SEEING BEYOND THE SMOKE SCREEN

In shadows veiled, puppeteers unseen, crafting tales, an opaque shin. These are propaganda architects, the unseen choreographers. It's time to see beyond the smoke screen. Join Apostle Femi Lazarus as we embark on a journey of unmasking the masquerade behind the narratives in the last days. Showing live on Femi Lazarus Ministries YouTube channel on Friday the 12th of January, 2024. See Beyond the Smokescreen.

Amazing. So I want to show you a passage of the Bible that is so interesting, something I, I need you to see quickly. Um, there's this event in Matthew chapter number 24. That I really want us to pay attention to. I know you've been reading this passage of the Bible, but today I want to show you something you probably have not taken note of before. And I'd like us to please be very attentive, all right? Be very attentive. Something is going to shift about your life tonight. Now, there is this event in Matthew 24 when Jesus left the temple And the Bible said the disciples came to him to ask certain questions of him. Now let me show you the questions they were asking. Matthew 24, from verse 1: And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See, see ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now verse 3: And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? Now verse 4 is where I'm going to look at the simple statement Jesus said to them. And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. Period. Period. That was it. He simply responded by saying, take heed that no man deceive you. All right, sometimes the mistake people make while reading the scripture is that they sum this statement in the post-text That's verse 5, when he said, for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. Okay, now Jesus wasn't talking about deception in the context of that alone. When you read that scripture in verse 4 again, Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you, full stop. So what, what, what does this mean? It means that one of the major signs, one of the major prevalent things that will be rampant in the last days, is deception. It's as simple as that. And no one will be deceived like the one who believes he can't be deceived. You see, I've been scammed before. And I know that no one falls for deception unless it is almost real. In fact, a deceiver, all right, paints falsehood as real. Anything that is not real can't deceive you. Hmm. So there are events that there are valid proofs for. In the sense that they are true, but they are not the truth. Okay, so the, the Jesus said, take heed. I remember when I was deceived, you know, when I was scammed. They said it was one courier service, you know, you're trying to make money. Suddenly there was email, um, websites where you could track your, your goods, you could track everything. It was still deception. Okay, so it means in the last days, having proof is not enough. That's what the Bible is saying. All right, so now why is this happening? You want to ask, why is the devil trying to deceive? Why is the devil going to try to deceive believers in the last days? Why will the devil, or why is the devil going to be trying to— why is he going to try to deceive believers or deceive people in the last days? Because not just believers will be deceived, the world generally will be fooled. Why? Because deception, um, has proven to be the most potent weapon of the devil against believers. It's proven to be the most potent. As a matter of fact, man fell from the beginning because of deception. And this deception was so powerful, it was not just a statement, it was a question. What the devil asked was, has God told you not to eat of every tree in the garden? Wrong question. And Eve said, no, he has allowed us to eat of every tree in the garden, but the tree that is in the middle of the garden, we cannot eat, then she added, neither can we touch. And the devil says, no, God knows that the day you eat of it, you become like him. You see that? Knowing good and evil. Were they already like God? Genesis 1:26 and 27, God said, come, let us make man in our own image and after our likeness. So they were already like him.

That was true.

