Opening the Gates of Heaven Perry Stone

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. —2 P ETER 2:1–3

The word merchandise means, to “travel as a peddler.” Their method of deception is feigned words. The word feigned means, “artificial or fictitious.” It alludes to making up a word from God that is not from God in order to sell someone on what is being taught or preached. This would include a prophecy out of their own spirits to encourage a person to give. Their motive is covetousness. The New Testament word covetousness means, “ To get an advantage or make a gain by defrauding .” The emphasis in this passage is not upon meeting the needs of the person but upon how a person can be manipulated to help out the one making the claims—in this case how the alleged prophet can profit from his fictitious words. Untold damage is done when the Lord is not in the words