It's always a great joy to come here
and speak from God's word.
So, this evening and the next two evenings,
I want to speak on the subject, the
truth about prophecy.
Now, you would have read the word prophecy
many times in the Bible, and there are
many different conceptions about it among different Christian
groups.
I have been in a number of them.
Some believe that there is no such thing
as prophecy today.
It's all finished with the completion of the
Bible.
They say that is the perfect, that is
mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13, after which there
will be no prophecy.
That's one extreme.
And then, at the other extreme, you have
people who encourage others to say whatever comes
to their mind, and to call it prophecy.
So, we have these extremes in Christendom.
And I'm sure God is very sad, and
the devil is very happy, and the confusion
he has brought, not only in this area,
but in a lot of other areas.
Now, to escape from confusion and to get
out of the counterfeit, we must determine in
our minds that our thinking will be governed
only by the word of God, by what
is written in the Bible, the whole Bible,
not a part of it, the whole of
it, and by no outside source.
Now, you may say, yes, I'm willing for
that, but it is not easy.
Because all of us have come from a
certain tradition, different church traditions.
I think someone who comes from a non
-Christian background would probably find it much easier.
But those who come from a Christian background
have got a certain tradition in their particular
church background that has taught them something which
they have unconsciously absorbed, and it is at
the back of their mind.
And when they read the scriptures, they interpret
it according to what they have been taught
in their tradition.
So, it becomes very difficult for such people
to get light on the scriptures, and it
is very difficult almost for God Himself to
give them any light.
So, it is very important to come with
a simple mind and open heart.
Jesus once said in Matthew 11, 25, I
thank you, Father, that you have hidden these
things from the clever and the intelligent, and
you have revealed them to babes.
Now, we could have a whole study on
that, of what it means to be a
babe.
Jesus took babes and presented them as examples
of humility.
But there is another thing about a babe.
When a babe is born, its mind is
empty of all knowledge.
It studies from a zero level onwards.
And I think one of the meanings of
what Jesus was saying there is, if you
can come to that zero level, in other
words, say, Lord, I want to get rid
of all my preconceived ideas and opinions about
prophecy, and in these days I want to
allow my mind to be influenced only by
the word of God.
So, I am not going to give you
examples from my life, because that's not the
foundation for understanding the truth.
Jesus said in John 17, Sanctify them through
the truth.
Thy word is truth.
So the truth about prophecy can only be
found in scripture.
And if we come to it with an
open mind, free from the prejudices we have
because of what we have seen around or
our tradition, I believe God can show us
something.
Now, we know there is a lot of
counterfeit prophecy, just like there is counterfeit tongues,
counterfeit healing.
Anything valuable is counterfeited.
Valueless things are not counterfeited.
Nobody counterfeits brown paper, nobody counterfeits newspapers.
People counterfeit diamonds, gold, currency notes.
What is similar about all these things?
They are valuable.
So if prophecy is counterfeited, you can be
pretty sure that the original is very valuable.
We got to start from there.
This is not a subject in which we
say, well, it doesn't really matter whether I
understand it or not.
The main thing is to live a holy
life and go out and witness to people.
Well, if that was all there was to
our Christian life, I think God could have
written the Bible in about two pages.
Or to the life of Jesus and that's
it.
But there is a lot more written in
scripture, in the Old Testament and the New
Testament about prophecy, which means God wants us
to know about it.
So prophecy is God communicating his word to
man through his servant.
God has always desired to speak to man.
In fact, the very first page of the
Bible, you find a number of times it
says, God said, God said, God said.
On each day of the remaking of the
earth, God said, God said, God said.
And notice that when the earth accepted that
word, something happened.
The trees began to come up, or the
animals were created, or the fish came into
the sea.
Something happened when the earth responded to that
word.
All that is written in the first page
of the Bible to teach us one thing.
That there is a tremendous power in the
undiluted word of God.
And prophecy is to speak the undiluted word
of God.
And if we can progress to this place,
where more and more our words are coming
from God and his word, and not just
from our own thoughts, there can be a
tremendous power in those words to change people's
lives.
I want you to turn first of all
to Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2.
To see something of the tremendous privilege that
is ours in this day and age in
which we are living.
In Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, on
the day of Pentecost, the apostles began to
speak in tongues.
Now, they could have taken a verse from
Isaiah, which is quoted in 1 Corinthians 14
with stammering lips and another tongue will I
speak to this people.
But Peter did not quote that verse.
Isn't that interesting?
They were speaking in tongues, but he didn't
quote the verse in the Old Testament that
referred to it.
