While we see (and will in the near future continue to see) many Charismatic ministries exposed for gross sin, never forget that there are faithful Charismatic leaders who have not strayed. This is a Church-wide problem, not exclusively a Charismatic problem.
Voices are already being raised, saying, “Do you see the fruit of these so-called spiritual gifts? We want nothing to do with prophecy, words of knowledge, tongues, or any other supernatural manifestation. It’s all fake.”
No, it’s not. And heading from one extreme of the spectrum to the other is not helpful to anyone.
The Holy Spirit still says, “Desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1). His gifts are dear to His heart and should never be despised just because some have misused them. He also says, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophesying. [Instead] prove (test; examine; discern) all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21).
The reasons vary for why people wish to throw out any supernatural manifestation of God’s Spirit. Some have been disappointed by shysters who wreaked havoc on them or their loved ones through false gifts. Some are grieved by leaders who did not discern falsity, or who chose to let it go on when they knew it was fake. Many do not wish to make the effort to discern for themselves whether something is “off.”
There is no excuse for laziness in discerning, by the way. God expects it of each of us individually. In fact, as we draw closer to the end of time, every believer must learn to examine what is said and done for whether it aligns with the Bible. Each of us is required to be sensitive to the whisper of the Holy Spirit, so we are not led astray.
The Lord highlighted these two verses to me recently:
Numbers 11:25 — “And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spoke to [Moses], and took of the Spirit which was upon him, and gave it to the seventy elders. And it came to pass, that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied without ceasing.” What struck me in this verse was that the Holy Spirit loves to manifest His presence through prophecy. Prophecy is part of the essence of Who He is.
Numbers 11:29 — “And Moses said to him, ‘Do you envy them for my sake? Would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!'” It has always been God’s heart to put His Spirit upon people (and since Jesus ascended, to place His Spirit within us).
Consider how He has further made His desire clear to us in Joel 2:28, 29: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and the handmaidens, in those days, I will pour out My Spirit.” Peter confirmed the beginning of that endowment of the Spirit on Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2. While Joel said, “in those days,” Peter said, “in the last days” this would happen (Acts 2:17). We are still living in those last days, and God is still pouring out His Spirit on all people.
Do not allow the failures of some — or even many — Charismatic leaders to intimidate you into denying or despising the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. Contrary to what some are saying, the Lord has never yet rescinded His gifts from His Church. They are still much needed today, perhaps more than ever. We should value whatever gifts the Lord offers us. To scorn or refuse them grieves and insults Him. _____________________________
Eschatology: the study of end-time events. I have heard numerous Christians say they want nothing to do with any of it. “It’s confusing. It isn’t important. Loving Jesus is all that matters.” The truth, though, is that it matters to Jesus — a lot. It is part of His story, and He wants us to pay attention to what He says about the end times in the Bible.
Jesus spoke extensively on the time of the end in the gospels. It was a major emphasis of the apostles in their letters to the early Church. They consistently reminded believers to be ready and looking for Jesus to come for them at any moment. The Old Testament prophets also spoke at length on the last days. Clearly, end-time events are important to the Lord, and He wants us to be informed about what is to come. We won’t get it all down pat, but we can all understand way more than we do.
I grew up in a liturgical church where we rarely heard anything about Jesus’ return. Once a year, we sat through a frightening sermon, taken from 2 Peter 3:10. Basically, the message was, “The earth is going to be cinderfied by God. Any of us who are still alive then will be burnt to a crisp, so get your act together now.” That one little snippet was all we were ever given. Good for us!
The after-church discussion at our dinner table amounted to my parents expressing their terror of becoming black toast. As an eight- or nine–year-old child, I simply thought, “It will probably only hurt for a second or two, and then I’ll be with Jesus.”
I married a Jesus People kind of guy. He had a different story of how it was all going down. He and all his buddies had inhaled Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late, Great Planet Earth. I never read it, but I think all the cinderfied earth was still somewhere in there. But there was also a “great catching away” (Rapture), a “Great Tribulation,” and a thousand-year reign of Jesus on earth coming first. It was a whole new weird theology to me.
