Shabbat shalom mishpachah and may the grace and favour of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) be with you all both at home and abroad.

In seeking for Yahweh's Davar (Word) for this people last night I was on several occasions told to go to the first epistle of the apostle John and to begin with the following passage:

"Loved ones, do not put [your] emunah (faith, trust) in every spirit, but put the spirits to the test [to see] whether they are from Elohim (God); for manmy false nevi'im (prophets) have been let out into the world" (1 Jn.4:1, Berkley Version/BV).

As I think you all know, since most of you are careful students of the Davar (Word), that there are not only many voices out there claiming to be led by Elohim (God) with prophetic revelation for these dangerous times, but some of them are extremely convincing especially when they speak with that kind of authority that seems to be from Yahweh and have a supernatural presence about them. But once you start scrutinising their teachings closely, you start to discover serious spiritual anomalies.

There is one self-styled navi (prophet), Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj, who has a growing international following, who not only dresses up like a Hindu guru but has a great deal of Hindu mysticism mixed into his essentially pentecostal belief system. I have spoken of him to you before. Because a friend is very taken with him, I have used time to listen to some of his sermons and read some of his books. In one sermon [1] he explained how sick people were being healed by Peter's shadow by claiming that those who have an anointing of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) have a coloured aura, each anointing having a particular colour and the coloured light being more intense based on the man's holiness. When Peter's shadow fell on the sick, it was this aura that healed the sick person, Selvaraj claims:

"The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Master and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by" (Acts 5:12-15, NIV).

You cannot get more occultic than this. Selvaraj never claimed scriptural support for his teaching or even a revelation - he simply taught this doctrine as 'fact' and expected his listeners to accept what he said uncritically. But when the disjunctive doctrines of pagan religions like Hinduism and occultism in general start intruding on the Besorah (Gospel) we have to critically examine them. The apostle John told us whom we should listen to and why:

"We are from Elohim (God). Whoever has acquaintance with Elohim (God), listens to us. Whoever is not from Elohim (God) does not listen to us. In this way we distinguish the spirit of Emet (Truth) from the spirit of error" (1 Jn.4:6, BV).

Those sick people in Peter's day were not healed because of some reiki-type energy emanating from the apostle's 'aura', released to the sick whenever his shadow fell on them. Rather, these people were healed because of their emunah (faith) in Yahweh which found a connection point in his shadow. A shadow is not, in any case, an 'energy' but precisely an absence of energy or light. Their emunah (faith) in Yahweh was released by the shadow of the apostle Peter and not by a divine energy oozing out of the apostle of Elohim (God).

How do we "listen" to the apostle John and the first believers? By heeding their instruction and testimony in the Davar (Word), the Bible. That includes imitating them and the Messiah in obeying Torah which this self-styled prophet does not do. He makes many bold claims and sounds authentic. But his teaching in so many areas is tainted by Hinduism and is of the psyche, not the Ruach (Spirit). He is so much like modern lawless charismatics and other Protestants in general who also operate out of a false antinomian spirit. Those who have come out of a charismatic background must obtain deliverance from the counterfeit spirits that lead them if they are to become authentic servants of the Most High.

Believers do not need gurus and self-styled prophets who speak beyond the Davar (Word), transgressing the New Covenant by syncretising with pagan doctrine and operating in the demon-energised psychic dimension. When the servants of the Enemy come with increased powers against the Messianic Community (Church), such deceived believers will not be able to withstand them. They are under an Anti-Messiah or Antichrist spirit and until they are delivered of it, and the deceptions that keep them spellbound are broken, they will remain as enemies of the end-time work of Yahweh. This is inevitable because the battle we face is one of spirits (Eph.6:12) - the spirit of emet (truth) versus the spirit of error. In connection with our dealing with such deceived persons, the apostle goes on to say:

"You are from Elohim (God), dear children, and have defeated them (the Anti-Messiah/Antichrist teachers), because the One in you (Yahweh) is greater than the one (Satan) in the world. They are from the world, so they talk from a worldly point of view and the world listens to them" (1 Jn.4:4-5, BV).

