Chapter 7: When They Tell The Prophets Not To Prophesy!

^9a “That this is a rebellious people …
¹⁰ Who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’
And to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us right things;
Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits….’”
Isaiah 30:9a-10

The Flesh’s Last Stand Against the Spirit

The Lord asked me one day if I wanted to be his prophet and I said OK. He said the price would be high, but I wasn’t put off. Soon he asked me to join a modern, trendy international church in Hong Kong which was the exact kind of place professionals and ex-patriots like me would join anyway. It was a fun, modern, wealthy church but God saw that it was beginning to go astray. Man’s motives, man’s ways, man’s desires, and a leadership that were very insulated from scrutiny or transparency kept them from ever receiving God’s course corrections—the more off course they got the less open they were to correction, and the more serious the problems became the more serious were the prophetic words.

The church was run actually just like a small, private company but with a religious purpose. I didn’t see this until the day I left, but God sees everything. God was persistent to help lead them into freedom from their increasing bondage to Satan’s schemes, but it seemed the more God spoke to expose their carnal thinking, the more insistent they were to follow it.

And I was just learning so I didn’t have a lot of confidence and assumed the best way to present God’s word to them was through humility, honestly and purity. But some people need you to shout and use harsh words before they listen. But I was not prepared to do that and now feel my respectful but honest prophesying played into their ploy for passive control. But I learned more in those few years than I could write ten books on.

Afterwards God asked me to train the prophets and since I learned by walking that walk, by personal help from the Holy Spirit on a day-to-day basis, by being taught by God, I didn’t see how people could be trained in a classroom to do that but God had a plan and yes, people can be trained to be prophets—as long as you remove Man’s ways from your thinking and training first. With God all things are possible!

But it was pretty hard on me and my family which I explain in more detail in my other recent book 8+Splash but I obviously can’t share all that here again! I only want to overview the highlights which give the best learning of what it can be like to be used by God as a prophet sent to people who refuse to listen.

A Church Built on Sand

Shortly after God asked me if I wanted to be his prophet I had a dream of a church built on a beach but all they had done so far was to build a nice, full concrete basement foundation in the sand. The leaders were down inside of the basement but were no longer connected to the youth, who were the next generation of builders and were the ones who were upstairs building the next level themselves on their own—as the leaders had become completely separated from them! Second, I also saw the leaders did not value the church people God had sent them, which I saw as large sacks of seashells, some which were common but others I recognized were very special and valuable. All the people were being treated with a kind of careless disregard in the vision, and there was even some inappropriate, worldly and sexual joking over them. So the youth were busy building but they had no oversight, no training and were using the wrong materials, wrong tools, and what they were building was totally useless—what they were doing was also quite dangerous! You can’t build a staircase from the top down! But they were trying!

I recognized some of the people in the dream so I made an appointment with the Australian co-pastor of that church and shared it and felt they were open to hearing God’s insight. Good! I would be! I hope I would be. But that pastor I spoke to I think just filed my prophetic word away under … the sink. And as it emerged later this was a pattern they had of totally ignoring God’s direction to their leadership no matter who it came from.

We even went there a few times for prophetic ministry from visiting prophets and soon the Lord asked us to submit under the British co-pastor and make that our main church. I felt like we were home, and God even said that, but also the verse came to mind that a prophet is not without honor except in his own home. Would this matter to me? I hoped not.

Early Warning Signs

I was just learning and felt a little unsteady, and nevertheless when the Lord asked us to join that church I put my whole heart into it and just did whatever I could to both serve and fit in. We soon ran the Filipino ministry and helped with the intercession group and attended every event or program they held without fail.

Three things I’ll mention first: the next meaningful vision I saw was that all the gates of provision to me were closed shut. The amount of money tricking down to me was less than one person could live on and this situation went on for a long time—until a HUGE wave of money that must have been in the multiple millions was released to me. We had been making Christian magazines and printed first issues of three of them but could not distribute them or find cooperation in the city in any way. We had been living by faith and it was very hard. People said we only joined this church to get support, which is a strange accusation to make. Where else are missionaries and ministers supposed to go to find support? But honestly that’s not why we went there and anyway the gates of provision were shut to us and it was so very hard on our family actually.

