Uh Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message, Seducing, Imitating, and Lying Spirits, is the third in the five-part series, Spirits, Angels, and Demons. Apostle Paul warned us that in the last days there will be an increase in demonic activity, including false doctrine, and some will depart from the faith, the New Testament teachings of the church, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. Jesus warned, beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
These have come under the influence of and are working with seducing, imitating, and lying spirits. And how many testimonies have we heard? I know I have. Read and heard of people saying that an angel appeared to them. Amen.
People have claimed that they have died and saw a light, and these people were not saved, and these people were not born again. These people were not right with God, but they saw a great light, and so they came back and they believed that they're fine because they saw a light. There was a whole season, a period of time when this was very big, and there were books being written about it. And then there were some true messengers of God that stood up and wrote books to counteract that and show: I don't doubt that you saw a light. I don't doubt that you saw an angel.
I don't doubt that he was beautiful. Because Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. But let me tell you something. If someone were to have such a visitation or such an apparition, amen, and just begin to speak the word of God and say, Jesus is Lord. And speak those scriptures right there.
Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess in heaven, in earth, and beneath the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord. I tell you what, that angel of light will turn into a devil as fast as you can snap your fingers. Go along with a whole lot of things. Oh, you can say a lot of things, but once you start declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord, and I always say every knee shall bow, and I always put my own little phrase in there, even Lucifer's knee. And every tongue shall confess, even Lucifer's tongue.
That Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen. Now, last night, I had a very powerful attack last night, a demonic attack. And it went on for quite a while. And there was no fear in me.
I didn't have any fear. I just had to, you know, keep wrestling until it left. Amen, and it eased up a lot, but I did not feel that it was totally gone. And so I just continued to say, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus is my Lord. Jesus is my Lord.
And every time I would say, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is my Lord, I would feel that, I don't know how to explain it to you, like electricity running up and down my legs. And I knew then that the Spirit was still present. Amen. And it's only when I could say that and praise and worship Jesus with nothing, then I knew, okay, I can go back to sleep now. Amen.
So let me tell you something. Satan can transform himself.
So So Paul's reasoning is, well, so hey, Or should we be surprised then? That his messengers, his false prophets, come on, you have turned on the TV and you have seen men and women, especially it's usually men, but not always necessarily, that you know are not right. You know they're preaching false doctrine, but there they are giving words of wisdom. I know your name, your address, your father's sitting home, he's wearing a yellow shirt, and all this sort of thing. And everybody's like, Oh my god, that's true, that's true.
And like I preached to you last week under the familiar spirit thing.
Now, in some cases, amen, they are actually receiving it from a familiar spirit, that information. They're getting that information. There have been cases, and this is true, that's not so much today, but I can tell you, there was a period, I don't know what decade it was, because they're all starting to go together on me now, but when actually there would be preacher would have a uh earbud in his ear Amen? And somebody, because they would make people that needed healing come early in the day and fill out cards with your name, and I need healing from arthritis or whatever. And, you know, the name address and all that sort of thing.
And they would have somebody in the back room speaking to them the name and all that sort of thing. And, you know, the man's out there saying, um. Let's see now, your name. I s I see your name. I see your name.
Is it Is it sh is it share Cheryl Sharon? Amen. They're trying to imitate the gifts of the Spirit. Let me tell you, the devil is many things. We know he's a liar.
He's a trespasser. And he's an imitator. That's all it can do is imitate. Amen? And last week, I won't go there today because I did minister it last week.
So if you didn't get last week's sermon, you can maybe get it on C D if you like and the one before. But we talked about the girl who had the spirit of Python. The spirit of divination. And so that when Paul and his evangelistic entourage got there to that. uh city of Philippi This girl Who was just a young slave girl?
Her masters made a lot of money off of her because she told people's fortunes. And so she followed them around the city, around the town, saying, These are the servants of the Most High God who have come to show you the way of salvation.
Now that was that was the truth They were the servants of the most high God. They did come to show the way of salvation. Amen. And so, what she was saying was true. She was not trying to say, watch out for these guys, they're shikesters.
