Forty Prophecies in Forty Days: #7 Misusing Scripture and its purpose

What is the purpose of scripture? This is an area in which the church needs a drastic paradigm shift. As we face the fork in the road that is here today, understanding the proper use of scripture is paramount to walking boldly forth in the plan God has for our day and time. The big shift that so many prophecy and speak of will demand that we change the way we view scripture. How you ask? We must learn to view it exactly as Jesus did and exactly as he taught his first century followers. One of the things that the early church fathers did that has proved to be destructive to the redemptive plan of God is to ignore Jesus teaching on scripture, and instead adopt the Scribes and Pharisees teaching.

What did Jesus teach about the purpose and use of scripture? He taught a completely redemptive view of scripture. He said that its sole purpose was to point to Him as Messiah and provide eternal life. John 5:39-40:  “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.  (40)  And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Jesus stated clearly that the sole purpose of scripture was to point to him and the redemption that He was bringing humanity. You can also see this in other places in the gospels. Luke 24:27 & 43-45 are important in showing that Jesus taught his followers a different way of looking at scripture. Luke 24:45 explains that he opened their understanding so that they could understand the scriptures. This shows you that the Pharisees DID NOT understand them! It is also obvious that the Pharisees did not understand the scripture because so few of them came to Jesus for life (John 5:40.)

This will take more than one day to establish but it is necessary that the church be confronted with how badly they use the scripture, and how they twist it against what Jesus taught. Paul says the Law was good as long as it was used lawfully (1 Tim 1:8.) Unfortunately, much of modern evangelical doctrine uses the Law unlawfully!

How did the Pharisees, under the Old Covenant view scripture? The answer is they viewed it as a legal constitutional document. Does that sound familiar? Does that ring a bell for you? The bulk of modern, evangelicals, fundamentalists, Pentecostals and charismatics, you name them, look at the scripture as a legal constitutional document. Viewing it that way is the source of many of the problems that we face today. Jesus taught that it was the story of redemption. He taught that it was a love story about a God that loved the world so much that he had redeemed it before he ever created it. Yes my friend, that is precisely what Ephesians chapter one teaches. God had purposed Jesus and redemption before the foundation of the world which means that redemption was His first purpose in creation. God created the world to redeem it. Isn’t that something? These prophecies will show over time that Jesus also redefined the word of God from the Old Testament to the gospel. There is so much to say about this, but I assure you that it is true, and easily seen with a slight paradigm shift. I am purposefully making these entries short (therefore, easy to read) so I implore you to follow this forty day prophecy all the way through till the end.

I will tie together the redemptive purpose over the next few posts and will show that “the gospel” is the Word of God for the New Covenant era. Let me leave you with this though for now. In Revelation, we are told that the testimony of Jesus (the gospel) is the Spirit of Prophesy (Rev 19:10.) Please stay tuned and share… this is going somewhere that will help you with the next phase and the shift that is ordained by God. More to come tomorrow!  

Forty Prophecies in Forty Days: #6 New Covenant Blessings and Deut 28

What does Deuteronomy 28 have to do with the New Covenant, non-Jewish believer if anything? We hear and read all the time about being blessed in the city and in the field. We hear and read about being the head and not the tail; above and not beneath. We sing about it, confess it in daily confessions, and hear teachings and sermons about it. What one must honestly see is that the blessings are predicated upon covenant faithfulness and were given as promises to national Israel under the old covenant. Don’t become discouraged and stop reading. This prophetic word has a very happy ending, but first we must be real and we must deal faithfully with the text. So then Deu 28:1-14 explain the benefits and blessings for covenant obedience and faithfulness and Deu 28:15-45 (almost twice as many verses) explain the consequences and curses of covenant disobedience and unfaithfulness. Don’t look funny; it is in the book that way! Also, do not lose heart and stop reading. This is not the end of this matter.

I want the full effects of the blessings, how about you? I want the blessings, and not the curses how about you? I want to be included in the promises how about you? Of course you have no doubt answered yes to all of the above. I would also.