Second, we started hearing people say you were not supposed to give prophecy if it was ‘negative’ because God only spoke encouraging, ‘positive’ words—the presumption being that a ‘negative’ word is not from God. But how can it be ‘negative’ to tell someone to stop smoking? How is it negative to warn someone, ‘You’re going to crash your car if you drive fast with your eyes closed’ … Do you see? God’s correction is not ‘negative’ but life if you obey it. This doctrine seemed innocent enough at first, but proved to be a choice tool used by the Flesh to maintain control and keep God away. The final results were catastrophic.

As a self-proclaimed ‘prophetic church’ and with so many people gifted in prophecy and operating in various public ministries across the city and region it was somewhat odd that they still never recognized anyone anywhere as an actual prophet or an apostle either. This is what we used to call being a Three-Fold church, where the real roles of God’s order were missing. Likewise an early word God gave me there was “All the pieces needed were present, only they were not in the right order.” So despite all the right people with all the right abilities, talents and callings already being there, and claiming to be a ‘prophetic’ church led by the Holy Spirit, they we were still mostly operating in what amounted to a spirit-filled version of man’s church, run by Man’s Ways.

Testing the Word apart from the Vessel

My prophetic words gradually began to increase and I soon realized the church was actually beginning to get into real trouble. The words became more and more serious and I was now hearing other people share the same warnings, but most of these were never shared with the leadership, like there was some sort of disconnect.

One of the ministries we were a part of was the weekly intercession team who were meant to pray and prophecy and help protect and guide the church but I then heard the Lord say the intercessory prayer team themselves were also a part of the problem and that they were defending the very thing he wanted to remove!

People often make a clear distinction between ‘those who occasionally prophesy’ and separate from them are ‘the Prophets’ and in many ways that is a meaningful and valid distinction. But in other ways that’s simply bogus. We need to hear God’s word, regardless of who it comes through. Seasoned leaders can make mistakes and God can give the most important direction or revelation through a lowly, non-leadership-position holding, part-time janitorial staff new believer. God told me he has given some of his best direction this way. We do need to endorse people we vouch for as ministers, for public trust and accountability, but we cannot ever discount a prophetic word from God because the vessel it came through was not on paid staff or holding a leadership title in our church!

God wants us to discern his word, no matter who it comes through, and discern when a reputed ‘voice’ misses it. When people say they are just trying to filter the words to find the truth, but have no real evidence of any ongoing prophetic direction they are carefully following, this reveals to me they are actually just fearful of God giving them any prophetic direction at all. If you notice that ALL words God speaks are rejected, that every prophetic ‘voice’ is distrusted all the time, then there may be a much bigger problem going on than they are willing to admit.

Ample Confirmation Words from other ‘Voices’

Anyway … other prophetic ‘voices’ soon shared such visions with me as seeing one of the pastors sitting on a large chair, like a throne, and when he got up you could suddenly see many vivid green unclean spirits behind him controlling him.

Another person’s vision showed this same man betraying Christ’s disciples in the church to join the Pharisees to persecute them!

Yet another prophetess saw that same pastor counting money in the office and secretly putting a share aside for himself under the table into a bag and the Lord said one word, “Illegitimate.”

A fourth person I think, or it might have been one of the first three, but another vision not from me was that same pastor again in his office and there was a knock on the door and he opened it and many demons rushed into his office.

As far as I know none of these visions were ever shared with the leaders—regular people hearing God speak are nervous enough, let alone having to share things with or about the community leaders. One young prophetess, a young Chinese lady had so many words, nearly hundreds already by then, and you maybe don’t appreciate the post-colonial culture of Hong Kong with a huge power, gender and culture imbalance between young Chinese girls like her and the established, successful, wealthy and respected foreign, Western, male leaders like them. Yet God gave his word for them through her anyway. Did God not see these cultural and social barriers? No, he did! That’s maybe exactly why he gave his word through her! This becomes more clear when we understand their sin as God saw it—Pergamum—Having him give his word of correction to save them from shipwreck, and having it come through a person they would never in a million years listen to naturally, well, this may itself be a sign of God’s impending judgment, especially against their ‘natural’ carnal nature. But God was telling people in their own social and cultural groups his warning words for them too, and they were ignoring them as well.