Watch out for these guys, they're not real. No, she was following them around. But the thing of it is, she was trying to make that spirit wanted to look like that. We're all in agreement. I'm with you, you're with me.
Amen. Trying to come under the umbrella of the true servants of God. Following them around, and the Bible says this went on for many days. Until Paul became grieved or vexed in his spirit. And he thought, you know, I can't let this go on because the people are going to get confused and they're going to assume that her gift is of God when it's a demonic spirit.
And he turned and he didn't speak to the girl, he said to the spirit. Come out in the name of Jesus. And just like that, the girl was delivered. And just like that, she could no longer tell fortunes. And of course, we read about how her slave masters were not very happy about that because they made a lot of money from her.
Lots of money. They were so angry and upset that they actually stirred up the s the the town and the city people against Paul and against Silas. And drug them to the leaders of the town and said they're bringing in all kinds of false religions and had them thrown in jail. Amen. But the spirit was not only a familiar spirit, because, like I told you, she was able to really tell people their real fortunes.
And we talked about that last week: how spirits attach themselves to families. And they know the history of the family because they've been with the family throughout. Their time. And so she had a familiar spirit, but this spirit was also, a lot of times, these overlap, was trying to imitate. The Spirit of God.
Amen. So we have to look out for imitating spirits. And so we have people today, as I said, they act like they're giving out words of wisdom and words of knowledge and act like they're discerning things from God. And you know, they give you prophecies. Amen.
You need to be letting people prophesy over you that you don't know who they are. Do not let somebody lay their hands on you that you don't know is a real servant of God. Do not let that.
Now, they may be harmless and foolish and trying to think they know something and be important, but they might have a demon. No. They might actually have a demon working with them. Amen. So don't let people put their hands on you.
So, let me tell you something. Satan can transform himself.
So, So Paul's reasoning is, well, so hey, Or should we be surprised then that his messengers, his false prophets, come on, you have turned on the T V and you have seen men and women, especially it's usually men, but not always necessarily, that you know are not right. You know they're preaching false doctrine, but there they are giving words of wisdom. I know your name, your address. Your father's sitting home. He's wearing a yellow shirt and all this sort of thing.
And everybody's like, oh my God, that's true. That's true. And like I preached to you last week under the familiar spirit thing.
Now in some cases, amen, they are actually receiving it from a familiar spirit, that information. They're getting that information. There have been cases, and this is true, it's not so much today, but I can tell you, there was a period, I don't know what decade it was, because they're all starting to go together on me now, but when actually there would, the... Preacher would have an earbud in his ear. Amen?
And somebody, because they would make people that needed healing, come early in the day and fill out cards with your name, and I need healing from arthritis or whatever. And, you know, the name address and all that sort of thing. And they would have somebody in the back room speaking to them the name and all that sort of thing. And, you know, the man's out there saying, um, Let's see now. Your name, I see your name.
I see your name. Is it? Is it Is it sh is it share Cheryl Shar Sharon? Sharon! Amen.
They're trying to imitate the gifts of the Spirit. Let me tell you, the devil is many things. We know he's a liar. He's a trespasser. And he's an imitator.
That's all it can do is imitate. Amen? And last week, I won't go there today because I did minister it last week.
So if you didn't get last week's sermon, you can maybe get it on CD if you like, and the one before. But we talked about the girl who had the spirit of Python. The spirit of divination. And so that when Paul and his evangelistic entourage got there to that. uh city of Philippi This girl Who was just a young slave girl?
Her masters made a lot of money off of her because she told people's fortunes. And so she followed them around the city, around the town, saying, These are the servants of the Most High God who have come to show you the way of salvation.
Now that was that was the truth They were the servants of the most high God. They did come to show the way of salvation. Amen. And so, what she was saying was true. She was not trying to say, watch out for these guys.
They're shiksters. Watch out for these guys. They're not real. No, she was following them around. But the thing of it is, she was trying to make that spirit wanted to look like that.
We're all in agreement. I'm with you, you're with me. Amen. Trying to come under the umbrella of the true servants of God, following them around. And the Bible says this went on for many days.
