Announcement

**Lou Newton** · December 31, 2014, 04:45 AM

Originally posted by Blane View Post

[SUP]

We know that God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. I'm honored to be part of a forum in which everyone believes that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are still operational within the body of Christ. Yet, not all who believe in the gifts seem to agree in the role or validity of prophets. That is to say, modern day prophets. Surely they exist, even today. Just as surely as the fact that many who claim to be prophets today are often confused, misguided, delusional, or fraudulent. It's pretty obvious that many who claim to be prophets today were never called by God. Yet I'm quite certain that there are at least a few genuine prophets walking among the churches today. Verse 28 in the passage above declares that God has set prophets within the church.

I feel it might be edifying to have a discussion about prophets. This thread doesn't need to become controversial, although I suppose this subject has that potential. If it does, we'll cross that bridge when it comes.

My purpose for starting this thread is to compare what each of us believes and understands about God's promise to set prophets within the church. To get the conversation going, let me throw out a few questions to think about...

What is the role of a prophet?

Are true prophets of God right about everything they say? Or are they human vessels through whom God sometimes speaks or writes through? If only sometimes, how can others know when God is speaking or writing through them?

Can a true prophet start out right, and then become corrupted? Was Balaam once a true prophet of God?

How does a true prophet of God know when he is speaking or writing under the unction of the Holy Spirit?

Will God reveal to us who His true prophets are within the churches? If so, how does He do so?

If God reveals to us that someone is a true prophet of God, should we believe everything they ever speak or write? Why or why not? If not, how do we know when to dismiss their message?

There may be hundreds of questions worth asking on this subject; but I don't want to make this first post too long. Please feel free to add more questions, or comment on any of the ones already listed.

May God richly bless this discussion for the glory of Christ, and for the edification of the body.

blessings,

Blane

1 - There is a gift of prophecy AND there is an office of a prophet

2 - The gift simply means that God sometimes chooses to speak through that person

3 - The office of a prophet is a person who has walked in the gift for sometime and has experience to tell when the Lord is speaking and when it is Satan and when it is his own desires. He is sent out in authority and God has revealed many "secrets" to him. He will have seen many miracles and God will have preformed many miracles through him. He has authority given to him by God, but very few respect this authority. They look at the messenger instead of focusing on the message.

4 - Every man is a sinner while he has flesh, including all prophets of course. The one walking in the gift of prophecy will make mistakes until he matures in this gift.

5 - the one called to the office of prophet will be mature and will not speak on his own accord. He may speak many times with the inspiration and knowledge that the Holy Spirit has revealed to him, but will not say Thus says The Lord on his own accord. Even when he speaks without this proclamation the things he says will be from the Lord most of the time. Because he has learned from experience not to trust in himself in any way. He will always seek The Lord in the things he speaks because he fears The word of the Lord. He has learned to fear his own desires and his own abilities in every way. He always is asking The Lord to keep him from speaking of himself. He has learned that he can not be trusted, but that the Lord can be trusted. He has learned how utterly sinful that he is. He has also learned how utterly righteous The Lord Jesus is.

6 -The prophet that is called to the office of prophet will NEVER allow anyone to call him THE prophet or use the title of prophet for him. Any man who calls himself, or allows others to call him THE Prophet in NOT a prophet.

7 -The man who is called to the office of prophet never decides to speak "thus says The Lord" or even seeks to speak that way. NEVER. Any move of God always starts with God and not any man. Any man who claims that he sought the Lord for a long time to convince the Lord to speak, and then claims the Lord spoke through him, is not a prophet. Now man may seek The Truth for sometime and then have the Lord decide to speak through him. The Lord always decides from start to finish.

8 - When a man called to the office of prophet speaks " thus says The Lord' it is NEVER his decision but the Lord comes upon him in power and if the man then surrenders to The Lord's Holy Spirit, The Lord will fill that man with His Holy Spirit until The Lord takes over his mind and his tongue. IT WILL NOT BE THE MAN SPEAKING AT ALL. It will actually be The Lord speaking using the mans spirit, soul, and body. The prophet will be nothing but an observer like those watching or hearing. This is ALWAYS correct, because The Lord is always right.

