The Gifts Part 39
Prophecy continued...
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a man on the outs. Although I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit I’m not a charismatic, and I believe that much shame has been brought to the household of faith because men manifest in their flesh rather than through the Spirit. Although I believe God blesses His children, I’m not a word-faith proponent, nor do I believe that we are entitled to anything material when we come to Jesus. I don’t belong to any camp per se, nor can I be easily labeled and this is frustrating to a great number of people. I believe in the word of God, I believe in rightly dividing the word of God, I believe in diligently studying the word of God, and I believe that the blinders of denominational thinking are dangerous most of the time if not all the time when it comes to understanding the deeper mysteries of God.
Our journey is one of truth, not one of denominational formulae, and if anyone has disagreement with what I write, prove it out Biblically, and I’ll be more than happy to listen. We set a dangerous precedent when we allow personal opinion to countermand the word of God, and superimpose itself upon scripture. We are beholden to God, we are beholden to His word, and we are constrained by the truth we discover therein. When we teach, it must be the word of God that we teach, when we preach, it must be the word of God that we preach, and when we stray from the word of God in the furtive fields of our own imagining, we come away confused, divided, doubtful and uncertain.
We began discussing Paul’s exhortation that we ought to pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, especially that we might prophecy, but before we can get into why it is that we should desire to prophecy we must establish, and biblically so what prophecy is.
There has been much confusion concerning the gift of prophecy throughout the years, and due to lack of understanding or an unwillingness to dig deeper into the word of God to discover the truth that waits beneath the surface, we’ve mislabeled what the gift of prophecy is, what it does, and how it operates within the congregation of God.
The gift of prophecy, just like the gift of speaking in other tongues, and the gift of interpretation of tongues is a gift that is predominately subject to verbal communication. It can readily be said, that all three of the gifts that make up the gifts of inspiration, are gifts which manifest through verbal communication. Although the other six gifts are not necessarily gifts of verbal communication, the gifts of inspiration are. These three gifts in particular are also more difficult to prove or verify, due to their nature. With something like the gifts of healings, it is easy to prove or verify its veracity, because if a man who was once lame now walks, then the gift is proven out by the man’s ability to walk. If however, he who was lame remains lame, then it is evident that the gift was not operating. When it comes to prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, there is rarely visible, palpable, or immediate evidence of their veracity, unless the gift of discerning of spirits is also operating within the body of believers.
I will be the first to admit that I have witnessed false tongues within the church, I have also witnessed false interpretation of tongues, wherein the tongues were of divine origin, but the interpretation was of purely human origin, and I have witnessed false prophecy within the house of God as well. It is something we ought to expect, something we ought to prepare for, and something we ought to be on guard against, because wherever the presence of the Holy Spirit is evident, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit are operating, the enemy attempts to counterfeit, forge and fabricate the true gifts and he does this for two reasons.
The first reason the enemy counterfeits the gifts of the Holy Spirit, is to later expose them as counterfeits and by so doing sow seeds of doubt within the hearts of believers as to the existence of the true gifts, and he second reason is to attempt and sway individuals from the path of righteousness by inserting new teaching and new doctrine within the fellowship, passing them off as truth.
With that having been said, I have also seen true tongues, true interpretation of tongues, and true prophecy within the church.
Yes it is possible to know whether an interpretation or a prophecy is of God or not, even without operating in the gift of discerning of spirits. One of the most consistent signs that an interpretation of tongues, or a prophecy is not from God but rather from the individual’s belly, is when the prophecy or interpretation praises a certain individual or attempts to exalt them.
‘I have sent my servant among you, him you shall obey, him you shall follow, and him you shall submit to.’
Uh, yeah, not so much. True prophecy always exalts Christ, always points the way to Christ, and always magnifies the Son of God. A true word from God, will not contradict the word of God, so if someone with ‘a word from the Lord’ tells you that you’re supposed to follow after them, or obey them rather than Jesus, that is a red flag, a blaring horn, an alarm bell, and a dire warning all rolled up into one.
