One Mediator Many Middle Men: Why ordinary Christians must be more responsible so we can escape false prophets

In Africa, religion is a dominant force. This is so because perhaps there is little understanding to distinguish superstition from spirituality. The transcendental imaginations of the human mind is easily confused with the spiritual realities of our eternal souls. This confusion is preyed upon by wolves in sheep’s clothes; fraudulent people who have been deceived by their greedy hearts. Some of such people are so-called politicians, prophets, business executives and diverse “leaders”. They prey on the spiritual confusion, fears and ignorance of individuals and the masses.

If religion is the self-powered effort of man to appease the spiritual desires of our souls by engaging in unreasonable metaphysical antics and dancing around our own fires, then Christianity is not a religion. If it is the exertion of strong self-will to make our good deeds surpass our bad deeds so we can per adventure, without any certainty, be accepted by the “unknown God”, then Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is not the self-righteous human effort to do what is right.

Christianity is a humble honest response to the godly impressions God brings into the inner being of every adult (independent)?human being. Through ordinary consciousness, stimulated by external and internal circumstance, we all receive an awareness that requires us to respond to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. This is the grace of God that brings salvation to all men. And when we respond in honesty and integrity of intention, we enabled with power from on high to abide in Jesus and work the works of God until he comes to take us home. This is truth that makes us free and safe from manipulation.

If we refuse to respond to this truth and instead we throw away our responsibility to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, we expose ourselves and become gullible to so-called prophets who deceive and mislead us.

Recently in the United States of America ( USA) a man named Shawn Bolz has been exposed to be a false prophet who uses information from social media to give prophesies and word of knowledge about people. Social media has become the “God” that reveals information about us to its prophets. We have seemingly been trapped by the powerful technology business money makers into giving out personal information that is now used by spiritual deceivers to manipulate and dehumanize us.

Christianity is faith in Christ Jesus, not unreasonable superstition. Faith in God is appreciating the understanding he gives us through his infallible word in the Bible, by the guidance of his Holy Spirit. If we refuse to humble our hearts and set our minds to earnestly seek and understand God’s word to faithfully and joyfully obey him only, we will be misled by our insecure hearts to seek direction from deceitful “men of God”.

In Ghana recently, we saw the spectacle of a prophet emphatically putting his business on the line for a prediction of the winner of the NPP ( New Patriotic Party) presidential primaries. The matter has become a topical issue once again.

Our churches should push their members to Jesus instead of keeping them to themselves through multiple church activities that have little time for real fellowship in the Word. Push them to Jesus, who is the word of God ( Revelation 19:13), so that they learn how to directly receive pure spiritual nourishment from the Lord.

When they hear preaching, they must be “forced”, pushed, encouraged, warned to go and deeply search the scriptures with much prayer and mediation to verify whether the sermons and stuff they heard from their bishop and overseer and head pastors, Papa and Mama and Reverend and Apostle, is the truth of the word of God.

If church leaders refuse to earnestly and continually admonish their members to do this personal engagement with the spirit of the word of God, then they can not be trusted as wise and genuine spiritual leaders. The scriptures enjoin us to obey them that have the rule over us. Our leaders must be more responsible.

So whether it’s in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania or in Europe, the ordinary Christian must be constantly admonished and monitored by churches to take up our responsibility of knowing and abiding in the truth of God’s word instead of swallowing hook line and sinker, the sermons and prophesies dished out by church leaders.

It is a shame for a church leader to become a middleman and obstacle between the saint and the Saviour. For there is only one mediator between God and man; His name is Jesus, the Christ.

BY Emmanuel Kwame Mensah, Cross-cutting Excellence (CCE)