They were already like him, but knowing good and evil, it was not their design. Look at another illustration, um, Matthew chapter number 4, also synoptic gospel, Luke chapter number 4. When the devil came to Jesus to tempt him, the Bible said he took him to a very high mountain and he said to him that if you are the Son of God, jump. Because it is written. Now, the devil did not start the first temptation with 'it is written.' The devil started the first temptation as a statement: turn the stone to bread. The moment Jesus responded with 'it is written,' all the remaining temptations also came with 'it is written,' meaning that the devil can meet you at your level and still deceive you. Yes, it can meet you at your level if you say you hold the scripture. Then he can coin it. Because what he said to Jesus is that— he said, jump— he said, because it is written that he will give his angels charge over your feet to keep you from stumbling. Meanwhile, that scripture is from Psalms 91, said, because I have set the Lord continually before me, therefore I will not suffer my foot to be dashed against the stone, for he has given his angels charge over my feet to keep me from stumbling. What was the prefix? I have set the Lord continually before him. Pure me. So deception can be either additional truth or removing part of the truth. Hmm, either of them. Either when you add or when you remove, it doesn't matter, you are still being deceived. What I'm trying to say is that the devil can add and he can also remove, and then what he's saying has an iota of truth. I'm going somewhere tonight. Going somewhere really important, and I need us to pay very keen attention to what I'm— where I'm going now. So part of the things that the Bible said we should watch out for in the last days is what? Deception. So what is happening is that the church somehow, through esti-generalization— there's something in philosophy called esti- generalization. We, the church, somehow, um, we have come to think that the deception is only going to come from false teachers, false prophets, false pastors, false apostles. We, so we expect that if there's anywhere to watch out for falsehood, you look at the church, and then we try to get our truth outside the church. It's a system. So what the devil does is that it tries to deconcentrate anything. Let me explain. Um, sometimes we call it throwing the baby and the bad water away, for instance. Um, and this that I'm saying is in— I'm not in any particular way referring to any issue, but I just want to give you an illustration. Okay, um, for instance, it looks as though there is a deliberate attack, generally speaking now, on prophetic ministries in Africa. Maybe, yeah, and then we look around, maybe you see a prophet asking people to eat grass, a prophet asking people to do this, a prophet, you know. And so what happens is the devil tries to stir up issue around the same place again and again and again and again so that you get tired of that office, not just the issue, so that it becomes impossible for you to separate the issue from the office. And when— if care is not taken, a time may come in the body of Christ, not just in Nigeria but around the world, that if anybody introduces themselves as a prophet your mind will be short because what the devil is doing is to try to deconcentrate that particular office. Are you seeing that now? And how does he do that? By making sure that there is repetition. Repetition will wear anybody out. Are you following what I'm saying here? All right, so in the last days, the Bible says that the best thing to do is to take it so that you will not be deceived. Now, how do you take it so that you not be deceived? Number 1, believe. Believe me honestly, believe that you can be deceived. The first way to counter a deceiver is to believe that the person has what it takes to believe, to deceive you. So I, I, I, I watched some analysis by some detectives. Somebody killed his girlfriend. In America, I think in Florida, killed his girlfriend and drove her somewhere, drove the body somewhere and buried the body in a shallow grave. So they called him. Of course, some, some cameras around already showed that the boyfriend killed the girl. It was the last person to spend time with her. They traced her phone. His, his call and his message was the last he received. A camera picked them together. So they were psychoanalyzing him. When they invited him for an interrogation, they asked him just the question. So they said, one of the ways you know a liar is that a liar goes extra mile to convince you. So this is what they said, that when they ask somebody who is speaking the truth a question, he will not give you extra information. When was the last time you saw her? Yesterday, 9 PM. That's true, yesterday, 9 PM. But you know, when I saw her, she was not really looking so well. Um, I don't know, I feel maybe, you know, some things were not right. It felt like she received the call. I remember she received the call. They asked the question. You are stretching it because you are making extra attempts to convince the person. So when you stand before a liar, believe you can be lied to. So when Jesus said, take heed so that you will not be deceived, what he's saying is, oh boy, believe that you can be deceived. So let me ask you a question: what if all you think you know are not true? Let's start from there. Hmm, what if, what if you know how many lies you've swallowed? What if all you think you know are not true? What if you are acting out an exact script that somebody wants you to act out in terms of the way you think, the way you approach matters, the way you see life, your conclusions, and the way you pursue your dreams. What he said, I can't be deceived. Please listen and listen well. Just follow me, we're going somewhere very important. History has shown again and again that even the entire body of Christ can be deceived again and again. As a matter of fact, Paul went somewhere to preach and certain girl followed after them singing, these are men that have come to show us the way of God, these are men, righteous men. As much as that statement was true but it was still deception because it is not the truth. The truth is not just about what is true, it's about the source. I'm getting somewhere, okay? Um, it is not just important that the statement is true. For the statement not to be a tool of deception, you need to understand where the statement is coming from and where it is going. What is he aimed to get and achieve. Something can be true, but it is still deception in the sense that the idea is to get at something bigger. Let me explain. When the devil attacks, for instance, an apostle, the idea is to deconsecrate the office of an— of the apostle, not just that apostle, apostle, but other apostles in the body of Christ, so that In your attempt to be extra righteous, you are closed up to a dimension of God and you can no longer receive it. So it means that everything God wants to do, he cannot do it the way he wants to do it because the devil has gotten you to believe wrongly. Are you following what I'm saying?

Just follow me.