So let’s stop a minute and look at the old and new covenants. My first prophetic word of the day is STOP being old covenant prophets! I can assure you that it will get you nowhere. Yes some have the audacity to claim in new covenant congregations that the way to get the blessings is by obedience to the law. Here is the great problem that the church (remember my definition;  the true believers in Christ across all denominations and groups) face. Too many people are trying to be Old Covenant prophets, apostles and pastors in the New Covenant. Too many are operating in an Old Covenant way.

Prophetic word two: You cannot get New Covenant blessings with Old Covenant methods!!!

So then, how do these blessings operate in the New Covenant setting? The answer is simple and is the content of the gospel. It is IN Christ Jesus and no other way. Furthermore, it is by faith. (without faith it is impossible to please the Father.) Jesus is the Seed of Abraham, Jesus was covenant faithful. Jesus fulfilled all the requirements. Jesus alone receives the blessings. In Jesus the promises of God are not yes and no as seen in Deu 28. In Jesus the promises are yes and amen! In Jesus there are no curses.

Look at this passage. It could not be made more plain and understandable: Gal 3:11-16  “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.  (12)  And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.  (13)  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:  (14)  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.  (15)  Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.  (16)  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

Christ has redeemed us from the curses of the law. Deu 28:15-45 does not apply! we must believe this by faith! According to Paul, we believers are the Seed of Abraham in Christ Jesus…. Gal 3:29  “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” This ALONE is the way that we are benefactors of the promises of Deu 28. … More tomorrow!

Forty Prophecies in Forty Days: #5 The accuser and heavenly dwellers

Day five and there is more to say about the accuser of the brethren. It is important to remember that the church (the true believers not any one church denomination or group) is truly at a fork in the road. There are choices to be made and in some cases they will be hard choices to make. This passage about the accuser of the brethren sheds some insight into these possible choices. If you look at biblical history you see roughly three two thousand year periods, and we are just now entering a fourth. It is the fourth period that the paradigm shift is occurring. It is a shift specifically for this fourth period.

Rev 12:12  “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

The phrase, “rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them” has some interesting implications. Who should be heaven dwellers? Yes, you are right it is believers. Paul tells us we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are the heaven dwellers. All those who put faith and trust in Jesus are potentially heaven dwellers.

On the other hand, those who are earth bound, focusing on the natural environment are targets for Satan and his minions. When one is continually caught up in the day to day affairs around him or her; caught up in the politics and struggles of life in the natural world; caught up in seeking answers for themselves; caught up in being in control at all times, they then are targets for the Devil.

This is what Paul was speaking of in Colossians three: Col 3:1-3 “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  (2)  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  (3) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

We are positionally raised and are in heavenly places with Christ. We must then continue, by faith to see ourselves as heavenly beings. How is Satan going to get at your life if it is hidden in God? The answer is that he cannot, but you must be dwelling in heavenly places in your mind. You must be ever aware of your status with the Father, ever trusting in the goodness of the Father and the provision He has made for you in Christ Jesus. Herein lies the importance of positive prophecy from New Covenant prophets. They will encourage you to trust in the real spiritual situation you are in, and rise above being an earth dweller.

We must guard our ears and our hearts from the negative speech of so many. Negative speech is a part of the accuser of the brethren’s modus operandi. Encouraging one another is a very important part of our corporate relationship with our brothers and sisters and if we are not getting that then we need to move on to a place where it is available.

A large part of the choice that the church faces is the decision about which voices to listen to and entertain and which to cut off. Remember 1Cor 14:3. You need to surround yourself with 1 Cor 14:3 prophets! More to come tomorrow….

Forty Prophecies in Forty Days: #4 the accuser of the brethren

Here is the fourth prophecy of this series. The church (the true believers in Jesus in all churches) are at a fork in the road. Down one path is business as usual. The other path will restore the mission and vision of God from before the foundation of the world. It will restore the pristine gospel. It will radically affect the culture just as it did in the first century when it was written that these men have turned the world upside down.  The fork in the road offers choice and one of the choices will shake the foundation of the world. It will bring to pass the words of a prophet in a dream that my wife had some years ago… He simply said, “the world as you know it will never be the same.”

Rev 12:10-12  “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.  (11)  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.  (12)  Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.”