I was skeptical and stubborn. I guess I wanted to cling to getting burnt to charcoal for some reason. But, I did what has been a faithful standby for me all these years. I said, “I am not swallowing this unless You show it to me in the Bible, God.” And He did. Not Hal Lindsey’s 1970s version. Just Bible verses which began to pop out here and there, much to my awe and illumination. I became one of those (gasp!) pre-Trib Pentecostal people who now looked forward to Jesus coming for His bride.
Twenty-five years later, a new take on the end times was introduced into my horrified brain by the apostolic/prophetic community. Now I was being barraged with “Jesus isn’t coming back any time soon” stuff. “He can’t, because if He does, your children’s children’s children won’t have the chance to fulfill their prophetic destiny.” (???) “Rapture-smapture! We are going to turn the earth around in its tracks, solve all mankind’s problems by supernatural revelation, and then hand our perfected planet on a platter to Jesus. He won’t come back until we do it all!” That’s a tad bit exaggerated, but you can tell the smidgen of humor is to get my point across, right?
So, what did I do? I began asking the Lord again to show me truth in His Word. I set aside a Bible just for my new eschatology adventure, and every time I ran across a verse that had any whisper of the end times in it, I underlined it in red. Doing that kept me standing strong through the latest barrage of uncomfortable teaching.
The project took a couple of years, but it was worth it. Along the way, I noticed that the early apostles were hugely focused on Jesus coming back for His people. They mentioned it all the time! And they believed it could happen at any moment. They heeded all Jesus had told them on the subject, like Jesus’ exhortation to continually watch and be ready for Him, because “the Son of man will come at an hour when you don’t think He will” (Luke 12:40).
Am I trying to convince you to join my pre-Trib camp? Nope! I have often said that I don’t think any of us have the whole picture exactly right. Some of the puzzle pieces don’t fit for me yet, either. We will understand it all much better after it happens.
But do realize that studying the end times in your Bible is exceedingly important, even if it is confusing sometimes. It’s precious to the Lord when we search the Scriptures to learn as much as we can about what comes next on God’s timeline — because it is a subject dear to His heart. He loves it when we converse about it with Him. He wants to put a deep longing in our hearts to be fully united with Him, in our glorified bodies, seeing and knowing Him as He is, face to face. We are meant to desire Jesus’ literal rule and reign on earth — yes, because of the restoration and justice He will bring — but even more, because He will receive all the glory He deserves.
And there’s still more after that: the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, as described in Revelation 21 and 22. So much good stuff ahead! Sheer blessing for us, but ultimately, it is all for Him.
“Love His appearing” as 2 Timothy 4:8 says. Be on tiptoe for that catching away of all the saints “in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52), so that we will forever be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Look forward to Jesus setting all things right on earth at His physical return, and the heavenly Jerusalem we will enjoy with God through all eternity.
And get as informed as you can now about it all by studying what He has said in the Bible. Eschatology is meant to bring hope, joy, and peace into our hearts. It helps us to know God’s heart better. Let it do that for you.
We have a growing problem in the modern Church. It is emerging through ministry leaders, such as those mentioned in Ephesians 4:11: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Not all of them are equipping/perfecting the saints as intended by the Lord. Instead of helping the saints grow into maturity, some are claiming “new revelation” which cannot be supported by the Bible (or even worse, contradicts the Bible). Some of the very people who have been called to protect God’s beloved children from being “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14) are infected with those errant ideas themselves — and teaching them to others.
I don’t believe the majority of them are intending to promote wrong things. They enthusiastically believe the deceptions they are popularizing. Often, it is a result of these leaders listening to one another or reading each other’s works without questioning or discerning what is being said, and then passing it on because it sounds convincing. They have too quickly swallowed someone else’s “revelation” without checking it against the Bible. After a while, even more extreme teaching arises, built on the faulty foundation of previous dubious ideas. Error breeds greater error.
We should keep this in perspective. There are indeed many faithful leaders who are doing their best to stay true to God’s Word. They are not basing what they teach on Bible verses lifted out of context or on a supernatural experience alone. They take their job of feeding God’s flock very seriously. But, with social media at everyone’s fingertips, new opportunities have arisen for unreliable teachers and prophets to gain vast followings, especially through YouTube.