Until Paul became grieved or vexed in his spirit. And he thought, you know, I can't let this go on because the people are going to get confused and they're going to assume that her gift is of God when it's a demonic spirit. And he turned and he didn't speak to the girl, he said to the spirit. Come out in the name of Jesus. And just like that, the girl was delivered.
And just like that, she could no longer tell fortunes. And of course, we read about how her slave masters were not very happy about that because they made a lot of money from her. Lots of money. They were so angry and upset that they actually stirred up the town and the city people against Paul and against Silas. And drug them to the leaders of the town and said they're bringing in all kinds of false religions and had them thrown in jail.
Amen. But the spirit was not only a familiar spirit, because, like I told you, she was able to really tell people their real fortunes. And we talked about that last week: how spirits attach themselves to families. And they know the history of the family because they've been with the family throughout. Their time.
And so she had a familiar spirit, but this spirit was also, a lot of times, these overlap, was trying to imitate. The Spirit of God. Amen. So we have to look out for imitating spirits. And so we have people today, as I said, they act like they're giving out words of wisdom and words of knowledge and act like they're discerning things from God.
And they give you prophecies. Amen. Don't be letting people prophesy over you that you don't know who they are. Do not let somebody lay their hands on you that you don't know is a real servant of God. Do not let that.
Now, they may be harmless and foolish and trying to think they know something and be important, but they might have a demon. Well They might actually have a demon working with them. Amen. So don't let people put their hands on you.
I know we went years and years ago, we went to this one campgrounds, and they were really big on prophecy. And I believe that the the the The head of the ministry, I believe he was a true servant of God and a true and really had real prophecy. He prophesied over me, and I mean he was straight down the line. But they were a little flaky in that they would teach people. How to prophesy.
So they were teaching everybody in their congregation how to prophesy.
So when you would go to their church, when you would come there for they had special summer meetings, when you would come there, you know, somebody would, people would come up to you and prophesy to you. And, you know, we didn't know, I don't know who these people are. I knew that the man was the servant of God. But most of these people, and I think most of them were harmless. I don't think they were demon-possessed.
I think that they were wannabes, trying to be prophets. Amen. And so they would go around. But the problem is, is if they start going over a line, it's one thing to say, the Lord loves you. He's with you.
He's going to bring you out. He's going to bless you.
Well, anybody can make up that prophecy. You know, God loves you, but when you start getting specific, And telling people who they ought to marry. and where they ought to move to and quit their job and do this. You can wreck people's lives if they're foolish enough. Do not try the spirits.
And so they would see, when they would see new people, new faces. They wanted to go. Oh, here's new people. Let's go prophesy to them. Betty was with us too.
She was with me. Me and Betty were like, ah. We were like, Don't come near us. We were trying to give that look, like, don't come near us. But, you know, some of them would get to you anyway.
And so, you know, they would come up to you. I would not let them lay hands on me. They would come up to you. They were after a while, they were so, what's the word I should say? I guess intimidated by the vibes me and Betty were giving off, that they started getting tongue-tied.
And messing up their whole prophecy. They couldn't finish it very good. They just got all messed up. That's how you know it wasn't from the Lord. But here's the one that was really the coup de grace.
We went in the afternoon service. And they had this young preacher there. And he called us up. And I didn't want to be rude, and I didn't want babes in Christ that don't know any better to think that we were, you know, being rude or being devils.
So we went up there. And so he could probably feel my resistance because I was resisting. I went up, but I was resisting in my spirit. He gave me this terrible prophecy. I mean, I can't remember what he said, but it wasn't good, was it, Betty?
I mean, he was like putting me down and really making me look bad. And so, on top of that, now I'm embarrassed in front of everybody. And so, me and Betty, we went and we ate dinner, and I was like, oh my God, I can't believe this. This is ridiculous. I said, the pastor's name, he's dead, and he's with the Lord now.
I said, if this brother. heard that he would be upset. He would be really upset because he really loved me. He loved Betty. He loved all of us.
