Wicked Prophets Abound

I attended a "prophecy conference" once in a small town we lived in. I thought I was attending a Bible study, what I encountered was devastating foolishness. The prophecy wasn't anything to do with the end times, but rather a charlatan working his wiles on weak minded people looking for a spiritual high.

A man in the pulpit told idiotic stories, made the people laugh all through the preaching, told everyone they had a wonderful prediction for their life and invited them to line up to hear their personal prediction.

I was shaking my head all the way through the non-sense, the preacher noticed that I was disapproving of him, called me out in the middle of the preaching to mock me in front of a couple of hundred people. He then saw my son sitting next to me, calling him out, inviting him to come up to the podium. I told him not to go and he didn't. After the meeting a friend overheard this foolish preacher telling someone that my son was going to commit suicide.

After the preaching this miserable preacher had the people line up, the line was very long, to hear their prediction. Everyone got a special story for their life, all good and wonderful. The smiling faces and laughing voices were like clanging symbols to me.

One lady in the mess was discouraged, because when she was next in line to hear her prediction, the preacher told her he knew she like to bake cookies. The woman was portly and grandmotherly looking, she told him she didn't bake cookies, he then treated her with dismissiveness, even mocking her. I was so glad that woman saw the evil of this wicked man.

One thing I noticed in all this is that everyone who was excited to hear the preacher and have their fortune predicted, were given a good report, a slap on the back and went away happy. The one person, me, who did not approve was called out for ridicule and an evil prediction was given for my son.

One way to expose a wicked person is to disapprove of their actions or words and watch what comes out of them. They are enraged and vindictive when anyone challenges their authority or reveals their lies.

Proverbs 6:12-16 "A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:"

No New Prophecy

Please do not place on my wall anything having to do with self proclaimed modern day "prophetesses" or "prophets." All prophecy has already been written in the word of God, there is nothing new needed for the believer to live by faith. 

 

Matthew 12:39"But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;"

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 "6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil."

I understand the temptation to learn about our fate here on earth and what we might do to thwart anything coming against us, but lets remember that we are not a people who are worried about our fate, we know that whatever we go through will be in God's hands.

We also know that if the Lord has a plan to hide us from difficulty, He may not tell us ahead of time, He will just say to us one day, "I want you to go here", even without us knowing why we are going to a place, it may be a place of protection. Often our life circumstances change, it isn't until later down the road that we see why. He may also not protect our bodies from hardship, we know this because very godly believers get ill are rejected by family and encounter many life difficulties, they are blessings from God to build our character and stretch our spiritual muscles. God always protects our spirit, but may not protect our bodies or circumstances.

If God ordains that we go through hard things, then we need to remember that He knew all about it before it came to us and will give us strength to go through it. 

 

Isaiah 40:29 "29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."

Psalm 29:11 "The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace."

The peace we have is not physical peace but rather Spiritual, the strength we have is not physical strength but Spiritual. Christ is our peace and our strength. We tend to focus on the physical often, thinking we have no peace because of the life we live and that we have no strength because our body is failing, but the Lord focuses on our spiritual well being.

I have at times agonized over something that I wanted to happen or didn't want to happen, as I prayed I became content. My peace left me temporarily while I was hoping for something to happen or not happen, that was not the will of God. As I returned to trust in Christ, He gave me peace that remains, if a change is going to happen, then that is up to Him and not me.

There have been times when I placed my trust more in my feelings than in Christ. I had to repent from paying attention to my feelings more than God, then is when the peace returned. I learned over the years to ignore my feelings and go to prayer. Wonderful things can happen in our soul when we disregard the flesh and pay close attention to God's Word and His principles.

The more we focus on perceived fears, emotions and desires, the greater possibility of deception and the less tranquility we experience.

I recall the story of Corry Ten Boom, a woman captured by the Nazi's, placed in a prison camp to endure many hardships and the loss of her sister who died there. She had a period of discouragement while in that camp, but when she began to focus on Christ, her joy and trust returned to her. 

 

“Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!’ Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. ‘No, Corrie,’ said Betsie, ‘He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.” ” Corrie concludes, “There is an ocean of God’s love available—there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love—whatever the circumstances.” Corry Ten Boom

All these internet warnings about the existence of concentration camps being prepared for U.S. citizens, may or may not be true, but it is not our business to fret over what might or might not be happening behind the scenes. Our business is to keep our eyes on Christ, obey Him as He leads and endure whatever He has for us with hope and expectation as we live out our lives for Him, no matter what is done to us on earth. Our future is not only bright but spectacularly so, when we consider our salvation and the events to come. 

 

We have no need of more prophets to tell us future events, we can rely on the Holy Spirit Who lives in each one of us, to guide us as we go. 

 

Warning: Matthew 24:11 "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many."

Training for what is to Come!

To my brothers and sisters that I know through facebook but have never met, I am looking forward to meeting you all at the marriage supper of the Lamb!!!! I am convinced that it will be soon! My prayer is that He will strengthen all of us in a greater resolve to honor Him before He takes us out.

