. And then, when he was prophesying, he left me, because I went there for a missionary work. The prophet left me. And then, I went back home and meditated on what he said. So, when I came back to that community, I went to a place to visit a pastor there. So, when I sat there, I sat down at the pastor's compound, his environment. The Lord began to speak to me that he was not with that prophet. And the Lord began to give me some messages for that prophet. So, that was how I called one of his disciples. I said, please, can I speak with your prophet? He said, yes. When I went to his house, I gave him some accurate prophecies of the life of fornication. He was a prophet, but he was living in fornication. He was living in fornication. He was living in fornication. So, the Lord had to give me messages. I went to his house. I led him to Christ. When I started telling him his life, he was very surprised. He was ashamed, because when he came to prophesy to me, he thought I saw him and I held him with high esteem. So, he never really knew who I was. So, when I came and I told him the things he was doing in the secret, he was ashamed. But I led him back to Christ. I led him back to Christ. The Lord never knew him, although he was prophesied. He had a high taste, because they told me stories. When he came to that community, he started organizing crusades. And you would see numbers of youths. In fact, the place was always filled up. But he never had the Spirit of God in him. I was not even sure he was born again. And that day, I led him to Christ. And the woman, the lady I met him with, they were not married. They were inside the house together. I led both of them to Christ. So, when it comes to prophecy, you must understand that we don't just judge the prophecies. The statements, we judge the verses. And any pastor that would try to make himself greater than the Word of God, greater than the Word of God, that his life should not be judged by Scripture, that pastor is not of God. Every pastor should bring themselves under the authority of Scripture. There will be falsehood in the body of Christ. The moment that a pastor is being, you know, they say, well, we can celebrate a man, and we start idolizing that man. So, it will appear as if even the elders in the church would not be able to subject the general overseer to Scriptural correction. A general overseer, a pastor, a founder of a church, should himself be subjected to Scripture. When he makes a mistake, there should be elders in the church that should set that man, correct that man, and place him under the authority of Scripture. So, a prophet, no matter the impact he's making, his life that is contrary to the Scripture should be subjected to the Scripture. Where is the prophet's heir? He should be called to order and be corrected. The Christian Association of Nigeria should be able to bring those men whose lives are contrary to Scripture, they should be able to correct them. No man is greater than the Scripture. The moment we start ignoring the authority of Scripture, and every man and every pastor becomes someone that can break the law of the Word of God without being judged, you will see a lot of false prophets taking advantage of the Body of Christ. So, don't just invite people because they can prophesize. Find out their track record. Track records about their lives. So, if you check the Scripture, if you read the Bible very well, the Bible talks much about the life of a man than even science and wonders. Look at Apostle Paul. You will never see much detailed instruction or detail about miracles. That, oh, Paul the Apostle, when he was writing to the Christians, he started telling them the numbers of people he raised back to life. When he was writing to Ephesians, he was telling them the numbers of the blind and the deaf and the dumb he healed. Paul the Apostle was not much concerned about the things that God did to him. He was much concerned with his own life. That is why, if you read the Epistles of Paul, it talks about life. It says, let this not be in you. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ and let this other one not be in you. It was talking about the life of Christ. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth for unication. Paul the Apostle was more concerned with the life of a believer than even the activities and the results they produced. Did you hear that Timothy healed the sick? These men, they performed miracles, but it was not the central part of the Gospel. It was only a reward of preaching the Gospel. Signs and wonders are rewards of preaching the Gospel, but they are not the center of the Gospel. Because these same signs and wonders, the false prophets can produce it. False prophets can produce the same results. A false prophet is not a man that just says things that never came to pass. They can be false, but a false prophet is a man or a woman who doesn't have the life and the Spirit of God. You don't see Christ's likeness in them. You don't see the nature of Jesus in them. You don't see the life of Christ in them. You see their life full of sin and contrary to Scripture. They practice wickedness. A false prophet that will tell you to go and bathe at the juncture of a marketplace at the middle of the night, is doing what is not in the Word of God. So, by reason of his lifestyle, not in accordance to the Word of God, is a false prophet. I don't care to know whether after you bathed at the juncture, there were signs and wonders in your life. All I'm concerned for the fact that he did what was not in the Scripture is a false prophet. So, we must judge their lives by the Scriptures. The Word of God is not given to us to just put in our shelves and then