To be "from the world" does not, as some suppose, mean that these false teachers are secular, even if secular teachers are a part of the world system. What John means is that anything that is not of the Ruach (Spirit) but of the fleshy side of the psyche is "worldly", that is to say, of this demonically-infested dimension. We cannot escape being in the psychic dimension, which is material and psychic - and indeed we ourselves possess physical and psychic bodies - but those who are born again, and who live by the Torah, are governed by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), their bodies and psyches being governed by the Ruach (Spirit) and not by the those distorted principles that are opposed to the Ruach (Spirit) and Torah which find their manifestation in the energies of the invisible psychic realm and in the visible physical realm.

Those who are dominated by the selfish, egocentric man-centred psychic realm refuse to listen to the higher realm of the Kingdom of our Messiah, which is the spiritual realm above that of the Elohim (God) and of godly malakim (angels). There is a huge qualitative difference between the psychic and spiritual realms. James Stewart, writing 80 years ago in 1935, had this to say:

"A Besorah (Gospel) so annihilating to pride will never be popular with an age conscious of its own enlightenment and trusting to its own initiative to world redemption" [2].

Pride is more than able and capable of imitating the Christian Besorah (Gospel), using its terminology and sounding so much like the real thing but only one born of the Ruach (Spirit) and not habitually sinning will be able to discern and distinguish the two. Therefore the apostle John says:

"Beloved, let us love one another, because ahavah (love) springs from Elohim (God) and whoever is loving has been born of Elohim (God) and knows Elohim (God)" (1 Jn.4:7, BV).

As the previous chapter informs us, this ahavah (love), whilst not excluding others, is principally of "the brothers" (1 Jn.3:14). John qualifies another vitally important feature of this selfless, qadosh (holy, set-apart) or divine spiritual agapé or ahavah-love further in the next chapter when he says:

"Everyone who has emunah (faith) that Yah'shua (Jesus) is the Messiah (a faith that appropriates Him as Deliverer/Saviour and Master/Lord) has been born of Elohim (God), and every one who loves the Father (Yahweh) will love the one (fellow believer) born of Him. This is the way we know that we love Elohim's (God's) children: when we love Elohim (God) and practice His mitzvot (commandments). For true ahavah (love) of Elohim (God) means that we observe His mitzvot (commandments), and His mitzvot (commandments) are not irksome" (1 Jn.5:1-3, BV).

The apostle is at pains to ensure that the believer understands that you cannot separate true spiritual ahavah (love) from the Torah (Law) of divine mitzvot (commandments). Indeed, it is this spontaneous, non-irksome love of obedience of Elohim's (Ways) that shows us the difference between the spiritual and the psychic! Not only that, but the one born of Elohim (God) and possessing the true Ruach (Spirit) not only enjoys a supernatural capacity to love the brethren and even their enemies but also naturally and joyfully obeys Torah, something the psychic loathes to do because the mitzvot (commandments) are of the Ruach and those who are of the psyche - which is the world system and way of being - resist the Torah. For the true believer this problem of resistance to, and irritation with, the mitzvot (commandments) does not exist. Indeed:

"Everyone who has been born of Elohim (God) conquers the world, and this is the victory that has triumphed over the world - the emunah (faith) we have. Who is the world's victor if not he who believes that Yah'shua (Jesus) is the Son of Elohim (God)" (1 Jn.5:4-5, BV).

How does one triumph over or conquer "the word"? By no longer being drawn to, or enslaved by, the psychic dimension which is characterised by love of self that leads to worship of self - to idolatry. And self, prompted and catalysed by the demonic, hates Yahweh, His ways and His mitzvot (commandments) - His Torah or Law. Psychic love is too absorbed with self to be able to love the brethren without ultimately expecting something from them in return. If someone loves you in this agapé- or ahavah-love, you don't 'owe' them anything - it's not an 'I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine'. That's the psychic counterfeit. Ahavah-love gives without counting the cost or expecting anything in return. Psychic 'love' comes with a heafty price-tag. He who loves the psychic way has not been born of Elohim (God) and therefore cannot know Elohim (God) either. So how can we find, know and participate in this heavenly ahavah (love)? John says:

"As for us, the love of Elohim (God) was revealed by the fact that Elohim (God) sent His Son, His only-begotten, into the world, son that through Him we might live; which ahavah (love) exists in this, not that we loved Elohim (God), but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 Jn.4:9-10, BV).