How do we escape being bamboozled in the midst of it all? Let’s look at some spiritual and common sense guidelines to help us:
Avoid “new revelation” not mentioned in the Bible. If Jesus or the first apostles didn’t teach it, or if it wasn’t known to the New Testament Church, that’s an obvious red flag. If believers over the entire last 2,000 years had no knowledge of it, it isn’t genuine. Yes, sometimes teachers in our time rediscover truths that were lost or watered down over the centuries. God will use people to resurrect what has always been in Scripture, but that is not the same as coming up with totally new stuff.
Beware of teaching which is based solely on a verse here or there. These are usually verses lifted out of context, most often from the Old Testament. They are frequently obscure verses, but people wanting to come up with a new angle will build massive teachings around them. It’s been going on since the Church began, but we haven’t learned our lesson, yet, have we? Consider the new teaching in light of the whole Bible. Scripture can always be relied upon to interpret other Scripture.
Does the teaching measure up against the “many witnesses” principle which Paul taught? Paul charged Timothy, “And the things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit those same things to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also”(2 Timothy 2:2).
Paul repeatedly warned Timothy to avoid and shut down “other doctrines,”“fables and endless genealogies which minister questions, rather than godly edifying,”“profane and old wives’ tales,” and “vain babbling and oppositions of what is falsely called science” (1 Timothy 1:3, 4; 4:7; 6:20). He warns that these teachings will only lead to more ungodliness and eat away at their listeners like gangrene (2 Timothy 2:16, 17), leading people to err from the faith (1 Timothy 6:21).
Does the supposed new truth take you into any kind of legalism or self-help? Measure the “revelation” against Paul’s letter to the Galatians. If the thrust of the teaching is methodology you must follow exactly in order to please God or to receive what you desire, it is off-base. While truthful instruction can still give us practical ways to move forward with Jesus, it will always point toward dependence on Him, not toward what we must ritualistically do to succeed.
Does the teaching follow legalistic patterns which provide your magic prayer bullet for getting answers? Immerse yourself in Jesus’ extensive instruction on prayer in the gospels. How does the new teaching stack up against what He said? What did the apostles in the New Testament say about intercession and receiving answers? How did the Old Testament saints succeed in prayer? Find out by reading their words — without a running commentary from someone trying to expand upon it or take away from it.
God does not put us through difficult hoops before He is willing to grant our requests. He does not disqualify our petitions on minor technicalities. Anytime someone tells you that eureka! they have discovered a brand new or long-hidden way to pray which will give you answers every time (if you do it exactly, infinitesimally right), just run. They are deceived and are lying to you.
Does the teacher major on supernatural manifestations above all else? Take note if the person rarely talks about Jesus, His atonement for us at the cross, and core scriptural truths. Is the focus on supernatural encounters and signs, rather than on the Lord? Signs and wonders follow believers who focus on the gospel. Let’s not get that turned around to where we are chasing the signs and wonders.
An alarming trend right now is prophetic people claiming to interact with deceased saints — and they want to teach you how to do it too! This is a dangerous deception. Beware of the fixation with the “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews12:1), which, in the Bible, is a reference to the people of faith listed in Hebrews 11, along with others like them. But currently, all sorts of silly teaching about how to interact with the cloud of witnesses is being spewed upon gullible Christians. 1 Timothy 4:1 warns that “in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.”
If a Bible teacher puts a new spin on the meaning of a verse, don’t take their word for it. Check how that verse reads in several translations. Read the before-and-after verses to see if what the teacher is saying fits. When they tell you a word or phrase within a verse actually means such-and-such in the original Greek or Hebrew, look it up in a concordance or two to see if they’re correct — especially if you’ve never heard it presented like that before.
What does the Holy Spirit say to you about it? If the teaching is something new to you, listen to whether the peace of God is ruling or not ruling in your heart about it, as Colossians 3:15 instructs. Does it set right, or does it make you uneasy? Ask God to speak to you about it through Bible verses. He will. Just give Him time. John 14:26 promises, “But the Comforter, Who is the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.”
