Something To Know About Yearly
Prophecies
1 Thessalonians 5:19-23
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophecies.
Test all things; hold fast what is good.
Abstain from every form of evil.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely;
and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is an ungodly trend intruding into the churches and
Christians these days. Most of us have encountered, read or heard
some yearly prophecies preached, shared or expounded in emails,
church services, TV programs or podcasts, digital media, audio or
video, or plain texts downloaded through the internet.
As the time goes by, I cannot help but get the impression that
there is almost no difference between going to these “prophets” to
get insights for the current year and searching answers from pagan
fortune-tellers and palm readers. These yearly prophecies
interestingly bear a staggering resemblance to the horoscope columns
in our daily newspapers. They are also similar to fortune-telling
and palm-reading. Foretelling and predicting what is going to happen
for a nation, a church, a people group or the whole world. This
scope of prophetic prediction is in principle identical with the
practice of divination which is not permissible by God.
Why do people go and get prophetic insights on a yearly basis?
Simply because they are not seeking God on a daily basis! They are
fearful of the unknown. This is then masked and disguised with spiritual dressings
and cover-ups by doing some religious or Christian actions and going to these “prophets”
to get a reading.
Doing all these motions and programs just to calm all their fears of
the unknown future by their unbelief and lack of trust in God!
Matthew 6:32-34
For after all these things the Gentiles seek.
For your heavenly
Father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things shall
be added to you.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow,
for tomorrow
will worry about its own things.
Sufficient for the day is its own
trouble.
We should not behave like the unbelievers! We must trust and obey
God day by day. We should give our entire attention to what God is
doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not
happen tomorrow. God will help us deal with whatever difficult
things may come up when the time comes. We should not worry about
our tomorrows!
When we begin to pray and take a closer look at these yearly
prophecies, our eyes and hearts will be opened to see and realize
how deceived we have been all these years!
What are these yearly prophecies based on? The Word of God? The
Holy Spirit? Or just some human insights, formulas, misinformation,
make-beliefs or plain superstitions? Is there a secret agenda to
promote a ministry or
get money? What are the life testimony and integrity of these “prophets”?
How sound are
their teachings? What language do they use? Are they self-promoting?
Boastful? Irresponsible? Overbearing? Abusive? Money-focused? Are
they able
and humble enough to admit their wrongs when their prophetic predictions do not come
to pass? The sad truth is this: Many of these prophetic predictions do
not come to pass! And the sadder truth is this: Most of these
"prophets" do not apologize for their wrong predictions, but move on
to make more predictions!
These yearly prophecies and predictions are problematic for a few
reasons.
Firstly, a prophecy or prediction for the coming year may not be for
the whole nation or church, but just for a few individuals. It may
be just for the prophets or prophetesses themselves! Unfortunately,
many are so anxious and eager to prophesy that they believe that
whatever they feel in their spirits are for everyone! But this is
not true! Prophecies are not like that! A dream or
vision is not meant for everyone, or to be shared with everyone.
People need to take care with what and how they pronounce or
proclaim anything to anyone. The sad story is this: Those who aren't true
prophets generally don't.
Many of us have Itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3-4). We will not endure
sound doctrine, but according to our own desires, we will heap up
for ourselves teachers; and we will turn our ears away from the
truth, and be turned aside to fables. Always seeking new
revelations, dreams and visions but never work on those already
being revealed, interpreted and envisioned. Always wandering from
one church to another church; one teacher to another teacher; and
one prophet to another prophet.
Some of us have spiritual ears, and we are hearing God and what the
Spirit is saying to us! The Book of Revelation is a book containing
the seven letters to the seven churches.
In Revelation 1:11, the LORD spoke
this to John, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the
seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to
Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."
This one book was sent to the seven churches. Each of the seven
churches received the book containing all the seven letters. Besides
their own letters, they got to read the contents of the letters to
the other churches too. Each of the seven messages, exhortations,
rebukes and rewards were different in each of the seven churches.
Which one of the seven messages is for you, and which one is for me?
Some of the prophetic words are for the general public; some of the
prophetic words are for a targeted audience; and some of the
prophetic words are for just one particular individual. We need to
hear what the Spirit is saying to us and also to others. This is for
us to love one another through upholding each other in prayers and
words of encouragement, edification and exhortation. The best way to
learn is through the mistakes of others so that we will not commit
them ourselves! Some mistakes are best not to be committed. The
pains and after-effects may be prolonged, intense and extensive.
Secondly, the main purpose of Christian prophecy is not for telling
the future events. They are used for the edification and the
equipping of the Christians for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in
righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly
equipped for every good work.