We cannot take credit for this divine ahavah (love) because it does not come from us, so any good that comes from our channelling this love in your lives to others brings glory not to us but to the One (Yahweh) who gave it to us:

"And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness
Are His alone"

You see, man's intelligence and will and heart and conscience can never initiate anything in true spirituality, and over the best moral and spiritual triumphs of this life the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) can only cry:

"Not unto us, O Yahweh, not to us, but to Thy Name give glory because of Thy loving-kindness and Thy emet (truth)" (Ps.115:1, BV).

True emunah (faith), then, is, as the brilliant German theologian and philosopher of Breslau, Friedrich Schleiermacher [3], said, "an absolute dependance". Of ourselves we cannot obtain it, not by self-effort in any measure, nor the ahavah-love that flows out of this emunah (faith), nor the spontaneous simcha (joy) in obeying the mitzvot (commandments) of Torah when comingled with this ahavah (love), for there is a dead form of Torah-obedience too, that which is without emunah (faith) and that which is without divine ahavah-love.

John then asks us the question - those who have exercised this emunah (faith) and received this divine ahavah (love) through being born-again of the Ruach (Spirit):

"Loved ones, if Elohim (God) loved us so much (to making an atoning sacrifice of His Son for our sins), we ought to love one another too" (1 Jn.4:11, BV).

This is our obligation - our duty - and our offering of thanksgiving: to love others as He loved us. And if we do this, we have this fabulous promise:

"In case we love on another, Elohim (God) remains in us and His ahavah (love) runs its full course in us. From this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, that He has imparted to us of His Ruach (Spirit)...We both know and put emunah (faith) in the ahavah (love) which Elohim (God) cherishes in us. Elohim (God) is ahavah (love), and he who continues in ahavah (love) continues in Elohim (God) and Elohim (God) continues in him" (1 Jn.4:12b-13,16, BV).

Yahweh wants us to walk exclusively in this pure ahavah-love because in doing so we cease sinning habitually. He does not say that we stop sinning altogether, and indeed calls anyone who claims to be sin-free to be self-deceived (1 Jn.1:8). Nevertheless we are to aspire to a sin-free life by pursuing ever deeper and more persistent emunah (faith). That is why John wrote this epistle (1 Jn.2:1). Is that goal to cease habitually sinning attainable? This is John's message in the third chapter:

"No one who has been born of Elohim (God) commits [habitual] sin" (1 Jn.3:9, BV).

To discern between the spiritual and the psychic (worldly) forms of loving, we must make the choice to "neither love the world (psychic-centred living) nor the things in the world" (1 Jn.2:15a, BV) because the person who does not have "the Father's ahavah (love) in his heart, because everything in the world, the passions of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the proud display of life have their origin not from the Father but from the world. And the world with its list passes away, but he who does the will of Elohim (God) remains forever" (1 Jn.2:15b-17, BV).

The world that will emerge after the completion of the current judgments will be an even more deeply demonically empowered psychic world. If believers are to do more than survive it but triumph over it to the glory of Elohim (God), then they must overcome their sinning and Torah-disobedience once and for all. They must cease their lawlessness and receive divine ahavah-love. They must cease all psychic practices, from counterfeit tongue-speaking, which is is the gibberish and lawlessness of demons, to all the false psychic prophesying. These are not the real article, they bring no lasting shalom (peace) or simcha (joy) and they have no part of true ahavah-love.

The Remnant cannot walk in this falseness else they cease to be a part of it. This is our last hour to be quit of these abominations which may seem nothing to the flesh but are an offence to Elohim (God) who sees where the real glory is going - to the idolatrous pseudo-Christian gurus and to the flesh of man. You cannot receive the Sukkot or the spiritual inheritance of the Remnant if you persist in your old, worldly ways. The choice-making needs to be made now. It is time to come off the fence. Today is the day of salvation for the Remnant. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj, Prophetic Company That Sees
[2] James S. Stewart, A Man in Christ (Hodder & Stoughton, London: 1972), p.223
[3] This is not a personal endorsement of Schleiermacher's theology and hermeneutics who earned himself the dubious title of 'father of modern liberal theology'. I absolutely do not endorse modern so-called 'higher critcism', in which he became influential, which in reality is just an pretentious title and justification for atheism

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