Jesus spotting a false prophet and a false disciple

Let us have a quick study of the passage of Matthew 7:15-23 How do you spot a false prophet? Many of us tend to have a good number of answers to this question. However, as I have written to you many times: 'we always need to define terms with the Bible'. According to Jesus, a false prophet is known by his/her fruits (reference Matthew 7:15-20). Since the term 'fruits' is mentioned, we should find out what the Bible says about the fruits of a person. Interestingly, certain people believe that 'fruits' represent material signs of prosperity (car,houses,money,ect...). For them, a real prophet or a servant of God should manifest material fruits of prosperity. In their thinking, a person ,who does not have material signs of prosperity, is not a real prophet... The fruits that Jesus mentions have nothing to do with the rich suits, the diamond shoes, the big houses, the beautiful spouses,ect... This is why I always encourage you to define spiritual texts with the Bible and not with what the human minds believe. According to the Bible , the fruits that will confirm a real prophets are recorded in the passage of Galatians 5:22-23: ' But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.' When meeting a prophet or a preacher, always ensure that they carry the following fruits: *Love *Joy: 'Are they always grumpy? Do they carry joy around them?' *Peace: 'Are they instruments of peace, or do they use their gifts to sow strife between people?' *Forbearance:' do they show patience or are they always quick tempered?' *Kindness and goodness: ' do they treat people with respect, or with disdain?' *Faithfulness: 'are they obedient to the call of God, are they faithful in their marriages?' *Gentleness:' Do they speak with love? Are they gentle in the way they live with others?' *Self-control: 'Can they control themselves in all situations?' Whether you are a preacher or not, it matters that those fruits be seen in all of us. Because those fruits will attract people to Jesus through us, in the manner that 'hungry' people would rush to an apple tree carrying fruits. On the other hand, if we carry negative fruits, we run the risk of cancelling the value of whatever message we preach. Unfortunately, it is possible to be both gifted from God and yet walking around as arrogant,wicked people. As much as the gifts matter, Jesus is more interested in the character of the person. How does Jesus spot a false disciple? In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus warns us that not all those who say 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only those who the will of God. The same short passage makes a startling reference to people who actually use their God given gifts and yet do not enter the Kingdom of Heaven; what a tragedy! A false disciple is *a person who has received the gifts from God, *a person who even uses them BUT *a person who does not do the will of God. It sounds controversial but let me illustrate it with an example: 'Tyty is a Christian who has received from God the gifts of encouraging people. Tyty lives in New York. After a while, God tells him to move in Washington to start a motivational ministry but Tyty loves New York more than God and he decides to stay in New York. Tyty starts his motivational ministry in New York and encourages people there. Additionally, Tyty had a fiance. While he was dating her, God clearly disproved of her. In spite of God's disapproval, Tyty decides on marrying her anyway.' Based on that example, how many of you can clearly say that Tyty is the boss of his own life. Not only is he the boss of his own life, but he is directing his life with gifts that did not belong to him at the first place. Think of it for a moment... Picture this in your mind: 'Imagine that you own a company. You choose an employee and send him to a city in order to implement a few franchises. Before sending him, you provide him with all sorts of tools and credits cards, cars, laptops and even extra money to ensure that he completes his mission. BUT, as soon as you tell him to go, he tells you that he will go in another city and implement your vision in his own manner and yet he is using your money!' Tell me something: 'would you keep that employee in your company?' A false disciple lives in a way he/she finds fits in his/her own eyes and yet they do so by using God's gifts. It is not always about WHAT we have received from God but more about HOW we submit with WHAT we have received. On a final note, it is interesting that Jesus mentions both false preachers and false disciples. As much as there can be fake preachers out there, we also have a lot of false disciples. The only difference is that 'preachers are under the spotlight'. Truth is for everyone.