At this time I had only shared a few words of direction, not yet any correction, and not yet any dire warnings. But one time when I shared with them a very mild word of direction they became hostile. First saying I simply don’t fit into their ‘DNA’ but instead am just ‘following Jesus’ like it was obviously a bad thing. They then openly accused me of ‘just trying to take over their church.’ I hadn’t even shared the word yet! And my ambitions to ‘take over’ were obvious, which is why I was so focused on ministering to the poor, overseas domestic helpers and war refugees! That’s where all the overly-ambitious people serve! I pointed this out, and my background, my Ph.D, my high training and yet my unwavering focus on spending all my time and focus helping serve ‘the least of these.’ I finally shared my very brief word that their planning was not God’s vision but ‘man’s view of their own progress’ and God had something special in store for them if they would stop pursuing their own plans and just seek him for his plans instead. But they ignored this word also.

Prophesy Smooth Things to Me!

Soon seeing they could not stop God talking to us and the growing swell of people who were also prophesying, they decided to change tack. Interesting that this was a self-proclaimed prophetic church and was where we had met so many local as well as international prophetic personalities who came to Hong Kong to minister, yet they were actually firmly against the prophetic ministry from ever being established in their midst.

So in addition to continuing to pressure us to quit, they also hosted a multi-week sermon series on the Prophetic Church—they could not stop what God was doing so it appeared they decided to join it. But actually I think it was just their way to reinforce their control over it. Typically a multi-week series was 2- or 4-weeks long. This was planned to be 8-weeks and on prophecy alone.

So I first felt maybe the church was finally coming to its senses! And I was excited for this program! I even hoped they would ask me to teach. The first week was really good and I told them so. They quoted all the common verses on prophecy that you do: Numbers 11:29, Amos 3:7, 2 Chronicles 20:20, I Corinthians 12 and 14, Revelations 19:10, etc., and I commended them on a good message afterwards. However eight weeks is a long time to talk on prophecy by people who don’t walk in the office of a prophet or lack a depth of personal experience about it, and don’t have a real heart for it either—so they soon ran out of good things to say … and then their real motives became plainly apparent.

Their messages became a lot of reasons why pastors need to be in control of prophets, and there was so much talk about authority. They made the point that most prophets are false especially when they have ‘negative’ words and also when they don’t support their leaders. Again it’s an issue of authority in the church and these people are just renegades and rebels and so the test of a false prophet is easy, it’s the people who don’t submit to leadership and don’t support their leaders—but also anyone who only has ‘negative’ things to say! These people are just trying to take over the church they said! Only this time instead of saying it to me privately they said it to the whole church in public while looking right at me! The pastors are the TRUE authority in the church and you must submit to them or else! A prophetic word should always be positive!! Otherwise it’s obviously false, especially again if it’s against a leader!

We Hold These Errors to be Self Evident

This is wrong on so many levels I don’t think I even have to explain it all, do I?! Jesus said the false prophets were flatterers and Jeremiah prophesied that the mark of a true prophet is that they are ones turning people from their sins! And telling people they will crash if they drive too fast with their eyes closed is not a ‘negative’ word, as I like to say, it’s life if you obey it!

And why is everything being couched within the framework of authority, power and who is ‘really’ in charge? Isn’t God in charge and don’t we submit one to another?

What we now might call being gas-lit, or enduring passive-aggressive hostility, it was hard to sit there with a straight face—these accusations were not truth, I was not rebelling or trying to take over their church as they accused. I was not lying, or giving false visions based in my own pride or imagination. I am not a false prophet! I was most often just praying for my own late rent and private matters of family stress and God would say, ‘Never mind about that. That’ll be taken care of. What I want to talk to you about is how many opportunities I’ve sent to that church which have passed them right by because they refuse to follow my Spirit leading them in the path I have chosen to bless them with.’ Things like that.

I was certainly never ‘digging for dirt’ in their lives and in our very unstable financial position I certainly did not want to rock the boat and alienate the very people who had so much power over our ability to get money to eat! But true to God’s word I was and true to his word I remain. If God asks me to say or do something, even if it hurts me, I will do it—God help me.