However, these "prophets" today have made it an annual business of
coming up with a yearly prophecy list. In their minds and hearts,
they believe that they are called to be a prophet not just for a
church or a nation but all nations on a worldwide scale! They are expected to
predict every year at a certain time and come up with a prophetic
utterance for the future. But God does not operate that way.
Definitely not on a yearly basis! And definitely not based on a secular Julian
calendar! He doesn't and He won’t! There is no scriptural foundation for
it.
God's plans do not change from year to year on a yearly basis.
However, God's divine plan for us to become more like His Son is
continual from glory to glory, from faith to faith, and from
strength to strength!
The full and final revelation of God is Jesus Christ. The Book of
Revelation is about One Revelation and not Many Revelations. The
Revelation of Jesus Christ and not the revelations of angels, Satan,
demons, the false prophet and the antichrist. Let’s get excited
about Him and not them.
Revelation 1:1-2
The Revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave Him to show His servants—
things which must shortly take place.
And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John,
who bore witness to the word of God,
and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
Many Christians are thrilled by all these yearly prophetic insights and
predictions but they are not thrilled by Jesus! Many are not
spending time with the Lord in quiet times, prayer, praise and
worship! Many are not reading their Bibles!
Thirdly, many of these "prophets" do not know the true desire of God's
heart! God
desires that all of His people were prophets! All of us are
responsible for seeking God and for teaching others to do the same.
Numbers 11:29
But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake?
I wish that all the
LORD's people were prophets
and that the LORD would put his Spirit
on them!"
Prophets hear directly from God and become His mouthpiece as they
speak forth His Word to the people concerned. Prophets are not those
who chase after the prophecies of others, nor are they constantly
seeking after other prophets.
True prophets seek God! They can be in the company of other prophets
as they seek God together. They are sensitive to hearing the voice
of the Lord through reading the Word, prayer and intercession,
praise and worship, dreams and visions, and times of intimate
walking and talking with the Lord along the paths of life.
The Apostle Paul gave us this exhortation in 1 Corinthians 14:1, 39-40:
Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts,
but especially that you may
prophesy…
Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy,
and do
not forbid to speak with tongues.
Let all things be done decently
and in order.
All children of God are encouraged to prophesy. We are to seek
earnestly this spiritual gift. God desires to give it to us! But we
must ask Him for it! We have not because we ask not!
This art of hearing God requires an undivided heart so that we can
give Him full attention when He speaks to us. God is always speaking
to us. But the problem is that we are not hearing Him.
As prophets, we must have integrity, truthfulness, accountability and
responsibility. Most of these yearly prophecies lack all these four godly
qualities and values. As a result, the Church as a whole suffers a great backlash.
The people of the world begin to discredit and despise Christians!
In doing so, we lose our voice and cease to be living epistles!
Because we are prophetically irresponsible, we have invoked and
provoked people to despise the true gift of prophecy.
But praise be to God that He is raising up a prophetic people who
will hear Him directly. He is fine-tuning us with His Word and His
Spirit. Unless we know the Word of God, we will not be able to test
any word of prophecy with His Word. We also may not give a word
ourselves according to His Word. Unless we have the Holy Spirit in
us, we will not be able to discern false prophets and spirits. We
also will not be able to test our own spirit operating in us when we
give the prophetic word. We can easily deceive our own selves.
Lastly, many of these "prophets" are not living epistles. They are not
real, almost disconnected from true life reality and the needs of the
people.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged this Wednesday
(23 January 2013), a day after he won a narrow election victory that
Israel's new government will prioritize domestic socio-economic
issues.
"The Israeli public wants me... to put together a government which
will include three big changes internally: a greater sharing of the
burden (of military service), affordable housing and changes in the
system of government," he said in a brief broadcast address. "We
will focus... on putting together a government along these three
principles."
We have a lot to learn from this! The people desire a government
that will take care of their physical needs more than fighting wars here and
there!
This is what the Lord desires us to be. Not just be prophetic only but
also having true passion for Him and great compassion for others!
James 1:27
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:
to
visit orphans and widows in their trouble,
and to keep oneself
unspotted from the world.
God is perfecting His prophetic people who will live the life
according to His Word. We will trust and obey Him. Every prophetic
word from Him is proclaimed and faithfully carried out. No halfway
abandonment for comfort and no giving up for the lack of faith and
strength. The LORD Who gives us the prophetic word is faithful, He
also will do it. He will bring it to pass! Every word that He sent
will fulfill His purpose!
Written on 25 January 2013