Prayers for the Week – Beware False Prophets!

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week Post. All week I’ve been hearing and seeing things from professed Christians and preachers of Christ that are just leaving me shaking my head and wondering to myself whether or not their priorities are in order. So this week I’m sharing with you my thoughts about False Prophets, with Scripture pointing the way.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ~ Jesus (Matthew 7:15 ESV)

And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, andythe deceit of their own minds. ~ Jeremiah 14:14 (ESV)

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. ~ Jesus (Matthew 24:24 ESV)

My friends, I have struggled with the words to write this week.  On the one hand, I feel like there is a lot of information that Christians need to be careful of, but on the other hand, some of what I’m about to write about may not be received well by some of you, so I’m nervous.  However, as Jesus told us, the Truth shall set you free (So Jesus said to those who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ~ John 8:31-32), and so, I am going to plough ahead, despite my misgivings.

The number one thing that we as Christians need to do, in my opinion, is to make sure that everything that we do is done for the Glory of God.  Many of us have good intentions when it comes to how we should fulfill this commandment, if you will, but we all need to make sure we remember to put everything to God before implementing our plan of action.

My friends, I am by no means an expert in theology — far from it, in fact!  From my own experience, though, what I know is how easy it is for Satan to whisper in our ears, whispers of how great we are, and how great our ministry is, and that it will be okay to get that fancy house, or that fancy car, oh, and yes, you don’t really think that God created the world, do you?  Well, when Satan focuses his attention on you, it’s extremely important that we have the full armor of God on so that we can combat the evil one.  My worry is that so many follow False Preachers that they may not realize when something is wrong with those that lead them.  That’s a prayer right there, and I’ll include it below too.

Prayer Requests and Praises…

• Yesterday was the anniversary of my Uncle Bob’s passing.  My dad looked up to his older brother a lot, and wrote this poem in honor of him.
  Bob remembered
  Though you’ve been gone for just over a year,
  I think of you often, perhaps shedding a tear;
  Your memory haunts me still,
  I suppose it always will,
  Wait! Is that your voice I hear? What did you say my Brother?
  Take this path? Maybe another?
  Can you still show me the way,
  Direct my efforts even today?
  Am I still too much of a bother? Ah, relax my mentor, my friend!
  I know you reached your journey’s end;
  You were indeed extraordinary,
  Your resolve never varied,
  We’ll paddle the Connecticut once again!
  His little brother, Joe
  September 6, 2014
  
  Please give praise to God for my Uncle Bob — he is, even in passing, a great man, and give praise also for my Dad.  Also, please pray that my Dad and all of Uncle Bob’s friends and family have Peace in their hearts, and that the anniversary of Uncle Bob’s passing isn’t too difficult for them.
• Please pray for my cousin Brenda — her dad has had a massive stroke, and they have made the decision to take him off of life support. Things are really tough for their whole family. Please pray for their Peace, Comfort, Strength, and Faith that God has things in control and that He will take care of them. Thank you everyone.
• Please pray for Peace, Comfort, and Strength for my friend Kelly, as she and her family say goodbye to their Grandpa. Please pray for all of them in their sorrow this day, and celebrate his ascension to Heaven. Thank you everyone.
• We’ve been praying for my friend Sheila’s friend Kitty.  Please continue to pray.  Earlier in the week we learned that she had a stroke, and had blood clots in her lungs.  With our prayers, though, she has gotten better, but has not been able to walk for several weeks.  It is believed that this has contributed to the blood clots.  Please pray for her to keep getting better to the point that she can get up and start walking again.
• Please pray for the Joel and Victoria Olsteen — some days ago Victoria was recorded during a sermon talking about how we really are going to church not to please God, but rather, to please ourselves.  The video is all over the Internet, so I won’t link to it here, but please pray for the Olsteens.  Pray that they are the Christian family we all want them to be, pray that they pray to God daily, that they call on Jesus, and that they realize that their words were totally contradictory to what God calls on us to do.  Pray that they would realize that the responsibility that they have towards those that follow them and their message is incredibly important, and that the words they speak should not be their words, but God’s.
• Please also pray for the Christian Musician Gungor.  In 2012, he stated on his blog that he didn’t find that God created the world in 6 days.  Also, he went further to say that Jesus could have been wrong about Adam and Noah.
  “I have no more ability to believe, for example, that the first people on earth were a couple named Adam and Eve that lived 6,000 years ago,” he wrote. “I have no ability to believe that there was a flood that covered all the highest mountains of the world only 4,000 years ago and that all of the animal species that exist today are here because they were carried on an ark and then somehow walked or flew all around the world from a mountain in the middle east after the water dried up.”
  Please pray that his words wouldn’t lead any of our young Christians — who are being assaulted daily by lies and deceit just from the world — into further being pulled away from studying God’s Word and accepting it as the literal Truth.

My friends, please pray these prayers with me, as well as praying the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed by Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespassers,
As we forgive those that trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory,
Forever and ever. Amen.

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