O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Lk 3:7–8.
This chapter in our series, was going to be about the difference between the Spirit and the System. Yet with the storm over the “prophetic” over the last week, surely within the context of what we are studying right now, the multiplication of false messiahs and prophets, even in John’s time, verifiable by the speech given by Gamaliel in Acts, warned of the prolific nature of the false in those days. I think the many false ministries that has accompanied the Church since its birth, false messiahs that came before the true means that there was a consciousness of this Messiah at the time.
There is a storm over some named prophets right now, because of expose on victims, and yet for a decade some have called these things out. Yet leaders have endorsed the false over the true. What in our study does this have a context?
The key is the preparation and the fact that John has been spoken even by Jesus as a prophet, but the standard in the Word is different to what is being taught now. The level of discernment and preparation is very low in some circles. John the Baptist was not defined as a prophet by the prophecies he gave, there is no prophetic word attributed to him. He is a prophet by the role that was prophesied by Isaiah, but he is defined as a prophet by the task he fulfilled. Same goes for Anna in the Temple which we studied last year, she is not recorded as having a prophetic word. Yet what she did in the background and in the unseen, makes her a prophetess.
The standard has been changed and limited. It has been changed in such a way that it causes the appearence of presumptious people. Some claiming to have a prophetic ministry, and yet resuming their being a “prophet” being the predictive words they give. This is dangerous and is deceptive.
The other key is the great changes God is bringing, why did the false messiahs coming to the fore in the time just before Jesus? I believe that somehow the enemy knew that a Messiah was coming and he desired to distract the people to rob them of the great privileges of the New Covenant. So the enemy was discerning in a sense the things God was doing. The first whispers from God about a Messiah who was coming, and many thought a warrior to the type of David, would throw off the Roman occupation. They created a messiah in their own image of their hopes and dreams. This thinking even occupied the disciples also. How Jesus walked to break this mindset. How they walked after Jesus died. Dreams and theology were shattered, for Jesus come to them to expound the Scriptures on a level they had not experienced before. Luke 24 tells us how Jesus expounded. How much today so called “prophets” have come to tell us what we want to hear?
Another key is that God by allowing the false will create in us a pursuit of His Word. So much of the Word is a complete discovery, I come away from study amazed knowing that what I knew before is nothing compared to what I seem to see in my study. God desires us to love His Word, to see Him in the Scriptures. We the Church are in Scripture. The prayers of Paul for the saints contemplates us also. So we do not need to be dismayed by the revealing of false ministry, rather come more into the Fear of the Lord, and then double down in our seeking in His Word. He is bringing us through a tough process.
There is a key in this in that the exposure is the separating out of the tares and wheat. we need to understand that this separation is made in a time of harvest. So we must experience some kind of harvest in this difficult period.
For the victims of abuses there must be a greater awareness of pastoral care and healing for them. Many have been victims of control, manipulation on many levels and need to be assured that discipline will be given out for the perpetrators and healing for the victims. I do not devalue the pain of the exposure for the victims.
John confronted the false because he knew who God would come for, and the cost they would pay to enter into the new things God was about to do. The true is not a short term experience based on the senses, rather it takes many years to prepare for the things God wants to do in a generation. John was in the wilderness years to understand God’s plan. It was new and out of the ordinary. So that which is normal expectation must be discarded in this process. Maybe that the desire for superficial words will open the hearts for a deeper understanding.
What is the most important for John and should be for us too: that we walk with God as did John, and Isaiah, and Enoch. Nothing else matters.
Maranatha!!!
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