11/27/2019
Do we believe that God gives dreams, and prophetic visions today? Are there prophets who are shown what God would have us see, and who speak His Words to us? Are there dreamers who are given both personal, and national, guidance and knowledge regarding current and future happenings? If we don’t believe this, or see evidence of it, then we are lost to lawlessness... we will have lost all restraint.
“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.”
Proverbs 29:18 ESV
Where are our prophets today? We can’t appoint them, not even one; only God can call and anoint a prophet. Where are our dreamers? Only God can give revelations to faithful dreamers, and send interpreters. So I ask again... where are the prophets, and I go a step further and ask where are the dreamers? Are we afraid to accept them for what they are?
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,”
1 John 4:1-2 ESV
Is our discernment hampered by the presences of the dark one? Are we fearful that we will be lured into accepting a false prophet? The presence of that fear alone is an indication that Satan is attempting to blind us. Satan is bold, even before the Angel of God... just as he was when he stood beside Joshua to accuse him.
“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.”
Zechariah 3:1 ESV
But when it is God’s desire to raise up a prophet He rebukes the darkness, and clothes them anew. The questions becomes these... Will we open our eyes and recognize them, and are we willing to accept them?
“And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?" Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments."”
Zechariah 3:2-4 ESV
Today we aren’t expecting Prophets... we are expecting perfection... we are looking for prophets to have been as perfect as Jesus. In verse 4 above we see that the Angel of the Lord took the iniquity away from Joshua. He took his filthy clothes, and dressed him in pure vestments. In the world today Satan stands beside prophets in this same manner and he convinces God’s people that they are not prophets by revealing, and demonstrating, their past transgressions. We accept his argument because we have become deaf, and blind to God and His Angel, and we can’t bring ourselves to believe that God would change such a man and send him to lead us, let alone transform him into a prophet. Would we accept Moses, who killed an Egyptian, as a leader and prophet today? Would we accept Hosea, who God told you marry the most promiscuous woman around? Or, how about Isaiah who wandered around Jerusalem naked for three years... would we accept any of these as prophets today... as men of God? No, somehow our ability to believe, and discern has eroded. We say we are spiritual, but if we can’t discern prophets, and interpreters of dreams, then are we?
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV
So, before we deny the existence of dreamers, interpreters, and prophets today, then perhaps we should turn inward, and ask God to circumcise our sense of discernment. Maybe we should ask Him to show us the truth about such things, but then again, if He sends a prophet (perhaps like Paul) to convince us would we even believe him to be God’s prophet in the first place?
“I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 12:1 ESV
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for revealing yourself, and those things regarding our lives, and faith, through dreams, visions, and prophesies. We ask you to give us discernment so that we can rightly determine those things that are truly from you, as opposed to those of the dark one, or figments of our own desire, and imagination. Help us Holy Father to become sufficiently attuned to you and your will so that we will hear your voice clearly, see those things you would have us see, and understand the truth in the dreams you give us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who comes to us and speaks. Great are you who visits us in the night in our dreams, and gives prophecy regarding your will. Praised be your name for sending the Angel Gabriel to speak with Mary of the coming Spirit, and the conception of Christ. Wonderful are you whose Son Jesus is our High Priest, and Prophet. All glory is yours Father through the mercy and grace that flows through Christ, and for our dwelling together... Jesus in you, and you in Him, and Jesus in us, and we in Him... like an onion we are one. All power is yours, and we look to that time when it is amazingly manifest in the world, and upon all flesh... young and old, man and woman.
“"'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”
Acts 2:17-18 ESV
Rich Forbes