9 - If the man is involved in any way, there will be false prophecies.

10 - NO MAN DECIDES TO BECOME A PROPHET. Every prophet is called by God, and the man called so, desires to know the truth and thinks he is willing to pay anything for it; foolish man that he is. BUT if he knew the price he would never seek it of himself. He will be crushed to the point of death sometimes, and his flesh will desire to quit. But the grace of The Lord Jesus will give him enough strength to call out to The Lord when the man has given up all hope. He will desire to quit many times, but The Lord's call is without repentance. He is at death's door in the spirit sometimes, but this is so that he will learn that God raises the dead.

11 - Any man who seeks glory of any kind is not a prophet. He desires to see The Lord Jesus glorified. Any man who tells others to follow him because he is a prophet of God, and so following him is following the commands of God, IS NOT A PROPHET.

12 - A true prophet will always point everyone to The Lord Jesus Christ and no one else, or nothing else. Any man who tells anyone to look to anyone, or anything other than The Lord Jesus, IS NOT A PROPHET. He can do this by his words, or his deeds, or his example.

Balaam was a man with the gift of prophecy, but not called to the office. His gift ended up being his undoing. For he trusted in his gift, rather than the giver of the gift.

God reveals His prophets by speaking through them. If one does not recognize the one God has sent, he does not recognize The Lord. The Lord's sheep know His voice and so when The Lord speaks through a mere man they recognize The voice of The Lord.

The role of a prophet is to be an instrument that God can speak through. People will learn of the nature of The Lord by considering the words that God speaks through his prophet. People will learn to follow The Lord by the example of false prophets and the example of true prophets. NEVER trust in any prophet. Anyone who encourages you to do so, is NOT a prophet. Always seek The Lord and ask Him to guide you and reveal the truth to you. Above all do not decide yourself what word is true and what is false. Always ask The Lord to cause you to follow Him. Do not pray and ask The Lord, and then not wait upon Him to reveal the truth to you. You then are simply trusting in the fact that you prayed, instead of trusting in the Lord.

This one fact is what I lean on:

The Holy Spirit tells us through his prophet Paul, that we do NOT have to be willing to do His will. ( if we did, no one would be saved. Because everyone wants their own way )

We only have to be willing to be made willing by His mercy and grace.

The Mormons claim that a prophet is a man that God has chosen to speak FOR God. This is proof positive that they do not know what a prophet is, so you are not likely to find one there.

A prophet NEVER speaks for God. God speaks THROUGH that man. The man is NOT doing the speaking at all. It is God speaking.

Some prophets:

Enoch
Abraham
Joseph
Samuel
David - not the office while he was King
Elijah
Elisha
Daniel
Jonah
John
Paul
Jesus

Grace to you

Lou Newton

**TennesseeLinda** · December 31, 2014, 07:52 AM

I KNEW The Lord got me up early for a reason! I am really excited to see what everyone says about the present role of a prophet.

Of course, there is still a role for the prophet, because God never changes.

The problem is man. Going into the 60's in my late teens, when is was forming what would become my 'adult' thinking, I was exposed to some really wild stuff. A preacher who defied the church leaders, took over the young adult Sunday School class, and taught us that drinking in moderation was o.k., that we should love all people equally (communists, other races, homosexuals, etc.). Living in Birmingham, I got a front row seat to police dogs being turned on peaceful protesters, marches......life for the South was going to change dramatically. Young men I knew were going off to war. Some were going to Canada to escape the war. Guys were. Running their draft cards and women were burning their bras. People in Ca. Were smoking banana leaves. It was a frightening time, because everything had been so peaceful during my younger years.

