Here is my humble, yet I believe very accurate opinion on this subject: The more that professed Christians stray out of the bounds of God’s written Word, the more utter danger they put themselves in with regards to falling into false teaching. I have seen it myself. I have lived it in my younger years. I know about this stuff personally. There is great danger whenever beliefs are formed apart from or outside the bounds that God has set forth in His Word. This is how cults are formed, but even if it does not reach the “cult” level, it certainly leads people astray from the truth of God leaving people extremely immature in their faith because their faith is no longer centered on facts and truths that have been set forth in Scripture, but rather on subjective feelings, emotions, leadings, promptings, etc.

So, at the worst level, cults are formed. But let’s not talk about the worst level. For the most part, these cults can be identified and avoided. But let’s talk about the entire signs and wonders movement that is sweeping across the world…yes, the world! And if you don’t believe me, just do a google search for “prosperity gospel africa” and you will see for yourself. And the prosperity gospel (name it and claim it…God only wants to give you everything you ever desired…just claim it by faith brother!) is ridden by the appeal for signs and wonders…its all part of claiming in the name of Jesus to have every single spiritual or material blessing under Heaven. And people of Africa and Central and South America are being deceived and led astray from the true Gospel by the millions.

So, last post I mentioned what Jesus said about the ones who needed to see signs and wonders in order to believe on Him. He said, and I will quote, “Only a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.” This was spoken to the pharisees who demanded to see a sign. Jesus sharply rebuked them and then told them that the only “sign” that would be given for people to believe is the sign of Jonah…in other words…the only “sign” that would be given for people to believe was the death, burial, and resurrection of the living God! Basically, Jesus was saying to the pharisees, as He still says to us today, that if you don’t believe based on the death, burial, and resurrection, then nothing else will make you truly believe. And that’s the way it still stands today. Yet many still get lured in to seeking after the supernatural signs and wonders and much of their faith is based upon such seeking. Dangerous.

The clearest example from the Bible that shows a believer that there is no need to seek after signs and wonders in order to know God is found in the Book of Hebrews “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:1-3a ESV)  It really can’t be more simple.  God revealed Himself in times past through the prophets, both their words and the miracles and signs that accompanied them that gave proof that their word was truly from the Lord.  This also carried over to the short age of the Apostles where signs and wonders accompanied their word as well in order to give credibility to their message, but now the Word of God is complete and Scripture tells us that in these last days, implying that there will not be any more “ages” after this, that God has spoken to us through His son Jesus!  And how did He speak?  Very loud and clear…through Christ Jesus dying on a cross suffering the wrath of God for the sins of those who will follow Him, crying out His last words, “It is finished.”  So, it sounds to me like…it is finished…no more need for an age to find God or know God more through signs and wonders.  Yet it is simply the carnal nature of man to want to experience more of the phenomena of the supernatural realm.  Dangerous.

Did you know that there are “schools of ministry” all over the United States today that specifically teach Christians how to operate in the gifts of signs and wonders?  Yes, that’s right.  Pay the latest renowned super prophet who “moves” regularly in these gifts, and he or she will teach you how you too can move in such “power and anointing of the Lord.”  Dangerous.

To anybody who is part of such a movement or who is thinking right now of joining such a school…can I share an example from Scripture that might just put the holy fear of God into you?  Let’s take a quick look at Acts chapter 8 where we will see an example of somebody, perhaps just like you, who wanted to move in the gifts of signs and wonders.

Let’s set the stage: Philip, one of the apostles, had gone down to Samaria as a result of the persecution in Jerusalem.  He went to the people and he had one purpose and goal – to preach the Word of God.  And he did just that.  Signs and wonders followed which God gave (not through Philip going to a school of ministry) simply to confirm the Word of the Lord and to establish the authority of the Apostles that God had given them.  Scripture says that many people believed when they heard Philip (the preaching of the Word) and saw the signs and wonders.  Then Scripture introduces us to a man named Simon who was one of the Samaritans who also believed.  But notice the difference in how Scripture states the way that he “believed.”  Verse 13 says, “Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized continued with Philip.  And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.“  The rest of the people saw the signs and wonders and therefore paid closer attention to the word that Philip was preaching, but this man Simon, who was a sorcerer in the city, became more amazed by the signs and miracles than the power and truth of the Word that the signs confirmed.  And now, look what happens next…

Philip is now met with some of the other Apostles who came down from Jerusalem in order to affirm the work of God that the people of Samaria had received the Gospel and laid their hands on the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit.  And now Simon gets mesmerized once again by the power and awe factor of the signs and wonders.  And this is what happens…

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”  (Acts 8:18-24 ESV)

Ok, does this even need explaining?  Simon was wowed by the signs and wonders.  He wanted to move in such gifts so that he too could be used by God to lead people to Jesus.  So, what does he do?  He offers to pay the Apostles in order to receive this gift.  Isn’t this the same exact thing as somebody offering to pay money to a “school of ministry” in order to “receive the gifts” so that they too could have the power that would lead people to Jesus?  Dangerous.  Very dangerous!

