Take Heed You Are Not Deceived — Derek Prince

Prayer for Discernment and Righteous Living

Is a prayer along that line, taken from Philippians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. We just changed the words to personalize it. This we pray, that our love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that we may approve the things that are excellent, that we may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, through the glory and praise of God.

Amen. Now I've already announced what I'm going to be speaking about. Be vigilant. Be sober, be vigilant is taken from 1 Peter chapter 5, I think verse 8. This morning I spoke about sobriety in entering into spiritual warfare, being realistic, not having vague or unrealistic attitudes or using language which is above the level of our experience.

Warnings Against Deception in the Last Days

Tonight I'm talking on be vigilant, particularly in regard to the many warnings given in the New Testament against being deceived. Almost every passage in the New Testament that relates to the end of the age contains some kind of warning against being deceived.

I'm just going to take two passages from Matthew chapter 24, from the words of Jesus himself. He was asked what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age and when he began to answer the first thing he did was warn his disciples against being deceived.

So he said in Matthew 24, 4 and 5, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name saying, I am the Messiah and will deceive many. Now Jesus is a true prophet and the Jewish encyclopedia records about 40 false messiahs who have come to the Jewish people since the time of Jesus.

Perhaps the most famous was Bar Kokhba and all of them have succeeded in deceiving some part of the Jewish people. But the warning goes far beyond the Jewish people. And then in the same chapter, excuse me, in verse 23 and following, Jesus says, Then if anyone says to you, Look, here is the Messiah, or there, do not believe him.

For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Excuse me, it'll get better after a while. See, I have told you beforehand.

So Jesus says, You can't say I didn't warn you. And he says, There will arise false prophets and false messiahs and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect or the chosen ones.

There are two important lessons from that. First of all, that miraculous signs do not necessarily prove that a message is true. Because Jesus says, They will show great signs and wonders, but they'll be deceivers.

You cannot base your assessment of the truth of a message merely on the fact that there were supernatural signs and supernatural experiences. It is extremely dangerous to have that attitude. Secondly, Jesus said, God, I'm sorry.

Jesus said that even the elect would be deceived, if it were possible. The elect is God's chosen ones. Why is it not possible that the elect would be deceived? The answer is, because God chose them. Our safety is not in how clever we are or how spiritual we are, but the fact that God chose us.

That's our security. Now, in order to avoid deception, we have to be able to identify the truth. And in the examination by Pilate of Jesus, Jesus said, For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I came forth, that I might bear witness to the truth.

And Pilate replied with a question, What is truth? We can't tell whether he was cynical. What is truth? Or whether he was genuinely puzzled. What is truth? There's no way we'll ever know. But he asked a question, which is, philosophers have never been able to answer satisfactorily.

In 2 ,500 years of Western philosophy, no philosopher has come up with an answer that satisfies to the question, What is truth? We all think we know until we start to define it. Then we find out we don't know.

Jesus, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit as Coordinates of Truth

However, the Bible does give us a very clear answer to the question, What is truth? But it's not totally simple. Because the Bible presents truth in three aspects. And in order to be sure we have the truth, we have to check on all three aspects.

What I would call three coordinates of truth. And if you're going to be sure that you really have the truth, you have to check all three coordinates to see that they're all in place. First of all, in John 14, verse 6, Jesus said, I am the truth.

So the truth is Jesus. But in John 17, 17, Jesus was praying to the Father, and he said, Your word is the truth. So God's word is the truth, the Bible. But in 1 John 5, verse 6, John says, The Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus, and the Spirit is truth.

So you have truth in three related aspects. The truth is Jesus, the truth is the Bible, and the truth is the Spirit. In order to know for sure that you really have the truth, you have to check all three coordinates.

Jesus, the Bible, and the Spirit. For instance, somebody may preach a whole lot about Jesus, and it may sound very good. But when you check your Bible, it isn't what the Bible says about Jesus. Or somebody may preach a great deal about the Holy Spirit, and work up an atmosphere of tremendous excitement and exhilaration.