One of the things you are going to learn tonight is that we are up against a system that is so smart and intelligent. We are up against a system that is so smart and intelligent, and until you look closely, you may not— it may not occur to you that what you are seeing is not all there is. It may not occur to you that what you're seeing— in fact, listen, One of the things that the devil— the tool the devil used to deceive is called propaganda. Propaganda. I'm going to get there. One of these days I'm going to teach believers on how to build counter-propaganda measures, because the end-time believers must understand propaganda. In fact, you must understand it. You can't chicken out. You must also understand counter-propaganda measure. Let me show you an instance. Let me give you an instance. In the '70s, the early— late '60s, '70s, when television started coming to Nigeria, we were watching TV, okay? The devil so enjoyed it. See, like I said, the devil can come to your level. I gave you the illustration of the temptation of Jesus. The first temptation was without it is written. Okay, he just said, if you are the Son of God, turn this stone to bread. There was no, it is written. When Jesus replied with, it is written, the devil came to his level. All the temptation now carried, it is written. Okay, look at this. If you are a very righteous person, holier than thou, the devil will meet you at your level and beat you with experience.

He will.

And I'm showing you something, it's going to meet you. If this is the level you want to be, you're going to beat you with experience. All right, many of the grounds we are trying to recover now in the body of Christ was because the devil dealt with a generation with experience. Thank God for the righteousness, thank God for the— should I call it depth of consecration? But it did not change the fact that a generation acted out a script and another generation needs to fight in those grounds to reclaim lost ground. For instance, somehow when we believe we are very holy people— no problem, the devil got us to believe that if you are so holy, then forget about media, forget about television, forget about this, forget about that, forget about politics, forget about— and as we were forgetting about those institutions, he was moving his own there. Gallantly, effortlessly, because when light vacates, darkness is a natural occurrence of the absence of light. Darkness is natural. What else, what else do you expect when light leaves its place? And I've noticed that every time God is moving, it is difficult for a generation to stay in the balance. There's always extreme There's always that tendency for extreme, and we keep repeating the same script, and we need to understand. So Jesus wants us to understand the last days, and he wants us to write something in capital letter as much as— as far as we're in the last days. Take heed that you are not deceived. Egypt. The principal word here is deception, deception, deception, deception. So how does the devil intend to achieve this big plan to deceive the whole world? Now don't, don't underrate the devil and don't also exaggerates his essence. Let me tell you what I mean. When the devil fell, the Bible said he still drew one-third of the stars of heaven. That's a large percentage of angels fell with him. What did he tell them? If angels can fall, take it, sir. Take it. Take it. And I said the way to take it is to believe that you can be deceived. Aha! It will help you adjust so you will not approach a deceiver with pride and ego. You'll be swept off your feet. Are you with me now? Now, one of the things that the devil will use effectively in the last days to deceive is the power of the media. The power of the media. Call it anything— news media, social media, any form of media. The power of the media. Who decides the news you hear? Who writes the script? Who decide what they want you to hear? Who decide what should make the news? Dozens of Christians were killed in Jos on Christmas Day. It didn't make the news. Scores of people have been killed in different regions in Nigeria. It won't make the news. At least statistics told us, say, tells us that at least in every 2 hours in Nigeria, somebody's been killed for the sake of their faith. A Christian is being killed. Doesn't make the news. There seems to be a body somewhere around the world, and I'm going to get to Global State now, that is interested in what makes the news, because the essence of that is to be able to control the mind of the people. You must understand, see, I lived in the north, I grew up from the north, and, um, many things have happened that we saw that will never make the news. You know, sometimes people— I've heard people complain and say southern Christians are insensitive, they are not relating with their brothers in the north. While partially that may be true, but also you must understand that the other side of it is that there is a body behind media all over the world that decides what makes the news. And the aim of that is to have the mind of people in their palm. The devil wants to control your mind. He wants you to be— I'm just getting started, so He understands the media as a tool of mind control, um, both the informative aspect of the media, the entertainment aspect of the media, and the social aspect of the media and all that. When you feed on those things consistently, very soon you will be acting out an exact script that someone needs to act up. Now I remember during COVID there was a doctor in America— I remember where, Texas— that came out to say that she has been treating patients with hydroxychloroquine and they have been recovering from COVID Now we see the, the narrative— please pay attention—

seem to be that the whole world is panicking, COVID is killing, is killing people. Now somebody is saying I have treated every patient with hydroxychloroquine and I have discharged them and they are fine now, COVID negative. And what was the response? They shut her down, revoked the license, withdrew the license, and blocked everywhere.

Why?