The accuser of the brethren (brothers and sisters) who accuses them day and night before the Father is cast down. You can read that he came to Job and also to Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3. What are his accusations? They always have something to do with telling us that we are not right with God. We don’t pray enough, we don’t really worship enough, we don’t act right. You will hear statements like this… you aren’t really serving God… you’re not really a man or woman of God. They are designed to drive a wedge between us and our relationship with Father. They are meant to discourage and tear down. Satan can do this to us with our thoughts, but he can also use other well-meaning people to make these accusations. When they use scripture to back them up they add a level of authority that seems hard to overcome. Remember however that Satan can quote scripture with the best of them. He can use our brothers and sisters in authority to his purpose and can disguise himself as an angel of light.

I learned an interesting fact in an advanced prophetic course that I took from Prophet Russell Walden over at Father’s Heart Ministries. He taught me, correctly, that the New Covenant Prophet should encourage. He said this on the authority of 1 Cor 14:3… I like the way it reads in the NLT 1Co 14:3  “But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.”

So that begs this question… why do so many modern day new covenant prophets sound like the accuser of the brethren? Why do so many Sunday morning sermons work as accusations? Why is there so little encouraging, comforting and strengthening? These are interesting questions indeed!

A big part of moving into a *world shaking stance* is to begin to question the path that we have taken so long. There indeed needs to be a complete paradigm shift… I don’t want to be insulting, but in case you do not know what paradigm means let me provide the definition: “a pattern of thinking and acting.” We need to shift our paradigm when it comes to the things of God. He is providing us a shift and we must embrace it…. more to come tomorrow!

 

Forty Prophecies in Forty Days: #3 What about signs and wonders?

As I continue on with my assignment from the Lord, here is the third prophecy. I should say that what I originally heard was present forty prophetic messages that will help enable my apostles and prophets to move into my shift. All are prophesying a great movement of my Spirit on the earth and these are some of the nuts and bolts, some of the frames and cross members of my structure. They are necessary in my total plan of redemption for the world.

Acts 14:3  “Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.”

Somehow, over the years, the church (remember the definition) have lost a true understanding of the reason for signs and wonders. The Father says, "I did signs, wonders and marvelous feats in the first century to establish the gospel of grace." Now we live in a time where so many have made grace a dirty word. Personal holiness is held above grace making grace of no effect. If those who are representing me are basically denying my grace in all they teach and do is it any wonder that we do not see more signs and wonders?

Further, I hate to have to tell you but many of the so called signs and wonders today are in reality “lying” signs and wonders. God WILL NOT put his stamp of approval on this mixture of Old Covenant and New Covenant no matter how sincere we may be. Now understand this, there is a lot of New Covenant in the Old Testament and there is a lot of Old Covenant in the New Testament so I am not referring the divisions of the bible. They are mostly arbitrary anyway. I am speaking of rightly dividing the word of truth. What is the word of truth you ask?

Let us let Paul define it for us: Eph 1:13  “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” Oh I see, the word of truth according to Paul is the gospel of your salvation. When we rightly divide the word of truth, correctly handle the word of truth we are rightly dividing and correctly handling the gospel. That is drastically missing from the doctrinal landscape these days. Is it any wonder that we do not see broad examples of glorious signs and wonders?

Yes, we stand at a fork in the road. Yes, the Spirit of God wants to move powerfully in this season. Yes, God has called you to a specific place and time with a specific purpose. Understand that you must also present his program. It was one that was set in place before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1. According to Paul, God’s first purpose in creation was redemption and that was before he created anything else. It is time to embrace the gospel of God. It is time to encourage the saints. It is time to stop doing the work of the accuser of the brethren. It is time to stop being discouraging. It is time to focus on the gospel in a way like never before!

It is time to focus on the New Covenant and the New Jerusalem. I will have a lot more to say on this…. more tomorrow!

Forty Prophecies in Forty Days: #2 Repent and believe the gospel

I hear the Lord telling me to write forty prophecies over the next forty days and share them with whoever will read them. If these strike a chord in your spirit please share them. Here is day two of this assignment.