Instead, he quoted another verse.
When they asked, what is this thing we
hear?
Of course, they all understood in their own
language.
And Peter said in Acts 2, verse 17
-16, this is what was spoken by the
prophet Joel.
What is that?
It shall be in the last days I'll
pour out my spirit on all mankind.
Now, this was not true in Old Testament
times.
In Old Testament times, the spirit was poured
out on stray individuals.
One person here, then maybe a hundred years
later, another person there, and maybe two hundred
years later, another person there.
But now, the Lord says His heart's desire
is to pour out His spirit, the same
spirit He poured out on Elijah, on Elisha,
on Gideon, on David, which made them accomplish
those mighty things for God.
God's heart's desire is to pour out the
spirit on all flesh and all mankind.
That includes you and me.
That's why it's wonderful to be living in
days after the day of Pentecost, rather than
before.
And when this happens, when the spirit is
poured out upon people, He does not say,
your sons and daughters will speak in tongues.
Now, praise God for the gift of tongues.
It's a very useful gift by which we
can edify ourselves.
But, the verse Peter quotes is, your sons
and daughters will prophesy.
And I wish people had been more eager
to have this verse fulfilled in their life.
When I pour out my spirit, your sons
and your daughters will prophesy.
Now, in the Old Testament, it was not,
it was rare when a woman prophesied.
There were a few, but we can count
them on the fingers of one hand.
There was Miriam, there was Deborah, there was
a prophetess in Jeremiah's time called Huldah, there
was Isaiah's wife, who was a prophetess, and
Anna, you read of in Luke chapter 1,
who was living under the Old Covenant.
That's about it.
But the male prophets were many, many, many,
many.
It speaks about hundreds of them.
There was a tremendous disproportion between men and
women in the gift of prophecy in the
Old Testament.
But now it was all going to be
different.
Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
And, it doesn't matter what your social level
is, because it says in verse 18, upon
my bond slaves, men and women, I'll pour
out my spirit and they will also prophesy.
Now, that of course refers to people who
are bond slaves of Jesus Christ.
My bond slaves.
Those who are totally committed, like a slave,
who has no rights to obey Jesus completely,
God says, they will prophesy.
Jesus began his ministry in the temptation in
the wilderness with these words.
The first temptation, Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God.
That is prophecy.
The very first words that Jesus spoke related
to prophecy.
The first chapter in the Bible, Genesis 1,
speaks about God speaking.
When Adam went astray and tried to hide
from God, you find God coming to him
and speaking to him, saying, where are you?
So, prophecy is to speak forth the words
of God.
It's a tremendous privilege and a tremendous honor.
Now, as I said in the Old Covenant,
only a few people have this gift of
prophecy.
Only a few people could be in contact
with God, because the Spirit was only upon
a few people.
And you read in the Old Testament, that
when people wanted to know what was God's
will in a particular matter, they would go
to the prophet, and sometimes the prophet would
say, bring me somebody with a guitar, let
me listen to some music, and then after
some time he would say what God was
saying, or he would say, come back after
two days, or wait, he would say.
But nobody could find out God's will themselves.
But in the New Covenant, I want you
to notice this difference, in Hebrews chapter 8,
and verse 11.
Now, Hebrews chapter 8, the whole chapter, is
dealing with the difference between the New Covenant
and the Old Covenant.
The Old Covenant was a list of commandments,
basically.
The ten commandments.
But in the New Covenant, he says, I'll
make a new covenant, in verse 8.
And in this New Covenant, there are a
number of distinctive features about this New Covenant.
I don't want to go into all of
them, I don't have time, but I just
want to mention this one thing.
Verse 11.
They shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
saying, know the Lord.
In other words, it's not a prophet who
has to come and say, well, this is
what the Lord is saying.
You don't have to go through Him.
All shall know Me.
This was impossible under the Old Covenant.
Why?
Because everybody could not receive the Spirit.
But it's possible under the New Covenant, when
the Spirit is poured out upon us, that
we come to know God.
Jesus said, eternal life, John 17, 3, is
to know God and Jesus Christ.
And all shall know Me, from the least
to the greatest of them.
And it is from that knowledge that prophecy
comes.
That's why a more mature Christian, his prophecy
will be more mature and more reliable than
an immature Christian who has not taken the
trouble to know the Lord, or who has
not allowed the Holy Spirit to be poured
out upon him.
There are many Christians in the world who
have not had the Holy Spirit poured out
on them.
They assume, yeah, I have it.
But I don't want to assume.
I want to be sure.