So I just sat there smiling as long as I could. But it became unbearable and I wondered why no one would interject and stop this obvious and unscriptural tirade against the prophetic ministry when the Lord spoke up in my defense. He simply said, “This is the flesh’s last stand against the Spirit.”

I felt like I was caught out in the middle, but it was actually not even about me at all!! Soon afterwards I saw Jesus as big as a tall building walking over to the church, removing the roof like it was the lid of a box, reaching in and puling handfuls of snakes from out of the church!

I’ll share only a few other key words here, and only briefly. If you want to get a more in-depth take, you can read 8+Splash or maybe what you are looking for is on-line on one of my sites. I refer to them as the Tree of Life Church but that’s not their real name, of course. I also changed the names of most everyone involved. ‘Do unto others’ and all that. I am teaching people what I learned about prophecy, not trying to ‘name and shame’ people, which would also be especially useless so long afterward. Let this be a lesson to us that never has to be repeated!

The Word to the Church in Pergamum, but briefly

The real problem we were facing was still unclear until that guest speaker come from Australia who said he had a prophetic word for our church. It was the Word to the Church in Pergamum from Revelations, he announced enthusiastically! And at first I was shocked that he would do such a thing as give such a serious rebuke to the church so casually!—even joyfully! But when he read the passage, HE OMITTED THE REBUKE! And just said that God was going to give us a white stone (acquittal) and a new name (forgiven). He had a small pouch with white pebbles in it, and every time he said ‘white stone’ he took one out, made a comment about forgiveness for sin, and dropped the pebble onto the floor. Then got another pebble, and another word of encouragement, and dropped it on the floor, and another pebble, and another word, and another one dropped on the floor—it was a cute gimmick, a real rehearsed stage performance. Prophecy is only to encourage people, don’t you know!? And if they are entertained at the same time it’s a bonus—two for one!

But leaving the meeting un-entertained, un-encouraged and unsatisfied God spoke to me and it stopped me cold in my steps. What he said in a very intense tone of voice was, “Oh, My Word for the Tree of Life IS Pergamum … and I’m SERIOUS.”

It took me six months to research and understand that word! And when I finished I gave a copy to one of the elders who was like me, an American and about my age, one of the people I saw in my first vision of that church in fact. So I assumed he would understand where I was coming from and how important it was, but when I gave it to him he refused to touch it. He first said I was not an elder, and only an elder can give another elder a prophetic word. This was never our doctrine but he still refused to even touch it. An ‘elder’ to him was not a mature person in the Lord, but merely someone who had been voted in to hold that title.

He then said it also sounded like it was an accusation, and I was not two witnesses, so he was required to refuse to hear the word as the Bible says you must only entertain an accusation against a leader if it is coming from two or more witnesses. He actually said that, adding, “Since you are not two witnesses I will disregard this word.” I used to be the lawyer, not him—he was a pilot, and this was both bogus logic, and a bogus application of scripture—but funny enough it was also the exact manifestation of Pergamum that the word itself was about! Uncanny! He tried to pull rank so I figured I needed to push back a little and give him some back, so I said very sternly, “Well, I don’t know about all that, but this word is from Jesus Christ, your boss, and you can do anything you want with it now; it’s his word to you. I’ve done my part.” And I left it with him and walked away.

Other Prophetic Warnings

And I don’t know if people were openly told not to give warnings to the leaders, it was more of a cordial protocol to discourage any ‘negativity’ maybe. Like a presumption of innocence, which as a reflection of proper civilized, polite company, where of course no one ought to go about slinging mud and pointing the finger—this could be considered a model of best practice of church etiquette—if it weren’t for the fact that God was constantly giving warnings, from so many unrelated people and for many years. One time this pastor heard the team of intercessors were discussing correction words amongst themselves that they were hearing from God and he outright threatened to shut down the entire intercession ministry altogether ‘if all they did’ was to criticize him. So they dropped all of that immediately and never shared one word of warning.

You see, the Bible says God is not mocked … if people refuse to hear his warnings, you may find God simply stops warning—and what will the results be? Success? Victory?—Absolutely not! Without His correction how could we hope to avoid shipwreck?