Mark 1:14-15  “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,  (15)  And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

The season ahead demands that we know the content of the gospel; what is it? If you ask the question among the church (remember again my definition from yesterday, the universal body of true believers) you will find that there is little agreement on what the gospel is. Jesus mission statement is found in Isaiah 61:1-2a according to Luke’s gospel. It is the following: Luke 4:17-19  “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,  (18)  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,  (19)  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

This gospel mission is not primarily natural, rather it is spiritual. It is a mission to eternal spirits. It is a path of reconciliation to God, and please remember, that all who have been born from on high have become ambassadors of reconciliation. We are now in a season that demands our recognition of Jesus mission, and in turn our mission of reconciliation. We must invite the world through our love and peace to be reconciled to God. This does not happen in weekly services but as we live out our lives with true faith in peace with God through the reconciliation brought about by Christ Jesus.

So what does it mean to repent? Not what most people think, that is for sure. Repentance is a change of mind and attitude. It is NOT a change of behavior necessarily. The change of mind can change our behavior, but it is first and foremost a change of mind. When we repent and believe we accept by faith what God is saying. This is the real catalyst of true change. We must believe against all contrary evidence, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself not counting sin against them. Further that he made Jesus the one who did not even know sin to be made sin for us that in turn we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

There you have it. This is the necessary ingredient for going forward in this season. Our success depends on it. Overcoming the enemy depends on it. Remaining close to God at all times depends on it. We must believe that we are made the righteousness of God. We must recognize the accuser of the brethren even when he is standing in a pulpit with a robe and title. We must accept by faith our position before God on behalf of Christ.

All victories, all successes, all blessings depend on our believing the gospel. It is not our way of walking and talking, it is not our level of apparent obedience to the law or God or man, it is our trust in the blood of the lamb. This is for all of us no matter how much we already trust in the Lord... It is the source of victory in the season ahead. I am excited to see what God is revealing… more to follow tomorrow!

Forty Prophecies in Forty Days: #1 Heart Obedience

I hear the Lord telling me to write forty prophecies over the next forty days and share them with whoever will read them. If these strike a chord in your spirit please share them

Romans 6:17-18 “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.  (18) Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”

The Church has arrived at a fork in the road. When I use the term church, I do not mean any one denomination. I am not referring to charismatics, Pentecostals, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists or any non-denominational church for that matter. When I use the word church, it is the universal church, small c catholic, it is the body of Christ and is composed of all those who have put faith and trust in the blood of the cross of Christ, the blood of the New Covenant. So then, it is all believers who have arrived at the fork in the road. There is a choice to be made. In many cases it will not be an easy choice.

It may require some homework. It may require some study. It may require that we slay some sacred cows. It may require that we rethink and open up our hearts and minds to the prompting of the Spirit. The last fifteen years has been a time when the Holy Spirit is speaking out to the church (remember my definition.) In the beginning many could not believe what they were hearing the Spirit say. Many times we have rebuked the Holy Spirit thinking to ourselves that this cannot possibly be God. Believe me when I speak prophetically. It was indeed God!

Many of the things that we have been taught and have held so tightly and so dearly are just plain wrong. Therefore, also know that many of the things which we have taught are wrong. I believe that we will have to allow a complete paradigm shift to take place in order to embrace the truth of the kingdom of God. I can assure you that the kingdom age is upon us and it may not mean exactly what you think it does.

So what did Paul mean when he had someone write “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” What does it mean to obey from the heart and what exactly is the heart by Paul’s definition? It is definitely not the blood pump. No, when Paul speaks of the heart he is speaking of the inner man that has been spiritually reborn. So then, obeying from the heart is obeying from the inner man.

It is NOT following a set of rules and regulations. It is NOT speaking uniformly with a vernacular that is common to the group. It is NOT observing statutes and traditions. It is believing beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ has in deed done away with sin… vs 18. It is not that you cannot commit sinful acts that has made you free from sin. Oh, we want so desperately to believe that is so but is just is not. No matter how many things you forsake, you cannot really truly fulfill the first and greatest commandment until you acknowledge that because of Jesus and his work, you are free from sin. Sin cannot affect you… not because you cannot commit sin, but, because Jesus has done away with the penalty of sin. Sin cannot have dominion because of your position. Friend, you have to really believe this before you can have a revived inner man.

This is the foundation of your peace with God (Rom 5:1.) This is the source of heart obedience. So, here is the first thing that you must change your mind about; from here forward, you must believe that you are the righteousness of God and allow that to bring peace to your heart and mind. You cannot continue in fear. The day for operating in fear is gone never to return. (More tomorrow!)