Stop the prophetic nonsense

STOP THE NONSENSE

Someone just needs to say it—it’s time to stop the prophetic nonsense that’s inundating the church today.

I am one who radically affirms modern day prophetic revelation. I teach on it, I’ve written on it and I live it. We should absolutely be experiencing critical and timely dreams, visions and revelation. In fact, we need to live a true prophetic life in a much greater way in the end-times. Our very lives should be driven by revelation.

I’m honored to be traveling to Haiti in a couple of months to teach on the prophetic in a ministry school there. I fully expect God to manifest in substantial ways as we all grow deeper as hearers and proclaimers of God’s messages.

That being said, the fear of the Lord must be continually on us as we stand as God’s mouthpieces in the Earth. The coming revivals that will hit cities and regions must be preceded by bold and accurate voices that prepare the way of the Lord.

The prophetic culture that has taken form in our nation looks little like the one two thousand years ago where a bold wilderness prophet prepared the way of the Lord.

We must have unapologetic calls to repentance and holiness in the spirit of John the Baptist! We cannot expect revival if we don’t have Elijah style prophetic confrontations with the spirit of the age!

Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, g‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” Jer 23:16-17

Instead of warning the people of the Earth of impending disaster, so many of today’s supposed prophets are building their ministries by promising blessing after blessing—always just over the horizon, in the not too distant future.

Any prophetic voice that doesn’t reveal the dread of the Lord and the call to turn from wickedness as a part of their ministry is a prophetic voice that cannot be trusted. They are not credible.

THE SUPERBOWL?

I about came unglued when I heard about prophetic guarantees that a certain team would be winning this year’s Superbowl.

This is madness! How dare we use the fearful gift of God’s very words to guarantee the outcome of a game? A game!

Can you imagine John the Baptist setting up his fortune teller booth and predicting the outcome of chariot races? It’s insanity—and it’s inexcusable. We must stop the nonsense.

BALAAM

They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. 2 Peter 2:14-16

The prophet’s madness!

If you want to pack out a conference, develop a reputation of a Jeremiah 23 prophet. Refuse to mention anything challenging. Don’t rebuke. Don’t call to repentance. Don’t highlight the negative. Have a plastic smile on your face and cause everybody to feel great about their condition. Tell them God is thrilled with them and they are primed for massive reward, even if they are walking in compromise and darkness. Embrace the greed of Balaam and form your prophetic words just right so people will give extravagantly to your ministry.

If you want to be accused and despised by most, weep and cry at the state of the church and the world. Develop a backbone of steel and let the fire of God rage in your gut. Let the fire burst out of your mouth as it shocks the sleepers out of their coma!

You probably won’t have a worldwide ministry that draws multiplied thousands, but you will be an obedient servant.

We have become so afraid of coming across as negative! My God! How has the fear of man so bewitched us?

Give me an angry prophet with fire in his eyes and brokenness in his spirit any day! We must be angry—exceedingly angry! The fury of God’s wrath rests on a wicked people, and the church is selling sugar that’s laced with a drug that will put this generation into an eternal sleep!

REVIVAL?

The topic of revival is what drives me probably more than any other.

While I absolutely affirm various signs and signals that can indicate regional activity of God, I must admit that I’m growing more troubled at the imbalance growing focus on natural indicators of supposed revival.

I stated five years ago when I first arrived in Detroit that revival was not near. I was actually shocked that so many people were so convinced that God was about to pour out in this region. The prophesies continually revealed that revival was imminent.

I was talking with a prominent national leader last week about the state of revival in the Detroit region. He had been very active over the previous several years in the effort to rally the church into revival readiness in this region. I shared with him that the spirit of revival has nearly disappeared. He agreed. I believe we have actually fallen further behind in the pursuit of revival than we were five years ago.

I don’t believe key indicators of revival in a region are materialistic prosperity, natural revitalization or economic gain. It’s mass repentance. Period.

I am not looking at anything other than a sleeping, compromised church and a wicked secular culture with tears in my eyes. The cry is REPENT! Wake up!

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

How is it that we can presume we are where we need to be for revival to break out? Are we letting God search our hearts and crush our resistance to his leadership?

I was interviewed on Family Life Radio today on my book 20 Elements of Revival. I explained to them that I have yet to find a single church that has proceeded beyond element number two.

The first element is agreement. We must be agreed as they were in the Upper Room. They were in one accord. They were also in one place. Element number two is an extreme devotion of time. We must gather together continually as we put the rest of life on the shelf and cry out in repentance and intercession! Without unity around the call to repentance and intercession, we can’t presume to have even taken the first step towards revival!

Now do you understand why it is simply nonsensical to prophesy that revival is right around the corner?

Of course, God can do anything he wants, and certainly there are pockets of Believers in this region and around the world who are contending, repenting, interceding and hungering for God to move—and that is significant. However, there are over 19,000 cities in our nation and NOT ONE of them is experiencing revival! That means we are zero for 19,000! We are doing something wrong—19,000 times!

Revival will be preceded by anointed, love driven, sharp preaching on righteousness. The prophecies must include the coming doom for those who resist God! Warnings must go out to the masses! We can’t just tell people God loves them and that he has a great plan for their life! Come on! We must warn of the wrath the unredeemed are under, reveal the reality of Hell and call them out of condemnation into the light!

CONCLUSION

I will be discussing all of this and more in just under four hours from right now.

Watch and participate LIVE at www.thefurnace.tv/live at 10pm EST.

The times we are in a dire, and we need true prophetic voices who not only reveal God’s blessings, but his severity as well.