Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me, your workers of lawlessness. Matthew 7:21-24.
We live in an age of great satanic deception like I have never seen in my short life. False prophets are on every corner of this continent ready to promise you the world and, of course, take your money in the process. The secret behind their “success” is that they can do miracles, signs and wonders, the very things that some of us pastors are said to be unable to do. So they are perceived as the real “men of God” who display the power of God spiritually and even financially. But here is what Jesus is saying in these verses: It is possible for one to perform miracles but to still go to hell because one never knew Jesus and was therefore “a worker of lawlessness”.
That miracles were performed by these “workers of lawlessness” Jesus does not deny. This should remind us that there are other sources of spiritual power in this world and that God can sovereignly grant miracles according to a believer’s sincere faith in spite of a false prophet. The Bible is awash with stories of false prophets performing miracles like the sorcerers and magicians of Egypt whose rods also turned into snakes like Moses’ (Exodus 7:10-11). We in Africa have our share of such powerful sorcerers. In the northern part of Malawi from about the 50s to the 60s, there was one Nchimi (prophet) Chikanga who could detail peoples’ the conversations they had had the day before. He could tell total strangers accurate details about their personal lives. The practice is known as “kuthwasa” in the north. A “nchimi” consults ancestral spirits by whom he/she also heals people. For more on Nchimi Chikanga, you may want to read Professor Boston Soko’s book, Nchimi Chikanga: The Battle against Witchcraft in Malawi (http://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/nchimi-chikanga). So when a prophet starts telling you your phone number, personal details you have not shared with anybody, or the color of your underwear (some of these wicked prophets actually do that), please don’t be fooled to think that such revelation can only come from God. Heed the words of Paul who said that “the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Timothy 2:9-10).
Sometimes God in His sovereignty may just respond to the sincere faith of an innocent believer caught up in this diabolical environment who may not know of the wickedness at the time. There are those that have gone to some of these charlatans not knowing what they truly were but just trusted God for their healing and God healed them. How do I know it was God and not satanic healing? Because they loved and served God more and did not linger in the spiritually toxic environment of the pseudo-prophets.
These “workers of lawlessness” don’t know Jesus hence they work lawlessness. To know Jesus is to have an intimate relationship with him that comes by receiving him as your master and the one that saves your life from eternal damnation (John 3:16) so that when you believe thus you become a child of God (John 1:12). And as a child of God, you are commissioned by Jesus to take his Good News of the kingdom of God to the whole world as you disciple and teach others obedience to God until Jesus returns (Matthew 28:16-20). Obviously if you know him you can’t also be working lawlessness. Peter describes the workers of lawlessness to us: “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness… They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:14-16, 19).
No wonder we hear of prophets that go to witchdoctors to seek spiritual power as Prophet Trevor Kautsire has revealed (http://www.nyasatimes.com/prophet-kautsire-confesses-meeti…/). Nana Kwaku Bonsam, a world famous traditional priest from Ghana, claims that pastors go to him for spiritual power (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USogrjgiAtI) and once collected a god from a pastor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI_lFCutgLo). The lives of brazen sin lived by these false prophets speak of their lawlessness and the demonic agents of deception that they are. One prophet is notorious for his sexual prowess that extends to the wives of his inner circle, praise team and choir members, even to the point that some women change hands amongst the leaders in that “church”. One of the choir girls, due to her adulterous affair with the prophet, is even called “Mama Prophet”. Another girl, perhaps out of bitterness, did publish a long list of the names of another man of God’s sexual liaisons on Facebook. Closer to home, it was sad to hear one lady testify that a so-called prophet once told her that to ensure her pregnancy was carried to full term without any demonic interference, he needed to anoint her with olive oil on “every part of her body”. Seriously?!
So on Judgment Day, not all those that pray to the Lord, not all that cast out demons, not all that prophesy, not all that work miracles in Jesus’ name, shall be saved. Reason? They didn’t have a true living relationship with Jesus. They were not truly born-again. They did not seek to enter by the narrow gate. Their lives did not show fruit worthy of repentance. I think Jesus will say to them on that day when there will be no PRO to defend them, “Go to hell with your miracles!”.
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