I had to respond to a question from an apostolic associate in our ministry family in another nation. I needed to correct the notion that there was only one prophet or major prophet at a time in the Old Testament and perhaps the New. Also address the question of where were the prophets in light of warning about the pandemic and why were they not correct in light of the US 2020 Presidential election
The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:9 “for we know in part and we prophesy in part”. This was also the case in the Old Testament, where prophets would get a piece of the story or a part of the heart of God and speak it out or write it and present it to the people.
Amos 3:7 surely the Lord God does nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.
It says here that the servants and the prophets are plural. While it often appears that one servant or prophet is being dealt with in the Bible, or one takes a major role, often this is the case because the narrative centers on that one individual.
The book of Acts centers on the apostle Peter for almost the first half of the book, and upon the life of the apostle Paul for the remainder of the book. That does not mean that Peter disappeared after Acts 15, or that they were the only two apostles functioning in the early days of the church, it just means that the narrative that Luke wrote centered first, on the ministry of Peter, and then on the ministry of Paul the apostle.
Likewise, in the Old Testament many of the narratives center on one prophet at a time, this does not mean there was only one prophet functioning or one prophet available. For instance, much of the book of 1 Kings centers around the ministry of the prophet Elijah. This is what the Holy Spirit centered on, and there’s much biblical reason for that, that I will not go into here. However, one would be mistaken to imply that he was the only prophet, or one of only a few prophets. In 1 Kings 18:13 we learn that Queen Jezebel was responsible for killing the prophets of the Lord, we don’t know how many she killed but it was many. According to this verse Obadiah hid 100 prophets and fed them to keep them safe from her evil murderous plans. So that’s at least 101 prophets still functioning at that time of extreme persecution. We don’t know how many there were before the persecution began but it’s evident that there were many more than that. And after Elijah came off the mountain he called Elisha into ministry, and there were many sons of the prophets that he was also training up into the prophet ministry. Elisha also followed his example and raised up other prophets, and both Elijah and Elisha were following in the example of Samuel who set up the first school of the prophets, to raise up prophets and train them properly.
There are different kinds of prophets listed in the Old Testament. 1 Chronicles 29:29 contains the Hebrew words for all three of these types of prophets found in the Old Testament. “Now the acts of King David, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Samuel the seer (raah), in the book of Nathan the prophet (nabiy), and in the book of Gad the seer (chozeh)”.
We know of Samuel, and Nathan, as prophets we don’t have any of Nathan’s writings, likewise we don’t know a lot about Gad except what is written in 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. But clearly all these prophets were functioning at the same time and ministering to David. David also was a prophet, and it’s certain there were others alive at that time.
Ezekiel and Daniel were contemporaries as were Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi probably overlapped with them a bit, and Anna the prophetess came after Malachi during a time when there were few prophets (many writers and Bible commentators say there were none between Malachi and John, totally ignoring Anna the prophetess). Before that there were Amos, Hosea Isaiah and Micah who came in that order but overlapped in ministry. Zephaniah, Jeremiah and Nahum were also contemporaries. Micaiah, Oded, and Huldah (prophetess) are all listed as prophets in the Bible but have not books names after their writings.
Now back to the three different kinds of prophets in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word raah is translated seer, meaning someone who sees open visions. That is the same word used for someone who sees with the natural eyes.
Then there is the chozeh type of prophet. This word emphasizes spiritual apprehension of internal visions.
The Hebrew word nabiy is the most common Biblical word used for a prophet in the Old Testament. It means someone who has the spirit working within them. It is a word for inspiration, every prophet receives this type of inspiration in the New Testament and all believers can and should operate at this level at least in its elementary level. Every prophet will be a nabiy, but not every prophet will be a raah or a chozeh type of prophet.
When Moses said, “Oh that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” in Numbers 11:29, he used the word nabiy, someone who speaks by inspiration. He could not know at the time that the Lord was going to bring this to pass on the day of Pentecost when God poured out his spirit for all His people.
On that day Peter prophesied in Acts 2:16-18 “but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, 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. and on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.”