He loved my dad's ministering, so he knew us. He would have been upset if he knew that his afternoon speaker spoke that way to me. He would have. But see, this speaker didn't know me from Adam or Eve, just called me up there and he felt my resistance.
So that night in the service, when the big crowd is there, because you know not everybody goes to afternoon service. But everybody goes to the night service. He called me up on the platform. and asked me to testify. And the anointing came on me, and I testified very powerfully.
And everybody was like This is the one that got the bare prophecy today. This is the one that's all bad news. Amen. And so the Lord, He, you know, He worked it out to let people know that guy that prophesied today was wrong.
So if He's wrong about her, He might be wrong about you.
So watch out. Amen. So watch it. But I just thought that was wonderful how the Lord worked that out, that he called me up there to prof um To testify, and the Lord let the anointing and the word of God come forth very powerfully. Amen.
To show the real anointing is no match for the fake. Or I should say the fake is no match for the real. Amen? But you know what Jesus said, and we all stumble over this verse, but he said. In the day When he judges us, when we stand before God, he said, There's going to be many that's going to come to him and say, Lord, Lord.
Have we not prophesied in thy name and done many wonderful works in thy name? And he's going to say, Depart from me, ye worker of iniquity. I never knew you. Amen. So we got to realize we got to try the spirits and we got to test them according to the word of God.
Turn with me to. 2 Timothy verse 3, chapter 3. How many are learning something? I want to hurry along here because I want to be able to finish what I need to get to.
So I'm going to be real quick now. 2 Timothy 3, let's look at verse 1. Um I'm in 1 Timothy, that's why I don't get it.
Okay. This know also that in the last days. Perilous times shall come. And then in the next like six verses, he talks of he names all of these people. And we know these verses well.
I'm going to skip down to verse eight.
Now, as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate. Concerning the faith.
So who is this Janice and Jambreys guys? They're not named in the Old Testament. Fowl. They were Pharaoh's magicians. That's who he's referring to.
And remember when Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh to demand that he let God's people go, and God said, You're going to use the rod, and you're going to use that?
So, what happened? The first thing that he did, he threw out the rod, and it became a serpent. But guess what Janice and Jambreys did? They threw out their rod and they became serpents. Plural.
But Aaron's serpent Eight, though there are serpents. Amen. And so the next thing that we were told that Aaron stretched out the rod over the Nile River, because they worshiped the Nile like it was a god. And it turned to blood, and it went through all the waters in Egypt and said, What happened? The fish died.
And oh, there's nothing worse than the smell of stinking fish throughout the whole country. Amen. But guess what? Janice and Jambreys did the same thing. They duplicated the miracle.
Amen? Yeah. And then the next thing was. Frogs were everywhere. They were no longer in the Nile River.
They were in people's beds. They were in people's cupboards. They were everywhere throughout the whole land, frogs, frogs, frogs. But guess what? Janice and Jambrees did the same thing, and they duplicated the frogs.
Amen? But They couldn't get rid of them. They were able to cause them to appear, but they couldn't get rid of them. And Pharaoh actually asked Moses to pray to God to take the frogs away. And he did.
And the frogs disappeared. Amen. And then the next plague was lice. And Aaron took his rod, and he smote the dust of the ground and when he did, all the ground turned into lice. Lice were everywhere.
Amen? Now, Janice and Jambrees took their rods so that they could duplicate the miracle. But they couldn't. They were not able to duplicate the miracle of the lice. Why?
Because this was a creative miracle. It wasn't just making frogs that already existed all come. Amen? It was a creative miracle. And Satan cannot create.
He can only imitate. God is the creator. Genesis 2:7 tells us that God formed man out of the dust of the earth and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives. God is the creator of life, and man cannot create life. Oh, they can take an egg and a sperm and put it together.
But they cannot create The egg and the sperm. Amen. They can clone, they can take cells out of one thing and put it in another, but they cannot create life. from inanimate substance or matter. Amen.
And so it goes to show you that Satan can imitate. But it cannot create. Amen. So we've covered seducing spirits. We've covered imitating spirits.