In the midst of this young people tried to find something to hold on to......enter transcendental meditation, inner peace movement, Silva Mind Control, spirit writing.......you name it, I tried it. Finally, my Baptist rearing grabbed me and slung me back into the fold. But, I was brought back through someone doing deliverance on me. Now I was feverishly looking for something in the Christian world to match what I had been through in the Satanic world.....why? I had found that Satan was a REAL entity, not a myth. It followed that God was real!

Now, I embraced the Charismatic scene. I don't like to do anything half way, so I began reading all the books about the gifts, talked my husband into going to a conference of prophets, went to a church where a lady 'prophet' called people up and told them things she could not know in the natural. Then came the 'awakening'. Slowly God began to mature me. One night the lady asked the preacher's wife to name something she really wanted. She said a blue Caddy. She then proceeded to put a guilt trip on the congregation to give towards the car. This cracked my eyelids. I began to question everything connected with the movement. Soon, I was back to square one.

I said all that.....to say this......is mere man capable of living on earth as a prophet? Are we to pray for this gift? I did. Does a prophet have the ability to receive information about the future? At the prophetic conference, we took our kids. They were 19, 20, and 21 years old. The man who did one 'reading' was spot on! Only one thing he said was going to happen has not been fulfilled. Was he speaking from The Lord or Satan?

Jump in there people I would LOVE to get everyone's opinion.

**Steve Hollander** · December 31, 2014, 07:58 AM

Just because someone can see the future does not mean that God is the One who is showing it to them.

**Blane** · December 31, 2014, 08:17 AM

Originally posted by Steve Hollander View Post

Just because someone can see the future does not mean that God is the One who is showing it to them.

So true. Often false prophets really do have a spirit; but it's a spirit of divination, or a familiar spirit. Evil spirits tend to knows things about people and situations that people don't know. False prophets get things "right" sometimes because evil spirits are working behind the scenes to validate the false prophet. They move on people's heart and emotions to bring to pass the events that are "prophesied." Or they parrot inside information in the form of a prophecy through their false prophet that has a high probability of coming true.

Blane

**Blane** · December 31, 2014, 08:26 AM

Originally posted by TennesseeLinda View Post

I KNEW The Lord got me up early for a reason! I am really excited to see what everyone says about the present role of a prophet.

Of course, there is still a role for the prophet, because God never changes.

Hi Linda. I love the way you process information. Your comment is yet another witness that God put it on my heart to start this thread. The idea dropped into my heart suddenly yesterday while driving. God gives us tremendous freedom to do and speak about a wide array of topics on forums like this. But sometimes God will nudge someone to start a thread that they never would have thought to start on their own. We all need to learn to become increasingly sensitive to hearing His voice.

I believe this is a topic that God wants His people to prayerfully consider.

Blane

**Blane** · December 31, 2014, 08:31 AM

Originally posted by Lou Newton View Post

1 - There is a gift of prophecy AND there is an office of a prophet

2 - The gift simply means that God sometimes chooses to speak through that person

3 - The office of a prophet is a person who has walked in the gift for sometime and has experience to tell when the Lord is speaking and when it is Satan and when it is his own desires. He is sent out in authority and God has revealed many "secrets" to him. He will have seen many miracles and God will have preformed many miracles through him. He has authority given to him by God, but very few respect this authority. They look at the messenger instead of focusing on the message.

4 - Every man is a sinner while he has flesh, including all prophets of course. The one walking in the gift of prophecy will make mistakes until he matures in this gift.

5 - the one called to the office of prophet will be mature and will not speak on his own accord. He may speak many times with the inspiration and knowledge that the Holy Spirit has revealed to him, but will not say Thus says The Lord on his own accord. Even when he speaks without this proclamation the things he says will be from the Lord most of the time. Because he has learned from experience not to trust in himself in any way. He will always seek The Lord in the things he speaks because he fears The word of the Lord. He has learned to fear his own desires and his own abilities in every way. He always is asking The Lord to keep him from speaking of himself. He has learned that he can not be trusted, but that the Lord can be trusted. He has learned how utterly sinful that he is. He has also learned how utterly righteous The Lord Jesus is.