But when you really check it, that person is not teaching the truth about Jesus. Or a person may lay great emphasis on the Bible and the Scripture, but have nothing of the Spirit. It's just dead letter.

So, in order to be sure that you have the Spirit, that you have the truth, you have to have three things in place. Is it true to Jesus? Is it true to the Bible? And does it have the witness of the Holy Spirit?

When you can put those three things together, then you may be confident that you have the truth. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul warns the Corinthian Christians against being deceived. And I suppose we'd all agree, if anybody was charismatic, they were.

So being charismatic doesn't grant you an exemption. Paul says, in verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 11,. But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity and purity that is in Christ.

For if he who comes, another preacher, preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit, which you have not received, that is, which is not the Holy Spirit, or a different gospel, which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it.

Isn't it amazing how ready people are to accept the false? And notice, if you have another Jesus, you'll have a different spirit and a different gospel. So any presentation of Jesus that is not scriptural, that is not in line with scripture, will be accompanied by a different spirit, which is not the Holy Spirit.

And the result will be a gospel, which is not the true gospel. There are currently in the church today various different versions of another Jesus. I'll just mention three. There's Jesus, the Marxist revolutionary, who's going to go out with machine gun and fight on behalf of the poor and liberate the poor from the oppressor.

Now that's very popular in South America, but also in other places. But that's not the Jesus of the Bible. He is not like that. It's very praiseworthy to want to help the poor, but not that way. That's not the believer's way to help the poor.

That is called liberation theology. Very acceptable in many parts of the world, inside the church. In Latin America, there are many Catholics who've embraced liberation theology and sometimes align themselves with Marxist movements.

Then there's Jesus, the Oriental guru. And people proudly trace him back to Buddha and Socrates and all that sort of thing. The kind of movement that does that is what we call today the New Age movement.

They kind of get Jesus lined up with a lot of other gurus. But he's not a guru. He's the Son of God. He's the Saviour. And that is a false gospel. And it is accompanied by another spirit. And then there's Jesus, the kindly Father Christmas, who wanders around patting everybody on the head and saying, there, there, don't worry.

That is what I, how I call the liberal church. It has a Jesus that doesn't speak about sin, never mentions judgment, and says all religions are different roads to the same God. Here, there, there, don't worry.

There's nothing to be afraid of. So those are three examples of contemporary teaching which introduce deception by bringing on another Jesus. And I would say the number of people currently deceived by one or other of those numbers the millions.

So it's not just a little fringe group somewhere. Now I would like to give you some thoughts on how deception enters. And I believe there's only really one door that lets deception in. And that is pride.

Pride, False Superiority, and the Lie of Becoming Like Gods

I believe behind all deception there is pride. Pride is what opens us up to deception. The real pattern of that is Lucifer, who was maybe the most beautiful and the wisest of all the angels, but he became proud of his beauty and his wisdom, turned in rebellion and ended in deception.

And if that can happen to an archangel in heaven, as it did, how many of us could say, it could never happen to me. One of the lures of many cults is the attraction that if you join them, you're going to join a super group.

I mean the real overcomers. The people who are going to get the job done. The church has messed around and not got the job done, but now here we are, we are going to get the job done. What does that appeal to?

That's right. I mean, let's take the Manifested Sons teaching, which some of you are probably familiar with. That was exactly their teaching, but they went much further, because they taught ultimately that you could achieve immortality if you did the right things.

It's remarkable how many cults teach that. The Mormons teach it. It thinks it's taught indirectly through Freemasonry. And it all goes back to what the Bible calls the lie. Which was the first lie, which Satan turned on the human race, which was, you shall be as gods.

And every time really that he wants to deceive people, he uses the same type of motivation. So beware when people tell you there's a super group that have gone further than others, and they're usually rather critical of previous generations of Christians.

But I'd have to say, as far as I've seen, they don't begin to produce the same kind of results that previous generations produced. And I say to people, if you ever join a group who tells you, if you want to be right, you've got to join us.

When you've joined them, you'll know one thing. You're wrong. Proverbs 29 verse 5 says, He who flatters his neighbor with his mouth, spreads a net for his feet. Beware of flattery. I think this applies particularly to preachers.

