Characteristics of a False Prophetic Spirit
April 18, 2008 | No Comments
4/19/08 Broadcast: Characteristics of a False Prophetic Spirit
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Category:
Prophecy
Comments
No Responses to “Characteristics of a False Prophetic Spirit”
Leave a Reply
Listen Live 2-4
E-Newsletter Signup
Ask Dr. Brown
Subscribe to the Podcast
Station List
April 19th, 2008 @ 12:41 am
Jesus warned us about false prophets (see Matt 7:15-20; 24:11, 24), telling us they would come like wolves in sheep’s clothing. Tragically, we know from the Old Testament that false prophets contributed to the downfall of Israel and Judah (see Lam 2:14; see also Jer 23:9-40; Ezek 13:1-23). We must take this warning seriously!
But how can we recognize false prophets today? And is it possible for a true believer to be a false prophet, or are false prophets, by definition, always unsaved?
What about the broader influence of a false prophetic spirit on the “gospel” message that is now being preached in churches throughout the land? What are the characteristics of that false prophetic spirit?
As always, I encourage you to listen to today’s broadcast and then join in the online discussion here.
Dr. Brown
April 19th, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
Will you please comment on Kim Clement? Prophet of God or what’s your opinion?
April 19th, 2008 @ 8:04 pm
Dear Dr. Michael Brown,
It is true that most of the churches today preach a message which is contrary to the gospel message. Just for example, many preachers preach how get wealthy etc..etc. Isn’t the Bible very clear in saying that man cannot serve two masters at the same time. Some of the preachers are considered like demi-gods by their congregation.
Personally, I also feel that the whole Catholic Church is an apostate Church due to all the practices it has like worshiping the saints, communicating with the dead, etc. I think its somewhere in the Book of 1 Samuel that King Saul was cursed because he tried to contact the spirit of Samuel. (Please correct me if I am wrong in stating that
In fact, if a person reads and meditates on the Bible with a open heart and asks God to open his/her eyes of understanding, then most of the things are pretty much cut and dry.
May God bless you richly with all you are doing in reaching to the lost and unsaved.
Bijoy Thomas.
April 19th, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
Todd,
Thanks for the question, but we have a “no names” policy with regard to calling out specific people and ministries in the online discussion. Dr. Brown will address this question on next week’s show.
Thanks,
Marcus French
Line of Fire Moderator
April 20th, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
I couldn’t listen tot he broadcast, it was not posted.
There were many false prophets in Israel at different times its history… and there were always many false to a relatively few true prophets. This was true in Elijah’s day to the tune of about 850 fasle prophets to 100 true, Isaiah’s, Jeremiah’s, Ezekiel’s, ect. The Lord’s warning to us was that there would be many false prophets. Now if nearly 95% of the full time ministry in the church worldwide is in the west, then doesn’t it stand to reason that most of that ‘many’ is right here, in our present church situation, especially in America?
There seems to be a real light hearted attitude about this issue in the church, as if to say, “But The Lord will protect me”, when our protection is in heeding His warning. This attitude is giving prevalence to a false spirit among God’s people.
I am listening to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit when I hear someone speak or prophesy, and if I don’t have the absolute peace of God about someone’s ministry I don’t receive it, period. Cultivating a habit of listening for that inner witness, I have had some times where I have seen someone ministering saying thus says the Lord when it was not God, and sometimes have really sensed a defiling influence. That is subjective, but the practice of it is based on objective truth. I am not overriding that peace for anything.
I shutter at so called prophetic ministry that easily finds acceptance, that teaches and practices prophesying at will apart from the moving of the Holy Spirit, that allows for presumptuous prophesying and brings no correction even knowing that they are missing half the time and teaches that accurate prophesying was an Old Testament phenomenon, that teaches that the wrath and severity of God is less in the New Testament, that leads masses of people to themselves and their ministry rather than to Jesus Christ Himself and to His Word.
April 20th, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Wow Josh…
I have the same sentiments, especially regarding the witness of the Spirit.
You raise an interesting point that I’ve been thinking over recently, e.g. why were Old Testament prophets 100% accurate before the better covenant based on better promises? It’s a new and living way….but I guess Jesus blew it on that prophecy matter…couln’t quite pull that one together. D’oh!
How is it that we live in the time of the outpouring of the Spirit, yet we are a million times more lame, prophetically speaking? Our covenant is better, there’s a direct entrance into the Holy of Holies, we sit in Heavenly places with Christ, we have the Mind of Christ, Jesus said in John (I think) 15 that He makes everything known to us that the Father tells Him because we are His friends, now knowing His business.