6 -The prophet that is called to the office of prophet will NEVER allow anyone to call him THE prophet or use the title of prophet for him. Any man who calls himself, or allows others to call him THE Prophet in NOT a prophet.

7 -The man who is called to the office of prophet never decides to speak "thus says The Lord" or even seeks to speak that way. NEVER. Any move of God always starts with God and not any man. Any man who claims that he sought the Lord for a long time to convince the Lord to speak, and then claims the Lord spoke through him, is not a prophet. Now man may seek The Truth for sometime and then have the Lord decide to speak through him. The Lord always decides from start to finish.

8 - When a man called to the office of prophet speaks " thus says The Lord' it is NEVER his decision but the Lord comes upon him in power and if the man then surrenders to The Lord's Holy Spirit, The Lord will fill that man with His Holy Spirit until The Lord takes over his mind and his tongue. IT WILL NOT BE THE MAN SPEAKING AT ALL. It will actually be The Lord speaking using the mans spirit, soul, and body. The prophet will be nothing but an observer like those watching or hearing. This is ALWAYS correct, because The Lord is always right.

9 - If the man is involved in any way, there will be false prophecies.

10 - NO MAN DECIDES TO BECOME A PROPHET. Every prophet is called by God, and the man called so, desires to know the truth and thinks he is willing to pay anything for it; foolish man that he is. BUT if he knew the price he would never seek it of himself. He will be crushed to the point of death sometimes, and his flesh will desire to quit. But the grace of The Lord Jesus will give him enough strength to call out to The Lord when the man has given up all hope. He will desire to quit many times, but The Lord's call is without repentance. He is at death's door in the spirit sometimes, but this is so that he will learn that God raises the dead.

11 - Any man who seeks glory of any kind is not a prophet. He desires to see The Lord Jesus glorified. Any man who tells others to follow him because he is a prophet of God, and so following him is following the commands of God, IS NOT A PROPHET.

12 - A true prophet will always point everyone to The Lord Jesus Christ and no one else, or nothing else. Any man who tells anyone to look to anyone, or anything other than The Lord Jesus, IS NOT A PROPHET. He can do this by his words, or his deeds, or his example.

Balaam was a man with the gift of prophecy, but not called to the office. His gift ended up being his undoing. For he trusted in his gift, rather than the giver of the gift.

God reveals His prophets by speaking through them. If one does not recognize the one God has sent, he does not recognize The Lord. The Lord's sheep know His voice and so when The Lord speaks through a mere man they recognize The voice of The Lord.

The role of a prophet is to be an instrument that God can speak through. People will learn of the nature of The Lord by considering the words that God speaks through his prophet. People will learn to follow The Lord by the example of false prophets and the example of true prophets. NEVER trust in any prophet. Anyone who encourages you to do so, is NOT a prophet. Always seek The Lord and ask Him to guide you and reveal the truth to you. Above all do not decide yourself what word is true and what is false. Always ask The Lord to cause you to follow Him. Do not pray and ask The Lord, and then not wait upon Him to reveal the truth to you. You then are simply trusting in the fact that you prayed, instead of trusting in the Lord.

This one fact is what I lean on:

The Holy Spirit tells us through his prophet Paul, that we do NOT have to be willing to do His will. ( if we did, no one would be saved. Because everyone wants their own way )

We only have to be willing to be made willing by His mercy and grace.

The Mormons claim that a prophet is a man that God has chosen to speak FOR God. This is proof positive that they do not know what a prophet is, so you are not likely to find one there.

A prophet NEVER speaks for God. God speaks THROUGH that man. The man is NOT doing the speaking at all. It is God speaking.