On the day of Pentecost after Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father and gave the gift of holy spirit, every Christian has the ability to rise up to the level of an Old Testament nabiy prophet. 1 Corinthians 14:26 says “you can all prophesy”.1 Corinthians 14:31 says “you all may prophesy”, the Wuest translation of the New Testament says it this way, “for you all can function thus as a prophet one by one”. Verse 32 says “and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” In other words, not all New Testament believers are a prophet on the level of Ephesians 4 gift ministry of a prophet, but believers have the ability to rise to the level of a nabiy prophet. In fact, the New Testament believer is called to function as a prophet, priest and king before the Lord. This does not mean every Christian rises to this level, just as not every Christian becomes a disciple of the Lord Jesus, but it is a calling, and that implies it is possible for every Christian to attain.
In the Old Testament there were non-prophets who had dreams or visions (even non-believers), and it’s more common now as Peter prophesied from the book of Joel. Just as in the Old Testament not everyone that has a dream or a vision is a prophet in light of a fivefold level prophet. But Jesus has made some people prophets to the body of Christ by giving their lives as a ministry to serve under Him our Prophet, to the people, representing Him. It appears that the raah type and chozeh type of prophet are reserved for the fivefold ministry level of a prophet.
One thing I think needs to be emphasized, is to know the fruit of the prophet. Jesus said when it comes to prophets, “you will know by their fruit”.
Matthew 7:16 “you will know them by their fruits … 18 a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”
The Bible says in 1 Samuel 3:19 “so Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.”
Samuel was a prophet you could trust – his words came to pass. Isaiah was a prophet you could trust, but some of his words didn’t come to pass for centuries. And in the case of his word to Hezekiah, Hezekiah influenced God to change that word through his prayer.
I think it’s important that we know the fruit, and the accuracy of the prophet so that we can trust it or possibly, as I like to say, put the word on a shelf and see if it is confirmed by the Lord – inspect the fruit.
In Acts 21:10, 11 the prophet Agabus prophesied that the Jews would bind the apostle Paul and deliver him to the hand of the Gentiles. While Agabus was a trusted and true prophet in the New Testament, this word did not literally come to pass. It had to be interpreted figuratively, or allegorically because the Jews didn’t actually bind Paul, the Romans did. However, it was a true word because it was by the insistence and influence of the Jews that Paul was bound. So the word was a true word but not a literal word. Agabus was a true prophet, but the word was not literally carried out, but Paul had the word of the Lord nevertheless, which is the purpose of God revealing the secrets to the apostle Paul, as well as to the believers who heard the word and would be praying for him.
In Acts chapter 11 a number of prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them was Agabus who prophesied that there would be a famine sometime in the future. He did not say when, Luke tells us that it came in the days of Claudius Caesar, which was sometime in the future. But the believers took action on that word immediately, and they prospered and they helped others to prosper because of that action.
Again, I think it’s important that we know those who labor among us, 1 Thessalonians 5:12.
I personally felt like the Lord gave me 2 Chronicles 20:20 for the year 2020, inferring that it would help us have 20/20 spiritual vision. I remember when the pandemic was beginning to affect the world, I asked the Lord if that verse was valid since I didn’t at that moment remember any warning about a virus or a pandemic.
The Lord posed a question to me “What did you give away in the first weeks of the pandemic?” I answered, quite a number of things, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes, PPE, masks, even ammunition, among other things. He then asked me “how could you give those things away as they were priceless?” I knew what He meant, that they were priceless because they were unavailable, you couldn’t get them at any price because they weren’t in the stores. But the answer to His question was that I had them because I listened to the words of the prophets who said there was a pandemic that would come on the world. They did not say would come in 2020, but they said it would come, so I paid attention and I took action, then I forgot about it because I didn’t need to remember it until it actually came.
One of those who prophesied a pandemic, often calling it a bird flu, was Rick Joyner, someone that I look to as a prophet. He does not consider himself a prophet, but I consider him one, and I listen to him as such and receive the benefit of doing so (Matthew 10:41). Not only to what he says, but also to what he writes. And he had said, and written, numerous times that there would be a flu or a virus that would be a pandemic that would affect the world at some point. I know him as someone I labor with, meaning I trust him and so, therefore, I acted upon his word. There may have been others that confirmed that word, but I don’t even remember all of who they were. The point being, I prospered because I listen to the word of the prophet. And I had to give to those who had a need (Ephesians 4:28).