We have the outpouring, the access, the Witness, the Mind of Christ….things that the Old Testament prophets died having never recieved, yet earnestly longing to see….
…but we should only hope to be about 66% accurate in this better covenant with more of the Spirit of God available to us, according to certain so-called prophets.
It seems to me that Jeremiah 23 is a hard condemnation against adulterated prophetic ministry, i.e. mixture. It’s one thing to not know you’re goofed up; mercy triumphs over judgment, but when you know it and flippantly dismiss it….it seems to show a lack of concern over what false prophecy can do to a life. I have seen first hand the deception and devastation that it brings. It’s sick, horrifying and ugly and scary….and with certain personal experiences with it under my belt, I have a much more exaggerated concern than most. I really care about lives being misdirected or even ruined.
Anyhow, there’s my cent and a half…
mark jr.
AAGGHH….
Anyhow, another good call on that “the Lord will protect me” deal. We seem to cast off all restraint and just anyone slap our foreheads and say whatever….then the charismatic guilt trip to “not resist the Holy Spirit like the Pharisees did” is painted on. Who can fight that?
God gave us a conscience and expects us to walk in line with it. “That which is not done in faith is sin” according to one of the latter verses of Romans 14. But people are taught to push past it anyhow in the name of “blessing”. My conscience may even be what Paul calls weak….yet I am still expected to not violate it. Luther said it is neither wise nor safe and I think he had it right on that note…..
April 20th, 2008 @ 8:07 pm
Joshua,
Recordings are usually posted on the Monday or Tuesday after the show airs (though this varies).
Marcus French
Line of Fire Moderator
April 20th, 2008 @ 8:45 pm
Mark Jr,
Here are some practical questions to consider, in light of what you said: How do we obey the scripture where Paul says to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, and especially the ability to prophesy, when we’re learning along the way? How do we allow people to make mistakes, without endorsing their mistakes? And who and where are the prophets that are able to judge prophecy rightly and lead us along the path?
April 20th, 2008 @ 10:06 pm
I think the whole issue of the gifts of the spirit is desperately lacking a foundation. The letter was written to a church already five years old… they were asking “Paul, what about this, and that, and the other.” Paul was there with them for a year and a half, 18 months, and he did not lay down systematic teaching of the 9 spiritual gifts, on marriage, on eating meats sacrificed to idols, ect… the church at Corinth was about 5 years old and they had to ask about it to get it cleared up. What on earth was he doing for a year and a half if not teaching all these important truths?? He was preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified with the demonstration of the Spirit and power that’s what, he was laying the foundation as a wise master builder. You can see Paul’s heart for this foundation in Ephesians and Colossians, both congregations he had never seen before, so in writing them you can see a biblical apostolic heart toward a baby church. To sum up he taught them union in Christ emphasizing Christ in you, and you in Christ, ie, living by an indwelling Christ: this is the launching pad for the operation of the gifts of the spirit. One thing about false prophets is that they operate from a place other than union with the Father.
So to answer question how do we obey the scripture?? Live by Christ.
I don’t think anyone is our to kill young believers for getting exuberant, and missing it a little or something, but we have men, in the faith for decades, in ministry for decades, who endorse and accuracy rate of 50-66% being good and acceptable, who are prophesying great things that don’t happen- with no corresponding accountability, no repentance for the presumption, a total attitude of lightness. To me that is saying that it is OK to be presumptuous 33-50% of the time. If someone is going to carry the title and office of prophet, shouldn’t it assume that they are seasoned enough, mature enough in the Lord to know the difference between their own initiatives vs God’s initiatives, are they speaking out of union with God? Are they speaking out of the will of God, as the Spirit wills, and as the Holy Spirit moves, or are they speaking from the place of self will? Are we really willing to discern the difference?
April 20th, 2008 @ 11:58 pm
This much is clear: If we claim to bring a message directly from God, then we had better be held accountable for it. If we simply say, “I’ve had this on my heart and I sense it could be from the Lord, and I encourage you to pray about it,” then the stakes are not as high.
I’m not surprised, however, by the general lack of accountability in the church today regarding prophetic speech since the sad reality is that there is little moral accountability and little accountability for doctrinal deviation.
By God’s grace, the standard must be raised and will be raised. Otherwise, if we do not judge ourselves, we will be judged.
April 21st, 2008 @ 11:06 am
Jack Deere has written several excellent books that cover this topic pretty well. I would recommend them. They are Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Surprised by the Voice of God, and The Beginners Guide to the Gift of Prophecy. While not agreeing with everything he says I greatly appreciate the mature teaching he provides.
