BEWARE OF WOLVES IN SHEEP CLOTHING

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Five years ago, I was a 3rd year student in KNUST. Lying on my bed one afternoon, I heard a knock at the door, answered it and met this man asking me to donate some money for a ministerial work ( I'm keeping the details out and trying to be as vague as possible). 

He didn't start with money, he was very nice and as I figured out soon enough, he was quite prophetic. He started talking about things I've never shared with anyone, it was as if he was intentionally pressing my most vulnerable spots. 

I was really yearning and praying for a deeper Christian community at the time and bro told me he was going to introduce me to his “woman of God” so that she could mentor me. Something leapt within me, this felt like an answer to my prayers. So I sowed (donated) my last money to him. How I was going to survive for the rest of the month, I didn't know.

Gosh! I felt so brave, I had given God my “all”, feeling all “abrahamy” (that's not an actual word).

That period was the brokest, I'd ever been my entire life.

The guy left his number behind and returned after a week, I think I was still broke then. Poor old me thought it was a friendly visit from my soon-to-be spiritual brother. 

But no, bro came for another donation. There the prophetic manipulation started again. He suggested borrowing from MTN mobile money since I had no money (physical or electronic). My only salvation was that I wasn't eligible for Momo loan, I didn't even know that that was a thing. I stood there like a fool as he took my phone and pressed *170#, going on and on until the message popped up that I was ineligible. So he left.

Our subsequent texts had a semblance of some sort of discipleship until I kinda figured out this wasn't as deep to him as it was to me.

The thing pained me. There are pages in my journal of how terrible I felt after the whole thing. I had been scammed, prophetically so.

I learnt my lessons and moved on smoothly until the following year. I heard another knock on my door (side note; I had changed hostels). And here he stood, my dear brother in Christ. He did not remember me unfortunately but the methods were all the same. He kept pressing all the vulnerable points and sat with me for close to an hour turning pages in his Bible, showing me testimonies similar to what I had been praying for. Only if I could give sacrificially so that I can “move the hand of God”. I never told him about my prayer request but all that he was showing me, showed that he knew. And that was what made being firm even harder. “Surely if he can “see”, then he must be from God”

But there was this stubborn part of me that wouldn't budge, that believed that I did not have to give a penny to move God to act on my behalf. I was bolder that time looking back, not as bold as I should have been.

I don't remember if I gave the second time, it's highly likely I donated 20 cedis to get him to leave me alone cos bro was persistent.

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I always look back at this story and wonder how on God's earth I fell for all of that. There was no denying that this man had a gift, one I would say came from God but he made God look like this immature deity who people can bribe with money to fulfil their desires.

I had desires. I wanted to be seen. I was looking for affirmation and I thought this would come from him and his woman of God.

I was looking for a miracle. He discerned that and took advantage. It is easy to pin all the blame on him and exonerate myself but we don't do that here. I sat there as he twisted scripture and my tongue was tied. All my comebacks were debunked with something else.

I remember him saying that, “I know that God's gifts are free but sometimes you have to do something to move Him. The bigger amount will cause more effect that the small one”. 

My weakness was miracles and the yearning for community, yours might be supposedly "deep sounding theology". All of us disguising our desires as a pursuit of Christ. If this is so, then you will fall into a trap when you meet someone who nurses your wounds but does not help in the saving of your soul.

And friends, this is how you get into a cult.

You become so hungry for signs that you relegate discernment.

1 Corinthians 1:22-23 AMP

[22] For Jews demand signs (attesting miracles), and Greeks pursue [worldly] wisdom and philosophy, [23] but we preach Christ crucified, [a message which is] to Jews a stumbling block [that provokes their opposition], and to Gentiles foolishness [just utter nonsense], 

It is because of instances like this that well meaning christians advocate for deep roots and solid foundations. I was lucky to leave unscathed but many people leave with wounds they spend their entire lives healing from- that is if they get to leave at all.

Stay in the Word. Read your Bible. Seek discipleship from a Bible based church, be fervent in prayer.

Let the Lord kill your idols, let Him lead you. Meditate on the Word enough that it lingers in your heart even when you're not in active fellowship.

The devil is wicked. He's a master at the deception and the times we're in offers him more leverage to appear as an angel of light. Not everyone with a religious title infront of their name knows God. Even some of them who do have perverted His good gifts for their own profit. 

TO TWIST SCRIPTURE IS TO SLANDER GOD. AND WHO WILL DEFEND YOU IF YOU SPEAK LIES AGAINST THE TRUE AND HOLY KING- DR. FERUKE

This is not to say that God does not lead people to give sacrificially. But when you stand infront of a person and you value the money they have to give to the “work of God” more than the saving of their souls, then we have a problem.

No matter how well you hide your true intentions, the Father who sees in secret sees. 

Psalms 50:9-12 NIV

[9] I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, [10] for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. [11] I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. [12] If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

My story is only indicative of a bigger problem. I have the opinion that one of the greatest wickedness in the world is to present God as something He is not.This had to do with money, sometimes, the focus is something different. It is impossible to list all the schemes of the enemy so I recommend discernment. Discernment by the Spirit not suspicion by the natural eyes.

It's easier to get deceived more than we think. So, be a Berean, search the scriptures, don't swallow everything hook, line and sinker because your favourite christian influencer said so.

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. - Acts 17:11 NIV

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. - 1 John 4:1 NIV

Some people don't fear God. They will use Him for their benefit, so as we are taking care to be as innocent as doves, let us remember to be wise as serpents. Do not be ignorant of the enemy's devices, stay vigilant.