Many in our church family are isolated in one way or another, others are being persecuted through beheadings and torture, may the Lord give us all strength beyond anything human to be able to endure the wrath of man.

Our hope is not in this life, but in the life to come, our real life is there, this has only been a training period for learning. I could be wrong but I am convinced that this life is preparing us for ruling in the Millenium. What we learn here will make us able to lead in whatever God gives us to do there.

Revelation 20:6 "Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years."

Some work out real hard to make the muscles of the body strong, the believer allows Christ to work in them to make our Spiritual muscles strong, for what is coming.

I am thankful that I don't have to make myself anything, Christ is doing it in me!

Ask God to do it in You!

God changes hearts.....He does that.....Let God and it will be permanent and real! STOP trying to change your own heart, confess to God your need and He will do the work in you!

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

1 Samuel 10:9
"Then it happened when he turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart; and all those signs came about on that day."

2 Corinthians 5:17
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

Jeremiah 24:7
"'I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart."

Ezekiel 36:26
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Romans 2:29
"But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God."

Psalm 51:10
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me."

2 Corinthians 7:10
"For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death."

Ezekiel 11:19
"And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,"

Romans 12:2
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Government Validates Sin

The government deemed "blacks" non persons in this country in the Dread Scott decision of 1857, to be able to justify slavery. They will lie and say anything that absolves them of responsibility while solidifying their purposes. Making a sin legal, is the governments way of validating sin, we have seen this over and over again down through the years.

We have seen this in the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, a form of slavery all over again. The unborn are seen as property, void of person hood, therefore their "owners" can do whatever they like with them and to them.

Do you think that it is over, that we will no longer give support for the abuse of those who cannot defend themselves? Not only is it not over, we will see this mentality of slavery increase the more entrenched we become in the 2 Timothy 3 mindset. Christians are going to be a target because they do not approve of those who do these evil acts. The Christian is going to be seen as intolerant and mean spirited for not endorsing wickedness.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also."

Notice that it is "impulse" that drives these people, not reason or righteousness, but rather feelings based on selfishness. Often these people are in the church making worldly and foolish arguments to excuse evil, even embracing it to fit into popular thinking.

Those who love Christ are now a target for emotional and even physical abuse on the part of those who are deeply convicted by our way of life as believers. They are not satisfied to ignore us, they must do something to demean and destroy us. What the destroyers don't know is that with Christ living in us we have the strength to endure whatever the devil throws at us. Christ will fight on our behalf and the end of the story has been written, we know Who wins, our hope is great no matter what others do to us. Hallelujah!!!

Matthew 10:28 ""Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Abel's Offering vs. Cain's Offering

Why was Abel's offering accepted and Cain's not? Here is the answer, it had nothing to do with the type of offering or the excellence of the offering.

"By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks."

Hebrews 11:4
"[W]e should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous."

1 John 3:11–12
Cain and Able are an example of how God wants us to come to Him. By faith, and faith alone, He does all the rest of the Work.

If we want to be like Cain, we will trust our own ability to secure our salvation. Those who come this way will not be born again.

If we are like Able we will come by faith in Christ's finished work on the cross. Those who come this way will be born again, changed into a new creation by Christ and continually cleansed until the day we die.

We often think of people the way we think of God. How many times have we expected people to act in a way that elevates us, without concern about how we treat them? When we see God as One who is at our beckon call to give us all that we want, neglecting the things that please Him, while demanding the things that please us, we are holding Him in contempt. Our praise and worship are only demonstrated when He is giving us what we desire.

It might be good to ask God for His will, rather than waiting to ask Him when we can't get things to work out our way, in other words, we treat Him like a stop gap measure when our own plans and all else fails.

How much do we honor and respect God, will be seen in how we treat others. Mankind doesn't switch horses in mid stream, we usually are consistent in our attitudes, even if we hide them, they still remain in our soul, waiting to emerge when we are not getting our way, like spoiled children who have a tantrum to manipulate and control.

Cain trusted in his own abilities while being lazy about pleasing anyone else. Not only did he display anger at God for not accepting his offering, but his rage became evident when he killed his brother, laziness and jealousy were at the root of his tantrum against God and Abel.

We cannot separate our attitudes about God from our attitudes about others. Whatever way we act toward others, will be a clue about our attitude toward God. We can only hide so long before our strength wains and our emotions and actions give us away.

I am finding many people who think that God is nothing more than a concept in their own minds and His principles are nothing more than something to talk about. The modern church loves to display their level of knowledge as long as they do not have to actually follow what they know.

How many times have we seen people tell us all about the movie they watched, full of the emotion they felt from viewing it? They were never in the movie, never lived anything in it, but loved to discuss it with all the passion of real life as though they actually experienced it.
This is how many believers discuss the principles of God. We enjoy speaking about God's commandments, intellectually engaging them but never actually living them out in life. "Knowing" seems to be equivalent to "doing", in our modern culture. "Saying" something is enough, "obeying" is not really very important as long as we "know."
James 2:19 "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder."