Because there is a body somewhere that is interested in controlling the mind of the people with with fear. I believe many people died of fear than those who died of COVID Fear in the sense that some had COVID, were taken to the hospital, and were abandoned by medical practitioners. I'm sorry to say that. I'm in the public health sector, but I have to say what I have to say. We saw the videos in Mexico In Argentina, you see people crying and needing oxygen, talking about PPEs. Many of them were not getting the things they needed. Doctors were afraid. And COVID barely killed unless there is any underlying factor. You see that?

Barely killed.

I'm just telling you the truth. I've done my research. It's my field. You see, but more people died of fear. Now listen to this. When you listen to certain world powers, you see that there is a narrative that is being pushed that the problem of the planet is overpopulation. Now I don't want to mention any group yet. They believe that the problem of the planet, that if human race keep expanding like this So in no distant time from now, the planet will not be able to take us, in the sense that the population, climate change, and everything. And they are saying in essence that the way to preserve the planet is to destroy the infection. You know what they call infection? People.

Guess what?

The people who have this thought process, they are the ones financing vaccines destinations in Africa. I mean, one of the major champions and proponents of vaccines in Africa, from polio vaccines to all form of vaccines, the fellow is not even a medical doctor, he's not even a public health expert, knows nothing about health.

What exactly are they doing? What's behind the heads? The—

what's it called now, um, all forms of immunizations brought to Africa, given to the kids, polio immunized vaccines and all that. When they give with right hand, what are they taking with the left hand? What is the narrative that is being pushed for you to see on media and what is really happening behind the scenes? There are states in Nigeria today where there is war, Boko Haram and all the likes, and you cannot get any good hotel to rent. They will tell you the hotels have been booked for 5 years, for 6 years by NGOs. They seem to know something, that the whole insurgency will still be on for another 5 years. Hands wide open for 5 years. Let's leave that. What's happening behind the scene? What's going on behind the veil? Who is pushing the narratives? In America, a presidential candidate that seemed to be against LGBT community Femi Lazarus was shut down by mainstream media. They demonized him. And if a narrative is being pushed about a person consistently, sooner or later you will believe it.

You will believe it. It's a mind thing. Don't exaggerate your essence. Don't think you can't believe it when you hear it consistently. It will be able to become a belief system. You will believe it. We are all vulnerable to what is consistent. That's our making. And some individuals seem to understand this. Push the narrative consistently, people will get used to it.

We kept adjusting from kissing scenes in movies to romance in movies. We kept adjusting to removing their tops in movies. We kept adjusting. Now to stripping naked in movies, we kept adjusting. To outright sex scenes in movies, we kept adjusting. How, how long more are we willing to go? To females kissing each other and males kissing each other, we kept adjusting. What's the idea? It gets to a point that everything people watch in secret will be right there on video. Before the screen. Nothing is hidden anymore. Nothing is classified anymore. Nothing is— there's a word now I'm trying to get—

no censorship.

Because certain individuals understand that anyone can be weirded out with consistent narrative. When you, for instance, look at Hamas and the Israeli war, what do you believe? Because the only source of your inference is the media.

So who is behind the narrative?

When you watch Al Jazeera, you see something else. When you watch BBC, you see something else. When you watch CNN, you see something else. And how many of you are observing that CNN is getting gradually Islamized? From being liberal to— pay attention, there's a global game that is being played right before our eyes. And guess what? We are all in the game. We are all in the game, and everyone is acting out their own script exactly the way they want you to act it out. Everyone is playing their part. Exactly the way they want. You know, recently— let me talk about this, but I'm not going to go deep. I just want to keep my opinion to myself. When there was a video circulating, oh, this person is false, I just said to myself, oh, what this will do to the body of Christ. We have a generation that is still struggling to believe in the concept of church, trying to get their back to their feet, and you know, that wave just go around again. People are saying, that's why I don't do church, that's why I don't do church. We always have the tendency to throw the baby and the bad water away. That's what consistent information does— it wears you out. Are you with me?

What do you believe? What do you believe? And where's your source?

Where are you getting your information from? Some of you just believe that when you type something on Google and just Google some things, that anything Google bring, you have your answer. Says who? Somebody placed that there. The definitions you get, somebody placed it there. Somebody put those definitions there. So it means all they have to do is to edit it, and there you go.

You act out the script, you believe it again. Swallow the junks. Are you aware that there are Bibles that have been written now for LGBT?

