162. THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY

(The Information & Edification Series – Batch 3)

Revelations 19:10 declares: “…for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

This is quite edifying. For, there are so many people running around today calling themselves Prophets and telling people that God will give them breakthrough and blessings and advancement and riches and promotion and everything their heart desires and that they must sow a financial seed (and in particular, sow into the pockets of the very so-called Prophets), YET the Word of God of tells us that the spirit of prophecy, true prophecy, aims to exalt not self but the testimony of Jesus.

True prophecy aims to remember His name, to exalt His name, to promote His name, glorify His name and focus on His name, that name whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

For, there is salvation in no other. What greater testimony of Jesus do we have than the GOSPEL OF GOD which declares that he (Jesus) died, rose again from the dead and that now, those who believe in his resurrection and confess him as Lord, get their sins forgiven and unmerited access to heaven? (Romans 10:9-10)

Yes, the testimony of Jesus (nothing else) is the spirit of authentic prophecy.

False prophesy leads people to forget the name of Jesus and to focus not on Him but on dreams of self-aggrandizement and self-comfort, dreams of materialistic and earthly things to satisfy self’s lustful desires. (Jeremiah 23:27)

Yet the spirit of prophecy, wherever it exists, knows, even as John the Baptist knew, that He (Jesus) must increase and self must decrease (John 3:30).

Every true Prophet of God in the Bible, submitted to God’s will and lived, many times painfully with great sacrifice and carrying the burden of the fact that what they were saying about God’s pending judgment was true but the rebellious people around them refused to listen. In short, these Prophets in the Bible day lived to declare the Word of God. That is what it means to be a Prophet. They were busy promoting, not themselves but what He put in their mouth to say. It was also their genuine desire to see the people obey God because he was God, some even grieving and lamenting when the people chose to rebel.

Today, equipped with the Bible which contains the Word of God to mankind, Jesus has given his Church a mandate, to go into all the world and to preach the gospel. We are charged as Christians, to spread the gospel, which is the testimony of Jesus. Therefore with any person claiming to have the gift of prophecy, if the exaltation of the testimony of Jesus is not his objective, then he is a false prophet. If he cares not for the souls of man or cares more about riches, advancement and earthly breakthrough than people repenting of their sins, receiving salvation through the gospel and thereby escaping hell, then he is a false prophet. Alas, he cannot say he cares and not declare it or shove it to back of his agenda of speaking points, barely ever mentioning the all important issue of people’s salvation, a very real heaven and a very real hell, while he pursues people’s pockets and recognition in the world.

If it matters not to him how people live and he does not preach holiness of life to those who claim to know Jesus and obedience to His will (over and above their own) and that to serve Jesus means that they MUST come out of sin (be it fornication, adultery, gossiping, idolatry or otherwise), then he is a false prophet.

He is commissioned by satan to turn people AWAY from God, not TO God, deceiving them by his false proclamations of blessings and advancement. Make no mistake, if the words spoken are not God’s words then it is not true prophecy and today, if they do not testify of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, if this is not the main objective of prophesying, then it is not true prophecy.

In Jeremiah 23:1-2, 9-32, through an authentic Prophet, God stated:

“WOE be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord…

Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord…

Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.

And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think TO CAUSE MY PEOPLE TO FORGET MY NAME by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.”

The true Spirit of prophecy is about Jesus and repentance, given that He is the way, the truth and the life and no man can come unto the Father except through Him (John 14:6). Yet, false prophecy which comes through a lying spirit, does not teach people to turn from their wicked way and to the Lord but away from him and to their materialistic idols.

In Jeremiah 23, the Lord was saying that if those who claimed to be Prophets had really heard from Him and were really conveying his words to the people, that they would have told the people to repent and let them know how to get back into relationship with Him, not how to satisfy themselves with the useless things of this life.

For, God’s heart is about repentance, reconciliation and salvation. This is the gospel message and true prophecy will echo it loudly. It will tell people what God loves and what God hates and not try to sugar-coat it or ignore it. It will correct and even rebuke, instead of strengthening the hands of those who are doing wrong, by encouraging them further along the path of error.

When persons who are in error, in sin and displeasing God are given vain words of comfort by these false prophets to hold on to (based on the so-called dreams or vision of the so-called Prophet), these so-called ‘Prophets’ encourage them in their wrongdoing because they have not spoken to them about their sinful life and lifestyle before God and the need to repent.

Indeed, they can do nothing else other than lead people astray and into hell because they themselves are not Christians, only pretending to be, so that they can serve themselves or otherwise deceived by satan.

Where they are wilfully pretending to hear from God, their characteristics and motivations are mentioned at length in 2 Peter 2 and in Jude. Although they may use the name of Jesus, they are not really interested in promoting Him and his testimony but in promoting themselves, their popularity, their influence and their pockets. For, they have not the Spirit of Christ (and are therefore not one of his own) but have the spirit of error.

Romans 8:9 makes it clear that: “…if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

1 John 4:1-3 further states:

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”

(Written on 29th October, 2020)

Dear Reader, if you found the above Note to be eye-opening, beneficial or interesting, you may also be interested in reading the following:

Note 18 – ‘Riches, Abundance, Breakthrough And Promotion – Lies From The Pit Of Hell’
Note 27 – ‘You Cannot Command Your Morning’
Note 28 – ‘Our Words Have Power – A Lie From The Pit Of Hell’
Note 42 – ‘Ten Red Flags That That Speaker Or Teacher Is A Wolf Disguised In Sheep’s Clothing Or Operating Under The Devil’s Deception’