The best protection against new revelation deception is to prayerfully read the Bible — all of it — over and over. It will keep you “girded about with truth” (Ephesians 6:14), so that you won’t get off in weird places. ____________________________
When we hear something from God in the inner voice, or see it in a vision or dream, it’s easy to jump to conclusions about what God is saying — and get it all wrong. This is why we must ask Him to interpret for us what we hear and see. Sometimes the understanding doesn’t come immediately. Sometimes it takes weeks, months, or even years.
For this reason, when I hear a prophetic word, vision, or dream coming from someone else, I take it with a pinch of salt. I ponder it, but I also step back and wait to see what happens. I do the same for what I see and hear myself.
Our interpretations, much as we want them to come from the Lord, are many times tainted by our own desires or hangups. This happens especially with dreams. We can receive revelation directly from God as we sleep, but we might also dream what we greatly fear or yearn for. This is why we must be careful. It’s okay to keep on asking the Lord over a period of time for the understanding. It’s also okay, when He remains silent on the interpretation, to just say, “I don’t know yet, but I trust Him.”
Other factors are timing and limited viewpoint. A person may prophesy one thing, while somebody else prophesies a seemingly conflicting word. Does this mean one is wrong and the other is right? Perhaps, but not necessarily. Without realizing it, they may be speaking into two different time periods. They might also be seeing different facets of the same time period. Each sees or hears from a certain angle, which can look quite different from another angle, but they are both parts of the whole picture. Think in terms of how the moon would look to a person who is viewing it from the dark side, as compared to another who is seeing it at the same time from the lit side.
I’ve noticed that prophecies are often heavily influenced by the prophet’s particular end-time beliefs. This can create a lot of error and confusion. In some cases, a word or vision will be partly right and partly wrong, because the person’s eschatology is getting in the way. It could also be a true revelation from the Lord, but due to the prophet’s position on the end times, he or she might incorrectly interpret what is heard or seen. It is something all prophetic people should be aware of and careful about. We need to be a little more flexible and keep humbly submitting our viewpoints to the Lord, so that He can keep us in the flow of what He is doing, no matter what our personal end-time beliefs are.
True understanding of what God has spoken takes time to unfold. We may only know exactly what He was saying when we see events take place. This happened with both the Old and New Testament prophets. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Agabus, and John the Beloved didn’t understand all they saw and heard. But they faithfully reported whatever God revealed to them and then left the details of how He would fulfill it up to Him.
That’s what we must learn to do, too — faithfully report what we receive, without feeling compelled to explain it all. However, do make sure it lines up with the Bible! Just because you or someone else had a “vision” does not mean it is from God. If it doesn’t align with Scripture, throw it out, no matter how convincing it seems!
We must be patient and trust the Lord with whatever revelation we are given. Let God do the wondrous work of bringing it to pass without telling Him and the whole world how it has to happen. When He does it, it will be marvelous in our eyes, usually in a way we never would have imagined — and that’s a good thing! ______________________________
I have been praying for a great revival in Canada ever since I had this dream in March of this year (2023). If you are an intercessor, as I am, you will probably have a lot of dreams which are directives to pray. This was one of them for me. If it tugs at your heart, perhaps it is a call to you, too, to pray for Canada.
When I see myself sweeping, mopping, or scrubbing floors on my hands and knees, these are God’s way of telling me to pray, to “wash” or otherwise cleanse a situation through prayer so that His purposes will be fulfilled. Today’s dream is that kind of story.
Dream:
I saw myself in a gymnasium which stretched from east to west. I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor, and as I did that, I saw words appear where I had cleaned. They were handwritten testimonies of a grassroots revival taking place in Canada. I understood in the dream that the gymnasium itself represented Canada.
I was going to wash the entire floor. I very much wanted to write down the words I saw on the wet floor I had already washed, but I thought, “I will finish washing the whole floor, and then I will come back and record the words.”
There was a middle-aged man of Asian heritage sitting on a chair at the center of the back of the gym. He had his arms folded over his chest. He looked very disapproving of me for washing the floor, as if I were doing something wrong. I continued to wash, and he didn’t stop me, but I could tell he was hostile. He must have moved his chair temporarily, because I washed where he had been sitting without having to move around him.
