Am I vigilantly discerning false teachers by the fruit of their lips, character, and teaching?

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.  9 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

INSIGHT:   False teachers/prophets can be so smiley as if they are the happiest, kindest, most loving sheep you’ve ever seen.  However, if you are a discerning lover of the truth, you will see gross contradictions of Christ’s example and teachings somewhere.  You may even sense, “something’s not quite right.”  Do NOT ignore what could be a check in your spirit from the Holy Spirit.  But be careful here too, because people have admitted to me the devil also put thoughts in their mind trying to get them to think that about me.  This is why we need good discernment to distinguish between good and evil, because it is not often easy to do at the surface level.  For instance, is my seeing numbers a deception from Satan, or something from the Lord that you don’t understand?  What about Joel Osteen’s $100 mill net worth? Is that Satan’s doings, or something from the Lord I don’t yet understand? 

The answer is found by looking beneath the surface and discerning the fruit. What gospel and Jesus does Joel Osteen preach?  Which ones do I preach?  Are they the same as Jesus and Paul?  You can ask, which of our lives and teaching more closely match Jesus’ teachings that we must “hate our life and lose it in this world, deny ourselves and daily carry our cross? (Mat 16:24-25) Which of us most offends others because we tell them their ways are evil (Jn 7:7)?  Which of us most looks like we are entering the Kingdom of God through many tribulations (Act 14:22)?  Which of us most looks like we are in a war against a great dragon who hates true Christians (Rev 12:17)? Which of us most looks like our faith has been tested by fire (1 Pet 1:7)? Which of us most looks like “a man who has gained the whole world?” Which of us is more likely to hear from Abraham, “In your lifetime you received your good things” (Lk 16:25)?  Which of us looks less likely to pass through the eye of a needle (Mat 19:24)?  Below the surface of Joel’s sheep like disposition, there is lots of rotten doctrinal fruit that doesn’t match the true Jesus Christ at all.

One of my difficult testing periods came when God had asked me to put down my secular work, and to trust Him alone for my finances. The pressure built as I got further and further behind on child support.  My children were being well taken care of (private school, vacations, etc), just not by me.  God made it clear; He wanted me to stay put.  Although it made no sense to myself or anyone, I knew I needed to wait, trusting God, no matter what!

I’m sure it didn’t make any sense to Peter or his wife when he had to leave his fishing business (Mat 4:20), start receiving financial support from women (Lk 8:3), and soon didn’t even have enough money to make a small tax payment (Mat 17:27).   The pressure to distrust God under trial can be enormous, and Satan makes sure of it.  On Dec 12, 2013, the morning after my mother said she believed my faith in God was a mental illness, a woman from my old charismatic church showed up at our house unannounced, saying God told her to come take me for coffee.  After the small talk was over, she told me that God wanted her to come tell me that I was going to jail, kind of like Paul, but because of the child support (she was already aware of the situation).  But then she said, God told her I could affect the outcome and not have to go.  In other words, I could start taking the jobs and save myself (turn the stone into bread).  I could feel fear try to grip me and then I said in faith, “Well, if He wants to send me to jail, I’m His to do with as He pleases.   I know He will go with me since I’m only in this situation because I have fully obeyed him, to begin with.”

How could I tell if this was God speaking or Satan? Just like Jesus taught, I discerned rotten fruit coming out of her mouth.  During our meeting she gossiped about another couple’s marriage and sex life, plus she had an overly sexualized temperament that contradicted the Holy Spirit. These were rotten fruits reflecting the true spirit influencing her and I knew “grapes” didn’t come from thorn bushes. Soon, I realized she was a false prophet, who was sent by Satan to try to scare me into rebelling against God and saving myself (Neh 6:8-12).  I did not write this book from jail, not the first edition or this 10th Anniversary edition, and so wisdom was once again proven right by her offspring (results).  Have you realized how important discernment is and how easily we can be deceived?