Are you aware that the guy King James was not a born-again person, was a gay? So you know, are you aware there was a time NIV itself was edited? Because now that we have all moved to digital Bible Careful. I'm not against tech, but I'm saying we might be, we might be on the journey of being set up for something. And very soon you can't use those Bible until they're connected to the internet. And very soon AI, this, this, and overnight many things can be subtly changed in the name of new translations, and we don't understand it. You watch, you watch cartoons like Cocomelon and you see the introduction for babies, Cocomelon, of a new couple and they're both males. Who is behind the narratives? Who is sponsoring them? Doing NSAS. NSAS was hijacked at some point. I don't know if you know. Soros, okay, movement. Some people came and pumping resources as long as they can also loud LGBT emancipation alongside. Where are those monies coming from? I have friends in America, United Kingdom, who are having their research works from PhD, different forms of research. And as long as you go in the route of meaningful stuff around LGBT, um, you'll be well funded. One of my friends did a very amazing research work that seemed to counter and show with fact the dangers of LGBT movement. The professor said, this is the best research we have seen, however, we will not be publishing it. Who are those behind the status quo? Who is giving you— who is indoctrinating you with a well-scripted thought, things that they know are so convincing. And because the only place you fact-check, they're also there. Like I said, the only place you fact-check, they're also there, convincing level of deception that you can run away from. So one of the strategies to be used in the last days is media as a tool of control, using well-scripted narratives and propagandas and outright deception, outright deception. Outright deception. I mean, some people have said every truth, every rumor has an altar of truth. It's because you have not been lied against before. The day you get lied against, for you, you will discover that some things can be an outright lie. Now we're studying the book of Job. We are studying the book of Job currently in our house, in our family. And we read Job chapter number 25 when the friends of Job were saying to him that, you see, when the needy comes to you, you were not there for them. You are a wicked guy, you are this and all that. And fast forward to Job 27, Job said, I was eye to the blind, I clothed the poor and the needy. So there can't be outright lies.

There can't be, there can't be outright lies.

And since you already have bias, you see, let me tell you my worry. My fear is not even for false prophets. My fear is for hateful believers. Who in a bit of witch hunting will fight even what God himself is doing. I will not know that they have corrupted an entire office in the mind of other believers. And because the system understands that you have hatred one for another, they will play us well, effortlessly. We can be played easily. Don't be deceived. You can be deceived. Understand that one of the ways the devil intends to also win in the last days is to build systems. And guess what, believers, we know little or nothing about systems. That's our weakest point. We don't know anything about systems. I'm sorry to say that. You know, I train leaders. I train ministry leaders, church leaders, sometimes some organization leaders on how to build solid systems and effective managerial systems, how to train their staffs and equip them and all that. I train leaders, and one of the things I've found out is that the most difficult thing for many people to build is viable structure that guarantees the future of the organization. Anywhere there is good structure, there will be a plan. What is the plan of the body of Christ in Nigeria? What's our 20-year plan? What's our 10-year plan? What's our Vision 2034? What's our Vision 2044? What's our Vision 2054? We are up against a system that, listen, they've been planning for over 500 years.

Understanding that one generation may not see the fullness of execution. This is as far as they can go, and they— another generation will continue, and the script is being acted out the exact same way they want it. We are up against a well-planned system without a plan, without a plan. And you look at the gradual introduction, the gradual infiltration, the gradual projection of certain narratives. It's taking years. What are we pushing?

20— what have you now— another 4 years, then we come again with loads of prophecy. This person is going to win without a plan.

Who are those we are raising in the church who are going to be the frontliners in political sector.

We talk about 7 mountains of influence, now it's 8. AI has entered. We didn't see that coming. Anything we don't understand, we demonize. And when we demonize, we deconcentrate. Then the devil use it well. Who are those we have sent to understudy it? Now I can teach in English, and through AI tools, they can interpret in Spanish, in French, and we project to other nations. Instead of maximizing and studying those things, what we do consistently is that we keep demonizing it, because the idea is get the light out, the darkness invade. Many people don't even know that they are a part of a big game already being played. And like I said, you are acting your script the exact same way it was predicted you will react. Is the exact same way you are reacting. When there is a news, boom, the exact same way they expect you to react, that they are projected to react through their surveys, is the exact same way you are reacting. We are up against a very intelligent system. We are up against a very intelligent system, and we need to understand See, this generation of the church cannot make everyone pastors. There must be people who are in the marketplace, who are positioned around the corridors of power. You see, um, I think one time I shared the video about, um, a woman that was part of the board of Disney World. Um, there's this character— I can't remember the cartoon now— that they were going to release the part 2, and they were going to make the main character a lesbian. She was the only Christian in the room. Listen, she did not tell them, 'Thus says the Lord,' neither did she say, 'It is written.' She brought an intelligent, market-valued explanation.