Some prophets:

Enoch
Abraham
Joseph
Samuel
David - not the office while he was King
Elijah
Elisha
Daniel
Jonah
John
Paul
Jesus

Grace to you

Lou Newton

Thanks for this phenomenal start to the discussion, Lou. Too much information here to address in a single post. Lots of meat and things that need to be seriously considered. I want to come back to several things within this post on separate posts and ask you to expound on them. Have a blessed day, brother.

Blane

**Lou Newton** · December 31, 2014, 10:46 AM

Originally posted by TennesseeLinda View Post

I KNEW The Lord got me up early for a reason! I am really excited to see what everyone says about the present role of a prophet.

Of course, there is still a role for the prophet, because God never changes.

The problem is man. Going into the 60's in my late teens, when is was forming what would become my 'adult' thinking, I was exposed to some really wild stuff. A preacher who defied the church leaders, took over the young adult Sunday School class, and taught us that drinking in moderation was o.k., that we should love all people equally (communists, other races, homosexuals, etc.). Living in Birmingham, I got a front row seat to police dogs being turned on peaceful protesters, marches......life for the South was going to change dramatically. Young men I knew were going off to war. Some were going to Canada to escape the war. Guys were. Running their draft cards and women were burning their bras. People in Ca. Were smoking banana leaves. It was a frightening time, because everything had been so peaceful during my younger years.

In the midst of this young people tried to find something to hold on to......enter transcendental meditation, inner peace movement, Silva Mind Control, spirit writing.......you name it, I tried it. Finally, my Baptist rearing grabbed me and slung me back into the fold. But, I was brought back through someone doing deliverance on me. Now I was feverishly looking for something in the Christian world to match what I had been through in the Satanic world.....why? I had found that Satan was a REAL entity, not a myth. It followed that God was real!

Now, I embraced the Charismatic scene. I don't like to do anything half way, so I began reading all the books about the gifts, talked my husband into going to a conference of prophets, went to a church where a lady 'prophet' called people up and told them things she could not know in the natural. Then came the 'awakening'. Slowly God began to mature me. One night the lady asked the preacher's wife to name something she really wanted. She said a blue Caddy. She then proceeded to put a guilt trip on the congregation to give towards the car. This cracked my eyelids. I began to question everything connected with the movement. Soon, I was back to square one.

I said all that.....to say this......is mere man capable of living on earth as a prophet? Are we to pray for this gift? I did. Does a prophet have the ability to receive information about the future? At the prophetic conference, we took our kids. They were 19, 20, and 21 years old. The man who did one 'reading' was spot on! Only one thing he said was going to happen has not been fulfilled. Was he speaking from The Lord or Satan?

Jump in there people I would LOVE to get everyone's opinion.

Hi Linda,

What Steve and Blane said is true, as you already know.

Demons are far above mere men in so many ways. They know far more than we do and also have far more power than we do.

So as a result many seek that knowledge and power they possess.

BUT the problem with this is that they are all LIARS. One can not depend on what they tell you, BECAUSE THEY ARE LIARS AND CAN NOT TELL THE TRUTH. They will tell a perverted truth, that is not truth at all.

Also these demons are so far below God that it is impossible to describe. They know so little compared to Him, and will not tell the whole truth about what they do know.

So it is pure foolishness to seek them for power or knowledge.

It is wise to seek God who, first of all knows the whole truth, and second, will tell us the whole truth.

Many who claim to seek God in name, really contact these demons. Why or how is this true ?

When anyone seeks the GIFTS they are in danger of contacting these evil powers.

When we seek the Giver of the gifts we come to know The Lord Jesus better and better.

As far as was this man you speak a prophet or not:

We were not there and know very little about him or his message. We can not tell with our little knowledge of him.

One test to use is this:

Does his message bring you closer to Christ and cause you to leave everything behind, and seek and trust The Lord Jesus and no one else.

Or does his message cause you to think more highly of him and cause you to look to him and seek him.

Of course this test can point to a false prophet, but it also can point to a seeker that is going the wrong way themselves instead.

Seek the Giver of the gifts instead of the gifts is a good rule.

Lou Newton

**AGTG** · December 31, 2014, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by Lou Newton View Post

1 - There is a gift of prophecy AND there is an office of a prophet

2 - The gift simply means that God sometimes chooses to speak through that person

3 - The office of a prophet is a person who has walked in the gift for sometime and has experience to tell when the Lord is speaking and when it is Satan and when it is his own desires. He is sent out in authority and God has revealed many "secrets" to him. He will have seen many miracles and God will have preformed many miracles through him. He has authority given to him by God, but very few respect this authority. They look at the messenger instead of focusing on the message.

4 - Every man is a sinner while he has flesh, including all prophets of course. The one walking in the gift of prophecy will make mistakes until he matures in this gift.

5 - the one called to the office of prophet will be mature and will not speak on his own accord. He may speak many times with the inspiration and knowledge that the Holy Spirit has revealed to him, but will not say Thus says The Lord on his own accord. Even when he speaks without this proclamation the things he says will be from the Lord most of the time. Because he has learned from experience not to trust in himself in any way. He will always seek The Lord in the things he speaks because he fears The word of the Lord. He has learned to fear his own desires and his own abilities in every way. He always is asking The Lord to keep him from speaking of himself. He has learned that he can not be trusted, but that the Lord can be trusted. He has learned how utterly sinful that he is. He has also learned how utterly righteous The Lord Jesus is.

6 -The prophet that is called to the office of prophet will NEVER allow anyone to call him THE prophet or use the title of prophet for him. Any man who calls himself, or allows others to call him THE Prophet in NOT a prophet.

7 -The man who is called to the office of prophet never decides to speak "thus says The Lord" or even seeks to speak that way. NEVER. Any move of God always starts with God and not any man. Any man who claims that he sought the Lord for a long time to convince the Lord to speak, and then claims the Lord spoke through him, is not a prophet. Now man may seek The Truth for sometime and then have the Lord decide to speak through him. The Lord always decides from start to finish.

8 - When a man called to the office of prophet speaks " thus says The Lord' it is NEVER his decision but the Lord comes upon him in power and if the man then surrenders to The Lord's Holy Spirit, The Lord will fill that man with His Holy Spirit until The Lord takes over his mind and his tongue. IT WILL NOT BE THE MAN SPEAKING AT ALL. It will actually be The Lord speaking using the mans spirit, soul, and body. The prophet will be nothing but an observer like those watching or hearing. This is ALWAYS correct, because The Lord is always right.

9 - If the man is involved in any way, there will be false prophecies.

10 - NO MAN DECIDES TO BECOME A PROPHET. Every prophet is called by God, and the man called so, desires to know the truth and thinks he is willing to pay anything for it; foolish man that he is. BUT if he knew the price he would never seek it of himself. He will be crushed to the point of death sometimes, and his flesh will desire to quit. But the grace of The Lord Jesus will give him enough strength to call out to The Lord when the man has given up all hope. He will desire to quit many times, but The Lord's call is without repentance. He is at death's door in the spirit sometimes, but this is so that he will learn that God raises the dead.

11 - Any man who seeks glory of any kind is not a prophet. He desires to see The Lord Jesus glorified. Any man who tells others to follow him because he is a prophet of God, and so following him is following the commands of God, IS NOT A PROPHET.

12 - A true prophet will always point everyone to The Lord Jesus Christ and no one else, or nothing else. Any man who tells anyone to look to anyone, or anything other than The Lord Jesus, IS NOT A PROPHET. He can do this by his words, or his deeds, or his example.

Balaam was a man with the gift of prophecy, but not called to the office. His gift ended up being his undoing. For he trusted in his gift, rather than the giver of the gift.

God reveals His prophets by speaking through them. If one does not recognize the one God has sent, he does not recognize The Lord. The Lord's sheep know His voice and so when The Lord speaks through a mere man they recognize The voice of The Lord.

The role of a prophet is to be an instrument that God can speak through. People will learn of the nature of The Lord by considering the words that God speaks through his prophet. People will learn to follow The Lord by the example of false prophets and the example of true prophets. NEVER trust in any prophet. Anyone who encourages you to do so, is NOT a prophet. Always seek The Lord and ask Him to guide you and reveal the truth to you. Above all do not decide yourself what word is true and what is false. Always ask The Lord to cause you to follow Him. Do not pray and ask The Lord, and then not wait upon Him to reveal the truth to you. You then are simply trusting in the fact that you prayed, instead of trusting in the Lord.

This one fact is what I lean on:

The Holy Spirit tells us through his prophet Paul, that we do NOT have to be willing to do His will. ( if we did, no one would be saved. Because everyone wants their own way )

We only have to be willing to be made willing by His mercy and grace.

The Mormons claim that a prophet is a man that God has chosen to speak FOR God. This is proof positive that they do not know what a prophet is, so you are not likely to find one there.

A prophet NEVER speaks for God. God speaks THROUGH that man. The man is NOT doing the speaking at all. It is God speaking.

Some prophets:

Enoch
Abraham
Joseph
Samuel
David - not the office while he was King
Elijah
Elisha
Daniel
Jonah
John
Paul
Jesus

Grace to you

Lou Newton

This is excellent. I believe also that there are prophets who function in the Body local (ordained to function within a single congregation) and those who are called to function in the Body universal (these ones are sent by God to different congregations in different times and seasons).

The ones functioning in the Body universal are kind of like a speaker in an intercom system. Let's say the world is like a school. The office intercom is where Jesus declares what He's doing universally throughout the world. A member of the Body who is functioning in the universal office of a prophet is like the speaker in the classroom. The classroom is basically the congregation that the prophet was called to in a particular time and place (unlike the prophet who is positioned solely in a single congregation). The prophets in the universal position are used by Jesus to proclaim the same things, otherwise the speaker is not functioning properly.

And with the advent of mass-media (that includes the printing press and beyond), some of these prophets have functioned to build-up and equip the saints for ministry through teachings. T. Austin Sparks is a good example of this.

I believe God has ordained such prophets to this lonely position because it's helpful to the man to not be beholden to other people. Prophets who are ordained to the local congregation can have their allegiance divided because of familiarity with the leadership within a congregation.

In other words, it helps to keep "man-pleasing" to a minimum for the one who is called to the Body universal. This means Jesus will be able to speak clearly through that prophet without the prophet's fears or biases getting in the way.

**AGTG** · December 31, 2014, 12:13 PM

Originally posted by Lou Newton View Post

Of course this test can point to a false prophet, but it also can point to a seeker that is going the wrong way themselves instead.

Seek the Giver of the gifts instead of the gifts is a good rule.

Lou Newton

I agree, and have seen this at work. Familiar spirits (which pretend to the Holy Spirit) can cause a great deal of damage in a congregation. These foul spiritual forces speak to those who aren't being as discerning as they need to be, and who are zealous to function in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and cause division, strife, and all manner of discord.

The apostle John said this:

1John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

But there's even more to this discerning because we also need to be very careful of our own flesh:

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

So our own flesh will bring forth lies because it is sick with sin. Foul spiritual forces will try to deceive us. We have quite a battle going on, don't we? Thank God for His mercy and grace!

**AGTG** · December 31, 2014, 12:22 PM

Originally posted by Blane View Post

So true. Often false prophets really do have a spirit; but it's a spirit of divination, or a familiar spirit. Evil spirits tend to knows things about people and situations that people don't know. False prophets get things "right" sometimes because evil spirits are working behind the scenes to validate the false prophet. They move on people's heart and emotions to bring to pass the events that are "prophesied." Or they parrot inside information in the form of a prophecy through their false prophet that has a high probability of coming true.

Blane

Yes, and sometimes these people are basically unleashing hell against others because Satan's goal is only to kill, steal, and destroy.