Now, in the time left, we're going to cover lying spirits. Turn with me to 1 Kings, the 22nd chapter. This is one of the most unusual, curious chapters in the Bible. You don't hear it preached on a lot, but we're going to look at it today. First Kings twenty-two.
We'll read a few verses at a time. Verse 1. And they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel. And it came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel. And the king of Israel said unto his servants, Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria?
I will stop here for a moment. You all know that Israel got split up. in the days of Solomon's son. Ten tribes went One way and then to the other. The ten tribes were called Israel.
The two tribes were called Judah. because it was the tribe of Judah. And Benjamin, because Benjamin was inside the geographical area of Judah. That was the tribes. God said, Because David is my servant, and I promised him there would never fail to be a king upon the throne, I'm going to keep his tribe, Judah and Benjamin.
And so, therefore, there was a king of Judah, and there was a king of Israel.
Now, we understand they're all Israelites. They're all of the original Israel, but because of Solomon's son's sin, Rehoboam, God split up. the kingdom.
So, when we see the king of Israel in this case, if we would have read earlier, it is Ahab.
Somebody say Ahab. And how many know he was one of the worst, most wicked kings of Baal? He had that pagan, wicked woman, Jezebel, for a wife.
So he's the king of Israel. From now on, I am going to say Ahab whenever we see king of Israel, just for clarity's sake. And of course, Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah.
So he says unto him, Ahab says to Jehoshaphat, don't you know that Ramoth Gilead is our land, but yet the Syrians still have it? We need to go and take it back. Verse 4. And he said unto, Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to Ahab, I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses or thy horses.
And Jehoshaphat said unto Ahab, Inquire, I pray thee at the word of the Lord today. Then Ahab gathered the prophets together about 400 men and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead? To battle, or shall I forbear, or shall I not go? And they said, Go up, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
So Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, I want to go take back our land. Will you join me? Will you go with me? He said, Of course I will. We're all the same people.
We're all one.
So, you know what? My horses, which means my army, my men, they're yours. But hey, How about if first we inquire of the Lord? See Jehoshaphat was a godly king. And he says, I would feel better about it.
In fact, I'm not going to do anything until we go to the Lord in prayer. And so Ahab's a fine. We can do that. I want you to bring in my prophets. Four hundred.
Now, this is all the more remarkable when we consider the fact that this is right after the time when Elijah killed the 850 false prophets on Mount Carmel. And this fast, they already got 400 more. I mean, that's like the chapters right before.
So he says to the prophets, they said, oh, absolutely, go up. Because God is going to deliver it into your hand. Verse seven And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him?
Okay. Amen. What a demon-chasing teaching, seducing, imitating, and lying spirits. The Bible amply warns of the increase of this demonic activity in the last days. And not only have we seen the demise of Christian values and biblical teachings in America's political landscape, such as the ruling on same-sex marriage, but in the church.
Homosexuality is openly celebrated and same sex marriage sanctioned. Adultery and divorce are lightly reproved, if at all. False doctrine perverts righteousness and promotes sin with its selective seduction of grace. False teachers and prophets are able to seduce people because they are appealing to the flesh. and they seem authentic.
But we are to test the spirits to see if they are of God because there is a spirit of truth and there is a spirit of error at work. And if Satan is transformed into an angel of light, It is no great thing that his ministers are also transformed into ministers of righteousness. They imitate the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and they seduce and deceive by lying spirits. This message, Seducing, Imitating, and Lying Spirits, is the third in my five part series, Spirits, Angels, and Demons, which includes Hindering Spirits v. Ministering Spirits, Familiar Spirits, and bail busters and troublemakers.
This album can be ordered for a love gift of twenty five dollars. Request SK one eighty five. Mail to Sound of Faith, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or go online to soundoffaith.org, where you may also order on MP3s. I strongly urge you to get this powerful series the Holy Spirit has given me. It is thorough but simple and scripturally sound.
You will learn much.
So order today. Send $25 or more to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK185 for spirits. Angels and demons.
Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying Maranatha.