April 21st, 2008 @ 6:18 pm
Dr Brown
I completely agree with your last post. The church needs to be held accountable for the ideas being spoken and preached. I believe that these abuses are a reflection of the anti-intellectualism that has gripped the Charismatic church. We need spirit filled intellectuals to be nurtured and celebrated in our (charismatic) churches. There is a place for the mind along with the spirit in the life of the church. I whole-heartedly recommend JP Moreland’s latest book “Kingdom Triangle” that advocates for the balance of the mind, soul, and spirit in the church. He is a Christian apologist who has been deeply touched by the movement of the Spirit. He has a very strong word for the Charismatic church and to those who give no room for the Spirit to move in their churches.
April 21st, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
Check out how J.P. Moreland describes what he is trying to do with “Kingdom Triangle”:
“I want to foment a revolution of Evangelical life, spirituality, thought and Spirit-led power. My purpose is to mobilize, inspire and instruct an army of men and women for a revolution on behalf of the cause of Christ. The crisis of our age requires nothing less than a revolution of those who live in, proclaim, and seek to advance the Kingdom that was not made with hands.”
– from http://www.kingdomtriangle.com/about/default.asp
April 21st, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
Matthew, thanks for a great post and Marcus, thanks for the quote. J. P. Moreland is definitely calling for something dear to my own heart.
Now, on the one hand, through the years, I have seen the tendency, especially among Charismatics, to seek intellectual credibility so as to somehow legitmize ourselves to the larger evangelical world, while the evangelical community sometimes tries to do the same with the secular world. Both of these attempts are misguided, in my opinion. But once we take up the cross without apology, seeking the fullness of the Spirit regardless of what the world thinks, then our minds can be used to make a massive difference. Wasn’t Paul the perfect example of this?
Here’s something relevant from my book Revolution! The Call to Holy War:
Christian college students – especially on secular campuses – may I ask you some personal questions? Do you long to be accepted by those who would reject Jesus if He showed up at your school? Are you pursuing academic excellence and seeking to demonstrate the reasonableness of your faith in order to avoid the sting of the cross and its folly? And will your college degree simply be a stepping stone to a graduate degree (be it in education or medicine or music or physics or law or theology) after which you will have proved to your parents (or family or self) that you have somehow “made it”? Then what? How does all this relate to the plan of God for your life?
I personally long for the day when God will raise up an army of highly-educated, deeply-intellectual, and mentally-sharp radicals, men and women like Pascal with minds on fire and souls aflame. It will be wonderful to hear them refute the cultists and confute the atheists, providing us with a revolutionary strategy to take this generation for Jesus and shake this society for the King. (End quote)
It’s about time, isn’t it?
April 21st, 2008 @ 11:42 pm
Dear Dr. Brown,
Speaking about false prophetic spirits, there are some churches which require you to speak in tongues and if you are unable they think that you are not saved.
The interesting part is that most of these who speak in tongues are unable to translate anything they said. The scripture is very clear that if one speaks in tongues then there should be someone who understands what is being spoken or else it is of no use to anyone.
I could never agree to the idea that speaking in tongues was a sign of becoming saved.
God bless you and your ministry richly.
Bijoy Thomas.
April 22nd, 2008 @ 4:30 pm
I can’t find the podcast!
April 22nd, 2008 @ 5:56 pm
Dr. Brown,
Your point that the moral and doctrinal accountabilitie should be the first and foremost areas to look at in discerning a true prophetic ministry is well taken. I couldn’t agree with you more. In fact, Art Katz said in one of his teachings that those two aforementioned areas must be the touchstone to measure a true prophet. I get that. I understand that. But as Joshua Harris raised it earlier, what has been most troublesome to me is the fact that how come the prophets from Tanakh are 100 percent accurate, and it is our understanding and belief that every word that was spoken through those prophets are the very words from God. Thus, we know that all the prophesies either did happen in the past, and believe that those yet fulfilled ones will happen in the future. To my surprise, Art Katz said the mathmatical accuracies must not be the sole determination in discerning a true prophet. He said, “if [a prophet] gets 2 out of 3, that’s still good!” It has always been my belief that though the mathmatical accuracies may not the sole measuring device, it is a critical and most rudimentary requirement that a true prophet MUST meet. Am I not thinking deep enough about this? It seems like an axiom to me. If we throw away the mathmatical acuracies, that obviously leaves us with some suspicion that not all words that were spoken by the prophets of Tanakh were in fact given by God. Then we will have to speculate which prophecies were not given by God, and that obviously can have the devastating effect on our faith in God all together!!!
