The following is a message from Pastor Zac Poonen.
Watch out for the Spirit of Antichrist
And they worshipped the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?’ (Rev 13:4)
The whole earth now worships Satan. This is what Satan has always wanted from the beginning. In Isaiah 14:14, we read that Lucifer wanted to be like God. God had already given Lucifer many wonderful gifts - wisdom, beauty, ability, and supernatural gifts. What more did he want? He wanted to be worshipped like God was. And that is how he became the devil. Whenever you desire the admiration of people, remember that you too have the same desire as Satan. To seek the honour of men is Satanic. Finally, we see here, that Satan does get the whole world to worship him. Of course, that is happening in a small measure even today. But it is going to be much more widespread.
They worshipped the Antichrist too. The worship of the Antichrist - the worship of men - is also becoming widespread today. They worshipped the Antichrist saying, “Who is like the beast?” Just like we worship God today saying, “Who is like unto Thee, Oh God,” people worship Satan and the Antichrist saying the same thing. People will not call the Antichrist, “The Antichrist”. No. They will call him by a respectable name.
In 1 Jn. 2:18-19, we read, “Children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us (from the midst of the church).” This teaches us that there were people who had the spirit of the Antichrist right in the midst of the first-century church. Such people are found in Christendom today too. People with the spirit of the antichrist are found in the political world, in the business world, in the heathen religious world, and among so-called “Christian churches” too.
What is the mark of this spirit of the Antichrist? There are many marks. But one of the chief marks is this: They want others to admire them and exalt them - which is the equivalent of receiving worship from men. A church that does not fight against this seeking of honour from one another will have the spirit of the antichrist ruling in it very soon.
The desire for the honour of men is found in our flesh. It starts growing like a little seed, like a baby - just a wee desire for admiration, wanting somebody’s approval or praise. It finally ends up as desiring worship. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. Therefore, whenever we see this little serpent’s egg inside us, we must crush it; otherwise, it will bring forth a serpent one day. If this spirit could manifest itself in the highest of angels, why can’t it manifest itself in any of us? He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The whole earth, we are told, will follow after the Antichrist. The world did not follow after Christ. They shouted, “Away with Him. Crucify Him”. But they will follow the Antichrist, because he will speak with smooth words to them, like the false prophets of old.
The spirit of Christ will bring us reproach, ridicule and opposition from men. When Christians seek popularity in this world, they are on dangerous ground - the ground of the Antichrist. Jesus was not excited when people wanted to crown Him as king. He knew that the opinions of men were only fit for the garbage-bin. So He turned around and told them, “You must hate your father and mother, your brother and sister, your wife and children, your possessions and your Self-life, before you can follow Me” (Lk.14:26-33). Those were hard words that offended many who heard them. Today, the true church of Jesus Christ preaches those very same words, and they sound just as hard - and they offend people, just as they did in Christ’s day. And the reproach of Christ comes upon us thereby. It is thus that we are protected from the spirit of the Antichrist. But Babylonian Christianity will not preach this message, and so will be honoured, thus paving the way for the Antichrist to be manifested.
Thank you for posting this, much insight.
ReplyDeleteAmen brother, we need to preach this message today, Praise the Lord!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE this post. It goes back to something that God has shared with me about the growing popularity of Social Networking and how we use it. I had to question what I used Facebook and Twitter for...was I glorifying God or was I glorifying myself. What were my intentions when I posted pictures of myself? Was I using a platform such as FB to share the gospel or my own thoughts? Alot of ppl say that I am extreme for taking it this far, but it is not extreme when you are dealing with the devil---he will take even the smallest crack to cause the biggest destruction. We must constantly judge EVERYTHING as spiritual, and keep our eyes focused on the God we serve.
ReplyDeleteOh my...and where is the Holy Spirit in all these "ceremonies".Aren't we supposed to be led by the Holy Spirit. All I heard were words written by man to ordain a "man" of GOD. May the Lord have mercy on Ps. Fred Prices' ministry. I pray he repents and seeks the Lord for real. And funny how people always violently defend what is wrong. Mercy Lord.
ReplyDeleteHi Zeal for Christ,
ReplyDeleteI agree completely! The very culture of FB is engendered to building up and exalting "self".
Increasing in the number of "friends" you have, having people "like" your statuses, the virtual photo albums, etc. It is easy to be drawn into a "me me me me meeeeeee" mindset with FB.
When I was on it, I used it for ministry, but after a year God told me to leave it alone. That is not a command He has given to everyone, but that was His word for me.
I personally believe that - apart from the hand of God - FB encourages you to fall in love with yourself. I have never seen people take so many pictures of themselves in all of my life.
And yet, FB is becoming incorporated into many facets of life. If I am just trying to get a coupon from a company for grocery shopping, they will often make you "like" their FB page to just get coupons. It is crazy.
I had an older woman tell me last year, "I cannot remember what we used to do without FB." Not THAT is scary.
Like you sis, we must look at the spiritual ramifications of everything. This is no time to be pulled off course...even slightly.
Pray you are well!
I have found that it is very easy to get caught up in any of these social type websites: chat rooms, message boards, blogs. Even if the content itself is not bad (nutrition, cooking, raising children etc.) it is very easy to get sucked into hours of just reading and searching and chatting. I have to *really* keep myself in check when it comes to the internet.
ReplyDeleteJT
To Zeal for Christ and LDM in particular;
ReplyDeleteYou both have put the concept of social networking sites in perspective for me and I am truly grateful to God for that.
Currently I have a FB pg and recently I deleted all photos/albums that I specifically uploaded. I cannot remember when last I "updated my status" or commented on others' pages and all the "normal" customs that are associated with maintaining these sites. More or less it's inactive and I've received complaints as to why I am not more involved with it.
You see together with FB and my blackberry messenger subscription, which I've canceled, I found that I was developing a "complex" (as I like to term it in Caribbean parlance).
I found that I was constantly comparing myself to "friends", what they were doing, where they were in their lives and even how they looked. I grew frustrated with myself, measuring my accomplishments/lack of, my popularity or lack thereof, not having interesting photos to display etc.
I kept putting myself down, finding fault after fault because I didn't amount to what was shown on these networks. It caused me to look at myself always from a negative perspective.
On BBM I was becoming a slave as I was constantly monitoring status changes/updates, or hoping to see who'd send me a message etc.
In reality most of the people on our contact lists aren't even real friends far less acquaintances.For example: many females accept friend requests from men they don't know and in turn these men get a free pass into their everyday lives by looking/ drooling, lusting and in the end stealing their pictures.
We know we don't even get a call to find out how you're doing or an invite to have a meal in real life but virtually we're zealous to maintain these "friendships"
When I found that my insecurities and frustrations were increasing to unbearable proportions, I decided to cut the controls by reducing my activity or canceling such services altogether.
It's sort of like taking back control that I'd given over to these forces. I've also saved myself $29/wk that I was wasting on bbm which I would maybe get 2 of for the month if so much.
I am still undecided about deactivating the FB pg altogether but I pray that God would do the same as He did for you LDM. I appreciate it for the friends that I've been able to reconnect with from since primary school but even that is not a strong reason for me not to cancel.
I am struggling with getting my life in a God-approved manner but I believe that what currently confuses me will be understood eventually by His Grace.
God Bless you all: LDM, subscribers/readers and even those that oppose. May we all be led in Truth in Jesus' name