every morning we take it to the church and come back. The Word of God is given, number one, for our personal edification. Number two, for personal correction. Number three, for exhortation. And then number four, for we to be able to judge others. It is given to us for judgment. We must judge others. We judge others, judge what you hear, judge every spirit. Judge the spirit behind that person, the spirit upon that person. When we talk about spirit, it is not necessarily in the results. It is in the lifestyles. Before any man of God lay hands on your head, ask God to reveal who that man of God is. Don't subject yourself to every man of God. I see people today, they want false prophets, they pay their tithes here, because people are paying tithes here. People are so insidious, it does not mean that God is with that person. Go back to the Word of God, read the scripture and find out if that person is a man after God's heart. A man of God indeed. Is his life in alignment with scripture? Is he practicing the instructions of God documented in scriptures? That is a false prophet. I believe you are understanding me now, because I know this will bless you. So, let us forget about the signs and wonders. Let us look at their lives. What are they manifesting? The fruit of the Spirit? What are they manifesting? The fruit of the Spirit, the Christ-like life? Find out, ask God to reveal to you what they do behind the closed door. Ask God to reveal to you what they do in the secret, what they are doing in the dark. Who they are in the public may not be who they are in the secret. Many of them are bowing down to idols. Bowing down to Satan. They have a God in their secret room. An idol there, where they are bowing down. They produce results, but not by the Spirit of God. Have you forgotten that Jesus said on the last day, Lord, Lord, didn't we... These are even talking about the true prophets who professed by the Spirit of God, but they never subjected themselves in scripture. If they would be judged, is it the one that doesn't serve God, although he calls the name of Jesus, but is not subjecting himself under the authority of scripture? They just rise up from nowhere? If you check the social media, you see a lot of false prophets. There are so many, and the funny thing about it, many of us are celebrating them. When you try to talk about them and expose them and correct them, somebody will come to your comment and say, have you been able to produce the same result like them? It's like them saying, can you produce, can Joshua produce the same result that James and Jabez, that the magicians of Pharaoh produced? It's like somebody coming to tell you, that have you been able to do the same thing they do? We are not careful to know whether they do it by the Spirit of God or not. All we are careful about is that they produce results. So the moment you try teaching them on how to identify false prophets, the next thing you will see, they will ask you, do you have this crowd of people in your church? They have forgotten that even the broad way has a crowd. You don't know that on the broad way to hell, there will be a lot of people. There are a lot of people on the broad way to hell. The Bible talks about the narrow way, that is full of few people. That a man of God that is a false prophet, gathers crowd does not mean that the crowd are in the narrow way. They may just be crowd in the broad way. What are you talking about? We must understand that the Scripture is greater than any man of God. The Scripture is greater than myself. You might say, Apostle Peter, what are you saying? The Scripture is greater than myself. If I start doing anything contrary to Scripture, please call me to order. My leaders, call me to order. If you see me that I am beginning to introduce things not scriptural enough, not in the Scripture, not in agreement with the Scripture, call me to order. And if you talk to me and I am still doing the things that is outrightly against the Word of God, leave my fellowship, leave my church. See, avoid me because I have hair. The Word of God should be held in highest esteem above every prophet, every apostle, every teacher, every pastor, every bishop. The Word of God is greater. It is greater. No man is greater than the Word of God. If we do it like this, there will be shake and balance in the body of Christ. There should not be a position of unquestionable. You know there are unquestionable prophets, unquestionable apostles, unquestionable pastors and teachers and evangelists. There is a position in their church. As far as they step into that position, nobody can question them when they are hearing. If you try to question them and say, Ah, sir, daddy, this thing you are doing, sir, sorry, we don't mean to be rude to you, but we just want to know because we can't really agree, not because we don't love you, but because there is no way in the Bible that we can really find a serious tool. Now, and the pastor immediately rebukes you and tells you to shut up, unquestionable. Please don't follow that pastor again. Even if it is me, don't follow me. I pray I will never get to that extent. That there won't be anybody to correct me. In fact, correction is even needed. The bishop needs correction so that he will not go to hell. So first prophets are people whose life are contrary to the scripture. They don't have the life and the spirit of God in them. They don't have the life and the spirit of God in them. They may be born again before. They have left the path of righteousness. So they don't have the spirit of God in them. They have the spirit of Mammal in them. I believe I have answered your question. Am I right? Have I answered your question? God bless you.