So do you see the real problem here? This doctrine of ‘no negative words’ and ‘never give me a warning’ is the expression of the carnal heart at odds with God. It is the Flesh fighting God for control which is the real source of this doctrine. God was trying to edify him, make him strong, purify him and keep him from sin and error but he rejected God’s word. Why? What possible justification can you make to refuse God trying to help you do a better job, to avoid sin and be successful in his service?

You want to be a pastor over God’s church but are too insecure and sensitive and so refuse to let Jesus talk to you about any important matters, especially his correction? What are you trying to hide?—Are they trying to hide something? Or just trying to hide from someone? Do people not realize God is the one speaking these words of correction? Or is it because they do? But just who do you think you work for, pastor? Don’t you know you will have to give an account for your service to him over his people? And when he tells you what he wants you to do to get his reward, it’s like getting the test answers before the quiz! Who wouldn’t want to know how God is going to critique us?

It’s simply baffling to me to act like this! But the explanation may be just as simple … it’s simply the natural ways of the Flesh.

So this was also when I heard God say something about the intercessors themselves which I shared above and that I didn’t understand for a long time saying the intercessors, including the leader, a lady I will mention in a few pages, Eunice, which is not her real name, but that they were DEFENDING the very thing God was trying to remove. But I couldn’t see how this could possibly be until the truth finally did come out.

Remove The Idol!

Later I heard God say that it was for the sin of Jeroboam that he was upset. But I had no idea what that could possibly mean! This referenced a time when after Solomon died and the Kingdom was split, and Jeroboam was the king who took 10 tribes and made idols in Bethel and Dan and competing religious feasts to prevent people’s loyalty from going back to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, which was under the control of his rival, Rehoboam, Solomon’s son. Jeroboam also set up a false priesthood of anyone who was loyal to him, not Levites or Cohen priests, but anyone could be a priest and a teacher serving these man-made idols.

I didn’t understand what Idol our church had made, and how were there priests, or ministers, but not ones God had ordained and who were teaching people wrongly and so leading them astray. I just needed to understand what this meant. But later God explained this too. The idol was the modern, trendy church’s own brand, its ‘DNA’ as they called it. God first showed me a vision of a huge idol platform, like the one they famously have in Hong Kong, but the big Buddha statue was missing and God said, “REMOVE The IDOL YOU WORSHIP or else …” and He made a very strong threat of judgment.

But he also showed me a giant gorilla! It was that church in God’s eyes, and its character was bestial and abusive. He said it was ‘church that is heavily geared towards marketing and media.’ Its left arm was a supporting tree trunk, firmly planted in the ground where its life, support and money were coming from—but its right arm had a boxing glove on its fist and it was POUNDING-POUNDING-POUNDING the very ground (the community of people) that was supporting it. It hurt my heart to see this sudden violence and I cried out, “God what can YOU do about this?” Suddenly … the supporting tree trunk arm was severed at the shoulder and the gorilla just keeled over and died! It then just … disappeared from the landscape—but then I saw two other tiny gorillas spring up on the landscape, obviously people from the Big Gorilla who would make their own ministries in the wake of its collapse, only these were small and had no boxing gloves on—but they were of the same nature, they had the same abusive beast-like character.

At first I did not see how these things were related, but it became more apparent over time as repeated warnings of idols, abusive control, healing people only ‘slightly’ and leadership unwilling to submit to the Holy Spirit continued to come out in many ways and through so many other people.

But how were the intercessors defending this? I later understood how much they had bought into this cordial, passive-aggressive spirit of control and instead of exposing it, as God was telling them and so many other people to do, they just did as they were told by the pastors and refused to entertain any correction or ‘negative’ words God was showing them. It’s incredible how blind seeing people can sometimes be!

Confirmation Withheld

I’ll have to share that there was one lady on the intercession team, which met early Sunday morning during first service, who was always chafing against me and after several years I finally stopped going to the intercession meetings altogether. This was when God began to tell me the church had reached a point of no return. I had given a serious word at a prayer meeting one Friday I called, “The Time Has Come To Be Holy” in which God said:

“The time has come to be holy as I am holy. The onslaught has come. It will destroy all Sand Castles, all things made on the sand. Things built by your imagination will not stand. People’s very salvations will be TESTED and many of my beloveds will fail; they will fall away.