You must understand that Daniel served with idol worshippers. He served with necromancers, with, with, with, with sorcerers. He was around them. He did not run. He sat with several kings. I want you to get my teaching titled The Curriculum of Giants. I was showing how that we need to have—

listen, if you study medicine, certain curriculum has been built, an outline, that if you go through this from part 1 doing chemistry, physics, and so on and so forth. And then you get to Part 2, you have been introduced to anatomy, to physiology, to biochemistry. And you get to Part 3 and you continue there, you have been introduced and gradually to medical microbiology, to, um, what's it called, hematology, to, um, medical virology, to bacteriology, to all those things. If you go through all these courses, at the end of certain period of time having been exposed to this, passing this one exam, you're expected to be a medical doctor, one that can be certified to take care of people. Predictable curriculum. How predictable is the curriculum raising people in our churches? That if you sit under my teaching for 6 months, this is what we expect you to become. If you sit under my teaching for a year, this is the quality of believer we expect you to to come. You know, we just do everything— our lack of excellence in drawing structure, we have covered it with a very spiritual name. We call it as the spirit is moving, as the spirit is moving.

Say, ah, the spirit is just saying, the spirit, the spirit, the spirit.

That's why I say something jokingly, that prophecy is not epilepsy. If you keep rolling on the floor to prophesy, when will you stand before kings? We have different names, we have different things. And you know, particularly Pentecostals, we just tongue everything. And one time I raised an alarm. Sometimes, I'm sorry to say, sometimes the minister might go to a meeting, has not done his homework, where he won't teach the people, just say, hey, fire there, hey, an angel there. The substance they live with is the word. That's the substance, and that's what we give the least. You must understand that we are up against a very patient system. Not only is the system patient, also very intelligent, and also a system that understands human mind. We have been weighed, we have been checked. The division amongst us is a very powerful tool with which the devil will achieve what he wants to achieve. Who is financing the agendas of the devil and at the same time fighting the idea of giving in church? A system is pumping huge resources. Guess what? You hear men like Bill Gates say things like this. They, they spend less than 1% or so, so of their income of their, their asset. They are not— they're going to give it out. You see massive generosity. But when the same thing is extended towards the church, there seem to be opera from the gate of hell by fellow believers who don't know the truth. I give an illustration that when you look at the formation of the army of the devil, when you look at the lineup, those you see in the front line are Christians who did not know that they are actually fighting on the side of the devil. Who are doing so in Jesus' name, fighting other believers, fighting the agenda of God, demonizing everyone, calling every pastor false, calling everyone a scam and all that. There are very few people that can know accurate truth and not work in pride, and the devil knows this. So if he can't stop you from getting deep, he will win you with your pride. Your pride will convert you to his side. Very, very important for us to know this. Why is the devil fighting the idea of financing the kingdom? Every year in our ministry, I'm not actually— I mean, I say it publicly, we fast beginning of the year. After fasting, we give our first fruit, we give our first income to the cause of the gospel. You are not giving to a pastor. You hear something like, check, check what's going to happen towards the end of January.

You start seeing narrative, some mumu will start giving their money to a pastor. From whom?

To a pastor.

Which same pastor will sit on the income of the members? And these are falsehoods being perpetrated by people who have no idea what pastoring is. That the genuine pastor is the first to lead the way doing what is right. Are they false? Yes.

That doesn't make everyone false. Don't forget what I talk about, deconcentrating a whole lump. Are you with me? Are you following what I'm saying? And because we have been studied as people with low self-esteem, in a bid for somebody not to be a momo, as they have said, and I say me, never.

Meanwhile, somebody is pumping. I, I shared, I gave an illustration. We're going to push out these videos, um, in the coming days.

Prepare yourself for global mission. I did a teaching how I showed out that Saudi Arabia alone gave $1 trillion, $1 trillion for world Islamization, and the agenda is to penetrate through entertainment, through sport. How can the most conservative country or kingdom suddenly start becoming the most liberal and they are opening their arms wide. Come in, boxing, bring it in. Saudi Arabia, um, football, bring them in. Cristiano Ronaldo, bring him in. Messi, bring him in. Di María, bring them in. What's happening? What changed? Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments, where is it? Saudi Arabia. Why is it fenced round?