I finished the entire floor, quickly got my computer to write, and went back to read and record the story written on the floor. To my dismay, it had disappeared. I wondered if the disapproving man at the back of the gymnasium had somehow made the words disappear. I thought perhaps I could read the news accounts of the Canadian revival online, but it wouldn’t be the same as the firsthand account written on the floor.
Next, I was talking to a Canadian woman about the revival. She acknowledged it, but said unhappily that there was a leader who was stifling it through control. I said I understood who and what she was talking about. I knew the man at the back was the one she was referring to.
What does it all mean?
The first thing the Lord spoke to me about the dream was that the disapproving man sitting on the chair at the back of the gymnasium was “chair-man Mao” (Chairman Mao Zedong). For those of you who aren’t up on history from back then, Chairman Mao was the man who founded the People’s Republic of China (the communist takeover in China, beginning in 1949). He was responsible for the Cultural Revolution, a terrible time when many people were killed and traditional Chinese culture was destroyed.
Although I had this dream about five months ago, I didn’t know until recently whether Mao represented controlling leaders, perhaps even religious leaders, or whether he represented the socialistic government system in Canada trying to control/suppress revival, or if it was about out-and-out communism taking over. When we don’t know for sure what a dream is speaking of, it’s best to keep praying about it until God gives us a clear interpretation, rather than assuming we know what it means.
Eventually, as I kept reviewing the dream and praying for Canada to receive a coast-to-coast revival, I felt the Lord lasered in on Mao as the leader of the Cultural Revolution. I understood that this was about a cultural revolution trying to stop the move of God in Canada.
Right now, in many Western nations, this cultural revolution is going on. It involves rebellion against biblical moral standards, especially in the area of sexual morals. The cultural revolutionists are fighting for LGBTQ ideologies and abortion to become the norm. Longstanding traditional values once held by the majority are spurned, and demands are made upon those who still hold those values to comply — to bow the knee. The current prime minister in Canada, along with other powerful people, is very much a promoter and enforcer of this cultural revolution against traditional morals.
Really, it is a war going on in the spiritual realm. The deceived people who are enforcing perversion are only pawns in the hands of evil spiritual rulers in high places. Truly, for revival of any magnitude to take place, it will take much prayer. However, God is alerting prophetic intercessors to the task. They are to “wash” Canada in humble, relentless prayer until revival does prevail.
A few weeks ago, while praying once again about this dream, the Lord brought to mind the picture of the unquenchable wildfires which have been burning in Canada for many months. If you look at satellite pictures of the fires, you can see that they have been burning from coast to coast. Firefighters have said there is not much they can do, given the extreme expanse of the fires.
The Lord said that the fires are a symbol of unstoppable revival in Canada. The cultural revolution attempting to extinguish the work of God there will not succeed. I had never connected the fires and the promise of revival until that moment. I pray now that the “wildfire” of the Holy Spirit will ignite in hearts there a hunger for Jesus and a true revival in Canada which powerful, antichrist-spirited people will be unable to stamp out — that sparks will be carried by the winds of the Spirit and start new fires continuously. He can and will do this through prayer!
When I mentioned to my husband Paul this latest revelation the Lord had given me about the connection between the Canadian revival dream and the wildfires, he said, “And look what has been happening in the U. S., how we have been affected by the smoke of those fires. The revival there will cross the border to us as well.”
Lord, bring a revival to Canada such as they have never seen before nor envisioned in their imagination. Let those who push for a godless cultural revolution there be utterly mystified and helpless to stop it. May Your wildfires of revival spread from one side of Canada to the other. Let no province be untouched. Ignite a flame for Jesus in the hearts of people of every generation in Canada. We ask it with faith and expectation of what You are going to do, in Jesus’ mighty name. _______________________________
I mentioned last time that I had two dreams to share with you. Here is one of them. It is about an event shortly to come:
My husband Paul and I were at a grocery store we used to frequent. In real life, that store hasn’t been in business for about thirty-five years. It went bankrupt back then.
The setting was a dark, dreary, rainy Saturday evening, just a few days before Christmas. When we got into the store’s entryway, we saw some featured specials there, and I put several items in our cart.
