Counterfeit Moves of Satan in the Last Days - Part 3 (Unity of Believers)
There are two kinds of unity moving through the Church right now: man-based unity and Biblical unity. If you don't understand the nature of the counterfeit it is easy to fall into it and the trap it lays.
Man-based unity is, in my observation, way more popular right now than Jesus-centered unity. They both claim to be loyal to Jesus, but the truth is, man-based unity is moving further from Jesus, while Jesus-centered unity is moving closer to the full revelation of who Jesus is. One is the true prophesied move, the other is the false counterfeit.
Jesus prayed for unity, and He will get a spotless unified Bride...Jesus will get everything He prayed for. If you want to know the future of the Church, look at what Jesus prayed for us!
John 17:14-23 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
John 17 is the pattern (the road map) and the definition of true, Jesus-centered, Biblical unity. This is the only kind of unity that will pass through the end time fire of tribulation. That is what Jesus was praying. Let's break it down, because it will tell us how to agree with Jesus about unity and protect us from false unity:
1. I have given them your word.
True unity starts with loyalty to the Word. All of it. Right now, there are many "leaders" in the Church that are questioning...wrestling with... how to stay "relevant" AND loyal to Jesus' Word. This is the wrong wrestle to have! We should be wrestling with how to get more bold to stand for truth! There is not ONE commandment of Jesus to be relevant to the people in the Bible...not one! In fact, that brings us to Jesus' next point in His prayer:
2. Jesus promises what you can expect if you choose to agree with His prayer of "having the Word"...the world will HATE you. That is the opposite of staying relevant!
If you hear a pastor or teacher convincing you that you need to think about how to stay relevant to the world, your skin should start tingling right away..."warning!, warning!"...this is one of the first indications of harlot, or false, unity....unity based in the fear of man and not in the fear of the Lord.
The fear of man is a snare. It will actually compromise your safety through the end time judgments. It is the way most of the world will go, including many in the Church. You are supposed to recognize it and take a stand against it.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and is guaranteed to protect you through the end time events. Satan is instigating false unity in order to cut you off from safety through the end time events!
Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
Psalms 34:7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.
The world hates those loyal to all of the truths of the world. That is why there is so much pressure to water down the truth about sin, Biblical truth about homosexuality, Biblical truth about money and material possessions, Biblical truth about truth itself, creation, salvation...every major and important point Jesus stands for is challenged by the world. If you stay true to Jesus, the world will not like it. If you aren't getting any negative feedback from the world, let me assure you, it is because you aren't taking a meaningful stand for truth.
This is where man-based unity departs from Jesus-centered unity. Man-based unity hides portions of Biblical truth...portions of who Jesus is and what He really stands for...in order to get a consensus on earth about Jesus. This is evil. This moves the true Jesus out of the center and replaces Him with another Jesus. Those disloyal to Jesus will still name His name though!
This is a very confusing time! It requires knowing the Biblical plans and the counterfeit schemes promised to come. Just using the name Jesus isn't being loyal to Jesus. We need to be loyal to His entire person. He IS the Word. Jesus was named a very common Jewish name on purpose. Do you want Jesus the murderer or Jesus the Christ?
Matthew 27:17 So when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Messiah?”
We don't recognize the real Jesus or his followers by His name alone, but rather the full revelation of what He desires, says, does, and is promised to do.
Matthew 7:22-23 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
There are many false Jesus's being taught:
II Corinthians 11:4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
True unity...the unity Jesus the Christ prayed for in John 17...it is rooted in loyalty to the word, which the world is promised to hate, which then results in "sanctification." This sanctification, separation that will make you like others being separated, is the foundation of Biblical protection through the end time events.
3. Jesus isn't going to rapture you out of the trouble. He prayed you would be kept THROUGH the trouble:
" I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."
4. This protection HINGES on sanctification. Sanctification is the act of setting apart. Loyalty to the Word should set you apart from the world:
"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."
This is what true Biblical unity does: our loyalty to the word cleans us, which makes us vessels for more of Jesus' glory to shine through. That means more POWER rests on those united by fierce loyalty to Jesus and His truth.
