Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. -- Matthew 24: 23-28 (ESV)
This weekend was the release of Holy Ghost Reborn, the second installment in the holy ghost movie series straight from the wickedly deceptive heart of Darren Wilson. For those who may not remember, the original holy ghost offering from Wilson was in 2014. The theme he tried to portray was that he was filming a documentary led solely by the Spirit of God but the heresy and outright lies that movie trafficked in made it obvious that the spirit leading him was not from God. That is what discernment is all about beloved; ascertaining what is from God and what is from Satan. These films are straight from the pit of hell because they portray a false Holy Spirit and thus a false christ. Please do not downplay the significance of how dangerous these types of movies are to people genuinely seeking the Lord or those who unwittingly are sitting under false teaching as unconverted goats while being promised they have been saved. The New Testament warns us over and over again to not be deceived for a reason. Whether it is Paul, Peter, Timothy, Titus, all of the Gospel authors or Jesus Christ Himself, as our key verses today remind us. I understand that you might not be so easily deceived but hundreds of thousands if not millions will be. This is why the Bible teaches us that few are those who find the narrow gate. It is not because it is hard to find. It is because they are being led in the opposite direction. We need to be able to not only present the true Gospel of Jesus Christ but rebuke what is false.
The original holy ghost movie was a theological train wreck. The first segment was on the streets of Utah where two "evangelists" would stop random people under the guise of wanting to pray for them. They wanted someone who had a malady that was not visible, so that they could personally attest to the miraculous healing without a shred of proof. They would pray for these people and then seemingly demand the Holy Spirit to "double it!" As if this would double the healing that they were imparting. What they were actually employing for these false healings and false words of knowledge is the same techniques false mediums use today combined with the hope the victim had in wanting to feel better. I remember when a fake healing evangelist came to an old church of mine and a friend who needed hip replacement surgery went down for prayer. The power of suggestion enabled him to dance across the altar believing his hip had been healed. The following year when the same healing sorcerer returned, my friend was still in need of hip replacement surgery. The healing wore off when the moment had passed. The second portion of the original movie was when false prophet Todd White went to a Korn concert and prayed with fans in the lobby. Of course they had a very willing audience since Brian "Head" Welch (from the band) was with him. As part of these prayers, Todd White pulled off the old "leg growing trick" on someone claiming to have one leg shorter than the other. A simple you tube search will reveal this parlor trick for what it truly is and definitively assured us that Darren Wilson and his movies were not just demonically misguided but willfully deceptive. The only thing reborn in this second offering is the same heresy, only magnified.
Before we get into the actual review, it is important to understand what the real motivation here is for the enemy. It says in the Bible to not be ignorant of the schemes the enemy uses against us. When we are ignorant, we fall into deception far easier. Darren Wilson ascribes to an unbiblical form of Christianity. It is the same false christianity that comes from Bethel Church and Bill Johnson. It is the same false christianity that drives the heretical worship outfit known as Jesus Culture, which arose from Bethel. It is shared by many false prophets and churches across this world. It is the False Signs and Lying Wonders theology. It is where the nonsense of angel feathers, gold dust, gemstones, and glory clouds emanate from. It seeks to destroy religion even though Christ mandated religion. It believes in experiential faith over doctrine. Those that want to be like the Bereans are cast as legalistic, haters, or people who need a deeper revelation of the Holy Spirit. Wilson himself once called me a troll for pointing out that he is a heretic. There is an obvious agenda running throughout this movie that seeks to destroy organized Christianity based upon the Bible in favor of this experiential faith based upon how we feel. This despite the fact that the Bible clearly teaches the dire importance of doctrine and that the heart is wickedly deceptive and not to be trusted. Beloved do not lose this point. We cannot trust what we feel. We can only trust what God has said in His Word. For the sake of length, I am going to try and stick to the major points.
