Reflections

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.””

Deuteronomy30:19-20NKJV

I am not here to refute any specific prophetic words about what is happening in our country, but want to give context to prophetic words spoken from a biblical perspective.

There are many of us that have received or heard prophetic words over our lives.  This is true of many in the Bible, that their lives were spoken about prophetically.  We know that God is sovereign and His word will not return to Him void.  However, most of God’s word and promises are conditional.  The only prophesy that has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled despite man or Satan is the prophesies of Jesus.  Other prophetic words about our own lives is contingent on our faith, actions, and obedience to God’s word.  We can nullify God’s promises and even His prophetic declarations over our lives.

There are some prophetic words that we will have to wait and see if they come to pass.  For example, there are some prophesying that Trump will be President for the next four years and until January 20, 2021, we will not know for sure if these words were true or not, when the inauguration takes place.

If these prophetic words are proven to not come to pass, it does not mean that these were false prophets.  Prophets know in part and prophesy in part.  We are ultimately responsible for any prophetic word spoken over our lives by obeying God.  Disobedience will nullify these words.

In Deuteronomy, God tells the children of Israel they have a choice to make – life or death.  When we receive a prophetic word we still must make a choice.  In Deuteronomy 28 God clearly explains what will happen if we obey Him (blessings) and what will happen if we disobey Him (curses).  So if you receive a prophetic word choose life and obey God so that word will bear fruit.  If you disobey God you will nullify that word and it will not bear fruit.

We have several examples in the Bible.  Samson was chosen by God to judge the Israelites, but when Samson allowed his hair to be cut, the Lord departed from him.  Eli was chosen as a prophet but his sons lived wickedly, so God chose another.  King Saul was chosen and it was promised his family would reign, but King Saul disobeyed God, and God rejected Saul as King.  King Solomon was told to obey God but he failed and Israel was divided.  There are others who were chosen by God but did not experience the promises of God because of their disobedience.

It would be easy to label these men and women as false prophets but the word is given as seed form and we have to cultivate it.  If we give a prophetic word to others let us encourage them to obey God and move in faith.  We should also bring correction to them and remind them of the word spoken over their lives.  Ultimately it is our choice to work out these words in our lives and experience the fruit of God’s promises.

Finally, if we are going to publicly declare a prophetic word from God let us make sure it aligns with the testimony about Jesus. The world desperately needs to hear the prophesies of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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“You examine the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me; and yet you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”

John 5:39-40 NASB

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Romans1:21NASB

I gave my life to Jesus Christ over 27 years ago.  I thought I knew everything I needed to learn about Jesus years ago.  Unfortunately, about two years ago I felt burnt out as a pastor and felt my faith waning.  I still believed in Jesus but my passion and fire for Him had waned.  I then set on a journey to get to know Jesus more intimately and not for the purpose of new material for sermons or writing, but for the sake of my own soul.

There is a spirit of familiarity with Jesus that plagues the body of Christ.  We have taken the idea of dominion authority and used it to further our own agendas and have neglected our reverence and love for Jesus.  We have been captured by the things of this world and have not grown in our knowledge or teachings of the gospel and Jesus Christ.  We are satisfied with a simple gospel track to hand out to others but not to live in reverence and in awe of our Savior.

As a result we have witnessed men and women who claimed to know Jesus, walk away from the church and the faith.  They feel that the requirements of Christianity are too constricting and have sought to find their own spiritual awakenings.  The truth is they do not fear Jesus.  We don’t fear Jesus.  We know He exists but we neither honor Him nor give thanks to Him.  Instead we complain and go after our “enemies”.  Lying to them and ourselves that Jesus functions as our Lord when in reality we have elevated ourselves above Him.

Many would say that they believe in Jesus and they acknowledge Him as the One and Only God.  However, it is our actions, our speech and our fruit that bears witness to how we view Jesus in our lives.  Jesus stated that if we love Him we would obey His commandments.  We don’t.

We search the scriptures to justify our own beliefs and to prove that we are right and others are wrong.  We glorify ourselves and demonize those that disagree with us.  We no longer testify about Jesus but about ourselves and the world we want created.

We no longer judge ourselves by Jesus’ demonstration or life.  We justify our actions and sins by quoting a prayer we said years ago.  We do not exemplify the life of Jesus.  We act as if Jesus simply lived, died and rose again so we could live how we saw fit to live in this life.

I realize in my journey in cultivating my relationship with Jesus, that we really have stopped teaching about Jesus.  He is no longer the center of our teaching and many just don’t know who He really is.  I have discovered so much about Jesus that we no longer discuss or demonstrate.  We have spent so much time making ourselves powerful.  We have designed our own truth.

As a church we need to refocus on Jesus. We need to return to the fullness of Jesus and begin to grow and mature in the knowledge of Him. We need to let go of self and make Jesus the center of our faith once again. We must stop chasing men and women to be our saviors. Ministries need to be built around Jesus Christ and not charismatic people. Jesus is our rock, the Head of the church. Let us go on a journey together to discover Jesus and testify about Him to a lost and dying world. Let us learn to Abide in Christ.

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