Preachers are very susceptible to flattery. And we can become embroiled in things because people give us flattering invitations and suggest that you'll align with us, we'll open doors for you. If you're not a preacher, you probably don't realize how powerful that temptation is.

Because most preachers, in a way, check their effectiveness by the number of invitations they have. I've heard more than one preacher admit that. That's not a very spiritual attitude, but let's be honest, we're not always very spiritual people.

Jesus has a chosen group, but it's not super group. It's a different kind of people. Only Jesus would have chosen people like that. It's stated in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 26 and following. For you see your calling, brethren, or you see the kind of people that you've got yourself up, mixed up with.

Not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen. And you remember, God will protect those whom he has chosen. Now in order to be one of God's chosen, you have to be in this list.

Because God has chosen. He's not going to change his mind, he's not going to revise, it's settled. So as we go down this, just see if you fit. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to put to shame the wise.

And God has chosen the weak things of the world, to put to shame the things that are mighty. And the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.

That no flesh should glory in his presence. See, God has a motive to eliminate pride. And so, this is the list. I mean, just ask yourself, do I fit? He's chosen the foolish things, he's chosen the weak things, he's chosen the base or lowly things, the things that are despised, and the things that are not.

And the reason God has chosen that, is that no one will ever be able to boast, and say God chose me because I was so clever, or so strong, or so wise, he needed me. When I got saved, by a kind of divine accident, I was serving in the British Army in World War II, I was a fellow of King's College Cambridge, and had a distinguished academic record behind me, and a future in the academic world.

And for a while, I used to have the attitude, God was pretty lucky to get me. The more I knew about me, the more I revised that opinion. My opinion now is, I can't think why ever God picked on me. The truth was, I'd been removed from my fellowship in Cambridge, I was no longer wandering around in a gown, in the sanctified courts of King's.

I was a local, acting, unpaid lance corporal. And my salary was two shillings a day, old shillings. And that's when God got me. Thank God he got me. So, just be careful, if anybody tries to convince you, that you can be a special, super kind of Christian, if you'll join our group.

Testing Prophecy by Scripture

That's a sure warning to stay away from. I want to deal with some very nitty gritty practical issues. I hope I'll offend nobody, but if I do, it's not through desiring to do so. I want to say frankly, how error can enter through prophecy.

Prophecy has got a very high sounding title, and a lot of people just think, if I ever refuse a prophecy, I'll be in trouble. But that's not what the New Testament teaches. In 1st Corinthians 14, 29, God, Paul says, let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.

And in 1st Thessalonians 5, 19 -21, Paul says this, do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophecies, test all things, hold fast what is good. So we're not to despise any manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but we are to test it.

And we're only to hold on to what is good. And Paul says, if people prophesy, others are to judge them. Any prophet who's not willing to be judged, should not prophesy. There are prophets around, who will tell you that if you judge my message, God will judge you.

I'm not theorizing, I mean I know. My own attitude is, if I don't judge their message, God will judge me, because he told me to judge it. So do not be afraid of prophesying. Thank God for it when it's right, but never let it terrorize you, or dictate to you.

Prophets are not dictators. What standard are we to judge by? I'll give you an answer from Isaiah chapter 8, verse 9, 19 -20. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter, should not a people seek their God?

Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? That of course is a warning against seances. And then the answer here is, to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

So the ultimate testimony, test, is do they speak according to the law and the testimony of God's word. If they do not, there is no light in them. So we judge them by the word of God. Now I'm going to go on in an area that is practical and perhaps a little delicate, but I'm going to give some examples of misleading prophecies.

Prophecy Beyond Faith and False Revelation

How people can be misled by prophecy. The first instance I'll take from Romans chapter 12 and verse 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith.

In other words, don't go beyond your faith when you prophesy. It's rather heady to be prophesying. It's a kind of exhilarating feeling and you can get so exhilarated that you depart from what the word of God and the scripture and the Holy Spirit actually give you.