This power in purity in being separated from the world but still being in it is what the Church experienced at the very beginning, before divisions set in. Power rested on them and it protected them in Jerusalem, the most dangerous place to be a Christian at that time:
Acts 5:12-16 And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
This is what true loyalty to the word does: it makes you relevant to a dying world because life is manifesting on you and those set apart by this loyalty with you. Those who try to stay relevant to world lose the power to actually be relevant! Those who make loyalty to Jesus grow in power which truly is relevant to a dying world!
The unity of believers all loyal to revealing more of Jesus' glory, and not covering Him up in shame, releases the TRUE power the earth needs to live. This SCARES darkness, but is an invitation of protection to those who love the light.
5. As Jesus sanctified Himself, we are supposed to as well. Jesus lived completely loyal to the Father. Jesus- centered unity is based on the first two commandments:
Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Making Jesus the object of our loyalty and love moves us, step by step, closer to the one who is the center of all creation. As each of us individually draws closer...as we individually fall more in love with the author of life, more life starts to touch us, more power starts to touch, us AND we get closer to each other! Simple geometry demands that if we all each individually get closer to Jesus, we MUST get closer to each other. Loving Jesus with all your heart overflows into truly being empowered and drawn to love your neighbor as yourself.
Man-based false unity flips the first two commandments. It sacrifices intense loyalty to the full revelation of Jesus for political correctness falsely assumed to be "loving" neighbors...this is not true love. Loving people without growing in love for God is impossible in truth. There is no love apart from God. We can only love with the love God gives us!
I John 4:19-21 We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Loving God has to come first. It is arrogance to believe that "loving" each other by hiding who Jesus has revealed Himself to be to us has the power to bring lasting unity. It doesn't. There is only one source of love strong enough to hold us near to each other: Jesus' love. If we seek Him first...all of Him...even the unpopular parts...we will find true "unity by division" that will last through the fire of tribulation! this is what will protect the end time Bride, just as it did those first believers in Jerusalem. This is what Jesus came to do: create unity by division!
Luke 12:49-56 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?
End time unity that lasts won't be based on us agreeing with each other about Jesus. It will be based on us agreeing with Jesus about each other! There is a huge difference. Seek Him first, and unity will come with Him!
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Man-based unity is, in my observation, way more popular right now than Jesus-centered unity. They both claim to be loyal to Jesus, but the truth is, man-based unity is moving further from Jesus, while Jesus-centered unity is moving closer to the full revelation of who Jesus is. One is the true prophesied move, the other is the false counterfeit.
Jesus prayed for unity, and He will get a spotless unified Bride...Jesus will get everything He prayed for. If you want to know the future of the Church, look at what Jesus prayed for us!
John 17:14-23 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
John 17 is the pattern (the road map) and the definition of true, Jesus-centered, Biblical unity. This is the only kind of unity that will pass through the end time fire of tribulation. That is what Jesus was praying. Let's break it down, because it will tell us how to agree with Jesus about unity and protect us from false unity:
1. I have given them your word.
True unity starts with loyalty to the Word. All of it. Right now, there are many "leaders" in the Church that are questioning...wrestling with... how to stay "relevant" AND loyal to Jesus' Word. This is the wrong wrestle to have! We should be wrestling with how to get more bold to stand for truth! There is not ONE commandment of Jesus to be relevant to the people in the Bible...not one! In fact, that brings us to Jesus' next point in His prayer:
2. Jesus promises what you can expect if you choose to agree with His prayer of "having the Word"...the world will HATE you. That is the opposite of staying relevant!
If you hear a pastor or teacher convincing you that you need to think about how to stay relevant to the world, your skin should start tingling right away..."warning!, warning!"...this is one of the first indications of harlot, or false, unity....unity based in the fear of man and not in the fear of the Lord.
The fear of man is a snare. It will actually compromise your safety through the end time judgments. It is the way most of the world will go, including many in the Church. You are supposed to recognize it and take a stand against it.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and is guaranteed to protect you through the end time events. Satan is instigating false unity in order to cut you off from safety through the end time events!
Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
Psalms 34:7 The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.