My sources say that some of the prophesies by Benny Hinn that were supposed to happen during the 90s, did not come true. But I’m also aware that many people were actually healed by his prayer, and I believe that. If we require the 100 percent mathmatical accuracies for a true prophet, Benny Hinn obviously is disqualified. But then again, if it was not God who healed these people through Benny Hinn, who was it? I am really confused.
April 22nd, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
Hey Marcus, sorry it took so long to get to this. Got off early today.
I think that there has to be a Body that can handle these situations and grow up and train their apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor/teachers. It seems to me that the prophetic men in the Word were seasoned before stepping into office with the possible exception of Jeremiah. I’d love to know how old Dr. Brown thinks he was…but I digress.
Wilderness, shepherding, plowing oxen, pouring water over Elijah’s hands, 30 years of obeying and taking care of mom, temptations…..it seems that we eschew much of this today and this is why there is such immaturity and flakeyness in what is called prophetic ministry.
Gosh, my mind is flooded with what it must have been like for these greats in the Bible. I mean, decades went into making these men and tragedies as well.
So to answer the question, before one “goes public” it seems that they should be content to be hammered and stuck in the fire as oft as neccessary to be made into a trustworthy vessel. Let these young ones make their mistakes in front of their local body and elders and be trained by it. I call it “Holy Humiliation” and I can’t speak highly enough of its importance in my own life. I don’t mean to try and get embarrased on purpose, but to be submissive to critique….something that is uheard of in todays prophetic market….well, mostly. They “submit” to one another, but they all pat each other on the back as fellow ‘in house prophets’, so I’m skeptical as to what credibility that kind of community really has.
And Dr. Brown is right: it is tempting to want to have sound answers for the greater Evangelical mass of people in order to not sound like “one of them”. I’ve been sucked into that myself, but recent events (which many at FIRE know of) have stripped me of this “care”. I don’t give a rat anymore.
But I do still want my spirituality rooted in absolute fact. And if what I believe can’t be found spelled out in the bible, it has to be there in spirit, in principle….somehow at least not violating the character of God.
I guess I’d just end here by sorta re-itterating what Josh started, i.e. is it Spirit born, or is it a guessing game? OH! for a people who can not be moved to perform but are confidently and peacfully watchful unto God in prayer and will speak from there….or NOT speak. Sometimes silence will say more in a situation than words….
…I gotta go before I start a rabbitt trail.
mark jr.
April 22nd, 2008 @ 11:04 pm
Calvin Kim,
Jonah prophesied accurately and it did not come to pass predicated on Ninevah’s repentance. There was also the case with Ahab weeping at the Word of the Lord, and God changed His mind. We need to be sure not to wrongly judge someone for unfulfilled conditional prophecy.
Yet Balaam, a false prophet, never missed it when he said thus says the Lord. There remains a deeper issue of discerning the person’s fruit. I ask the Holy Spirit if there is genuine holiness about someone ministering, especially if I don’t know them; it was “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”, and I need to discern from Him if it is Him moving, or not.
Wow, look at all these comments to a yet un-posted web cast.
April 23rd, 2008 @ 9:06 pm
“Wow, look at all these comments to a yet un-posted web cast.”
Just goes to show you the importance of it.
Good point on Jonah and Balaam.
I would guess that what Calvin may have meant, as touching accuracy, was that it shouldn’t be that prophecy goes unfulfilled due to flat out error, i.e. he/she totally did not hear from God at all or just spoke out of presumption, like a bunch of guys (who I could name by name) did in 1999 about Y2K. What a joke.
One guy was at a charismatic mecca in NorCal and said that Jesus told him, in reponse to his having asked Him about it, that “it’s going to be worse than everyone thinks.” And when he ‘missed it’, everyone just kinda patted him on the back and gave him a cigar for his humility in admiting he was wrong…
…but how about not settling for that? How about not embarrassing Jesus to the public?
And nevermind that candy bar prophecy from ’04….
…*sigh*…
G’night guys…
mark jr.
April 23rd, 2008 @ 9:14 pm
Oh, and as far as Hinn goes…
…God is free to do what He will through whom He will. It may very well be that simple faith in Christ as healer is what is touching these people.
Look at the Corinthians and Galatians.