For instance, just to take a simple example. Somebody may get a true prophecy. There is going to be a great revival. That's true. But he gets so excited that he adds on and it's going to start in our church, you see.

Now it might be true, but it's very possible the first half was true, the second half wasn't. Why? Because he went beyond the proportion of faith that God had allotted to him. I was dealing with that this morning in connection with spiritual warfare.

Stay within your allotted proportion of faith.

And then in Acts chapter 16.

We get an example of what you could call a prophecy or a revelation that was true, but not from God. I think this is a tremendous temptation. If the thing is true, then it must be from God. Not so. Acts 16 describes what happened when Paul and Silas arrived in the city of Philippi.

Verse 16 and following. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl, possessed with a spirit of divination, met us. What it says in Greek is the spirit of Python. The snake. You know the snake that coils itself around people and crushes the life out of them.

And interestingly there is a well-known clairvoyant in Washington DC who wrote a book in which she said that her gift came to her when a snake got in bed with her. So she rather, I think without realising it, revealed the source of her gift.

So there was a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation.

Now every word she said was true. Furthermore she was the first person in Philippi to know who they were. But it wasn't the spirit of God that was speaking through her. It was a divining fortune telling spirit.

And this is the end. This she did for many days. But Paul greatly distressed turned and said to the spirit I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour.

And after that she was no longer able to tell fortunes. See fortune telling is a reality. And it's amazing how many times fortune tellers can tell you the truth. But it's not from God. And ultimately there will always be a lie mixed in with it.

But the truth is the bait that gets you hooked to receive the lie. I've sometimes commented on that girl in Philippi. Some modern missionaries would have made her a charter member of the church in Philippi.

And there she was bearing testimony to them. The first, what a wonderful convert. We just were there on the streets and she began to tell this people. You see the snares. How subtle Satan is. I'll give you some examples from my own personal acquaintance.

I have a friend who at that time, some years back, was the pastor of what we'd call an old line denominational church in the United States. And in order to raise funds for their church they held what they called a church bazaar or church fete.

I think we called it in Britain. And somehow the people organizing it said to the pastor, listen it would be good if we did like they do in other fates. And we had a fortune teller. So he didn't really want it.

He knew better but he didn't want to face the pressure. So he said all right you can have a fortune teller. So there she was sitting in a little tent. And he went in to have his fortune told. And the fortune teller looked him in the eye and said your wife is going to get cancer.

And my friend said his blood ran cold. But his wife got cancer. Fortunately with the help of prayer and medicine she was eventually healed. You see she spoke the truth. But it wasn't from God. I had, I was in a situation I must not reveal where it was.

When I heard about a case in which a young married woman, who was I think a kind of Christian, went to a fortune teller. She ought have known better. And the fortune teller said you're soon going to be a widow.

Your husband will be killed. And in a very unusual freak accident, less than two years later, her husband was killed. And you know what happened to that poor woman? She was tormented with guilt. Did I open the way for that to happen to my husband, by going to that fortune teller?

I'll relate a personal experience. Some years back I was on the pastoral staff of a church in the United States. And I was doing a lot of deliverance. And a lady came to me, told me that she'd been a spiritist, but she had repented, and she wanted deliverance.

Well I didn't have any witness that she'd really repented. So I said I'm not convinced, go back, go away and come back when you really have repented. So I think a week or two later, she came back, she said I've repented.

Well it's very hard to deny that a person's repented, because you don't want to eliminate such a possibility. I still didn't feel good about her. But I said okay, let's pray. We were praying up at the front of the church, where there was a platform for the speakers.

But we were below the platform. And I was really struggling, trying to help this woman get her delivered. It was hard work. And after a while I wanted to take a rest, so I just leaned back against the platform.

And she said, I see you in a car, and it's wrecked against a tree. And thank God I was on my guard. I said you divining spirit, I'm not going to be in any car that's going to be wrecked against a tree.

I don't accept that. But I'm inclined to believe that if I had accepted it, it would have happened. It was Satan's destiny for me. And just as you can receive God's destiny by opening up to what he says, you can receive Satan's destiny by opening up to what he says.

