Nebuchadnezzar was the King of Babylon. He was the ruler of the entire known world of his day. The prophet Daniel declared that Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was the head of gold in the king’s dream. It was a great and mighty kingdom. The king’s heart was lifted up as he reflected on everything he had done and accomplished in his kingdom. “I shall never be moved, he declared.” A few short months later God took this great king and altered his mind in mid sentence. Nebuchadnezzar was given the mind of a beast. His whole life changed immediately. He lived his life as an animal in a pasture for seven years. On his body grew feathers and claws. On the appointed day God gave Nebuchadnezzar his mind back. The king lifted his eyes to heaven and declared that there is no God like the Most High.
Do we think that it is any different today? We live our lives in North America as if we are in control of our future and our destiny. When the appointed time comes nothing will hold back the purposes of God from being done. At the time of Christ’s coming the scripture says, “will He find faith on the earth”? The Bible says to be careful about being so sure that we will stand, lest we fall.
Monthly Archives: October 2016
Jeremiah weeped
Jeremiah did a lot of weeping over the people of Israel. He wanted to spare them judgment from God. Babylon was the entity God used for his purposes. The Israelite’s were trusting in their religion to save them. Surely God would not let his temple be removed or eliminated would he? This is exactly what God did for seventy years. Solomon’s temple was razed to the ground never to be seen again. This temple was the pride of the Jewish people. “This is where God lives!” they proclaimed. Unknown to them God had departed. He was removed by the Jewish leaders and replaced with man’s wisdom and thinking. The Jewish leaders were very confident that they and the people would never be judged, Jerusalem would never be destroyed, because God was no where else in the world. They alone were God’s people. They alone had a covenant with God. What happened? They went into captivity. They were given by God into the hands of their enemy. They went into servitude and disgrace.
II Thessalonians chapter 2 says that those who love the truth will be saved. Others will be given a strong delusion from God in order that they will believe a lie. In our day we have a good number of our own saying that we can no longer trust the Bible fully because it has been compromised. “Surely, God does not expect that from us given the circumstances.”
The Israelite’s didn’t think so either.
Prophecy and Visions
What do the saints do with the many prophecies given and the spiritual visions claimed as seen by others? The saints must judge these by the Spirit. The Bible declares that we have something amazing living inside those who are in Christ. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows the mind of God and is able to search out the heart of the person He inhabits. He knows what God is saying to his people in the present day. As the believer interacts with God through prayer, devotionals, spiritual messages, and in their daily walk with God, the Holy Spirit speaks to them. The believer gets ‘a sense’ of what the Spirit is saying through the Word and their own experiences with God. When a prophecy is given the believer judges it by what they have been ‘hearing’. For example, if a saint senses that God has been talking to believers about overcoming sin and a prophecy comes forth about believers going out to conquer the rulers of the world, then the saint can disallow that message given. It is likely not from God. The same applies to visions for this day and time. This same judgement applies to those who are prominent and respected leaders as well as to a member of the congregation.
In the Scriptures we don’t read about prophecy happening or being given outside of a gathering together of the saints. The Holy Spirit is present tense in the congregation. He speaks for that moment and time when the saints gather. This is not something that can be prepared beforehand by someone who prophecies. The prophesier cannot predict the message ahead of time. There also needs to be an ‘unction’ given with the prophecy that the Holy Spirit applies so that the saints can ‘hear’ the voice of Jesus. These messages or prophecies are given for several reasons. To encourage, correct, comfort, plead with the saints, etc.
There is misuse of prophecy in the Church today. Many saints are following ‘a man’. This man is not Jesus. Moses was a man of God. The scriptures declare that there is only one other ‘Man’ besides Moses that God has given for eternity, and that is Jesus. The saints are to grow into the full measure of this ‘Man’.
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