Friends…true, the Apostle Paul encourages us to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, not pay money for them.  The Bible says that God gives His gifts according to His good pleasure and purpose.  And I don’t think those gifts even refer to the whole signs and wonders stuff.  Don’t be like Simon who thought that he could pay money so that he too could have the powerful gifts of signs and wonders.  his heart was darkened by sin and lust and that is why he was pursuing the gifts that would give him the same power as the Apostles.  Our hearts are too dangerously deceitful to fall into that same lust for power by seeking, and even paying money to learn how to “operate” in such gifts.

And time does not even permit me to discuss how blasphemous the signs and wonders movement is to the teaching of the cross of Christ.  Now again, I am not stating that anybody or church that believes that the gifts of the Spirit are for today are heretics and misguided.  Please don’t misinterpret what I am saying.  I have my own opinion based on what I see in Scripture, but I’m not the Gospel…I could be wrong.  God is God and He can do what He chooses to do.  But what I am emphatically stating is that anybody who is chasing after these gifts, paying money to “move” in these gifts, or teaching people how they themselves can operate in these gifts, is in fact being seriously misguided and is walking a very dangerous slope that may eventually shipwreck their faith.  Why?  Because the Bible does not give any indication whatsoever that we can “move” in these gifts at will or as we so wish, or in some cases today, if the price is right!

I’ll end with a you tube clip of a “latest and greatest” signs and wonders prophet type person who, in the name of Christ my Savior and Lord, is now conducting a “school of mystics” offered both in the states and around the world.  This is for the “Christian” who wants to learn how to access the glory realm of God.  The one who wants to “know God more” through the spiritual realm.  Yes friends, in the John Crowder Mystics School, click here for link you will be taught to draw closer to the Savior of the world who bled and died on a cross to forgive us of our sins, taking upon Himself the fulness of the wrath of God so that we would not have to endure eternal separation from Him, preparing a place in Heaven for us so that we could live with Him forever.  Oh yes friends, in this Mystic School you will “access” more of this great love of God by things such as:

Operate in Trances, Raptures & Ecstatic Prayer,  Experience Physical Phenomena of Mysticism, Get Activated in Creative Miracles, Signs & Wonders, Understand & Access New Creation Realities,  Gain A Historical Grid of Miracle Workers & Mystics,  Be Activated in the Seer Realm, Prophecy, Spirit Travel, Receive Open Heavens & Revelatory Understanding,  Access and Manifest the Glory Realm.

Can I say something?  This.Makes.Me.Sick!  How can somebody think to use God in this way?  But this is what happens when professing Christians think that the message of the cross is no longer adequate or exciting enough to know God and begin to look for more supernatural experiences to encounter Him.  There is absolutely nothing in these schools or teachings, as you will see below, that bring true glory to the Lamb of God who was slain for our sins.  No, this is not about God whatsoever…it is about man and satisfying the lust of power and phenomena that man has in his corrupted sinful heart.  This John Crowder, probably revered by many in the signs and wonders movement, is an absolute disgrace to the name of Christ.  In His pursuits of accessing the glory realm of God, he makes an absolute mockery of the cross of Christ.  Look at the clips below and weep with me as these things are being done in the name of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  And remember, this is not just in the United States, but has now gone worldwide.

Christian.  Beware.  Stay in the bounds of the Scripture where there is true power, love, glory, forgiveness, passion, miracles (the miracle of salvation), and everything else that can keep us so focused on Him for eternity.

This is what is taking place in some of the churches across the world today.

This is what happens when professing Christians stray from God’s Word.  There is no limit to how heretical teaching can become.  You may think, as I do also, that this Crowder guy is just completely whacked, possessed by the devil, and three sandwiches short of a picnic.  I agree.  But the danger is…where did he begin?  Did he begin by what you just saw in these videos?  I doubt it.  I’ll bet you he began in church wanting to follow God, but he never fully yielded His heart in submission to the Lord which includes a yielding to being in submission to the infallible Word of God, and then he probably little by little started to try to “meet with God” by doing or practicing things that were not in the bounds of Scripture.  And perhaps this went on for a while, and it didn’t look super crazy and off the wall.  But here is proof…the more one tries to access God and His “glory” outside the parameters of Scripture, the more one runs the risk of being so blind by his sinful lusts that he thinks “tokin” the Holy Ghost (yes, that is what I mean) somehow fills his heart with more of Jesus.

Please pray that these false teachings are exposed and that people’s hearts would turn to the Lord and that they will worship Him alone in all of His glory and splendor…in all of His truth…in the glory of His Word that has been given to us…in holiness and reverence…in humility…in wonder that the blood of Jesus was shed on the cross to forgive them of their sin.