Well thank God, years have passed, I've never been in a car wrecked against a tree. But what a warning to me. I thought, dear Lord, I'm so grateful that I was on the watch. I could have easily said, oh, isn't that terrible, I'm going to be in a car.

See. Read the testimony of a businessman in Australia, in the full gospel businessman's voice from Australia. And he described how he'd gone into the occult. And then he went on to tell how God had got him out.

But this is how he got into the occult. He was in his office, phoning long distance, a long way away, to a lady in another city. And she was telling him that she could tell him things that he didn't know.

And I feel like that sometimes too. Particularly when I cough. So, we are all on the same level, that's right. Relax. Anyhow, she was persuading him that she knew things by supernatural means. So he said to her, tell me what's behind me right now in my office.

And she said, a camel. Well camels are hardly heard of in Australia. They hardly know what a camel is. But he had a big picture of a camel right behind him in his office. Well that convinced him. This woman's got the truth.

And he became involved in the occult and only the mercy of God delivered him. See how we may have to be on the watch. Now, we come to the most difficult and in a sense painful of all these situations.

Mixed Spiritual Influences and Discernment

And I'm afraid what I... Excuse me. I'm afraid what I'm going to say may shock some of you. But the most difficult people to deal with are people who have two kinds of spirit. One is the Holy Spirit and the other is not.

Now people will tell you, but the Holy Spirit wouldn't dwell in an unclean vessel. That's wrong. The Holy Spirit does dwell in unclean vessels. If he didn't, we'd have no hope. Some people take the attitude the Holy Spirit will only come in when you're completely pure.

But the Holy Spirit comes in to make us pure. Without him we cannot be purified. So we need him. It's like if a professor at a university would say to his class, Now when you've passed your exams, I'll teach you.

And they'd say, But professor, we need you to teach us to pass our exams. After all, David committed adultery and murder. And prayed, Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. And God didn't. So if anything defiles, adultery and murder do.

But the Holy Spirit did not leave David. That was the grace and mercy of God. Aren't you glad that the Holy Spirit doesn't leave you every time you do something wrong? You know Jesus in Mark 7 lists 13 things that defile a man.

And one of them is pride. And one of them is foolishness. Dear Lord, how many spirit-filled Christians would there be left if every time we got proud or foolish the Holy Spirit left us? So the Holy Spirit does dwell in vessels that are not totally pure.

And sometimes he's willing to share that vessel with another spirit from another source. I do not appeal to experience, but I've had to say that I've dealt with dozens of cases. And the hardest thing for a poor pastor is to deal with people like that.

The lady who gets interpretation. And sometimes it's right on and sometimes it's right off. You've never been in those situations. You haven't lived on and moved in the circles that I've moved in. I remember when I was pastoring in London years ago and this happened.

I really was at my wit's end. I didn't know what to do. I remember a man who came to me. He said, get this demon out of me. I said, you don't have a demon. I've heard you speak in tongues. I was wrong and he was right.

And I never really helped him because I couldn't acknowledge his problem. He died later, prematurely. An unhappy man. And I have to say my theology kept me from helping him. Well, I've changed my theology.

I've changed it to fit in with reality. But I think you'll agree as you go through your spiritual experience, one of the most difficult people to deal with is the one who sometimes has the right spirit and sometimes another spirit.

And I'm going to say something which in a way is painful. But I've prayed much about this. I think God wants me to say it. Pentecostals, of whom I am one, have a kind of awe of William Branham. How many of you have heard of William Branham?

That's most of you. William Branham was a man of God with a most remarkable and dramatic gift from God. But I happen to have been friends with a Bible teacher whose name I will not give, who worked very closely with William Branham for several years.

And he gave us once a personal sharing and he said, I had to come to the conclusion that there were two spirits in William Branham. One was the spirit of God and one was not. And you see the sad thing is, and I say this with real sadness, in spite of his marvelous gifts and the way God used him, his end was either pathetic or tragic, according to how you view it.

He was killed as a result of a motor accident in which his car was struck by a drunk driver and he left behind a little group of fanatics who were worshippers of William Branham and who are some of the saddest people you'll ever meet in a Christian association.