What are they doing?

They understand the power of finance in kingdom establishment.

What do we do in Christianity?

We fight it because that's who we are. We have greed. And we justify it with body of scriptures we have found. Any giving that a person does, as long as the fellow is not being deceived to do it, whether first fruit or tithe, as long as it is towards the kingdom, should not be fought. But no, we just bring our ignorance to the table. And pastors fighting pastors, exactly what they expect us to be doing while they are busy building and establishing while they are busy building their own, right? Where we are—

while we are being distracted, something deep is going on behind our nostrils. A lot is happening behind the scene. We are distracted fighting ourselves, exactly as they predicted it.

But we just never understand. We think ourselves to be smart, and the Bible said we become fools. 1 Corinthians chapter number 3. I want to show you a scripture. Let me start the reading from verse 18. He said, let no man deceive himself. If any man amongst you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. Meaning that the true wise people in the, in the sight of God are those they call fools. Who amongst us is willing to be called the fool?

Look at it.

Verse 19 says, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, it taketh the wise in their own craftiness. The, the wisdom of this world is foolishness. There is the wisdom of this world where people try to outsmart God. There is the wisdom of this world, and the Bible says it's foolishness with God. Now look at that same 1 Corinthians 3:18. Let's look at it in Message translation. It will wow you. It will wow you. I'm rounding up now. I'm going to share a few more things and I'll round up. Look at it. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 18, Message Translation says, don't fool yourself. Don't think that you can be wise merely by being up to date with the times. That is to be woke. Be God's fool. That's the path of true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It is written in scriptures, he exposes the chicanery of the cheek. The master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls. He sees through the smoke screens. What do you call a smoke screen? It's a decoy system, something that is used to distract so you cannot see the original thing. And that's what is happening. While the— why there's so much noise in the media, there is the major thing is happening behind the smoke screen. So the Bible says that the Master sees the smoke screens of the know-it-alls. When you understand this, you will not start screaming when things are going viral. You want to ask a question? Who stands to gain here? Who stands to gain? The church or a system that is outrightly against the church? Who stands to benefit? The church or a system that is outrightly against the church? Islam is well more financed than Christianity. I have details, I have documents, I have facts. I have done my research. Maybe if I will have a part 2 of this, I will show you the statistics of how Islam is growing in Israel. In Israel, yes. In America, in United Kingdom. The only place now where Christianity is still being practiced in the fullness of his strength is Africa. And that's why there's so much— there's going to be much more fight against the church in Africa. We must wake up. A lot is happening behind the smoke screens, and our greed, our hatred for one another is part of the thing that is being used to achieve that. May God give us understanding. May we come to understand what is happening. Be God's fool. Don't try to be smart to make sense with the world. Sometimes you go on Twitter— I'm not there— you see things like somebody said he's gone to eat and they post their stuff. They've gone to a club over the weekend in different places. They've spent $5,000 in a club and drink things that will pickle their livers. But if the same person gives that to a church, they call them fool. What exactly is happening? I will spend my own money for the kingdom and I'll be called a fool, but if I spend that money on things that are not right, I'm smart for enjoying my life. And we have the slogan, do what makes you happy. You see that? Not what makes God happy, not what is right. And people are not even aware that the highest rate of suicide right now is among the LGBTs. Depression is killing them. Somebody is regretting that she has swapped the gender, and they will cover it up. It will never make the news, pumping with different injections, antidepressants, and all those things. It doesn't make the news. They show you the ones that are happy, two males getting married.

What do you do? In the name of Jesus, we will build systems, counter-propaganda systems. Get there in the media, get there. Don't talk down those who are there. Understand the way it works, the algorithm system. Study it. Understand the way it works. Get in there, put your quota, contribute. Don't just talk. Systems don't respond to prayers alone. Build countermeasures. Get in there, know how it's working. Let's watch out amongst us creatives. Let's finance them, let's push them, let's support them.

