Fortune Seller (Radio / Podcast)

Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
(Ezekiel 13:3)

Much of what the true prophets of the Old Testament did was to confront the false prophets of that day. In our time, this is also one of the signs of a God sent prophet, to distinguish them from the many counterfeits that are always near the real men of God. The prophet will speak against those who hear, not from God, but from their own imaginations. Men like John MacArthur or the late A.W. Tozer are persons I would consider to be a “prophet”.

We all need to be on the lookout for the false prophets of today, or any day, if we are reading material from the past. Just because you do not believe in so-called “prophecy” today does not mean that you cannot be fooled. Let’s look at this for a moment.

The false prophets of today are often not acting as fortune tellers, but fortune sellers. They have guaranteed ways of garnering God’s blessing for your life. Or so they imply, what, with their steps to success, keys to the kingdom, miracle water, anointed prayer cloth, or whatever the toy in the happy meal package is this month. These days they are not so much into telling the future, but selling the future. They may not even call themselves a prophet, but they are certainly looking to profit, if not from your money, then from your recognition. That is where even the non-charismatic person can get duped.

It is up to the believer to be able to look to the Word of God to discern truth from error. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, points to many warning signs of a false prophet. Often false prophets understand that others are on the lookout for them, or they don’t want to be considered a false prophet, because they are deluded by their own status of self. Because of this they will make sure to maintain a sterling character, and many will not make wild predictions.

However, this isn’t the only measure of and the only way to spot a false prophet. The false or foolish prophets are not only those who incorrectly foretell the future, or those whose moral character is lacking, but also those who are self-promoters instead of God promoters, and those who do not confront the people with their sin, but instead speak smooth words designed to flatter the people. Mark it down; a false prophet will fail on one or more of these accounts. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Often we hear talk that the Bible is God’s “owner’s manual”. This is wrong. The Bible is not an owner’s manual; God is not a vehicle for you to drive. Others use the Bible and its promises like a witch uses her dark books. They distort the Word of God. If you would use proper context and a decent hermeneutic, you might see that they often claim promises that are not actually there. When we use the Word like a magic book, we try and find "spells" to justify our actions. They ask you to plant your seed, but what they really mean is grant their greed.

Self-deluded and self-important people often take the title of “prophet”, or assume a position of leadership within the visible church, but speak little more than empty words. There will always be, however, weak minded, backslidden, or fleshly churchgoers who will flock to these popular but poisonous teachers. Many whom haven’t been renewed in their minds or transformed in their character are simply looking for an edge. What they get is cut to pieces.

With so many examples of false prophets, so many warnings against falling under their influence, and so many signs given to distinguish the true from the false, it is easy to see that those who do fall prey to false prophets are often ignorant of the Word of God on the subject.

Sell out to God: read the Word, know the Truth, and stay with that!

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Scrambled Eggs-egesis (Radio / Podcast)

And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.
(2 Peter 2:3 – ESV)

Some “prophetic words of the Lord” have supposedly validating verses liberally sprinkled around ideas that the so-called “prophet” wants to implant in the people’s minds. The verses are ripped out of their context and seem to add blessing to the other pronouncements. They will pull some verse out and then define that blessing according to their new idea of it. What we will do in this post is to highlight in red the key phrases, and then we will speak briefly about the diversion, distortion, and deception being masked in blue.

It starts with a buildup of anticipation, with phrases such as “when the anointing is on you, when you understand the anointing, when you operate in the anointing, when you understand the worth of the anointing”, etc.

You can make this out to be anything you want, it is very vague. Of course, the prophet knows all about it and what he is about to tell you, so you had better listen up and “align” with it.

God Almighty is preparing a generation – it will rival what took place in the Great Reformation. You are the sons of the prophets. You are the seed of Abraham. Every blessing in the covenant to possess Heaven and Earth, to move in dominion, to move in increase, to move in the fullness of the Spirit – is yours.

“Dominion” is code language for the false belief that believers are supposed to take over the systems of the world before Jesus can come back. “Increase”, well, you get the idea there. This is over-realized eschatology in that he promises that we can have everything we will ever have right now. We can take charge of heaven and earth right now, every blessing to possess; wow, what a terrible torture of the textual truth. Of course, the dominion idea isn’t in the text at all.

"Holy Spirit of God, Holy Spirit of God, come right now – overshadow." Here it comes. Just let blanket you. Just let it soak you. Position yourself. Align yourself for that greater anointing.

Does this mean that we should be physically posturing ourselves at that very moment, as this prophetic word is being given? Just what does this prophet mean by "aligning yourself?” Probably he means we must agree with his words in order to be aligned with what God is doing.

The fullness of the Spirit, the fullness of Him who fills all in all; the anointing that breaks the yoke, not just in the meeting place but it will break the yoke in your home. It will break the yoke on your job. It will remove the curse from your destiny and from your career, from your vocation. It will remove the yoke from relationships that are draining you. It will bring deliverance.

He speaks of the fullness of the Spirit, and ties it to the notion of it being an “anointing” for temporal blessings, earlier he said the fullness of the Spirit was for dominion and increase, and so he defines this in ways that promise personal prosperity. It appears any kind of struggle or suffering will be relieved if you just line up with this new “anointing” that he tries to link with biblical teaching so as to validate it, but if this is that same “anointing” and fullness of the Spirit we see in the bible, why wasn’t this usage defined like this when it was originally written?