The movie opens with a brief narrative from Wilson during which he concludes, "We can believe what we want about the Holy Spirit, just know why you believe it." No Darren. That is exactly your problem. When you decide what you want to believe about the Holy Spirit apart from Scripture you are simply making it up yourself. You are redefining God Himself. You are creating a false christ. The first segment is filmed in the Vatican. Todd White joins Darren in walking into a student protest against the government and just starts randomly shouting about Jesus. He finds a few folks that allow him to pray for them and when it cuts to White in a separate interview segment he says, "There are too many people around us who have been damaged by religion." With this bogus theme established, the movie cuts back to White imploring people in the protest that Jesus is not about religion but rather He is all about relationship. This narrative is designed to build a resentment of organized church and move people towards the subjective experiential Christianity, where they can make it up as they go along as long as things feel right. How many times have you heard well intended Christians explaining their decisions by saying they felt peace in their heart or confirmations that are simply coincidental in nature? You have confirmation when the Word of God confirms that decision as being righteous, not by some self manifesting feelings of peace. Remember, how we feel can be deceiving but the Word of God is infallible. So Todd prays with a man smoking a joint and then someone committing an act of vandalism before we move onto the second part of this Vatican adventure.
The second part of this segment starts with Wilson saying that he had an interview with Kim Walker-Smith of Jesus Culture a month before they went to Rome. Walker-Smith relayed a dream she had that Darren and Todd were going to underground in Rome with a lion pacing around them. This is the same Kim Walker-Smith who famously tells her testimony of once being whisked away to the throne room of God where she met the Father face to face even though the Bible assures us she would be dead if that were so. There, the Father rips out a piece of His heart to mold a mini version of Kim Walker-Smith who dances and worships for Him as He claps maniacally. This is not someone who should be taken seriously, especially in the realm of dreams. She is however raised and trained at Bethel, who operate their own School of the Supernatural, where they think they can teach people the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What utter heretical and unbiblical garbage. Nonetheless, Wilson claims he decides to not visit the catacombs because it would be too difficult. That is until the next morning Todd White awakens to tell him he had the same dream! Wilson further claims White had never heard of the Walker-Smith dream! Holy ridiculous confirmations Batman! So Wilson acquiesces and they go to the catacombs where they run into one of the men they met at the protest! Wow! This must be God right? Sigh. Todd witnesses again to the man and tells him that Jesus is not just a religion; He's a relationship. That it is not just so you can go to church and be a hypocrite. That Jesus did not say come to me so you can have 500 churches but rather peace. Let us reason together beloved. What is the value in having this conversation with a man you just met half way across the world, who you know is unsaved? This false narrative was not about this one man at all but for the viewers of the movie. Whimsical relationship jesus is good and old religious Jesus is bad. This segment closes with a tripling down of this clear teaching Wilson is driving home:
Todd White -- "He's just been so hurt by religion And there's so many people who have been hurt by religion. If we would just meet and encounter Jesus, it would be about him. It wouldn't be about this way or that way. It would be about Jesus."
Bill Johnson -- Here's the deal. The Word of God is supposed to lead to the person of God. Jesus said in John 5 that you study the Scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. These lead to me. So what He is saying is this is the springboard to a divine encounter that changes. There's more than just concepts and doctrines and principles. There's a person I'm supposed to encounter and I don't think the transformation takes place by just the discipline and memorizing words because Jesus said they lead to me. We have to have a Christian culture that values the encounter because without it we do not change.
Note the subtlety in Todd's words. It wouldn't be about this way or that way. What he is speaking about is doctrine. People who follow this false teaching always bemoan being "put in a box" but that box is known as the Bible. Let me give you a real life example. There is a Scripture in the Gospel of Mark that says we will handle snakes. One small church actually incorporates the handling of live venomous snakes during worship. They didn't want to be told to do things this way or that. Their pastor was of course bitten and died from a snake bite. They just took that as God's will and his son took over the church, still handling live venomous snakes. This may sound absurd and most would probably be able to see it as such but what Todd White and Darren Wilson peddle is just as venomous. That you do not need to be constrained by what God has actually said in His Word. That instead of that religion, you can just trade it in for what you feel. Here is the real truth. There is no point in discussing with unbelievers that they need a relationship with Jesus Christ. They already have one:
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. -- Romans 5: 10-11 (ESV)
Everyone is in relationship with Jesus Christ. The question is the state of that relationship. The Gospel explains that relationship and the lengths God has gone to in order to restore those that are enemies to Him. What Todd White is selling is a metaphysical relationship based on the carnality of hearts we already know will do nothing but deceive us. No thanks; I will stick to the box known as Scripture.