Knowing something is not enough, God commands us to obey, not just "know." Do we "say" to God "I love you", and then proceed to disobey? Are the words enough for us, if so, this may be an indication that we are not born again. Those who love Christ want to obey Him, even when we fail we hate that we do, we confess freely and openly to be accountable, then we move forward in obedience. God will only work in the heart of someone who wants Him to cleanse them. God never forces anyone!

John 14:21 "“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

Our Companions Matter

There are people at times in our lives, that attempt to define who we are on their terms according to their philosophy rather than getting to know us, basing their view of us on God's standard. They have an idea of us that they prefer, because of their need to control others. Who we are may not be bad or wrong, but in their estimation, if we do not think like they do or act as they do, we are considered inferior or evil.

Obviously as a believer, I am not saying we should overlook sinful behavior, however, as far as personality and personal convictions are concerned, we should not be judged by another person's standard, but by God's principles.

There are those in the church who make up their own rules, going beyond what God mandated and judging the character of others on that basis. It is sinful to evaluate someone on small matters that are not sin issues.

Even in the matter of sin, we should go to the one who is sinning with an attitude of brokenness for them, purposing to restore them through truth. Everyone sins, the objective should never be to beat someone down over and over again to appear superior, but rather share correction, that the one sinning would return to obedience. If we have to remove ourselves because someone rejects correction, choosing to continue in sin, then we should feel grieved that we have to move on because they will not listen, while continuing to pray for them until God tells us to stop.

I knew of a woman who was judged and mocked as silly and foolish by someone because she had more than one pair of brown shoes in her closet. This is a true story, she was mocked and demeaned because a wise woman wouldn't need more than one pair of brown shoes, according to the values of the one judging. The shoes were different colors and styles, some were flats, some heels and some boots. This woman purchased shoes she liked at garage sales, thrift stores and some new on sale. She was a thrifty woman, all the household bills were paid, there were donations to worthy causes, so there couldn't be a judgement that she was wasting money that needed to go other places and the items in question were not expensive. It is even possible that all her purchases together were less than one expensive pair of brown shoes at a downtown shop. Nothing was wrong, nothing needed to be judged in the matter of the shoe caper! But someone wanted to feel superior, because they wouldn't buy that many brown shoes, this must mean that the one who did was foolish, worthy of disrespect.

When we continually evaluate a person's character on trivial matters, there is an attitude of superiority, the belief that if someone doesn't do like I do, think like I do and want what I want, then they are not worthy of respect and honor.

I wonder how many relationships have been destroyed because of continual mocking, demeaning and dismissiveness by those who walk in pride?

When we are continually demeaned and mocked, it not only affects our view of life, but can bring on physical problems as well as determine our own attitudes. The more we are with someone the more likely we are to act the way they act, say the things they say and carry on the mental disposition they possess.

Judging trivial things is an unnecessary and excellent recipe for a damaged and even completely destroyed relationship. When someone shows disrespect once or twice we tend to over look it as a weak moment, but when these tactics of demeaning occur regularly without restraint, then we are probably encountering someone who has a problem with pride, desiring to control others to be shaped into their own image.

God tells us to be careful to guard our hearts by choosing our companions wisely. When we spend too much time with those who judge minor unimportant matters, we tend to find ourselves doing the same thing. The very least that happens is that we become worn out from all the foolishness, making us downcast, ineffective for Christ and even less helpful to others. Someone who demonstrates a pattern of verbal and emotional abuse, has one purpose in mind and that is to bring us down to raise themselves up.

Proverbs 12:26 "26 The righteous is a guide to his neighbor,
But the way of the wicked leads them astray."

Proverbs 1:10-15 "10 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent.
11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause;
12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;
13 We will find all kinds of precious wealth, We will fill our houses with spoil;
14 Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,”
15 My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path,"

Proverbs 16:29 "A man of violence entices his neighbor And leads him in a way that is not good."

Proverbs 22:24-25 "24 Do not associate with a man given to anger; Or go with a hot-tempered man, 25 Or you will learn his ways And find a snare for yourself."

Our companions often determine our physical health. I am convinced that emotional and physical health are deeply connected.

Proverbs 3:7-8 "Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. 8 It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones."

Our mental state can effect our children from generation to generation. The way we view life, the state of our mind, influences the attitude of our family.

Exodus 34:7 "Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

2 Chronicles 17:3
"The LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father David's earlier days and did not seek the Baals,"

2 Chronicles 26:4
"He did right in the sight of the LORD according to all that his father Amaziah had done."

2 Timothy 1:5
"For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well."

2 Timothy 3:15
"and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

Titus 2:3-8
"3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good,
4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
6 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible;
7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified,
8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us."

Our companions influence our attitude and life experience, it is vitally important that we guard our hearts by choosing our friends wisely.

Proverbs 13:20 "He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm."