“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 ESV
We have a very deceptive enemy.
A problem that has found its way into the modern church, particularly those churches that are more open to the active, present work of the Holy Spirit is the emphasis on operating in spiritual gifts. Often this becomes the central focus and there is little or no emphasis on bearing spiritual fruit.
I want to make it understood that I am not a cessationist by any means. God has not died. The Holy Spirit has not been on vacation since the last book of the New Testament was completed. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) The same miracle worker that was active in the Old and the New Testament is still very much alive and well today.
We also need to understand that Satan is still very much alive today. He is loose and he is out to deceive and seek who he can devour. The above verse says that he disguises himself as an angel of light. In other words, “He does a good imitation of Jesus.” So good in fact that Jesus himself said that if it were possible even the elect would be deceived. (Matthew 24:24)
In Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus said:
“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ “
There are a few things I need to point out here:
Jesus said ‘many,’ not ‘few.’ There would be a lot of false teachers. Possibly they would make up the majority.
They would exercise spiritual gifts, specifically prophetic. They also performed miracles and cast out demons.
In spite of their giftedness in ministry Jesus said these were people he never knew. They were not his.
Satan has his counterfeits for just about everything. Never forget the slave girl in Acts 16:16-18 who was gifted by a demonic spirit of divination. Apparently she was very good at it because she made her owners a lot of money. She even proclaimed that Paul and Silas were servants of God proclaiming the gospel. Yet Paul knew that her words were not from God even though everything she said was true. How many people in churches today would have heard her and been deceived into thinking she was speaking the words from God and not the devil?
Prophetic danger
The main reason I am focusing on the prophetic is because the prophetic can be used to do untold harm to individuals and to the body of Christ as a whole unless it is handled properly. That means it is crucial to learn how to determine what IS and ISN’T truly prophetic.
If the prophetic is being used by someone who is not truly bearing fruit of the spirit, it can often be used to manipulate and control people. This is even the case of true believers who simply haven't matured to the point they can use the gift wisely.
In the Old Testament, claiming to be a prophet when you weren’t was a very serious offense. In Deuteronomy 18:20-22:
“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”
And how many chances did this prophet get? ONE!! That's how serious it is. I have seen many cases where people had these glowing ‘words from the Lord’ that ended up not coming true and it was simply dismissed as if it was no big deal. Claiming to have a word from the Lord that doesn’t pan out is a violation of the third commandment; “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
In churches where the prophetic is encouraged one very seldom hears any warning against making false prophecies because they don’t want to discourage the prophetic gifts. But the words of God in Deuteronomy would have made many ‘prophets’ keep their mouths shut.
In the words of Zechariah:
In Chapter 13 verse 3 of Deuteronomy God says that he sometimes allows the false prophets in order to test his people to see if they will be deceived into falsehood or not?
Years ago I remember a pastor explaining the need to be a man or woman who is a devoted student of the Bible when determining whether a word was from the Lord: “The Holy Spirit can speak to you and he does speak. But there is another spirit, a very unholy one, that also speaks to you. And the only way you can know whether it is God or the devil is by knowing what God’s written word says.”
Keep in mind, this is not just a distinction between those who are truly prophetic and those who aren’t. The devil will do everything he can to speak to the truly prophetic in order to deceive and do harm.
Prophetic words need to be weighed.
In 1 Corinthians 14:29:
“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.”
Often it is simply assumed that whatever a supposed ‘prophet’ said was a good word simply because it sounded good. But the only true criteria is God’s word. Does it line up with what God has already said?
Here are some suggested criteria that will help to determine whether a word is truly from God and the problems with such criteria.
It should encourage. Problem – sometimes a truly prophetic word is a harsh rebuke. That may not seem very encouraging.
It is convicting, not condemning. That depends on who the word is directed at. If it is to edify the saved then it will convict. But if it is directed to nonbelievers then it may very well be condemning. The gospel does have a message to the unrepentant sinner – judgment is coming.
Old Testament prophecy was the very direct 'Word of the Lord,' whereas in the New it is not as direct and needs to be weighed by other believers. Actually, when Agabus prophesied about a coming famine in Acts 11: 28 it was very specific. Some have charged that when Agabus prophesied that Paul would be arrested in Jerusalem by the Jews he was somewhat inaccurate because he was actually arrested by the Romans. This is not unusual even for Old Testament prophecy. Josiah was told he would die in peace before calamity fell on Judah. He was actually killed in battle. Neither of these prophecies should be considered inaccurate because Paul was arrested at the provocation of the Jews and Josiah died in relative peace compared to what was coming. Either way, true prophecy hasn't changed from the Old to the New Testaments. Most Old Testament prophecies were addressed to rebellious, unregenerate people. They would not have the capacity to weigh the prophecies whereas New Covenant believers who are indwelt with the same Holy Spirit that gave the prophetic word have that ability.
Old testament prophecy was directed to a nation. New Testament prophecy is directed towards the church. That may be true in general but the New Testament has much to say about the judgment coming on the nations. Even in the Old Testament some of the prophets spoke against nations other than God’s chosen people. Obadiah prophesied against Edom. Jonah and Nahum prophesied against Nineveh. Habbakuk had words of judgment against Babylon, and there were others, Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, etc. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. And the spirit of prophecy is as well.
The only sure way to determine whether a prophetic word is truly from the Lord is to weigh it against Scripture. That means we need to become astute students of the Word. As it says in Acts 17:11, we need to search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are true.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
Here is some practical advice:
Don’t be hasty in sharing your words. It’s usually not an emergency. Pray into it. Meditate on it.
Share it with your pastors or elders privately. Pastors should be careful about allowing ‘words’ to be shared without carefully evaluating them first. Just allowing people to get up and speak is opening the door for Satan to speak to the people.
It’s OK to say, “I feel like I should share this and let you weigh it for yourself" rather than say, “The Lord showed me.” If it turns out to be a ‘dud word’ so to speak, you didn’t take God’s name in vain. And if it turns out to be a solid word, we can all give God the credit then.
When you look at the entire New Testament as a whole there is very little written concerning spiritual gifts. That is because spiritual gifts are not the end goal. They are given by God and they pretty much take care of themselves.
Spiritual Fruit
Jesus said in John 15:8:
“By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
This should be what we emphasize. He did not say his Father was glorified if we manifest many gifts. We are to bear much fruit. Fruit is growing in the image of Christlikeness. God gives the gifts as he sees fit in order that the church may be built up. Often we get it backwards and we make it about the gifts.
The gospel is about God saving his people and producing fruit in his people. It is not about gifts. Satan seeks to deceive and he deceives not by overtly inserting wrong ideas but by being very subtle. He just has to get us off little by little.
Let us stay focused on the main thing. Desire the true spiritual gifts so they can be used to build up the church but don’t make the gift the central focus.
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