Bill Johnson however is not subtle at all. He is simply heretical. He cleverly tries to leverage John 5 be claiming Jesus said that the Scriptures "lead" to Him. John 5 actually says that Scriptures testify about Him. The Scriptures are not a divine springboard. Johnson made that part up about divine encounters. The Word of God is the divine encounter. The Word of God is Jesus, as He says in the first chapter of John's Gospel. Johnson is actually making the case with this springboard analogy that the Bible ceases utility once you have this intimate encounter with the person of Jesus. If you truly understand the Bible however you cannot separate Jesus from His Word because the second you do, you lose who He is. He distinguishes between concepts, doctrines, principles and the person of Christ and in doing so shows he knows nothing about any of them.
Let me give you real life examples. Bill Johnson runs a school I already referenced for the "supernatural." There he teaches the gifts of the Holy Spirit even though Scripture clearly states that the gifts are given out by the Spirit as He wills. He allows anyone to come up to the microphone during prayer service to prophesy, despite the fact that not all prophesy as the Bible teaches. He has endorsed "grave sucking", where students spend nights camped at the tomb of dead heretics, hoping to suck some residual anointing from them. This despite the warnings in the Bible against necromancy and communing with dead spirits. He has stated that angel feathers randomly fall around him in public even though this is nowhere in Scripture. He has videos of alleged "glory clouds" filled with gold dust, which seems oddly like something being pumped in though his ventilation systems. Once again, no biblical foundation. He claims God always must heal us even though the Bible makes no such promise and Bill himself wears corrective eyeglasses. Beloved, this is what happens when you leave things up to your wicked lying hearts and abandon sound doctrine and biblical sense. It is no wonder Bill Johnson seeks to separate Jesus from concepts doctrine, and principles. The false jesus he believes in and promotes would not be supported by any concepts, doctrines, and principles found in the Bible. But take him at his word beloved. He wants to create a Christian culture that values these subjective carnal encounters over sound biblical knowledge.
We will get back to the movie in the second part of this devotional but to close, let us return to the key verses today. These are the words of Jesus Himself to us and we ought to take heed. In the last day, which we are in, there will be many false christs and false prophets who will arise. These people may even perform great sings and wonders. Remember Simon the Sorcerer from Acts 8? He was able to perform such great signs and wonders that everyone believed he was from God. How many Simons are there operating today? Wowing the crowds with glory clouds and gold dust. Leg growing tricks and tales of supernatural visits to the throne room of the Father. Don't believe it beloved. When Kim Walker-Smith says she has seen the Father face to face you know you can dismiss her as false because the Bible tells you so in Exodus 33:20. That is why we do not remove the Word of God from the personage of Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit.
Jesus goes on though to say that these false signs and wonders might even lead the elect astray. If that is the case, what does that say about those who do not believe? Those that might be seeking after God? It means great danger for them beloved because they are like sheep without a shepherd and they are being taught to embrace whatever they feel. Narrow is the gate. Few are those that find it. So if they say, "Look, He is in Rome," don't believe them! If they say "Look, He is in Mecca, Greece, or Colorado," as will see in Part two of this devotional, don't believe them! Wherever the corpse is beloved, there the vultures will gather. Darren Wilson, Bill Johnson, and Todd White are just vultures surrounding the corpse of a lost world and offering them fool's gold and snake oil. That is not how I feel beloved. It is what the Bible says.