“Now man’s work shall be tested. What have you built with? Wood, hay, straw? Or have you been wise enough to SEEK me for MY WISDOM, knowing your strength shall fail you in the day of battle—My strength does not fail. It is unconventional strength. It cannot fail because Love cannot fail—not even in the end times.

“Yes, things are now in motion that cannot be taken back—The end times are upon you—Don’t look back to what used to be, to what once was—much of what you have seen and believed in was (and is) an illusion—don’t look back at failures, short comings or successes—it is a new playing field, a new day.

“You say hindsight is 20/20 vision—that means you think you always see things clearly in the past, but that is not true. You still only see what you want to be true.”

Then God ended with the verse:

“There is a house that is built upon sand. And there is a house built upon a rock.” [End]

This serious word was Jesus pleading with his people to turn their hearts back to him. But this was also a turning point when leadership made up their minds against me. The thing is this lady who was always opposing me later admitted, after I left, that when I gave this word that drew so much flack, that she had the exact same word at the same time and not only would she not share it, she would also not come to my defense when I really needed it and everyone was attacking me. But by the time a year or so later when she admitted it, it was already too late as the church was already taking permanent steps against God’s will for them and it was simply too late to stop them.

God had said these intercessors were defending the very thing God was trying to remove and I think he meant they were defending the Pergamum control spirit in not standing up to it. The Pergamum environment is a mess and instead of exposing it, they went along with it, defending the leadership’s insular power inner circle, refusing to ever correct them or bring any ‘negative’ prophecy. This is also a vision God gave me about Eunice personally which I’ll share in a moment.

So as the demons got more and more control over the leadership, the leadership began acting out ‘Pergamum’ more and more and this was too confusing to understand easily for most people. It took me six months to research and write my prophetic explanation of Pergamum myself, and I certainly can’t tell you all of that here. I share that word in pretty much its entirely in 8+Splash, but I’ll still give you a skinny version of the prophecy here so you can understand the core issues God was revealing.

Pergamum—Exalting Leaders, Mixture, Control

So to unpack the prophetic symbolism, but again briefly, we start with the word Pergamum itself. It literally means to ‘marry’ or to ‘mix’, but it was also a city on a hill so it also means to exalt, and in fact this was the word used to describe the household pillars used to carry household idols in that time. Fourthly it was the first city to ‘exalt men in leadership as gods,’ as it was where a cult to worship Cesear started which held him, a man, to be divine, divinely infallible and untouchable by the regular people. Why would people preach this? To get favors from the rulers obviously. So it’s a cult of untouchable leadership, who are separated from the people they ‘rule over.’ This explains much of the other symbolism in the word especially the murder or martyrdom of Antipas who opposed the cult, this being where ‘Satan has his throne’, and the presence of the Nicolatians (tyranny over the people) and Balaam (a hireling who ‘devours’ the people).

There will ALWAYS be a leadership inner circle here Jesus told me. It is never just the figurehead or face of the regime themselves alone behind this. That person may even be a puppet of unseen forces as we’ve seen in other places. But yes, Jesus told me in this environment there will always be a leadership ‘inner circle,’ like a ‘Clergy,’ who are maintaining power and control over the regular people, the ‘Laity.’ That sounds harmless but no such classes exist in God’s Kingdom; we are a priesthood of believers and submit one to another. But in Pergamum not only is there a power-grab, so regular people are excluded from any meaningful role in any decision making, financial decisions, choosing who new leaders are, etc. It is a hijacking of the Body by a small group of people who now teach they are untouchable by the common church people, and they use (false) religious power to do it.

Next Antipas is martyred here and his name basically means ‘the person who opposes the pope,’ or is ‘anti’ the ‘untouchable father-figure’ in this corrupt cult-like atmosphere. In reality he was martyred there for opposing the cult of Cesear worship by saying the king was not a god and refusing to do him divine homage. Saying this is the place ‘where Satan has his Throne’ means this authoritarian leadership style, this ‘throne’ exists and so leadership spend a lot of energy to defend their self-made Control, and tend to abuse and neglect the actual needs of the people over whom they reign, lording it over the people and healing them with their ministry and programs, but only slightly.