In Corinth, they couldn’t hardly hold meetings because everyone had to “shay tay” over each other and interupt preaching with outbursts; they sued each other in court; one guys slept with his step mommy and they allowed him to stay; they got drunk and pigged out at the Lord’s table and got swept away (in part) by a false doctrine regarding the resurection.
The Galatians fell into a Judaized form of Christianity that was so bad that even Peter and Barnabas got into it’s trappings, yet Paul made the point to them that God did miracles in their midst by the Spirit.
To the Corinthians, in the first chapter, he told them that they lacked no spiritual gift. God was indeed poured out and manifesting in both communites and they were both rife with sickening perversions, stupidity, selfishness, envy, man worship (I follow Paul, I follow Peter, I follow Appollos….) and the like. Why would God do this? I don’t know, but it speaks hope to my pathetic hiney.
Don’t get me wrong; complacency that says, “eh, they had the Holy Ghost with all that mixture and compromise…I can too” is from hell. I want more. I want to be what Paul wished both those churches were….badly….which is to say that I know I’m not.
Dang, it’s after 9. Gotta go to bed…
mark jr.
April 23rd, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
Hey folks,
Well, the podcast is now available, so you can see if I answered your questions before you asked them.
Actually, I plan to address some of these questions on my Saturday show, which you can hear online at 3:00 EST on wtru.com, so tune in if you can, and feel free to call in to discuss this more at 866-34TRUTH during the show.
Keep the fire burning!
April 24th, 2008 @ 4:19 pm
Dr Brown,
I listened to the web cast last night. It is really good. Jesus did however warn us not merely of a false prophetic spirit, but of many false prophets. I think in saying it the way you did you are giving every opportunity for mercy, and we all need more of being that way.
My experience in those whom i have regarded as true prophets is this: they have provoked me to Christ and to the word of God. Like John the baptist who kept saying “behold the Lamb of God” to the point where he was losing his following to Jesus; the result of their ministry is to cause us to turn to the Lord and be followers of the Lamb.
My wife was in Brownsville in late 96, and you gave her some books (we were going to the mission field). They have been a real blessing, just want to say thanks a heap.
April 24th, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
You completely nailed it!
Only concern I had was, I wish you talked more on how we supposed to confront false prophecy?
Personally I believe congregational prophecy must be open to correction/councle from any mature brother in the congregation. I also believe private personal prophecy is out of order, since that voids the subjection to the control of the prophet, because it’s not open.
That being said, what do we do when ‘good’ folks prophecy falsely?
April 25th, 2008 @ 10:59 am
Dr. Brown:
Shalom! I appreciate your calling-out (warning) of the characteristics of a false prophetic spirit, and your policy to not mention names. However, I did notice that Oprah and another person was mentioned. Is there a tendency to not label false teachers when in fact they are teaching false doctrine? I understand that God is the ultimate judge; however, in 1 Corinthians 5 we are instructed to judge those that are in sin in our midst. Although, I do recognize that many people go to the extreme in making judgement rather than sound discernment, but this should not cause us to sway from the truth.
I say all of this because there is so much false teaching being preached in the Body of Messiah today that is based mainly on Christian traditions instead of biblical truth. How can this be any different from rabbinical traditions in the Judaisms of today? Many Christians would not accept rabbinical Oral Law as sound doctrine, so why do they accept pastoral Oral Law which does not line up with Scripture?
For example: I often here sermons being expounded on “Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy . . . ” When, in reality, Yeshua (Jesus) is speaking about false shepherds, not Satan (John 10)! Political Correctness has kept believers from seeing the danger of flash-in-the-pants pastors and preachers when they continue to endanger young believers with the “yeast of the Pharisees and Saduccees. . .” (Matthew 16).
Anyhow, I guess those that speak falsly, prophetically, need to be challenged and instructed to rescind and repent. (There is nothing wrong with this as long as it is in love and righteousness.) Godly repentence leads to Chayim (Life)!
Shalom,
Adrian A. Bernal, M.T.S.
April 26th, 2008 @ 3:33 pm
My apologies to a few people that had their comments posted late, wordpress was falsely setting apart some comments as “spam”.
Marcus French
Line of Fire Moderator
April 26th, 2008 @ 4:05 pm
what about word of faith folks like benny hinn ??? The things of God should be able to be examined. hinn has nothing in terms of documented miracles. Lack of evidence is admissible as evidence in the court room
April 26th, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
BiggJohn,
I’m all for examining everything based on the Word, and I’m all for examining claims of the miraculous. But I’m curious to know why you state that Benny Hinn “has nothing in terms of documented miracles”? What’s your documentation for this statement? I have actually heard the contrary a number of times, and always like to check my sources.
