Prophets

Being at home with Mum is frustrating. She follows this 'prophet' who is beginning to have a very strong hold over her. He leads a group of her and her friends, acting as 'spiritual head' to the women, as they believe the correct way to get to God is for a woman to look to her man and the man to have Jesus as his head. They believe strange things, like reincarnation (Mum is convinced that there are very few are new spirits - her spirit was previously a person in the crowd at Jesus' crucifiction, and at some point the widow of a fisherman). Sometimes I'm surprised they bother reading the Bible, although the latest news is that this guy is planning to do a translation of the Bible - apparantly the people who have done translations have done it all wrong because they don't have the 'special sight' that he has. This 'special sight' includes being able to see people's auras and energy. I've been that I give out very bad energy, often at times when I'm completely calm and passive and nice. (But of course, I don't realise what energy I really give out).

I've gone over and over all this in my head, and talked to Christians I respect about it, who have assured me that it's right to think Mum is wrong, but she still has the power to scare me. Yesterday she gave me a serious preachy talk about the perils of ignoring a prophet of God. She pointed me to Deuteronomy 18, so I read it later:

'The LORD said to me: "What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth , and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my word that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."'

Obviously I'm hoping this situation falls into the second category, but there are still times when I'm unsure, especially when I'm at a low with God and I'm wondering if life as a Christian would be more fruitful and blessed if I were to believe this guy and listen to everything he says. The horrible thing is that Mum is constantly going on about loving me properly, at meal times she always thanks God for sending her this prophet and asks for help to love me properly. We don't have a good relationship, we're perfectly civil but I wouldn't say I love her, which worries me because she follows her prophet and she tries to love me (to the point of smothering me with affection, which is difficult to cope with when she's not shown much love in the past few years), yet I'm trying to follow God and I can't even bring myself to smile at her sometimes. I don't know if that speaks of her rightness or my inadequacy as a Christian. Definately the latter... possibly the former as well, I really don't know.

Prayer appreciated!