When it came to the election, similarly I tried to listen to all the prophets, many of whom I had not known of until that time period. I did not know their fruit. I tried to be open-minded and I certainly believed God’s will was for Donald Trump to be reelected. However, listening to proven prophets, such as Rick Joyner, Lance Wallnau, (who accuratly prophesied Donald Trump as the next president in 2015), and Paul Keith Davis, for instance. I took note that none of them had prophesied Donald Trump winning the 2020 election, but just that we needed to do everything possible to get him elected, and also that they believed he could be reelected and that it was God’s will. Lance had a vision of Kamala Harris ascending into power at the White House. He did not want to see that happen, and asked people to pray that it would not happen, we are still praying that it will not happen, but it seems more likely that it might? Lord help us keep this from occurring.
Lance also wrote in his newest book God’s Chaos Code ©2020 page 70-71
[T]he children of this age… have plans, schemes, and ambitions to conquer the world. In America, the ambitious leftists can almost taste it. They have every ring but one – the ring of ultimate power. They came so close … in 2016. They have manifested like denizens of hell ever since. They must have this ring to complete their conquest, and it is on the hand of Donald Trump. They must have Trump’s executive office. The power of the ring speaks to both sides of the aisle. Democrats want the power, and Washington Republicans want to return to the status quo.
The role Donald Trump seeks for America is that of an independent nation, supporting a global community of independent nations. The election looks increasingly like it will not be decided on November 3, as some rogue states are counting mail – in ballots as long as they are postmarked by midnight on election night. This means it could be a Trump landslide on election day, and then – surprise, surprise – ballots begin to arrive, postmarked November 3, 2020, with time stamps of 9:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m., or even 11:59 p.m. We could see within days that landslides turn into a margin, then potentially a Trump defeat. That scenario doesn’t even include the normal illegal ballots, ballot harvesting, and voter irregularities. The key indicator is going to be major networks like Fox, AP, and even Facebook not declaring a winner on election night. If that doesn’t happen, the election results will be contested, and the debate could last not just weeks but months. This uncertainty will unleash the street units of the Democratic Party – Antifa, BLM, and 100 other funded operations-into open assault on America. It may be that the Supreme Court will end up appointing Trump as president during a period of unparalleled national chaos. This Trump victory won’t stop the insanity; it will only serve to escalate the distress all the more.”
Lancer never said this was prophecy, but I kept it in mind and watched for the fruit. It has fruit and anyone who will consider where we are now that the Socialist Left, for the time bing, has the “ring of power”. Pay attention and you should prosper under the circumstances as 2 Chronicles 20:20 states.
At any rate, I kept these things in mind even as I listen to the other prophets, many of whom I did not know if they had a track record for accuracy.
Likewise, we should listen to God for our own selves. In the New Testament no prophet should take the place of the Holy Spirit in a believer. In the Old Testament most believers did not have the spirit on them, and they were much more dependent upon the prophets to speak the word to them.
In my case I had a word from the Lord which he gave me in a dream in the Spring of 2020. You can read that word HERE. One thing I have learned is that I have to revisit this word and explain it more clearly, because it appears not everyone understands what George Orwell’s 1984 represents. However, it does appear that currently we find ourselves in a position where both of the things mentioned in my dream have occurred. President Trump did win reelection on the scale of the 1984 election when Ronald Reagan won reelection against a democratic socialist with a woman running mate. The 2020 election was robbed from President Trump and the American people. Immediately after the theft we saw the type of tyrannical dystopian power exercising authority and re-writing history, that we see projected in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. This is where we get the word “Orwellian” from, and currently we are experiencing it just as was implied in the dream.
So, it does seem that the Lord gave me a warning that it could go either way (or both ways?). I kept this in mind even as I did battle in the spiritual realm, as well as in the natural politically, to see that Donald Trump received reelection and we could continue to receive God’s mercy through that.
The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:29 that we should judge prophecies. This is something the body of Christ needs to get better at doing. While we can use the spiritual discernment that the Lord has given us when a word is given, it’s most important for us to judge words after they are given, as Jesus said, “what is the fruit?”