An instrumental version of Christ the Solid Rock had just begun playing over the speaker system, and when it got to the chorus, I started singing along:
On Christ the solid rock I stand / All other ground is sinking sand / All other ground is sinking sand.
I noticed there was an older couple in the entryway with us, and as soon as I began to sing the words, they quietly joined in.
I continued on, singing the third verse, and they sang along with me as we entered the main part of the store:
His oath, His covenant, His blood / Support me in the ‘whelming flood / When all around my soul gives way / He then is all my hope and stay.
We had barely started shopping when we noticed the lights were dimming, and we realized the store was closing early, because it was a Saturday night. (Stores did that on weekend nights in those days.) Paul said he would wait for me by the checkouts with what we already had in the cart, while I quickly went through the store to grab other deals I wanted to purchase.
I didn’t find anything in the next few minutes, and in the meantime, the lights were dimming even more. We checked out the items we had, and as we left through the exit-way, I saw a lady in a wheelchair. I stopped to ask her if I could pray for her, and she allowed me to, so I briefly laid my hands on her and prayed a simple prayer for her healing.
What does it mean?
As I prayed for interpretation of the dream, this is what I felt the Lord was showing me:
A prominent theme was darkness. It was dark and dreary outside, and the lights were growing dim inside the store. The times we are living in are very dark spiritually.
It was Saturday evening, right before closing. I felt the Lord showed me that we are at the very end of an era, but we are in anticipation of a new era. Sunday’s coming. Saturday is the end of the week, but the next day begins a new week. Sunday, for the Christian, often represents resurrection as well.
Also, it was just a few days before Christmas. At Christmastime, we celebrate Jesus’ first coming to earth as a baby. But traditionally in the Church, Advent (the time leading up to Christmas) is also celebrated as the expectation of Jesus’ second coming — first for His Bride, and then to physically rule on the earth.
The sale items we purchased represent taking advantage of what God provides in the closing days and hours. We are to wisely use the material things which still remain available in the world. The time is short when we can still do so. We should also be wise in taking hold of opportunities presented to us.
The specific words of the song I’ve recorded here were prominent. I didn’t sing any other verses. There’s a message in them for us.
I was sharing the hope of Jesus in small ways. That started with something as simple as a song. Hearing it gave other people courage to retake hold of these truths for themselves. Somebody needed to start it, but others then joined in. I also shared Jesus’ love by stopping to pray with the woman in the wheelchair. Sometimes we think the little things we do every day as we are led by the Holy Spirit don’t matter much. They do.
John 9:4, 5 came to mind as I thought on the dream: “I must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day. The night is coming, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” These are Jesus’ words about Himself, but they apply to us as well. He told us that we are to do His works (John 14:12), and He also said that we are to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). We can do this through “Christ in [us], the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
So, the era we are in is coming to a close. Old things are passing away, and Jesus is on the verge of making all things new. “Sunday is coming!” While we wait for the old to pass away, we need to make good use of the time remaining to share Jesus and to strengthen other people’s faith in the face of the darkness.
Does this mean the Rapture of the Church is nearly upon us? I hope so! The Lord did not clarify for me what the old era moving into the new one means. People who are of a different end-times mindset than mine would see a “new era” quite differently. We will just have to see how it all plays out.
In the meantime, we are to bring Jesus to the world around us in every way we can. ____________________________
In the next two posts, I will be sharing two dreams I received which are of a prophetic nature, concerning the body of Christ. I am eager to share them with you!
But for now, I have a few things to say about dreams in general. While I do interpret people’s dreams at times, my main goal is to teach others how to interpret their own dreams.
In these last-of-the-last days, God is pouring out His Spirit in ever greater measure — indeed, “upon all flesh,” according to Joel 2:28, 29 and Acts 2:17-19. Part of the way that manifests is, “Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on My servants and My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit: and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:18, 19).
Whether you are young or old, you can receive visions and dreams from the Lord. These dreams might prophetically speak of the future. Very often, they are a call to engage in serious prayer. Whether you remember a lot of your dreams or are aware of only a few, it is important that you pay attention to them. Even when they seem silly on the surface, they are often profound messages from the Lord. We need to spend time asking God what they mean.