So, can you back up your statement?
Please understand that I’m not writing this as a critic of Benny or as a supporter of Benny but as a lover of truth.
May 2nd, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
He may be refering to the special done on Hinn about a year ago. One of his loyal followers, an employee, got sick of people saying that Hinn had no documented miracles and such, so he set out to debunk them all. He says that Hinn’s ministry was happy to do this and give the man all the documentation they needed…
…problem was, when he asked for it, they didn’t have any. Then he found out that Hinn was doing $10,000 hotel nights and yahda yahda yahda…
I can’t remember the news channel that aired it…but it was interesting to watch.
If Hinn has documentation, then having an employee desiring to do him a favor by publishing it all would have been the perfect time to produce it. Just seems fishy….I don’t know…
Missed you Sunday morning…your name was on the bulletin, but Bobby G. spoke. Not like that’s a let down….it was a phat, heavy word. “Apostolic Identity”, I think it was called….
…gotta go to bed…
mark jr.
May 5th, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
here is the link
http://www.sermonaudio.com/acceptemail.asp?cmd=play&data=ID%3D41906204152%26sourceID%3Dmusicalgardens
click on the button “Later”
now the guy is a bit irritating and takes a LONG time to get to the point… but the evidence is still there
July 16th, 2008 @ 1:33 am
Prophecy is usually intent on its connection with real covenants established from a living God with real people groups needing the support and direction of His living communication. It seems to fit into the overall scheme of redemptive intention from God as our Father, whether speaking for or against certain realities present in our world and among our practices of religious persuasions. It will give testimony of Jesus (Yeshua), not of we ourselves (II Cor 4:5 sums it up best, whether as to preaching, teaching, or giving prophetic references). It will not contradict the written words of a Holy God.
The evangelical church has largely turned its back on prophecy’s relevance to existing gatherings and bodies of faith, for related meeting gathering behaviors, in whatever locale. Where it is taught that prophecy is primarily about contextual forthtelling found written in scripture by these believers’ Seminarians, prophecy is not much daily embraced as being foretelling as to uncertain futures and present human lives (unless in some very distant armchair commentator’s sense).
The late Messianic, Zola Levitt, had a lover’s quarrel with the evangelical church for its own insulation from the present relevancy of New Covenant prophecy, and Jesus sending prophets, as well as its tendency of placing Tanackh prophecy at least at an arm’s length from daily current events. This limiting fact is largely founded as a reaction by these Protestant denominations to Hal Lindsey’s “Late Great” bestseller of the 1970s, where all current events seemed to be being interpreted as ever-relevant, as such, and the fall of some television based charismatic preachers into various sins discredited such so-called New Covenant prophets (which tainted the witness of those claiming to indeed be publicly active with these spiritual gifts).
Further, the means and methods of historical-contextual and literary criticism applied as the approach to Biblical passage meanings by denominational scholars do not quite fit with divine utterance as being a way of establishment of any original authors’ intended meaning. How does one deal with the phenomena of an original author standing in our midst and hold to a particular scholarly approach to establishing a Biblical meaning in such a noncontemplative context?
It remains that the church is not only scholarly, relationally, and organizationally challenged as to the purposes, manner, and distinctives of its message–it is also challenged as to bringing the very way of heaven to our present day earth’s observant people. On-time anointed words from heaven to gatherings here on earth permit and practice what a highly diversified, sales and marketing based, and so organized society never will–that is a spiritual life ascender ascending beyond this world into the presence of our Father. When is prophecy to a gathering therefore necessary and most relevant, and when not?
So, long after the miracles accompanying the Jesus movement conversions of a generation of the early 1970s, and their love feasts, with any easy and assumptive belief from that season in any utterance in charismatic meetings being everpresent words from God (which gave some license to excess and some of the elements of cults of personality among the flocks) , we still have the words of Paul on practicing these gifts, with decency and order. We also have the words of the Prophets of Old being yet indeed completed in our time. The creation of Israel in a day in 1948 is such a clear completion. The question remains, what is the most secure and reliable form of guidance in the present for God’s people? Answers seem to include the written word, the cousel of elders, the voice of the Spirit, the moral references of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, and discernment of the signs of the times. Another may be to look inward at one’s own heart and mind after walking with God for periods of life and note where the warmth of the New Commandment has taken hold in actions in daily interchanges in our own households and relations (per Mt. 13:52). Prophecy is the testimony of the presence of Jesus as the Christ among and in us.