And you must be sure.
Because the gift of prophecy is for those
upon whom God pours out His Spirit.
They waited in that upper room and God
poured out His Spirit and they began to
prophesy.
We read that again in three occasions in
the Acts of the Apostles where the Spirit
was poured out.
One was Acts chapter 2 which we just
read.
And the other was in the house of
Cornelius and it says as soon as the
Holy Spirit was poured out, they heard them
speaking, exalting God.
That's in Acts 10, 46.
So, they were also prophesying, exalting God.
And then in Acts 19 when Paul laid
hands on people and the Holy Spirit came
on them, there also it says they prophesied.
It was a fulfillment of what it says
in Joel chapter 2.
That the Spirit came upon them and they
prophesied.
They spoke in tongues and they prophesied.
So, prophecy is a direct result of the
Spirit coming upon us.
Even the Old Testament prophets, they could not
prophesy until the Spirit came upon them.
Now, because of this, it's very easy for
people to fool other Christians who don't know
God's word and to try and convince them
that I'm prophesying something to you.
I want to show you a couple of
verses in this connection.
1 John chapter 2 and it says here,
as for you, now, he's writing, I want
you to notice the context.
Verse 26 I have written these things to
you concerning those who are trying to deceive
you.
See, deception is not something found in 21st
century Christianity.
It was found in the 1st century also.
It was found in the Old Testament also.
There were false prophets who prophesied.
He's saying thus said the Lord.
The Old Testament is full of examples of
false prophets and there were many more false
prophets than true prophets.
The true prophets were very rare.
But the false prophets were a great number.
You read of people like Micaiah in the
days of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, confronting many many
false prophets.
You read of Jeremiah confronting many many false
prophets.
The Old Testament is full of examples of
true prophets speaking forth God's word and confronting
false prophets who were trying to deceive God's
people.
We're not talking about false prophets in other
religions.
We're talking about false prophets in Israel who
took the Bible which they had, Genesis to
Malachi in those days, and spoke forth, saying
thus said the Lord.
And hundreds and thousands of Jewish people were
deceived.
And very often they got so angry with
the true prophets, they beat them, persecuted them
and locked them up.
And they honored the false prophets.
Please remember this history in the Old Testament.
And these things are written for our instruction.
And the same thing is happening today.
And there's a saying that if you don't
study history, you will repeat it yourself in
your own life.
But if you study history, you can avoid
those mistakes.
The reason why three quarters of your Bible
is the Old Testament, is to warn you
about the mistakes that those people made, be
careful that you don't make the same mistake
yourself.
And so the proportion of false prophets were
very huge compared to the true prophets in
the Old Testament, you can be pretty sure
it's the same today.
So he says, I'm writing these things concerning
those who are trying to deceive you.
But as for you, the anointing which you
have received, that's the Holy Spirit, abides in
you, and you really don't need anyone to
teach you whether this person is a genuine
prophet or not.
Isn't that an amazing verse?
You don't really need a godly older brother
there to come and tell you, hey, watch
this man, watch this man, because it says
this anointing itself will teach you about all
things, and that anointing is true.
That's great.
Because you don't always have an older brother
around to guide you.
Somebody comes and prophesies something to you, how
in the world do you know whether that's
a genuine prophecy or not?
You got the anointing within.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 8 verse
6 that the mind of the spirit is
life and peace.
That's been a very helpful verse for me
to find out God's will.
Life and peace, that's how I know whether
the spirit is leading me in a certain
direction.
When the spirit responds to something I hear
from someone, it produces in me an upsurge
of life, resurrection life, and peace in my
heart.
Then I know this is right.
But if I find a disturbance in my
heart, then the spirit is telling me, be
careful.
Listen to that voice.
If there's one advice I give to all
of you young people, it is this.
Listen to that still small voice of the
Holy Spirit within you.
That will save you from many calamities.
Don't be just deceived by everything you see
and hear around you.
I want you to turn to 1 John
chapter 4.
John is so burdened about deception.
This is the last apostle.
All the other apostles are dead.
He has seen what has happened to Christendom.
So many churches are backslidden.
And he writes concerning deception a lot in
this letter because he wants to protect God's
people because he has seen so many people
being deceived.
1 John 4 verse 1.
A very needed verse today.
Today, whenever we question whether something is of
the Holy Spirit, is that man's healing ministry
from the Holy Spirit?
Is that prophecy from the Holy Spirit?
Immediately some people will say, oh be careful.
Don't judge.
You may sin against the Holy Spirit.
Well, I'm not afraid of those words and
don't you be afraid of those words.
Because the Bible also says, beloved, don't believe
every spirit.
1 John 4 1.
I'm amazed at the number of Christians today
who see anything supernatural and they immediately believe
that is God.
Christianity is a supernatural religion.
I believe that we must all experience the
supernatural in our lives.
But everything supernatural is not from God.
And we must discern which supernatural thing is
from the devil and which is from God.
Otherwise we'll get thoroughly deceived.
It'll be a big hodgepodge and usually we'll
end up with a lot more of the
devil than God.
It's very, very important.
So don't believe every spirit, but what does
it say you should do?
Please obey this exhortation all your life.
Test the spirits to see whether they are
from God.
And particularly in this area of prophecy, I
would say one of the most important requirements
is to test the spirit.
When a man says to me, thus said
the Lord, what am I supposed to do?
I'm not supposed to believe it outright.
No!
If you do that, you're disobeying God's word.
I'm supposed to test that spirit.
Is that from God?
Does the Holy Spirit bear witness within me?
And I'll just mention a few more things.
Because many false prophets have gone out into
the world.
Not one or two, many!
And if there were many in the first
century, can you imagine how many there are
today in the 21st century?
Christendom is filled with false prophets.
False prophets!
Just like Israel.
And what should we do when these false
prophets are floating around?
Test their spirit!
One of the earliest Christian books, which has
come down to us through nearly 20 centuries,
is a book that was written in the
2nd century.
A little booklet called the Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles or the Didache.
I'm sure you'll have it in your library
here.
It's only a few pages, maybe 15-16
pages.
But I found so much of wise instruction
there.
It's not part of the Bible.
Treat it like a Christian book, not inspired
scripture.
But like good Christian books we read today,
read it like a Christian book.
I want to share with you something that
is in that book.
They gave a three-fold test to find
out false prophets.
Because in those days, in the early 1st
century, remember, there was no written Bible.
And the few handwritten copies of false letters
very few people had.
Can you imagine if you lived in a
world where you didn't have a New Testament?
And you didn't even have an Old Testament,
only it was in the synagogue perhaps.
Can you imagine how prone you would be
to deception?
I mean, even with the Bible in your
hand, people are being deceived.
Can you imagine how it was in those
days?
How did the apostles protect people from deception
when they didn't have a Bible in their
hand?
This type of printed Bible is only about
500-600 years old.
There was no printing or binding and all
before that.
It was in expensive scrolls that they wrote
the Bible and here are hundreds and thousands
of believers all over and none of them
have got a Bible at home.
At least the Jews who were converted had
the Old Testament they learned from childhood.
What about the Gentiles?
Who had all types of heathen ideas and
then they got converted to Christ and they
don't have a Bible at home.
Can you imagine if you were converted from
heathenism to Christ and you didn't have a
Bible for 10 years?
But you know, in those days they depended
more on the Holy Spirit and they gave
certain guidelines to these people and they said,
if somebody comes to you, they gave 3
tests in that book.
One is, if a man calls himself a
prophet and he wants to stay in your
house beyond the time that is needed for
his ministry, taking advantage of your hospitality, he
is a false prophet.
So be careful of those who take advantage
of you.
It need not be just your hospitality, it
may be any other way they take advantage
of you, that's a false prophet.
A true prophet, like Paul says in 2
Corinthians 7, verse 1 to 4, I never
took advantage of you, he told the Corinthians,
that's a mark of a true prophet.
He never, never take advantage of you or
your weakness in any way.
Second, if that man asks you for money,
he is a false prophet.
That's a pretty easy test.
And if he claims, this is also in
that book, if he claims that he is
speaking in the Holy Spirit and asks you
to give him something, money or something else,
don't listen to him.
But, it goes on to say, if he
tells you to give money to somebody else
who is in need, that's okay.
And the third one, the third test, the
one who does not practice what he teaches
is a false prophet.
It is from his way of life that
you'll be able to discern between a false
prophet and a true prophet.
This is the ultimate test, his way of
life.
For not everyone who claims to speak in
the spirit is a true prophet.
He must have the ways of the Lord,
that is the spirit of Christ.
So therefore, when we want to check up
on this matter of false prophets, we think
of what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7
concerning false prophets.
In Matthew chapter 7 he said, verse 15,
at the end of the Sermon on the
Mount, now it's very important to recognize where
this word comes.
The Sermon on the Mount is a teaching
full of emphasis on holiness.
There's no teaching there on healing, there's no
teaching there on prosperity, there's no teaching there
on many many subjects.
From Matthew chapter 5 on till the end
of 7, it's teaching holiness.
Living before God's face, being free from the
world, forgiving, loving, etc.
And then at the end of that Jesus
says, beware of false prophets.
I think in the context it means the
false prophets will not emphasize the things that
I have just spoken to you from Matthew
5 to 7.
They will not emphasize that.
They will emphasize something else.
Beware of false prophets, Matthew 7, 15, who
come to you in sheep's clothing.
Sheep's clothing means they come with the Bible
in their hand.
They talk the right Christian language.
But inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
Now if a wolf gets into the midst
of sheep, what do you think he wants?
Do you think he has come to bless
the sheep?
He wants something from the sheep.
Their flesh, their meat.
And he wants to bite and take something.
And Jesus said, false prophets are greedy within
to get something from you.
You are an innocent sheep.
And they come in with the sheep's clothing
and they want to get something from you.
And they will prophesy.
And their aim is to get something from
you.
It may be your money.
It may be your obedience.
It may be to get you under their
power.
Whatever it is.
Cult leaders very often preach in such a
way as to make people feel guilty.
And when you keep on preaching in a
way that you make people feel guilty, guilty,
guilty, guilty, any psychologist will tell you that's
the best way to control people.
Beware of preaching that makes you feel guilty
all the time.
Jesus didn't go around making people feel guilty.
He encouraged them.
The Holy Spirit convicted but always brought cleansing.
So there are many techniques that false prophets
have.
And then Jesus told us how to distinguish
a true prophet from a false prophet.
Verse 16 of Matthew 7.
You will know them by their fruits.
Notice again the emphasis on fruit not gift.
Most Christians that I have met evaluate a
person according to his gifts.
They feel if a man can prophesy he
can heal the sick and he can do
miracles he must be a great man of
God.
I don't agree because Jesus says you must
evaluate them by the fruit of their life.
Jesus speaks about fruit and gifts in this
passage.
He speaks about both.
Jesus had fruit and gifts.
So I'm not against gifts.
We can't serve the Lord without the gifts
of the Holy Spirit.
But when Jesus spoke about fruit and gifts
here in this passage, he said it's by
the fruit that you know them.
For example, he spoke about gifts in verse
22.
He said in the last day many will
come to me and say, Lord, Lord didn't
we prophesy in your name?
Did not we prophesy in the name of
Jesus?
Didn't we cast out demons in the name
of Jesus?
Didn't we do miracles in the name of
Jesus?
Not one or two, verse 22.
Many people and I will say to them,
verse 23, if I were to paraphrase it,
you did not live holy lives.
You did not live the type of life
I spoke here in Matthew 5, 6 and
7.
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, you
who practice sin.
I'm not impressed by your gifts.
By their fruits you shall know them and
not by their gifts.
And so, what is the example we have?
God has given us not only words.
In the Old Testament they only had words
to protect them.
A Bible.
Genesis to Malachi.
But in the New Testament God has given
us something far better than just a Bible.
The Bible is excellent.
What can be better than that?
Jesus himself.
The word become flesh.
So that we have an example.
You know that an example is always better
than instruction.
I often say that a person, if he
wants to teach you swimming, it's better he
gets into the pool and shows it practically
than explain swimming on a blackboard to you.
He won't learn it from a blackboard.
An example is better than instruction.
And that's why the New Testament is better.
And so we have an example in Jesus.
He is our role model.
He is the one whom I look at
who prophesied better than anybody else.
Who was the greatest prophet that walked on
the earth.
But he had a life behind that ministry.
And that's what made him a true prophet.
So whenever I've had this practice for many
years.
Whenever I hear of a preacher or hear
a preacher I try to see how he
fits in to this picture I have of
Jesus from the Gospels.
Particularly in the area of money.
Two areas I try to check up.
One is money and the other is humility.
There are many things in Jesus but let's
start with these.
There is holiness, love, everything else.
But it's good to start with these.
I see Jesus had a certain attitude to
money.
He never preached for money.
He never healed for money.
He never asked people for money for himself.
He was concerned that poor people should be
given money.
That he was concerned about but for himself.
He never asked people for money.
He received money.
Certain rich people gave him money.
He accepted it.
But he never asked people and he did
not love money.
He did not preach for money.
He did not heal for money.
He did not prophesy for money.
He did not cast out demons for money.
So that's my example.
And when I see a person doing things
for money and asking you for money I'm
not here to judge him.
There is a difference between disagreement and criticism.
God is his judge.
I'm not here to condemn him.
I say I disagree with that and I
say I don't see that in Jesus.
I remember I was in a meeting some
time ago where I said I never see
in Jesus life even one case where he
laid hands on somebody and made the man
fall down.
Not even one case.
But I do see in the Gospels how
demons cast people down.
So somebody said does that mean all these
people who are doing that are demon possessed?
I said no.
You are misquoting me now.
Don't say more than I said.
What did I say?
I said I don't see that in the
life of Jesus.
Or in the life of the apostles.
Full stop.
I'm not saying anything more than that.
The rest is for you to decide.
But for me Jesus is my example in
everything and that has saved me from so
many problems.
Whenever you hear somebody prophesying check in the
area of money.
Check in the area of humility.
Check whether he is interested in washing your
feet.
Whether he has got a servant attitude.
That's how Jesus was.
And does his life back up as far
as you know?
His ministry.
Otherwise you got to be careful.
Now many people sometimes they say well there's
results in his ministry brother.
Many years ago the Lord told me don't
evaluate your life by the results of your
ministry.
That's a great deception.
A servant of God can be disobedient in
his personal life and have tremendous results in
his ministry.
I'll give you an example.
If you read Numbers chapter 20 sometime you
read there that God told Moses to speak
to the rock.
It was the second time.
And Moses did not speak to the rock.
He hit the rock.
Did the water flow?
Yes.
Was there blessing in that ministry?
Yes.
Do you know how many people got blessed?
600,000 men plus an equal number of
women plus children.
There must have been at least 20 lakhs
of people there.
20 lakhs of people God blessed through Moses
ministry getting water.
But Moses was disobedient.
Can God use a disobedient person to bless
20 lakhs of people today?
Why not?
But afterwards God dealt with Moses.
God said, I blessed the people.
What did it prove when the water flowed?
Listen to this.
When the water flowed, it did not prove
that God was supporting Moses.
It proved that God loved those 20 lakhs
of people.
And when God blesses my ministry, that does
not prove that God is happy with me.
It proves that God loves those people to
whom I'm ministering.
So a person may prophesy and there may
be something good come out of it.
God may not support him at all.
God may send him to hell at the
end of his prophecy.
That's what we read in Matthew 7.
When they say, Lord we prophesy in your
name.
He said, get away from me.
Go to hell.
So, please remember this.
These are the words of Jesus at the
end of the sermon on the mount.
There is nothing wrong in our disagreeing with
other believers.
We don't have to criticize them.
We got to love them.
But we don't have to agree with everybody.
In fact, if you agree with everybody around
you, you'll go astray yourself.
So this is something that we must bear
in mind.
There are many people who call themselves Christians
but who got the spirit of Gehazi.
Gehazi was a sort of a junior prophet
to Elisha.
But he ran after Naaman to get money.
Balaam.
Balaam was a man who prophesied.
He even prophesied about the coming of Jesus
Christ.
Did you know that?
And, but he loved money.
He went after money and he was killed.
He's gone to hell.
There are other people like that.
Judas Iscariot.
We read in Matthew chapter 10 that Jesus
gave Judas among all the other apostles along
with them power to raise the dead, to
cleanse the lepers, to heal the sick.
And I'm sure Judas did it.
But he went to hell.
A man can prophesy and go to hell.
So I say, if I see people like
that today who love money like Gehazi and
Balaam and Judas, I can't work with them.
I mean they may call themselves Christians.
I don't think there was anything wrong in
Judas' doctrine or Gehazi's doctrine.
Sometimes we say doctrine is enough.
It's not enough for me.
By their fruits you shall know them.
I want to see what is this man's
attitude to money.
So I cannot work with the Balaam's and
the Gehazi's and the Judas' and the Demas'
who love this present world today.
I mean it doesn't matter if people call
me exclusive but I can't work with them
because I don't think Jesus can work with
them.
We can work with people who make mistakes
like John Mark.
He was a sincere young man who made
a mistake.
Paul said we can't take him but later
on Paul changed his mind and said we
can work with him.
We can work with people who make mistakes,
who are sincere, who are willing to correct
those mistakes but we can't work with people
who are deceptive, who are crafty, who are
like foxes.
Now I want to just say a few
things as an introduction now to some of
the ministries of prophets that we read of
in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is like a foundation on
which the New Testament is built up.
And there are a number of words used
in the Old Testament to describe prophets.
Let me just mention them first of all.
These are Hebrew words but if you were
to translate them or try and get the
concept of it into English, one is called
a seer.
A seer is one who can see further
than other people.
You read about that in 1 Samuel chapter
9 and verse 18 where Samuel is called
a seer.
And that's a ministry of a prophet.
Prophecy is to be able to see ahead.
It need not necessarily be foretelling the future.
There was a lot of foretelling the future
in the Old Testament in the prophecies of
Isaiah, Jeremiah and many of the Old Testament
prophets.
But when you come over into the New
Testament that seems to reduce considerably.
We must recognize this.
We're not living in the Old Testament.
We'll come to that when we study it
later this week.
But, remember this.
To see ahead means something like this.
Supposing I'm leading a church and the church
elders are discussing, shall we do this particular
thing?
Shall we adopt this policy?
And they may not be able to see,
but I can see.
Now it's only one degree off track.
But if we go like this, in the
beginning we won't be far away from the
main direction God wants us to go, but
10 years from now we'll be miles away
from where God wants us to be.
That is being a seer.
Seeing is one of the greatest needs in
churches.
To say what will happen if we allow
this type of music to come in?
What will happen?
Not now.
20 years from now.
That is seeing.
What will happen if we allow this chap
to come here and preach regularly?
Nothing may happen initially.
If you study geometry, you know one degree
is very little out of 360 degrees.
But in the long run that can take
you miles away from your goal.
So that's part of seeing.
A seer.
One who sees and he gets this knowledge
because he sees God.
Because his heart is pure, Jesus said, blessed
are the pure in heart they shall see
God.
Now I want to show you a passage
in Numbers and chapter 12.
In Numbers chapter 12 the Lord describes Moses.
And I want you to see something here
that will really open your eyes concerning how
we should know God.
Numbers chapter 12 we read here that Miriam
and Aaron were criticizing Moses because of whom
he married and the Lord came down and
stood in a pillar of cloud verse 5
and said verse 6, Numbers 12 6, listen
to my words if there is a prophet
among you if there is a prophet among
you, this is Old Testament I will make
myself known to him in a vision.
Remember they had no Bible and they needed
these things much more than we do.
I will make myself known to him in
a vision I will speak to him in
a dream.
But not so with my servant Moses.
Now you would think that if somebody said
he had a dream or a vision he
must be a man very close to God.
No!
Read these words carefully meditate on them later.
Moses God says I don't speak to Moses
through visions and dreams.
A lot of Christians today are excited when
they have a vision or a dream.
I want to say that's not the highest.
You know what the highest is?
Moses, I speak to him face to face,
mouth to mouth, not with veiled sayings, dark
sayings he beholds my face which is superior?
A vision or a dream or speaking to
Jesus face to face?
The answer is very very clear.
And so it's important to keep that in
mind.
It's because we listen to God face to
face and we can't see God if our
heart is not pure.
Blessed are the pure in heart for they
shall see God.
Because of that a man's vision gets sharpened.
He's able to see in the future what
will happen if he goes in this direction.
A second word found in the Old Testament
is a word which symbolizes one who gazes
and contemplates similar to the earlier one but
we would say like a worshipper a mystic.
I would call him a mystic.
A mystic is one for whom heaven is
more real than earth.
And he gazes and looks like Jesus said
a man must worship God before he serves.
Thou shalt worship Matthew 4.10 and then
thou shalt serve.
This man worships and as he worships God
shows him things concerning the need of people.
God shows him things concerning his own need
and he is able to share that vision
that he has.
This is a person who's got a vision.
The Bible says in Proverbs 29 and verse
18 that where there is no vision the
people perish.
A prophet is a man who's got a
vision for the future.
I don't mean visions of seeing angels and
things like that.
But a vision of say what God can
do in India through you.
That's a vision.
God has to show you.
This is what I can do through you
if you are yielded to me.
A vision and as I cooperate with God
over the years we find that accomplished.
A third word, I'll give you one example
of this.
See for example in the Old Testament we
read that the children of Israel came back
from Babylon and they didn't build the temple.
Then Haggai and Zachariah were prophets with vision
and they stirred the people and presented them
a vision of a completed temple.
They said this temple is going to have
a greater glory than anything you've seen before.
That challenged them and they began to build
the temple.
That's the spirit of prophecy that encourages people
who are lazy and half-hearted to be
wholehearted, be committed to the vision of doing
the work of God.
A third word is the word burden bearer.
One who bears a burden.
Many times you read in Isaiah, particularly chapters
13 to 23, the first verse of all
those chapters, the burden concerning this, the burden
concerning that, the burden concerning that, you read
that in Nehum, Habakkuk, Zachariah, they had a
burden and whenever God has got a plan
for your life, the way He indicates that
is by giving you a burden.
These prophets had a burden and that burden
is the indication of God's plan for your
life.
Your burden may be evangelism, your burden may
be teaching, your burden may be something else,
your burden may be like Mother Teresa to
help the poor people.
It's a burden in the heart.
A burden is like a baby a mother
carries in the womb.
A prophet carries this burden like a baby
and brings it to birth one day.
And you know a mother has to carry
it, carry it, carry it and bring it
to birth and when God puts a little
burden on your heart like the mother preserves
that baby and is very very careful, preserve
that burden.
See this is all preparation for a ministry
of prophecy.
To live before God, to see His face
and to be a worshipper and then to
have a burden that He gives us concerning
different things or different people.
And then the fourth word is a word
that means proclaimer or herald.
Someone who proclaims something.
You know like in the olden days the
king would send a man with a trumpet,
he'd blow something and say the king has
declared a holiday tomorrow or the king is
releasing all the prisoners from the jail or
the king is coming by here tomorrow and
he's going to meet with all the people.
This is a herald, a proclaimer.
And that's another ministry a prophet has.
To proclaim what God is doing in the
world today.
And that's another word that you find there
in the old Old Testament.
And then a fifth one is mouthpiece or
spokesman.
God says to Jeremiah I will make you
my mouth.
That means a human being can actually be
God's mouth.
It'll be God speaking through him and it
says about Samuel that when he spoke like
that none of his words fell to the
ground.
It's a wonderful thing to be able to
speak in such a way that every word
you speak goes straight to people's hearts.
Nothing falls on the ground.
Those of you who are called to a
preaching ministry should really long brothers and sisters.
Remember prophecy is for the brothers and the
sisters sons and daughters.
You must long.
I don't mean standing in the pulpit alone.
You can prophesy when you're talking to one
person alone.
To speak God's word in such a way
that not one word is wasted.
If you long for this.
The Bible says we got to long for
this gift of prophecy.
It can happen.
Then the sixth word the prophets were watchmen.
You know how a watchman watches the city
and protects the people by warning saying the
enemy is coming.
That is another ministry a prophet has in
a church.
To warn people.
Brothers and sisters if you go this way
this is what's going to happen.
Or this is what's wrong.
Here the enemy is trying to attack you.
This is a deception of the devil.
So many couples are being deceived.
So many young people are being deceived.
We need prophetic ministry like a watchman who
watches over the souls of the people.
And lastly the seventh word is shepherd.
A watchman is a shepherd who takes care
of the flock who feeds them instructs them
and we'll come to that more when we
come into the new testament.
So let me say in conclusion a prophet
is something like a doctor.
When the church is sick when you're sick
you need a doctor.
When a church is sick what it needs
is not a teacher.
What it needs is not an evangelist.
What it needs is not an apostle.
What it needs is not a pastor.
Not a healer.
It needs a prophet.
And the prophet will come and diagnose that
sickness.
That's what a doctor does first of all.
This is the root cause of your problem
and he doesn't leave him there.
This is the cure for it.
Of course the doctor can't force people to
take the cure but he makes the diagnosis
and gives them the cure.
Let me say my dear brothers and sisters
the church in India and all the surrounding
countries here have a tremendous need for such
spiritual doctors.
You must allow the Holy Spirit to sharpen
your sensitiveness to God's voice.
Keep yourself pure.
Listen to everything that God says to you
and do it and gradually your ears will
become very sensitive to God's voice and he
will give you an accurate diagnosis when you're
counseling people personally.
Like Jesus had a word according to the
need of people.
He knew what to speak to Nicodemus He
knew what to speak to Zacchaeus He knew
what to speak to the woman of Samaria
and he can make you like that because
the same Holy Spirit that rested on Jesus
can rest on us.
So the gift of prophecy is not just
something you exercise in a pulpit.
It can be in personal conversation.
I want to encourage all of you covet
long to prophesy.
Let's bow our heads before God.
Heavenly Father I think of the tremendous potential
there is in this room.
Hundreds of people who can make a tremendous
difference in this land and surrounding lands for
the kingdom of God.
I pray that the devil will not lead
them astray.
I want to stand against all Satan's schemes
and deceptions and bind his activities right now
in Jesus name.
And I pray these dear young people will
get light and a burden in their heart
concerning your call upon their life.
You've got to plan for their life.
You want to pour out the spirit of
prophecy on all of us not just 90%.
Every single one.
Help us Lord to be open to it.
More open than we have ever been before.
That we can serve you effectively in this
land.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.