Besides ignoring their dreams, a mistake people who are new at this often make is looking up key symbols from their dreams in a dream dictionary someone else has put together and then assuming that’s what those symbols stand for in their own dreams. More often than not, depending heavily on dream dictionaries is not the answer for knowing what your dreams mean. Going directly to God for the answers is.
Consider what Proverbs 20:5 says: “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of counsel and understanding (see Isaiah 11:2). He lives inside of you, and wants to help you “draw out” the deep things God speaks about in your dreams, visions, and through other means. But you need to sit with Him and ask (and keep asking) questions until you receive the understanding. It doesn’t just happen.
Getting the understanding directly from the Lord is better than any dream dictionary. Dictionaries are helpful if you are still learning basic symbolism God uses, such as with numbers and colors. Use them as a textbook and as an occasional reference.
Hearing for yourself is also much better than depending on someone else to interpret your dreams for you. Although those of us who interpret dreams can sometimes be helpful, it will bless your spirit way more when you get the goods directly from the Holy Spirit. He is the only One Who knows every aspect of your life inside and out. Firsthand revelation from Him is a lot sweeter than secondhand hearing from another person, just like hearing “I love you,” is way better from your spouse than it is from a third party who tells you, “Your husband told me he loves you.”
I truly encourage you to diligently step into the adventure of hearing God for yourself in dreams and visions. The same basic principles apply to both. You may need some teaching tools to get you started, and you will find those in my book, The Dream Book: A Practical Guide to Christian Dream Interpretation. (And yes, there is a Bible symbol dream dictionary at the end of it.) But be assured that God really does want to speak to you directly in this way. Pursue Him for dream understanding, trusting that He will enlighten you.
I hope you will stay tuned for the next post, where I will share what God recently spoken to me through a dream.
We have been taking a look at the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us (and through us) as described in Isaiah 11:2-4. Here are those verses again.
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD, (v. 2) And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears, (v. 3) But with righteousness shall he judge the poor…. (v. 4)
In our last post, I mentioned that although all the seven-fold attributes of the Spirit in these verses are inextricably entwined, the fear of the Lord seems to be a gateway into the other parts. One of the signs of having the fear of the Lord is that we trust and believe Him. I said that this trust becomes greater as we grow in the knowledge of Him.
I believe that the “spirit of knowledge” is primarily about knowing Him. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers starts with, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened…” (Ephesians 1:17, 18).
Knowing Him means we understand His character — that He is completely trustworthy and good in all He says and does. He never makes empty promises to us. When we know Him, our understanding becomes enlightened. It expands. We saw last time that Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” but it goes on to say, “and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
The spirit of knowledge starts with knowing the Lord Himself, but as we pursue knowing Him, we come into knowing things He imparts to us, too. Take a look again at Ephesians 1:17, 18. Besides knowledge of the Lord, it also mentions the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. So, we’ve got wisdom, understanding, and knowledge all working together. (Remember we said that the attributes of the seven-fold Spirit are all intertwined?)
The spirit of counsel is also tied in closely with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. When we have knowledge of the Lord, we can more easily hear what He wants to say. The Holy Spirit counsels (guides) us. He counsels us with knowledge we could not have on our own (the word of knowledge, mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8). And, He gives us the word of wisdom (also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8) to counsel others. This involves the anointing to speak a word to someone at the right moment on the Lord’s behalf. “The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned [that’s knowledge], so that I would know how to speak a word in season [that’s wisdom] to him who is weary. He wakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back” (Isaiah 50:4, 5).
Isaiah 50:4, 5 was originally prophesied about the coming Messiah, just like our verses from Isaiah 11 were, but as we have already said, because we now have the Holy Spirit, these things are ours to partake of as well. Jesus said the Spirit would glorify Him by receiving what belonged to Jesus and showing it to us, too (John 16:14, 15).
After listing the attributes the Holy Spirit imparts to us, Isaiah 11:3, 4 says, “He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge….” Wisdom, understanding, counsel, and the knowledge of the Lord all help us to discern on a higher level. We are no longer solely dependent upon what our natural, physical senses tell us about people and situations around us. In fact, the Lord wants us to look beyond the physically obvious to what He sees. We are able to do this because the Holy Spirit enables us.