The Old Testament gives us some guidelines to add to what I have already mentioned when it comes to judging prophets and prophecy.
Deuteronomy 18:22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
What this is saying is that if a person speaks as a prophet, and their prophecy does not come to pass, we should not be afraid of them, or take them as seriously in the future. Clearly this is not speaking of a case such as Hezekiah praying for the word of the prophet to be changed, or the city of Nineveh who prayed for the word of the prophet Jonah to be changed. Rather in the case of the word that was expected to be fulfilled but was not. I think this often happens with young prophets, or unproven prophets who still are growing in their gift, still need mentoring, or functioning without any spiritual input or covering from more mature prophetic leadership.
There was one prophet who had prophesied that Donald Trump would win the 2020 election who expressed that he had missed it even before it was decided at the federal level. I thanked him for being humble, but also expressed that I thought it was premature to do so – at least until the other candidate was sworn in. I expressed that if he did not have faith in his own word until the very end, why should any one else be expected to in the future.
Here is another one that may have application – Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophecy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love it so. But what will you do in the end? I have personally been applying this not so much to the prophets in the church, but the “prophets” of the media. There is so much unreliable “conspiracy” and “I have it from a very reliable source” type of information being passed about, and this is in part because “my people love it so.”
It is one thing to ask God for something and expect God to deliver and believe Him to do so. It is quite another to spend so much time and effort trying to figure out how He might bring it to pass. The “how” is up to Him and unless He tells us, we do not know, and spending so much time running after possible avenues and methods opens us up to what Isaiah (Isaiah 8:12) warned about conspiracies and what Paul warned us about chasing every wind (Ephesians 4:14). This tends to distract us from actually praying and relying upon the Lord, brings disappointment and destroys hope – which in turn damages our faith (Hebrews 11:1).
Next there is what is spoken of in Ezekiel 14:4 – “every one of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to a prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols.” In other words, if we have idols in our heart that we put before the Lord, and we refuse to repent, the Lord will have prophets prophesy according to those idols, and eventually we will have disappointment.
Then there is the one you often hear quoted by New Testament teachers, pastors, and critics of the prophetic.
Deuteronomy 18:20 but the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.
After the election seemed to have been settled on January 6, a pastor-teacher friend of mine referred to this verse, saying that anyone who prophesied Donald Trump as the winner would have been stoned in the Old Testament. However, this is not the case unless they were prophesying in the name of a different God, or leading God’s people to worship other gods. I did not see that happening. Interestingly, after saying this he himself admitted that he had spoken many times to the church that he expected Donald Trump to be reelected because of many reasons which he had shared with them. I recognize that he did not mention what is written in the book of James 3:1 “my brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” Were he to apply the same standard to himself, then, he would have to have something worse than a stoning happen to him. I believe as a teacher he should have taken note that there is a difference between someone giving a word, and someone giving a word which leads the people of God to worship other gods, just as a teacher who needs to adapt his teaching, and maybe even apologize or repent, is different than a teacher who teaches false doctrine and causes the people of God to follow after other gods or to stumble in their faith.
Those who prophesied that Donald Trump would be reelected, were correct, but in accordance with John 10:10, the thief came and stole that win. Those who prophesied Donald Trump would be reelected and would serve four full years, clearly have not been proven correct. Is it possible that Donald Trump who was reelected on election night according to the law and confirmed by the Supreme Court, (U.S. Supreme Court 1997 Foster v. Love 9-0 decision, expressed that election day means election day, ballot counting stops with ballots cast by midnight on election day also United States Constitution, Article Two, clause 4) perhaps he could be reinstated as the rightful president? While this is highly unlikely, and has never happened in our history, God can interact in the affairs of men and certainly we are at a juncture in our lives where we need Him to do so.
When Absalom rebelled against King David, and usurped the kingdom, he was ruling, and David was in exile, as in our situation, this had never happened in the history of Israel, but God allowed David to recover what the thief had taken. Is it possible that we could receive God’s help to turn the current Orwellian 1984 back to the “election of 1984″? I don’t know, but just as the three Hebrew children said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “Our God is able, and even if He does not, He is still able.”
1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not despise prophecies.
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Lloyd Phillips
flintnet.org
January 29, 2020