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Exchanged Glory IV: A Time for Every Purpose
Modern day prophecy can never take the place of what the Spirit is doing in us. It can only work with it.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
How do we test prophecies (or other types of subjective messages)? Some evidence is obvious. The prophecy should agree with the Bible (as I shared in the previous chapter); any predictions should come true; the prophet’s life should show good fruit; circumstances should eventually line up with what is being said; and if miracles or supernatural knowledge are present, they add weight in favor of the message being from God.
Along with these tests, we have to judge what we hear in the context of the Bible’s command that we should be led by the Holy Spirit:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
What the Holy Spirit is stirring in our hearts is evidence for or against a prophecy – at least as it applies to us. (If it is spoken publicly, it may be for someone else.) I find the following verses helpful.
There was an old prophet who lived in Bethel. His sons came and told him the story of what the holy man had done that day in Bethel … he … rode after the holy man. He found him sitting under an oak tree.
He asked him, "Are you the holy man who came from Judah?"
"Yes, I am," he said.
"Well, come home with me and have a meal."
"Sorry, I can't do that," the holy man said. "I can neither go back with you nor eat with you in this country. I'm under strict orders from GOD: 'Don't eat a crumb; don't drink a drop; and don't come back the way you came.'"
But he said, "I am also a prophet, just like you. And an angel came to me with a message from GOD: 'Bring him home with you, and give him a good meal!'" But the man was lying. So the holy man went home with him and they had a meal together.
There they were, sitting at the table together, when the word of GOD came to the prophet who had brought him back. He confronted the holy man who had come from Judah: "GOD's word to you: You disobeyed GOD's command; you didn't keep the strict orders your GOD gave you; you came back and sat down to a good meal in the very place GOD told you, 'Don't eat a crumb; don't drink a drop.' For that you're going to die far from home and not be buried in your ancestral tomb."
When the meal was over, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. Down the road a way, a lion met him and killed him. …
(1 Kings 13:11; 13-24, The Message)
Notice that the false prophecy given by the old prophet (bring him home with you and give him a good meal) only contradicted what God had prophetically told the holy man from Judah. There was nothing unscriptural about sharing a meal with someone from Israel. Yet the holy man from Judah was disciplined for following the old prophet’s words. This clearly shows that we who have the Holy Spirit are required to listen to what we believe He is saying directly to us, even when it disagrees with what someone else may “prophesy” for us.
This doesn’t automatically mean that we are right and they are wrong. They may very well have the word of the Lord, and we may be deceived. It is wise to prayerfully consider what they say – especially if there is evidence in favor of it. But if we wisely test their message and still believe the Spirit is leading us in a different direction, we must go with what He seems to be stirring in our hearts.
There is no other way to live the Christian life than to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
It is only the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that allows us to rise above the lusts of our flesh. No prophecy or teaching can take the place of that. Our Christian life is far more than just getting the right information; mere words can’t empower us to live as we should. We need to be spiritually enlightened and stirred. Our hearts have to catch the fire of heaven as God moves in and through us. Even if someone gives a true message, without the Holy Spirit’s help his words will be as frustrating for us as the Law is without the Spirit.
The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. (emphasis added)
(Romans 8:4, The Message)
Modern day prophecy can never take the place of what the Spirit is doing in us. It can only work with it. That is why what the Holy Spirit is stirring is evidence for whether a prophecy applies to us. He is the source and direction for our life, not words, even prophetic words. He alone can birth true spirituality within us. Only He can show us what to do with what we hear and know.
I have often needed to learn this when friends warned me about the dangers of intellectual religion. It seemed confusing to me, because God seemed to be speaking to me as I explored subjects that others considered to be dry and unimportant. I eventually realized that God was bringing each of us along a path that was tailor made for us as individuals.
My friends had grown up with stale tradition, so when they warned about intellectual religion, they were expressing the work of the Holy Spirit leading them away from the empty formalism that had misled them in their youth. I, on the other hand, had been given gifts for wisdom and discernment, so God was calling me into the middle of religious disagreement in order to learn about truth and error.
Unfortunately, the directions we were each receiving were so different that I couldn’t see how they could have come from the same God. I needed to learn that my friends and I had diverse gifts. He was speaking to each of us individually while He called for us to submit to each other and humbly work together.
What if a prophecy is obviously wrong for some reason? For example, what if someone prophesies something unscriptural? Can we ever trust that person to prophesy again? More personally, if you or I have given a false prophecy (and I believe I have), can you or I ever be trusted to prophesy again?
Prophesying falsely is the sin of speaking presumptuously in the name of the Lord (Deuteronomy 18:22). If we have done it, we certainly want to repent from that and seek God for the grace to avoid it in the future. I do not believe, however, that this sin disqualifies us from ever again speaking the word of the Lord.
In fact, the verses I shared above (1 Kings 13:11-34) make it extremely clear that an outright prophetic lie can be followed by a true prophecy. The old prophet cost a man his life with his deception and then followed this treachery with a message directly from Heaven. If God could speak through him, how much more can He speak through us who have only made a misjudgment while trying to obey 1 Corinthians 14:1 (“desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophecy”). Based on 1 Kings 13:11-34, we see that one false prophecy doesn’t disqualify someone from prophesying.
Finally, we need to ask if some discipline should be assigned to those who speak presumptuously in the name of the Lord. I don’t believe it is usually necessary to do so. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, we are in a New Covenant. Our relationship to prophecy has changed, and because of that our discipline should change also.
I believe we need to distinguish between those who intentionally or stubbornly deceive and those who stumble while trying to obey Paul’s command in 1 Corinthians 14:1. In the first case, the sin is a selfish attack on God’s children. Church leaders need to protect God’s family by firmly exposing the offense. In the second case, someone has made a mistake while learning how to obey. It is obvious that they will benefit from gentle help rather than a strong rebuke. Their heart is right; they just require wisdom to hear the Holy Spirit better.
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