“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily (secretly) bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 PETER 2- 1-3

It seems hard to watch the news now without yet another story of a ministry or “preacher” gone bad.

The most recent is the horrifying tale of alleged forced labor in call centers soliciting “donations”, those locked inside working completely unpaid citing food and sleep deprivation alongside beatings as punishment received for failing to reach unrealistic quotas.

And of course, it all has to be conveyed as “alleged” until trials take place, but it’s hard to believe people locked themselves in these centers!

Jim Jones always comes to mind when I hear of these demonic false leaders.

So many stories of cults and craziness that even basic Biblical knowledge would speak against.

People need to know the word for themselves so they would know that these things are just not right in accordance with the word of God.

But these people are spiritual wolves. They prey on those who are wounded, alone, and desperately seeking fellowship, love, and acceptance.

The same formula followed by all traffickers.

And what really hurts the most, when you know the Lord, the true Lord is that you know these are those whom his heart breaks the most for.

Those who are the most vulnerable are their victims of choice, and their deception and evilness leave their victims with a false sense of whom God really is.

They pretend to be representees of Christ, so their victims end up with a twisted sense of what Christianity and God are all about.

And nothing these people do is of God.

They are agents of the devil himself.

If we are going to keep the wolf at bay and to help others know the truth, we have to know the truth for ourselves.

We’ll have four quick lessons on wolves.

But please take these scriptures and continue your own study, the more you know the safer you will be.

We’re going to look at some verses that serve as instruction on how to spot wolves and how to protect not only ourselves, but others from these real-life monsters.

Lesson #1: If they have to tell you how good they are, they probably aren’t!

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.” JOHN 13:34,35

Love does not hit, belittle, humiliate, force others into labor or sexual activity, it does not coerce, threaten or harm. Love places the value of others higher than itself with all mercy, grace, protection, and diligence.

“Charity (Love) suffereth long (endures), and is kind, charity envieth not (is not jealous), is not puffed up (proud and boastful),

Does not behave itself unseemly (inappropriately), seeketh not her own (is not self-centered), is not easily provoked (doesn’t fly into rage), thinketh no evil (has pure motives);

Rejoiceth not in iniquity (does not celebrate sin), but rejoices with the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth…” 1 CORTHIANS 13: 4-8a

Lesson #2: Seeking to see what it is that you are really seeing.

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.

Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth corrupt fruit.“ MATTHEW 7: 15-18

This requires diligence and really being in tune and heeding that little feeling that God will give us in the pit of our stomach, if it does not feel right, if that little alarm bell is going off inside of you, heed it.

Even if what it being said sounds right, even when you can give no logical reasoning for feeling the apprehension that you feel.

Trust it, God gives us that to protect us from snares, traps, and dangers.

When we override that by telling ourselves that we are being ridiculous or trying to brush it off or give excuse for those feelings, we are overriding our own God-given protection system, and we will always pay a price.

Google stories of people who had a “bad feeling” and didn’t go to work or here or there and were protected from some sort of horrific event.

Or because of a creepy feeling about a person or situation, escaped being the victim of a serial killer, there are countless accounts, even October seventh accounts of people who were to go to the festival but didn’t.

Now, we all know that every one has bad days and every one makes mistakes that we must repent of, but our tree is still fruitful, if we are of God we will produce the following fruits, qualities of character, as children of God.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance:  against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” GALATIANS 5:22-24

If a person does not exhibit these qualities, that is a very good indicator of what you are dealing with.

Now we’ll kinda jump backward, same chapter but we will look at the works of the flesh, the corrupted fruit, that you would undoubtedly see at some point with a spiritual wolf when it’s guard is down and once it knows that you know it’s a wolf, these attributes are all your gonna see.

“Now the works of the flesh are made manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication (sexual immortally), uncleanness, lasciviousness, (lustfulness and lewd behaviors),

Idolatry (anything being placed above God), witchcraft, hatred, variance (quarrels, discord),

emulations, (trying to “outdo” another), wrath (anger, rage), strife (causing trouble),

seditions (Stirring up trouble and rebellion), heresies (false teaching against the true word of God), 

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and suck like:  of the which I tell you before, as I also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” GALANTIANS 5: 19-21

Remember that Jesus did say that they would come in as sheep, that’s why we really have to stop judging so much on outward appearance.

Only God knows what beats within a heart and only he knows whether that heart beats for him or if it beats with self-serving desire for the gain a flock might bring or just the thrill of the kill as is the way of some wolves, its only about the destruction, as that is the devils primary goal, wound and scatter the flock, they will be easier to devour once he has them isolated alone.

Lesson #3: Face value is only effective when the true face is revealed. Spiritual wolves are excellent chameleons, after all their leader is the father of deception.

“Now the serpent was more subtil (sneaky, crafty) than any other beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”  GENESIS 3:1

I think you know how that interaction went, it ended with the downfall of mankind.

“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you,and exhort you that ye should contend (fight) for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

For there are certain men crept in unawares (came in unnoticed),who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” JUDE 1:3,4

Think of the candy-coats and those who twist the scripture for their own purposes, to lure others into doing their bidding, whatever that bidding may be.

“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

 And no marvel (no surprise), for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed into ministers of righteousness. whose end shall be according to their works.” 2 CORINTHIANS 11:12-15

Lesson #4: Keep those wolves at bay, give them no opportunity to hang around, and absolutely do not let the stay.

“And we beseech (urgently implore) you brethren to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you.” 1 THESSALOANIANS 5:12

You have to know who is talking to you, who is guiding and leading you.

You have to know their relationship with God and how they treat their families and what life they live when no one is watching and to know that takes time and to really know a person and their true character.

“Lay hands on no man suddenly, neither be partaker of other men’s sins; keep thyself pure.” 1 TIMOTHY 5:22

This verse is often confused as to being in the context of the laying on of hands, as to pray for a person by just walking up and praying for them suddenly, but that is not the meaning.

Once it is studied out, it means that we are not to put a person in church office or church role without knowing that person, we invite trouble and destruction in and that is the reference to becoming a partaker of other’s sins and we are to stay pure, meaning from the spiritual harm caused to the flock by those with agendas.

This gets us back into those fruits, this is the Biblical definition of the attributes of a bishop, which would apply to other positions, but you can read clearly, no beating, no coercion, and no cruelty.

“For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting (lacking), and ordain elders in every city, as I appointed thee:

If any be blameless, the husband of one wife (not married to multiple women), having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not selfwilled, not soon angry (not easily angered), not given to wine, (doesn’t drink), no striker (does not hit, nonviolent), not given to filthy lucre (not greedy or money hungry):

But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast (adhering to) the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.” TITUS 1:5-9

To recap, heed that little nudging in your spirit, God is peace, and a troubled spirit is warning you to trouble.

Listen carefully to what is being said and taught, does it glorify God or does it glorify the speaker?

Follow along with your Bible and trust God to teach you and guide you, ultimately it is our personal relationship with God that the enemy wants to destroy.

Those who have been harmed by wolves hiding behind a title or self-claimed calling can face difficulties in understanding that what predators do is in no way related to God and only the truth of God can set them free and heal them in his love and truth.

If you know someone who may be in danger of falling prey to a wolf, share this with them and don’t let up, keep offering the truth.

Peace & Love until next time!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2025/ Rev. N. Brown Johnson