Why did that happen? Because if you mix two spirits and don't eliminate the wrong one, ultimately it will corrupt the work of the good one. Let me read just a passage which applies I believe in Deuteronomy 22.

This is one of those passages which are like you must not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. Has an application then but it has another application now. In Deuteronomy 22 verses 9 and 11 You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.

And then it says you shall not wear a garment of different sorts such as wool and linen mixed together. The principle is serving the Lord. Don't mix two different kinds of things. Sow your vineyard with mixed seed you'll get a crop that God does not accept as holy.

Wearing partly linen and partly wool you're in two different spiritual worlds because linen is a type of spiritual purity. Wool is a type of human effort that generates sweat. So you, we, you and I and the church we have to examine ourselves.

Are we sowing with mixed seed? Is there the good and also the false? Am I wearing a mixed garment? Partly the righteousness of Jesus and partly my own fleshly nature because ultimately the blessing of God will not remain on that which is pure and impure mixed.

Let me just review that because I think it's important. Different ways in which error can enter. Deception. People prophesy beyond the proportion of their faith. They start in faith and then go, because they get puffed up they go beyond their faith.

Various different kinds of fortune telling. See people pay a lot of money to fortune tellers. You know that. People don't pay for nothing. In Germany today, West Germany, which is now the western half of Germany, in West Germany most German businessmen will consult a fortune teller before they do a business deal.

They never think of going to a church or a minister. Now businessmen don't spend money for nothing. It doesn't mean that what they get is right, but part of it is right. And they can probably quote you instances in which they marvelously help.

I think perhaps the classic example is that the previous president of the United States, his wife was in continual contact with a fortune teller, an astrologist, and much of his official calendar was dictated by that lady.

Including the meetings with Gorbachev and so on. This is not something from another age. It's right in our midst. And then I want to warn you again, don't accept Satan's destiny for your life. It may be some of you here have been to a fortune teller.

It would be very unusual if some of you hadn't. You really need to get clear of every involvement. In this book of mine which I held up, I speak of a case when I was in a prayer meeting with a young man, I'd never met him before, and we were just chatting together.

And I said, have you received the Holy Spirit? And he said, yes, but. Well anytime anybody says yes but to that question, you know what the but is. But I don't speak with tongues. So I commented, another trunkless elephant.

And I didn't argue with him about that, I simply said, did you, and I said this by inspiration, did you ever go to a fortune teller? And he thought, yes, he said once when I was about 15, but I only did it as a joke.

I didn't mean anything by it. But I said, you did go and you did have your fortune told, so he rather reluctantly said yes. So I said, would you be willing to confess that to God as a sin and ask him to release you from the consequences?

So he said yes, I think just really to, you know, get me off his back. So I led him in a little simple prayer, Lord I confess as a sin that I went to a fortune teller and I had my fortune told and I repent and I ask you to release me from all the consequences.

I didn't say anything more, put my hand on his shoulder, prayed for him and he immediately began to speak fluently in a tongue. You see, the invisible barrier had been removed. There was a shadow over his life that had to be lifted.

Many, many, many people are being tricked into the occult today. I have to say there is a type of what I call charismatic fortune telling which I regard with great suspicion. Sometimes it will be true and sometimes it won't.

But you see, people who get the desire to get a word from God from a prophet are in dangerous ground. Not that it couldn't happen, but to have that desire is to expose yourself to a lot of risks. I want to give you now just a list of some people who are candidates for deception.

Six Categories of People Vulnerable to Deception

And as I go through this list I invite you to check with yourself. It's not a complete list, but at least it gives you some idea. Here they are, candidates for deception. Those who rely only on subjective impressions.

Well, when that brother prophesied over me I felt so good, I know that must have been from God. You don't know. And it's very dangerous to assume you do. There are a lot of other tests you have to apply.

Second lot, those who look only to human leaders. If a certain man says it, they believe it. That's very dangerous. There are no infallible human leaders and I'm not one. I don't want people believing it because I say it.