The apostle Paul refers to these things as mysteries given to us by God. He says in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 that it is “not the wisdom of this world” (verse 6). Verse 7 adds, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,” which the people of this world cannot know (verse 8). “But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things — yes, the deep things of God” (verse 10).
He goes on to tell us that these spiritual gifts are “freely given to us” by Him (verse 12), but the natural-minded person cannot receive them or know them, “because they are spiritually discerned” (verse 14). “But he who is spiritual judges [discerns] all things… (verse 15), because “we have the mind of Christ” (verse 16).
Many believers are not tapping into spiritual discernment these days. Too many of us operate on the same level as nonbelievers in how we perceive the world around us. But this is not God’s intent. He wants us to understand freely the “hidden wisdom” which only the Holy Spirit can impart. We can have it by pursuing Him for the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge. I encourage you to meditate on 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. Read it together with Isaiah 11:2-4 and Ephesians 1:17, 18. As you do, you will learn how you can live more strongly in the manifestations of the Spirit.
Next time, we’ll wrap up this series by talking about the “spirit of might.”
Recently, I found myself thanking God for keeping me steadfast in what He had told me through the years. I had been reflecting back on times as a young, single person, when I knew I had clearly received a word from the Lord about an aspect of my future, and yet the opposition to those things ever happening had been stiff.
Time and again, the pattern had been that God spoke, and then continued to speak over a period of time, to confirm what He had originally said. These promises concerned big areas of my future. Many times, there were no encouraging signs to the natural eye that they would ever take place. Well-meaning Christians — even mature believers — tried to tell me gently that what I was believing for was never going to happen, and that I should look for something else.
But I had a word from the Lord….
Their advice against what I knew I was hearing messed with my head pretty badly. I was aware that every believer can miss God’s will, due to wanting something too much from a human perspective. I knew it was important to honor and receive the counsel of others — especially my pastors. So, I tried to believe them and comply with what they said. But in my spirit I was so torn up and devastated in thinking I could have heard God so poorly. In my confusion, I had more faith in other people’s ability to hear Him speak on my behalf than I did in being able to hear Him for myself.
In the middle of the turmoil, the Lord carried me while I sorted it all out. He faithfully spoke again to reaffirm His word to me: “You know what I have said. Keep believing.” At times, He was very gentle, while at others, especially as I matured, He was far more firm in letting me know that I must not waffle on what I knew to be true. Whether firm or gentle, His voice brought peace to my heart.
So, I would go on quietly, believing in spite of how things looked, and in spite of what I had been advised. It was hard! I displeased leaders with my personal decisions once or twice. But God was faithful. He vindicated the promises He had given me in the end.
This is the way it has been for many people who have followed God’s heart for their lives. I love Gladys Aylward’s story, because she overcame the nay-saying of well-meaning leaders who told her she didn’t have the right stuff to be a missionary. She left everything behind to become a powerful force for the gospel in China. It was an uphill battle for her, but she fulfilled the call God had placed on her life. There are probably countless others who have also had to “buck the system” in order to follow the Lord.
I know that writing these things could be dangerous for some — because we do need to listen to wise counsel. I have known unstable people who didn’t, and they shipwrecked their lives because of it. But we also need to hear God for ourselves, especially when He keeps speaking and reassuring us about where we are to go or what we are to do. It is a delicate balance — one which we should seek God about repeatedly.
If the direction is truly coming from Him, He will continue to speak and lead, and He will eventually make things fall into place. We must make sure we lay our deep desires on the altar for Him to take away if He wishes. I would truly want Him to take them away, if they weren’t from Him, wouldn’t you?
We also need to stay in balance through refreshing ourselves in His Word, in prayer, and by staying connected to a local gathering of believers. It is essential to be humble, being willing to find out we were wrong. These things will keep us from getting off on a wrong path. ___________________________________
Encouragement from God’s Word (Topical Bible verses to comfort you and increase your faith in God’s goodness toward you)
Out of the Fire 