Derek Prince - Why We Shouldn't Trust All Miracles And Signs
All right. One other Scripture that impresses me is Romans 2:9–10. I would like to say just in an objective manner I was not interested in the Jewish people when God saved me. I had a couple of Jewish friends they were all totally assimilated they didn’t live very different from Gentiles. But God through circumstances and through His working has compelled me to become involved with the Jewish people. I am an unusual person I have six adopted Jewish daughters. Not many people have that. I didn’t plan that, God did. But I want to say that an understanding of God’s dealings with the Jews will give you a far clearer insight into all of Scripture than you will ever have if you don’t understand that.
So, Paul says in Romans 2:9–10 and this is the middle of one of his rather long sentences: "tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek [or Gentile] but glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek". So there is an order in which God deals. When it’s tribulation it’s to the Jew first but then to the Gentile. See, that makes me tremble when I think about the Holocaust because if that happened to six million Jews what is going to happen to Gentiles? It will never end with the Jews they’re the starting point. It’s to the Jew first and then to the Greek.
Let’s go back to Matthew 24 we get to verse 23, another "then". "Then if anyone says to you ‘Look, here is the Christ [the Messiah],’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders so as to deceive if possible even the elect". Notice, the chosen ones. My personal opinion is the reason they cannot be deceived is because God has chosen them. He’ll keep His hand over them. Otherwise, they would be deceived. That may not be the way you see it but that’s the way I’ve come to understand it. And let me point out that the ability to perform dramatic signs and wonders does not always attest to the truth. Satan is capable of many dramatic signs and wonders. Charismatics tend to have this feeling "Well, if it’s supernatural it must be from God". That is not true. Please bear that in mind.
In Acts 16, there was this fortune teller girl who was a slave and she followed Paul and Silas in the streets saying "These men are the servants of the Most High God who show to us the way of salvation". She was the first person in Philippi to know who they were but she was a servant of Satan. She had a satanic word of knowledge. How did Paul react? Did he make her a member of the church at Philippi? No, he cast the demon of fortune telling out of her. Let me tell you all fortune telling is demonic. And, they do often come out with the truth. Ruth has given me permission to say this but before she was saved somebody advised her to go to a fortune teller. She went to this lady who had never seen her before and never saw her afterwards knew nothing about her and this woman told her three things: Your husband has left you, you have three children, and you are barren you cannot have children.
Every one of those statements were true but it was Satan who was telling her. What was Satan’s purpose? To get Ruth hooked on the satanic supernatural. By the grace of God she never went back. A little later she met the Lord. But see, I want to warn you because I see so many Charismatics who are absolutely set up for the antichrist. There’s only one sure guarantee of what is true and that is the Scripture. If you go away from that you’ll end up in trouble and deception. Let me show you what it says in Revelation 13. Revelation 13: This is about the false prophet who is the main supporter of the antichrist. It says in Revelation 13:13: He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
Now listen, this man will be able to make fire come down from heaven. I don’t know any Charismatic preacher today that can do that. And yet, he’s a servant of Satan and he uses these supernatural signs to deceive people. So please do not merely trust signs. There are many, many signs that are used to confirm the truth of God’s Word but the truth is not established by signs it’s established by the Word of God. Jesus said, "Your Word is truth". That’s all you need to know. God’s Word is truth. Anything contrary to the Word of God is not truth and it’s not from God.
All right. Now we come to verse 25, Jesus says: See, I’ve told you before In other words, you can’t say you haven’t been warned. I say that to everybody here tonight. You’ll never be able to say from now on you haven’t been warned because I’ve warned you and so has Jesus. Verse 26: "Therefore if they say to you ‘Look, he is in the desert,’ do not go out. Or, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it". Why? Because when the Lord comes back it’s going to be something visible to the whole world.
Now, there has been a teaching that there’ll be a secret rapture. I’m not interested to argue with people but to my observation the last word to describe the rapture is secret. I don’t know of anything more public that will ever take place in human history. Let me show you. Verse 27: "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west so also will the coming of the Son of man be". That’s not secret. Now, let me go ahead a little bit and look at what follows. I’ll go through and then I’ll follow. "Wherever the carcass is, there the vultures will be gathered together". How many of you have seen vultures? Some of you from the Southwest have, at least. The first time I saw vultures was in Egypt, and it was dramatic. I saw this speck right up in the blue sky hanging there and it was a bird. And it circled slowly and began to come lower and lower and lower. And then other specks joined it. And as they circled they came lower and lower.
And do you know what I knew immediately? There’s something dying down there they’re just waiting for the death throe and they’ll descend on it. The first thing they go for is the eyes. Jesus said when you see all the vultures circling around you know where the carcass is. This is simply a theory of mine I may change it. I’m inclined to think it refers to the way people are going to relate to the city of Jerusalem. All the vultures are already up in the air circling and coming lower because everybody wants a piece of the pie. The United States, Britain the European Confederation the Muslims, Russia the Pope. I mean all the vultures. Well, you don’t have to believe what I say. I could be wrong it’s happened before. This is so vivid to me.