It is the testimony of Jesus that is the spirit of prophecy, and if the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, then all true prophecy will be anchored in Christ, glorifying Him, and raising Him up.
Revelation 19:10, “And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
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2 comments:
There is a lot of false operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit because the churches have all basically fallen away now. So you are going to have this in the churches around us today A LOT. How there can even be anything real in the churches I don't even know, I don't think there is much. There are false gifts, false doctrines, false christians, false ministers, everything about the church is false basically now. You mention the gift of discerning of spirits, I operate in that gift, but rarely can I even tell when prophesy and tongues are false in a church (but I haven't been to a church in over 16 years now), even with the gift of discerning of spirits. I'm not stupid, I'm wise, I don't go into the churches anymore for the gift of discerning of spirits to even operate. I can't control when the gift of discerning of spirits functions and when it doesn't. It actually functions very little, which surprises me. If I would go into a church, it might not even function at all, but I know that most things in that church are false so why does God need to show me thru a gift that they are false. I'm not going to tempt God. Why do I need to feel things are false thru this gift, when I know with my mind that just about everything in that church is false. Let me be kind of blunt, God is not mocked and He isn't stupid and He's not going to waste time or let His gifts function for something we should be automatically be knowing by now. The churches have fallen away, they are false, I would greatly encourage you that if you are making a living off of ministering in them that you find another way to somehow make a living because you're going to need it if time even last long enough now. We are about at the end now, soon going to be going into the tribulation. Many things have already happened that people don't even know because most people were sleeping when they were done. So much of the prophecies are fulfilled now and we are definitely going into the tribulation probably within in months. It would greatly surprise me if it didn't happen within a few months. The North Korean leader died now, and some day an event like this is going to trigger everything off and the tribulation will start. We need all to be looking for the woman in Rev. 12, God's plans for her, where the safe place is, are we going to be together there. These are the things we should be desiring wisdom for now because it's here now. It's just a matter of how God is going to do it. We are peddling backwards even spending time talking about these false churches there are so many of us now on the Internet that know the real truth about them. Let's not concentrate on them, but let's find the real church and I think the woman in Rev. 12 will be with the real church. So let's find that group of people now.
Doesn't it say the gifts of the Holy Spirit will cease when we come into perfection. In other words, why do I need to walk into a false church to discern if the prophesy given there is of God or not. With my understanding I know everything in that church is going to be false, so I don't need the gift anymore to tell me whether the prophecy is of God or not. I know enough now that just with my mind I know it can't be of God. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Sister Kim
I have never heard anyone speak in tongues that sounded real. They don't speak any earthly language, they just bable sounds that they make up as they go along. It is ridiculous. The miracle of the tongues of fire was that strangers heard the word of God preached in their own languages. I have never heard this at all.
I don't believe that people prophecy in tongues, tongues is just like a tinkling bell that wows the audience. It is not the same as prophecy, where you are giving out important information of what could happen, with a plan to avoid it.
I believe that people hate the spirit of God so much, they close off themselves the very people and things of God that could come their way if they sincerely meant what they said in that they love God and follow Christ. Things that are meant to grow the church are just stifled, so that they remain at a low level of operation and perhaps just even become a charade of themselves when their flame dies from lack of new fuel.
I think that churches are factories of spiritual death. You go there and get ravaged for any spirit you have beyond just coming to Christ and being naive. You have to run for your eternal life for just setting foot in the door. True Christians must hide themselves lest they be torn assunder by ravening wolves.
There is so much spite, hate, and jealousy, there is no room for the gifts of the spirit to manifest themselves. If you try to test the spirits there, you are met with complete opposition and fury.
I think most Christians need social skills training 101. They don't know how to get along with others enough to be able to share in their gifts. It seems that everyone who thinks that they are Christian thinks that they are the star of their own show. If you want to be a star fine, but that cuts you off from the audience. You will never be a member of the group. After a while, people get bored with watching shows besides. It is real fellowship they seek after.
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