Now we must know it is part of evangelism to locate creatives and support them. It is evangelizing. We must understand that. But we just never just understand this in the Nigerian church. If it's not the old method— one time I did a survey in church and I asked them that if you know you came to this church through flyers and invitation, please stand up. I didn't think we're having anybody stand up, not because we are not sharing flyers and doing all that. People were trekking north, doing all that. Well, we came to this church because you saw one of my videos online, read one of my messages, or somebody recommended this church. Apostle Lazarus, watch his video, came. Almost the entire church. What's that telling us? Invade the media. That's the new satellite. We must wake up, wake up and defend the gospel with everything that you have. We must begin to see beyond the noise on media. We must begin to see beyond the smoke screen. We must begin to see that. I said to you that Saudi Arabia pumped $1 trillion, and $100 billion from that $1 trillion was pumped into sports. We don't even know what is happening. How come Now we want to describe the best in anything, we call the person goat. What's the symbol of Baphomet? Goat. Some believers even say I'm goat. Why can't we use any other name? Greatest of all times. Who's pushing a narrative, get you convenient with a symbol? Who is behind all that? We need to understand culture shaping. Through music, through creativity, through the preaching of the gospel. You know, somebody, somebody did something one time and they were going to drag my teachings, and the fellow said, how can people who hate Jesus love your teaching? And I'm like, wow, how will they come to know Jesus unless there's a teacher?

You know, we just believe that the gospel must be hard. People should go and hit their head on the wall. They must—

where is that coming from? That didn't look like Jesus of the Bible. He met a woman that was caught in adultery and he rescued her. A thief was on his right side, he saved him. He met a woman who has married 5 different men. And showed her the way. We must wake up. Our insensitivity is giving us out. So let me wrap up. Recently there's been more Nigerian singers and acts who have been performing on stage and having ritualistic performances. People practically left some of those shows scared. Outright rituals on stage. Check Grammy Awards. Outright projection of the devil, that's woke. But when somebody projects Jesus, that's a cake.

Who is pushing the narrative? When somebody, a basketballer, is about to throw a shot and does signs like this and does all those things, that's woke. But when someone lifts his vest and put 'Thank you, Jesus,' We bleep it out in CNN, bleep it out in all those places.

Who is pushing the narrative? What's happening behind the smoke screen? It's time to start seeing, know what's going on. Wake up. Shun hatred.

Love Jesus.

Love the body of Christ.

Pray.

Be quick to hear, be slow to speak. Always ask. Who stands to gain? Who is behind the scene? Who stands to gain in all that is happening? You will understand how to take your own posture.

You will understand that we have work to do. We have work.

Recently, when we began to push out a video as touching our church having a building project Oh, somebody said, what an entitlement. I mean, drag me, call me names, it's okay. We didn't come this far to bow to propaganda. There's work to be done and it can't be done without you. It's time to wake up, end-time Christians. All you see is not all that meets the eyes. We have work to do. All right, I believe this has blessed you in some ways. It's It's not the teaching, it's not the preaching, just us having conversations. And, um, let me know in the comment section how this bless you, and do well to share also with someone. And this is a call to responsibility, um, to call to awareness for us to wake up and do our own part. And then God bless you so much. So I'm going to like to pray for you. And if there's anyone under the sound of my voice who have not accepted the life of Christ, I would like to lead you to Christ. And somebody asks, how do I get led to Christ? You believe in your heart that he came to this world to die for our sins, then you confess with your mouth. The confession, the Bible says, is unto salvation. And wherever you are over there, you are tired of living that life of depression. The Bible calls it superfluity of naughtiness in James 1. You are tired of living that life of emptiness, never come to satisfaction, repeating the same cycle. You say, I'm done, I want to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I'll be glad to lead you to Christ. You may want to place your right hand on your chest, or if you— or just say after me, Lord Jesus. Say it again, Lord Jesus. I believe that you came to this world to die for my sins. I believe that you died for my sins. I also believe that you rose up on the third day for my justification. Today I confess you as my Lord and Savior, and I accept this gift of eternal life. In Jesus' name. Amen. If you have said that, congratulations to you. I'm so excited. There will be a number on the screen. You want to reach out, you want to be discipled, would be glad to disciple you. So excited to have you connect tonight, and God bless you. Let me know this bless you, and one of the ways I will know is when I see how you share it with people. Don't forget to like and subscribe on this YouTube channel till I come your way again. God bless you so much. Have an amazing time. Bye-bye.

In shadows veiled, puppeteers unseen crafting tales, an opaque shin. These are propaganda architects, the unseen choreographers. It's time to see beyond the smoke screen. Join Apostle Femi Lazarus as we embark on a journey of unmasking the masquerade behind the narratives in the last days. Showing live on Femi Lazarus Ministries YouTube channel on Friday the 12th of January, 2024. See beyond the smoke screen.