The world hates those loyal to all of the truths of the world. That is why there is so much pressure to water down the truth about sin, Biblical truth about homosexuality, Biblical truth about money and material possessions, Biblical truth about truth itself, creation, salvation...every major and important point Jesus stands for is challenged by the world. If you stay true to Jesus, the world will not like it. If you aren't getting any negative feedback from the world, let me assure you, it is because you aren't taking a meaningful stand for truth.
This is where man-based unity departs from Jesus-centered unity. Man-based unity hides portions of Biblical truth...portions of who Jesus is and what He really stands for...in order to get a consensus on earth about Jesus. This is evil. This moves the true Jesus out of the center and replaces Him with another Jesus. Those disloyal to Jesus will still name His name though!
This is a very confusing time! It requires knowing the Biblical plans and the counterfeit schemes promised to come. Just using the name Jesus isn't being loyal to Jesus. We need to be loyal to His entire person. He IS the Word. Jesus was named a very common Jewish name on purpose. Do you want Jesus the murderer or Jesus the Christ?
Matthew 27:17 So when the crowd gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to set free for you? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus called the Messiah?”
We don't recognize the real Jesus or his followers by His name alone, but rather the full revelation of what He desires, says, does, and is promised to do.
Matthew 7:22-23 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
There are many false Jesus's being taught:
II Corinthians 11:4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
True unity...the unity Jesus the Christ prayed for in John 17...it is rooted in loyalty to the word, which the world is promised to hate, which then results in "sanctification." This sanctification, separation that will make you like others being separated, is the foundation of Biblical protection through the end time events.
3. Jesus isn't going to rapture you out of the trouble. He prayed you would be kept THROUGH the trouble:
" I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world."
4. This protection HINGES on sanctification. Sanctification is the act of setting apart. Loyalty to the Word should set you apart from the world:
"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."
This is what true Biblical unity does: our loyalty to the word cleans us, which makes us vessels for more of Jesus' glory to shine through. That means more POWER rests on those united by fierce loyalty to Jesus and His truth.
This power in purity in being separated from the world but still being in it is what the Church experienced at the very beginning, before divisions set in. Power rested on them and it protected them in Jerusalem, the most dangerous place to be a Christian at that time:
Acts 5:12-16 And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
This is what true loyalty to the word does: it makes you relevant to a dying world because life is manifesting on you and those set apart by this loyalty with you. Those who try to stay relevant to world lose the power to actually be relevant! Those who make loyalty to Jesus grow in power which truly is relevant to a dying world!
The unity of believers all loyal to revealing more of Jesus' glory, and not covering Him up in shame, releases the TRUE power the earth needs to live. This SCARES darkness, but is an invitation of protection to those who love the light.
5. As Jesus sanctified Himself, we are supposed to as well. Jesus lived completely loyal to the Father. Jesus- centered unity is based on the first two commandments:
Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Making Jesus the object of our loyalty and love moves us, step by step, closer to the one who is the center of all creation. As each of us individually draws closer...as we individually fall more in love with the author of life, more life starts to touch us, more power starts to touch, us AND we get closer to each other! Simple geometry demands that if we all each individually get closer to Jesus, we MUST get closer to each other. Loving Jesus with all your heart overflows into truly being empowered and drawn to love your neighbor as yourself.
Man-based false unity flips the first two commandments. It sacrifices intense loyalty to the full revelation of Jesus for political correctness falsely assumed to be "loving" neighbors...this is not true love. Loving people without growing in love for God is impossible in truth. There is no love apart from God. We can only love with the love God gives us!
I John 4:19-21 We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Loving God has to come first. It is arrogance to believe that "loving" each other by hiding who Jesus has revealed Himself to be to us has the power to bring lasting unity. It doesn't. There is only one source of love strong enough to hold us near to each other: Jesus' love. If we seek Him first...all of Him...even the unpopular parts...we will find true "unity by division" that will last through the fire of tribulation! this is what will protect the end time Bride, just as it did those first believers in Jerusalem. This is what Jesus came to do: create unity by division!
Luke 12:49-56 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?
End time unity that lasts won't be based on us agreeing with each other about Jesus. It will be based on us agreeing with Jesus about each other! There is a huge difference. Seek Him first, and unity will come with Him!
Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
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