You are an heir. You are an heir of God. You are a joint heir with Christ. That double portion, that promise of the Father, the greatness of the call, the power of resurrection – we are about to embark on a season in which there will be such great difference between the light and the dark that you will be able to know, "These are the people that walk with God."

The promise of the Father was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all believers, first seen at Pentecost in Acts 2. It is not some special blessing for the super company who gets a double portion, more than anyone else gets because they are somehow special.

There is a great end-time visitation coming; it is almost upon us. I can hear the sound of an abundance of rain. God Almighty is grooming a company to move in power and practicality to reach the culture and to bring increase and expansion – the provision of God, more sufficient than any natural provision could ever be; the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and adds no sorrow. There is a new generation that is about to cross a line and cross a threshold and operate in a dimension.

This is pure pandering using triumphal language to believers who fail to discern. At least he then describes the threshold that they are crossing, and talks of the special dimension.

"They will go with Me on a journey to discover earmarks that are in the Spirit – places of lodging, places of power, places of deliverance, places of blessing. For in the heavenly realms, I have stored up treasures that when they go in, they will bind the strongman and reclaim the goods that he took from My people over these past generations.

What is going on when a supposed prophet uses modern day political language to give us an idea like “earmarks in the Spirit?” Aren’t earmarks bad things, like pork projects? Is that what this prophet is telling us, that we can expect God to bring home the bacon for us? As far as binding the strongman, this is terrible twisting of scripture, and time won’t permit us to go into it here, but suffice it to say that this idea had been refuted by reputable bible teachers time and again.

"There is coming a great shift. It is going to come globally on the Body of Christ and there is going to arise a company of people that will be delivered from their past and rescued for their future and they will operate in a double portion anointing that will stagger the minds of the unregenerate and they will walk in the wisdom and in the understanding and the knowledge of the Most High God.

He is talking about a great shift of material wealth; again, this is dominionism language. He believes this stuff and so out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. In this instance, great swelling words, I might add.

"And every place they go, they will transform the environment. They will bring blessing and they will leave blessing behind them. They will cause dark places to become light. They will cause brown places and barren places to become well-watered like a garden. They will cause broken places to be healed. They will cause sick places to be made well. "For they are the people of Jehovah and their vindication is from God. For there is coming a great vindication because of the great warfare. From the great warfare, there is coming great vindication and great blessing.

This is code for “Stick with us and it will pay off”.

"Rejoice, for your hour is coming and is now upon you when you will begin to see the goodness of God in the land of the living," saith the Lord.

He clearly defines the goodness of God as material blessing, and yes, a little spiritual stuff, but mostly triumphalism, personal power plays for your attention.

This man may talk much of God bringing home the bacon for us in the here and now, and this anointing breaking the yoke, but his prophetic words, twisted scriptures and unbiblical ideas all point to this being scrambled eggs-egesis.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Fortune Seller

Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!
(Ezekiel 13:3)

Much of what the true prophets of the Old Testament did was to confront the false prophets of that day. In our time, this is also one of the signs of a God sent prophet, to distinguish them from the many counterfeits that are always near the real men of God. The prophet will speak against those who hear, not from God, but from their own imaginations. Men like John MacArthur or the late A.W. Tozer are persons I would consider to be a “prophet”.

We all need to be on the lookout for the false prophets of today, or any day, if we are reading material from the past. Just because you do not believe in so-called “prophecy” today does not mean that you cannot be fooled. Let’s look at this for a moment.

The false prophets of today are often not acting as fortune tellers, but fortune sellers. They have guaranteed ways of garnering God’s blessing for your life. Or so they imply, what, with their steps to success, keys to the kingdom, miracle water, anointed prayer cloth, or whatever the toy in the happy meal package is this month. These days they are not so much into telling the future, but selling the future. They may not even call themselves a prophet, but they are certainly looking to profit, if not from your money, then from your recognition. That is where even the non-charismatic person can get duped.

It is up to the believer to be able to look to the Word of God to discern truth from error. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, points to many warning signs of a false prophet. Often false prophets understand that others are on the lookout for them, or they don’t want to be considered a false prophet, because they are deluded by their own status of self. Because of this they will make sure to maintain a sterling character, and many will not make wild predictions.

However, this isn’t the only measure of and the only way to spot a false prophet. The false or foolish prophets are not only those who incorrectly foretell the future, or those whose moral character is lacking, but also those who are self-promoters instead of God promoters, and those who do not confront the people with their sin, but instead speak smooth words designed to flatter the people. Mark it down; a false prophet will fail on one or more of these accounts. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Often we hear talk that the Bible is God’s “owner’s manual”. This is wrong. The Bible is not an owner’s manual; God is not a vehicle for you to drive. Others use the Bible and its promises like a witch uses her dark books. They distort the Word of God. If you would use proper context and a decent hermeneutic, you might see that they often claim promises that are not actually there. When we use the Word like a magic book, we try and find "spells" to justify our actions. They ask you to plant your seed, but what they really mean is grant their greed.

Self-deluded and self-important people often take the title of “prophet”, or assume a position of leadership within the visible church, but speak little more than empty words. There will always be, however, weak minded, backslidden, or fleshly churchgoers who will flock to these popular but poisonous teachers. Many whom haven’t been renewed in their minds or transformed in their character are simply looking for an edge. What they get is cut to pieces.

With so many examples of false prophets, so many warnings against falling under their influence, and so many signs given to distinguish the true from the false, it is easy to see that those who do fall prey to false prophets are often ignorant of the Word of God on the subject.

Sell out to God: read the Word, know the Truth, and stay with that!