09/26/2009
Today sanctification by faith is almost but lost in the church. The extremes that arose from a negative and judgmental way of life left people in condemnation and guilt. This in turn gave place to a counter culture that ran as far away as it could from that and fell into the ditch on the other side. This has lead to consciences being hardened !
One of the fruit of this culture is that sanctification of any form is denied as not the work of the Spirit. While helping a great deal in dealing with the guilt and condemnation, it took it to the other extreme by denying the necessity to stay pure and holy in our thoughts and motives.
Any notion of having God search ones heart and motives was vehemently attacked as unnecessary and misleading under the premise that it leads to guilt and condemnation.
Guilt and condemnation can be natural emotions that arise as a result of our sins. The enemy can use these natural emotions to control us. However, easing that guilt should not come at the expense of the standards of Holiness and misrepresenting God’s love and grace. If so it feeds the conscience with lies and gradually hardens it to sin.
As a result of this error in approach it has led to a group of people acting as they want with no clear understanding of the will of God. It has led to people prophesying their own desires and will with no conviction when wrong. The prophetic movement and the prophets are called to Holiness [set apart] first and are supposed to stand for Holiness and lead the church in Holiness!
It is imperative that the vessel that stands as a prophetic voice walks in the pathway of sanctification by faith. Only then can it clearly discern the voice of the Lord and give the word of the Lord in purity and truth. When the Spirit of the Lord is not sanctifying the thoughts and intents of the heart, how then can we discern from the voice of the Lord and our own thoughts or that of the enemy?
In 2 Corinthians 10: 4, 5 Paul talks about taking every thought captive that exalts itself above the knowledge of Christ. Unless we have the Spirit of God search our hearts and motives, how will we know which thoughts to take captive – by exercising proper discernment? The problem is we have attacked the very essence of such a work of the Spirit. In the context of prophecy it has left us prophesying our own will and desires at times without any discernment, assuming it to be from the Lord.
There have been hundreds of prophecies on wealth transfer from the wicked to the righteous in recent years. Many predicted the year that it was supposed to happen. Given the way things have turned out recently, with the church struggling financially in these times, could it be that many of those prophecies were from peoples own desires and not from God?
Another example is the predictions made in the recent elections. Many strongly desired a conservative president and most likely interpreted their own desires as from the Lord and prophesied wrongly the outcome of the elections.
Brethren, when we do not walk a life of surrender and the Spirit of the Lord is not constantly searching our hearts, we will end up being deceived by or own thoughts as from God. Our prophecies will be based on our own desires and on what people want to hear rather than from the Spirit of the Lord.
Any focus on the prophetic must come out of an emphasis on the sanctified life. If it does not arise from that, then the out flow of those prophecies will eventually be tainted and lead to error.
“There is soon coming a day, when His prophets will go forth in the Spirit and power of Elijah. Who is he that brings charge against them in that hour and time?”
