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Long-story short: certain family members watched a live-stream of a church service (from a nearby city) who invited a "prophet". My family is convinced they saw "signs"/"coincidences" and are at the point of denying what scripture literally says in order to fit their spiritualizing.

Feel free to extend this prayer beyond my family and to the whole body of believers: for our Heavenly Father to open the eyes of his sheep, give them discernment, move their hearts to verify everything being said by so-called prophets against the scrutiny of scripture and to accept what the bible says instead of being carried away by nice-soundings messages and "coincidences".

I plan on bringing scripture to my family the next time we get a chance to meet (concerning false prophets and to test all spirits) and I'll be watching the livestream of this so-called prophet tonight, writing things down to bring to the discussion with them later. They are going to listen to the livestream too. So, pray that our Heavenly Father reveals the true intention of that "prophet" and if he doesn't genuinely care about the flock nor teaching according to Jesus and our Heavenly Father's will, but only to line his pockets and receive applause, prestige, accolades from the world, then to make it very obvious to his true sheep.

In case anyone's curious, the verses I had in mind:

Matthew 24:24 (NIV)

24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.


Matthew 7:22-23 (NIV)

22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’


1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 (NIV)

20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good,


1 John 4:1 (NIV)

4 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.

I certainly would add my prayer to that. It's sad to say, but even many of Christ's own people can be led astray by something like this. False prophets, false signs and wonders, and above all the human desire to believe, to feel, to be convinced by emotionalism rather than rationality ... Jesus didn't mention the part about emotionalism rather than rationality, but I'm pretty sure He wouldn't argue with it.

That said, I've a confession. My wife Meadow is a fan of that Fraud Island Medium. She asked me to watch an episode with her, I watched three episodes to be generous ... then tried to explain the concepts of cold-reading and selective editing to her, and reminded her of Bible verses condemning mediumship. It's ... now a sore spot between us, as she wants to believe this lady is doing good things.

So, these relatives of yours who are being deceived? I know exactly where you're coming from.

Thank you for your prayers everyone. They've agreed to become more Berean about how they approach this in the future. I don't know how much I'll continue to aid them with, as Spanish isn't my most fluent language (even though I sound it). And this prophet is a Spanish speaker (didn't take down the name; I even texted my aunt but she doesn't remember).



essentially, the prophet refering to a girl with my name, who is 13 years old (though I'm 24) and how he referred to Philippians 1:23-24, which I had done earlier that day in a conversation with them. However, the worrisome thing was how he, according to them, gave the opposite interpretation of what I commented. I had made a comment earlier that Paul was looking forward to death, even calling it the better of the two options (departing vs. staying on earth) which they did not take well when I said I agreed. I explained the situation a little more in depth with more context (after
TS Sailor Cronus' first post) in this thread if you're curious [link].

Ah, the Lilies guild. *Scans thread.* Does "Berean" mean "skeptical"? I'll keep praying, just in case; as I said, this sort of thing is personal to me.

Actually, "cold reading" is just observation and deduction, similar to Sherlock Holmes. What you describe is more like fishing, especially in front of an audience.

Otherwise ... yeah, that sums it up pretty well, I think.