**Lou Newton** · December 31, 2014, 12:32 PM

Originally posted by AGTG View Post

I agree, and have seen this at work. Familiar spirits (which pretend to the Holy Spirit) can cause a great deal of damage in a congregation. These foul spiritual forces speak to those who aren't being as discerning as they need to be, and who are zealous to function in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and cause division, strife, and all manner of discord.

The apostle John said this:

1John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

But there's even more to this discerning because we also need to be very careful of our own flesh:

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

So our own flesh will bring forth lies because it is sick with sin. Foul spiritual forces will try to deceive us. We have quite a battle going on, don't we? Thank God for His mercy and grace!

Hi Jeff.................good to hear from you...................Lou

**Travis** · December 31, 2014, 04:45 PM

Originally posted by TennesseeLinda View Post

I KNEW The Lord got me up early for a reason! I am really excited to see what everyone says about the present role of a prophet.

Of course, there is still a role for the prophet, because God never changes.

The problem is man. Going into the 60's in my late teens, when is was forming what would become my 'adult' thinking, I was exposed to some really wild stuff. A preacher who defied the church leaders, took over the young adult Sunday School class, and taught us that drinking in moderation was o.k., that we should love all people equally (communists, other races, homosexuals, etc.). Living in Birmingham, I got a front row seat to police dogs being turned on peaceful protesters, marches......life for the South was going to change dramatically. Young men I knew were going off to war. Some were going to Canada to escape the war. Guys were. Running their draft cards and women were burning their bras. People in Ca. Were smoking banana leaves. It was a frightening time, because everything had been so peaceful during my younger years.

In the midst of this young people tried to find something to hold on to......enter transcendental meditation, inner peace movement, Silva Mind Control, spirit writing.......you name it, I tried it. Finally, my Baptist rearing grabbed me and slung me back into the fold. But, I was brought back through someone doing deliverance on me. Now I was feverishly looking for something in the Christian world to match what I had been through in the Satanic world.....why? I had found that Satan was a REAL entity, not a myth. It followed that God was real!

Now, I embraced the Charismatic scene. I don't like to do anything half way, so I began reading all the books about the gifts, talked my husband into going to a conference of prophets, went to a church where a lady 'prophet' called people up and told them things she could not know in the natural. Then came the 'awakening'. Slowly God began to mature me. One night the lady asked the preacher's wife to name something she really wanted. She said a blue Caddy. She then proceeded to put a guilt trip on the congregation to give towards the car. This cracked my eyelids. I began to question everything connected with the movement. Soon, I was back to square one.

I said all that.....to say this......is mere man capable of living on earth as a prophet? Are we to pray for this gift? I did. Does a prophet have the ability to receive information about the future? At the prophetic conference, we took our kids. They were 19, 20, and 21 years old. The man who did one 'reading' was spot on! Only one thing he said was going to happen has not been fulfilled. Was he speaking from The Lord or Satan?

Jump in there people I would LOVE to get everyone's opinion.

Hey Linda, thanks for sharing all that.

I think I've witnessed similar things as you have, maybe just from a little different angle.

Good stuff,

Travis

**Lou Newton** · December 31, 2014, 05:44 PM

Originally posted by Travis View Post

Hey Linda, thanks for sharing all that.

I think I've witnessed similar things as you have, maybe just from a little different angle.

Good stuff,

Travis

Amen to that Travis.................................Lou

**TennesseeLinda** · January 1, 2015, 08:20 AM

Thanks you, Travis. I was devastated at first, when I realized I had prostituted myself to other gods by seeking wisdom outside the Bible. Satan never changes. The lure of 'special' knowledge is strong. After I was freed from all that satanic involvement, it took me a while to pull all the tentacles from my brain.

I don't think God held it against me. He forgave me immediately. I had a much harder time forgiving myself. The experience made it easier for me to witness to others that both Satan and God are real. Believe me, I proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Announcement

What is a prophet in 21st century America?

What is a prophet in 21st century America?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment