S. Sekou Abodunrin
1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut 13: 1 - 3
When it says “dreamer of dreams” in that passage he is referring to a bona fide means by which the prophet’s office manifested in the Old Testament. This was one way that those ministries engaged the realm of visions. More properly a prophet is called a seer, he is one who sees. This seeing often came through prophetic dreams, which is referred to here as dreamer of dreams.
It seems that given the multiplied amounts of “prophetic and apostolic” conferences that have been hosted around the world we still largely know so little about what is really prophetic and apostolic.
The Lord used Moses, a genuine prophet, to bring beautiful instruction as recorded above.
The germ of the instruction above flies in the face of our current understanding, pursuit and practice of the supernatural especially where that which is called prophetic is concerned. What do I mean by that? You see, some people think that if there is a genuine manifestation attesting to the presence of God in a gathering, it must mean that the Lord endorses all that is happening.
Did you notice that the passage above is not even discussing a prediction that did not come to pass? It is assumed that the prediction came to pass. All you need in order to get to us charismatics is to just cite examples of the minister’s accuracy in the expression of the gifts of the Spirit, but is “accuracy” everything?
Do you realize that he is describing an area of trauma that is peculiarly true for those of us that accept the validity of the prophet’s ministry in our day? Think about it, if I do not believe in the ministry of a prophet, it doesn’t matter how many ways you exercise that ministry in my presence such expressions are not a door through which you would get to me. The real danger here is for us that rightly believe in the validity of the prophet’s for today.
The passage above shows that a prophet or a prophetic ministry could give accurate predictions that do come to pass and yet still fail the ultimate test. The ultimate test of any called ministry is not just the power, rapidity and accuracy of their predictions but the message that is tied to such operations.
The truth is that being humans there is a tendency to promote a message on the back of an accurate expression of the Spirit. If the manifestation is correct, but the message is wrong, then the message is to be rejected and the minister prayed for. The hearer is required to test the prophecy AND the message.
There is a key that we see in that passage. The key is this: an erroneous message does not thrive only because of the minister who is propagating it. It requires people who have a wrong slant in their hearts in order for it to succeed.
There are certain type of misuses of the anointing that will keep re-emerging in cycles until we learn to submit our heart and emotions to the Lord through his word. Some people assume that if miracles are prevalent then the message must be correct! That is not necessarily the case.
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Corinthians 4:1
According to the word really, a minister is the servant or minister of Christ. In reality a minister will give account to his master. How we are hungry to have Christ ministered. There is a wealth in that term – minister of Christ! When Christ is not ministered, when he doesn’t gain influence, when his largeness is not communicated and received it leaves us in the waters of babyhood and robs us of functioning in the mind of Christ.
It is our responsibility as hearers, as people that give ministries audience, to check our hearts as to why we allow certain things to gain prominence by the attention that we give to them.
You see, I do not think that believers often use the level of authority that God has given to us in these matters. We cannot directly correct ministers, and that is simply because they are Christ’s servants and not primarily our servants. That is important. Be careful how you treat a minister of Christ.
While we do not have the scriptural right to directly correct a minister, there are equally effective ways to cause a minister to seek repentance. You see, a minister needs you to listen to him.
The Lord said through that wise man, Moses, that we are not to hearken to the words of such prophets!
I know of very few believers that will be disciplined enough in the spirit of love and in reverence for the word to know not to hearken to such. Some other people respond that God should stop the minister and that if God doesn’t stop the minister it must mean that he is in support. Hmm – how unscriptural can we get in our reasoning?
Think about it, if God calls you up to heaven every time you missed it, you know how many times you would have had to be resurrected? We must remain tender in our heart and not expect that the Lord will not extend mercy towards men.
You see, God has given us his word and his spirit within our new nature to build our resistance to these cheap substitute messages that we so readily fall for in the name of “spirituality”.
If a message has no followers then the “leader” is only influencing himself. That is key. It is likely that a fellow who wouldn’t be true to the word and will propagate unscriptural things because of miracles will also likely be a man who is moved by how people respond to his message.
The truth remains that it is the slant of our hearts that empowers certain ministers to be able to propagate the messages that rides on the back of the miracles.
Remember that parable below:
Bark like a dog, roar like a lion and by the presence of gold dust, hundred and thousand fold returns shall the angel Emma appear to and lead many into the land of nod where they shall have many minds suspended from scriptural reasoning and many brains unexercised.
1 cor 4:40
I wanted you to laugh at that, but really it isn’t far-fetched just turn on the TV set and these things are already on Christian television. We will have a return to a deep love for Christ-centered living.
There is a genuine, scriptural and tangible expression of the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Glory and of a sound mind and it is coming back to the church in a stronger measure than what we have seen in the last four decades. There is coming a restoration of good thinking and deep reverence to the church.
1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deut 13: 1 - 3
When it says “dreamer of dreams” in that passage he is referring to a bona fide means by which the prophet’s office manifested in the Old Testament. This was one way that those ministries engaged the realm of visions. More properly a prophet is called a seer, he is one who sees. This seeing often came through prophetic dreams, which is referred to here as dreamer of dreams.
It seems that given the multiplied amounts of “prophetic and apostolic” conferences that have been hosted around the world we still largely know so little about what is really prophetic and apostolic.
The Lord used Moses, a genuine prophet, to bring beautiful instruction as recorded above.
The germ of the instruction above flies in the face of our current understanding, pursuit and practice of the supernatural especially where that which is called prophetic is concerned. What do I mean by that? You see, some people think that if there is a genuine manifestation attesting to the presence of God in a gathering, it must mean that the Lord endorses all that is happening.
Did you notice that the passage above is not even discussing a prediction that did not come to pass? It is assumed that the prediction came to pass. All you need in order to get to us charismatics is to just cite examples of the minister’s accuracy in the expression of the gifts of the Spirit, but is “accuracy” everything?
Do you realize that he is describing an area of trauma that is peculiarly true for those of us that accept the validity of the prophet’s ministry in our day? Think about it, if I do not believe in the ministry of a prophet, it doesn’t matter how many ways you exercise that ministry in my presence such expressions are not a door through which you would get to me. The real danger here is for us that rightly believe in the validity of the prophet’s for today.
The passage above shows that a prophet or a prophetic ministry could give accurate predictions that do come to pass and yet still fail the ultimate test. The ultimate test of any called ministry is not just the power, rapidity and accuracy of their predictions but the message that is tied to such operations.
The truth is that being humans there is a tendency to promote a message on the back of an accurate expression of the Spirit. If the manifestation is correct, but the message is wrong, then the message is to be rejected and the minister prayed for. The hearer is required to test the prophecy AND the message.
There is a key that we see in that passage. The key is this: an erroneous message does not thrive only because of the minister who is propagating it. It requires people who have a wrong slant in their hearts in order for it to succeed.
There are certain type of misuses of the anointing that will keep re-emerging in cycles until we learn to submit our heart and emotions to the Lord through his word. Some people assume that if miracles are prevalent then the message must be correct! That is not necessarily the case.
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Corinthians 4:1
According to the word really, a minister is the servant or minister of Christ. In reality a minister will give account to his master. How we are hungry to have Christ ministered. There is a wealth in that term – minister of Christ! When Christ is not ministered, when he doesn’t gain influence, when his largeness is not communicated and received it leaves us in the waters of babyhood and robs us of functioning in the mind of Christ.
It is our responsibility as hearers, as people that give ministries audience, to check our hearts as to why we allow certain things to gain prominence by the attention that we give to them.
You see, I do not think that believers often use the level of authority that God has given to us in these matters. We cannot directly correct ministers, and that is simply because they are Christ’s servants and not primarily our servants. That is important. Be careful how you treat a minister of Christ.
While we do not have the scriptural right to directly correct a minister, there are equally effective ways to cause a minister to seek repentance. You see, a minister needs you to listen to him.
The Lord said through that wise man, Moses, that we are not to hearken to the words of such prophets!
I know of very few believers that will be disciplined enough in the spirit of love and in reverence for the word to know not to hearken to such. Some other people respond that God should stop the minister and that if God doesn’t stop the minister it must mean that he is in support. Hmm – how unscriptural can we get in our reasoning?
Think about it, if God calls you up to heaven every time you missed it, you know how many times you would have had to be resurrected? We must remain tender in our heart and not expect that the Lord will not extend mercy towards men.
You see, God has given us his word and his spirit within our new nature to build our resistance to these cheap substitute messages that we so readily fall for in the name of “spirituality”.
If a message has no followers then the “leader” is only influencing himself. That is key. It is likely that a fellow who wouldn’t be true to the word and will propagate unscriptural things because of miracles will also likely be a man who is moved by how people respond to his message.
The truth remains that it is the slant of our hearts that empowers certain ministers to be able to propagate the messages that rides on the back of the miracles.
Remember that parable below:
Bark like a dog, roar like a lion and by the presence of gold dust, hundred and thousand fold returns shall the angel Emma appear to and lead many into the land of nod where they shall have many minds suspended from scriptural reasoning and many brains unexercised.
1 cor 4:40
I wanted you to laugh at that, but really it isn’t far-fetched just turn on the TV set and these things are already on Christian television. We will have a return to a deep love for Christ-centered living.
There is a genuine, scriptural and tangible expression of the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Glory and of a sound mind and it is coming back to the church in a stronger measure than what we have seen in the last four decades. There is coming a restoration of good thinking and deep reverence to the church.
2 comments:
Thanks for the word sir.
I clearly see the responsibility is 2 folds - with the listener and the speaker. We see how error can be arrested and corrected so easily. Thanks for the article. The ball lies with me!!!
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