I Prophesy because I’m a Prophet, I’m a Prophet because I Prophesy. If you take any ministry office and plug in the words Pastor, Teacher, Evangelist, Apostle you will find that the equation works. I Teach because I’m a teacher, I’m a teacher because I teach. Barry Kolb leads apostolically because he’s an apostle; he’s an apostle as demonstrated by his apostolic leadership. A Pastor and Evangelist does the same.
If a teacher gifted, anointed and of the Holy Spirit sometimes teaches something that is perhaps not all agreed to by other teachers, he isn’t threatened with stoning. If an Apostle leads from courage but sometimes makes a bonehead move it doesn’t disqualify him from his office as an apostle. If a Pastor loses one of the sheep because they become rebellious or if he misses nurturing one he is not less of a Pastor, and if an Evangelist after giving it all he knows to give is rejected by his target subject, he isn’t questioned by the rest of the giftedness as to his office’s validity.
But, not so with Prophets. We are expected to get it right all the time every time. The problem is that’s not scriptural. Not in the New Testament 5 fold ministry expressions of today.
Of course, people who oppose and question prophecy will immediately start to talk of digging up some stones to throw. All that based on a badly understood passage of scripture Deut 8:8-22. That passage says if a prophet is wrong he must be stoned to death. That WAS true.
That passage was given because before Pentecost there were very few Prophets of God on the earth at any one time. Scripturally there may have been only a half dozen at any one time. With bursts to 15 or 20. Seldom more. There were false prophets. People who claimed to speak for God or gods. Those were the ones who must live under threat of death. The Holy Spirit only came on a few people from time to time in the Old Testament. So there was no capacity for discernment by those who were followers of Jehovah. Prophets Had to be 100% accurate all the time.
Most prophets before Pentecost were prophets to leaders, in particular kings. They claimed that what they said was the very words of God, precisely as God said them. Exodus 4:12, Jeremiah 1:9 and Numbers 22:38 are examples of the claims of the prophetic voice in the Old Covenant.
After Pentecost everything changed. A lot. First of all it was assumed that all believers everywhere would have the Spirit of the Living God living strong in them so that when the prophet spoke the others could do as Paul mandates in 1 Corinthians 14:29; Hear and Judge what is said. Not like today where only a third of those claiming to be part of the Body of Christ are living in the fullness of the Spirit of God. They do not operate in the gift of discernment because they have rejected the fullness. Oh, they judge, but they judge incorrectly or too harshly or become despisers of prophecy 1 Thess 5:19-21. That is the state of the Church today. Weak judging people operating in their own understanding without the fullness of the Holy Ghost empowering their life. What is sad is they will all say Yes and Amen to the idea that we are to: Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. What they really mean is Trust the Lord some, try to understand and explain things thru reason and what I don’t understand I will reject. They trust the devils ability to deceive them more than they trust God ability to reveal himself to them.
We are in full-blown Pentecost. The Spirit of God has been poured out. Sons and Daughters prophesy. Young and old, visions and dreams. Sure there are errors. That’s why the discernment of the Spirit counts.
If you had the fullness of the Spirit in full operation in your life it wouldn’t be so mysterious. This life should, no MUST be normative in the Church of Jesus for tomorrow.
There is a curse leveled on Churches and Spiritual leaders who blaspheme what the Holy Ghost meant for them in this part of the 5 fold. Don’t be among them. This is too serious to play games with.
Tomorrow: Martin Luther taught on these gifts and got it right. So should you.
2 comments:
[quote]All that based on a [i]badly understood passage[/i] of scripture Deut 8:8-22. That passage says if a prophet is wrong he must be stoned to death. That [i]WAS true[/i].[/quote]
Gene,
It cannot be "badly understood" if it "was true". It can only have ceased to be the truth at some point in time. Most Pentecostals like to quote "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever" when such a cessation is suggested.
Today's 'prophecies' make claims in the broadest of terms. Little or no specifics are given which places it in stark contrast to Prophets and prophecy throughout Scripture -- OT and NT.
Today's 'prophets' rarely agree on the estimated timelines and type of events they claim are upcoming. Gene, you summed up all the prophecy you linked to by saying:
*God is moving in new and larger ways than ever before
*His people will be covered with peace in trouble
*Trouble, big trouble, perhaps terror, something catastrophic, bigger than 9-11 is coming.
*Fear will cause men's hearts to fail. *Only Faith will prevail in trouble.
*The Church and organized religion as we knew it is dead and gone.
*Only that which matters and is relevant will survive in these times.
*God's best is still ahead of us, and his finest hours are about to be shown in the body of Christ
So, why even attempt to be accurate when you can re-state what Scripture already suggests is possible or will happen in the future tribulation period? (With the exception of the claims that something huge is going to happen in 2007) Tell me, has a year ever passed where something big hasn't happened. God was never this vague about a big event at any time throughout Scripture. He was always spoke without error, was not misheard in any way by His prophets, nor did they ever fail to say precisely what God told them to say. There was never a need to 'sum up' what the prophets had said in order to get an idea of what 'might' happen.
God didn't stop using language to communicate His word after Pentecost. If words aren't important and accuracy doesn't matter, then why use language?
God used language to communicate to believers after Pentecost because He means what He says, just like He did in the OT.
Deuteronomy 18:21-22 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Just to clarify.
The passage also is the only declarative statement about the accuracy of prophecy in Scripture. It positively declares 100% accuracy in no uncertain words. That is the reality which never ceased. (That the false prophet was to be put to death is not the responsibility of the Church because the law was not given to the Church, it was given to Israel exclusively.)
Gene, your own understanding is precisely what you are relying upon when you ignore a declarative statement in Scripture and construct a rationale for less than 100% accuracy upon the assumption that all professing Christians are not true Christians, and, therefore, not all are spirit-filled. Question: What does another's profession -- true or false -- have to do with the accuracy of todays 'prophets'? Remember what God said "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto your own understanding."
The Lord plainly declared the accuracy of the prophetic gift. That is what we should be trusting in -- that is, if we are trusting in the Lord -- for there is no statement, suggestion, and most importantly, no example of prophets or prophecy, in OT nor NT, that contradicts God's requirement of 100% accuracy.
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