This then shows the nature of much of the ‘mixture’ or ‘marriage’ that ‘Pergamum’ itself means as they must combine Man’s ways and doctrines of carnal control, ‘mixed’ with the Gospel, which is what attracts the people to come there to begin with. They lure people with the Good News, but trap them with abusive control and manipulation. Using secular ideas of leadership and justification for worldly means of control in running the church is too far from core issues of doctrine for most people to pick up on, but no, leadership as servants, humbling oneself as a child, laying one’s life and comforts down for the sheep is in fact the core leadership doctrine of the Gospel. When I began to research it I found this one lesson openly preached by Jesus NINE TIMES in the gospels alone. We don’t have nine verses on almost anything in the New Testament, but that ‘leaders need to be servants’ is repeated again and again and again. Yet so many people still don’t recognize how important it really is or remain mindful to do it!

In History the ‘Era of Pergamum’ is when Constantine, a pagan dictator, became the head of the church, firstly combining state political rule with the church leadership. He also combined his pagan religion with Christianity, and created a hybrid religion still in evidence today. A ‘clergy class’ emerged who dressed differently to set themselves apart from the ‘laity’ who no longer had any meaningful involvement in religious issues, dead saints were deified as idols, and the worship of Mary was established, which features are all recognizable as reflections of Constantine’s previous pagan religion.

All this is what creates a terrible control spirit over the people which is why you have both ‘Nicolatians’ and ‘Balaam’ there as well, who are basically the minions who enforce the leadership’s doctrines of control, and habits of abuse and neglect.

Nicolaitian’ means literally those who ‘Conquer’ or ‘Rule the People like a Tyrant,’ as it is those who ‘nico’ the ‘laity.’ And the prophecy actually reads, ‘since you have the Nicolatains, (whom Jesus hates) so therefore you also have Balaam,’ whose name is very similar, and can be read as he who ‘Devours the People.’ Balaam was a religious teacher, a prophet actually, but one who resorted to witchcraft to get what he wanted if God wouldn’t give it to him. He knew enough spiritual truth to teach God’s enemies how to defeat God’s people and caused the death of many thousands of Israelites. But mostly he’s a ‘hireling’ who served and taught his perverted teachings for money. God has set it in the church that ministers are supposed to earn their living from the ministry, but that is not this case here. This person is not a servant of God or a servant of the people, but a yes-man to the corrupt leadership and purely what Jesus called a hireling who cares not for the sheep, but only for himself, and who helps the leaders maintain control, again for a payment.

What a mess!

You can read this in more detail on-line or it’s also in 8+Splash. Just look for the word on Pergamum. But what a disaster. But people do actually overcome it and they are the ones given a ‘white stone with a new name’ on it, and also given some of the ‘hidden manna’ or hidden revelation, which is not given to everyone in Pergamum obviously! Only the overcomers get this honor. God only shares his secrets with those who fear him!

Making the Nazarites Drink Wine

So that was manifesting and so I also better share this … a few years before God delivered me from alcohol and gave me a few dreams asking me not to drink anymore at all: first he said it was a bad example, and second he said I am a king, and drunkenness is not befitting a king. But it was my choice, my sacrifice for him and it was easy to do. So I didn’t drink alcohol anymore—Oh! Wait! That’s not entirely true! There was that one time …

So I was helping the pastor of that church apply to the government for a disused court building so we could re-purpose it for the Ministry. The application with the best proposed use of the old building would be given it for free. It was a long and very extensive application process but since he worked at a famous architectural and engineering firm, he was able to get people to help with the technical aspects as volunteers. He was team leader and since I used to be a lawyer I volunteered to oversee the writing, editing and compilation of the submission; it was not easy.

When we finally submitted it he invited everyone in the team, who were mostly unsaved young architects and engineers, to a celebratory meal in the Kowloon Tong Mall where his offices were. He asked me what I wanted to drink, a cocktail or glass of wine for a celebration toast.

But I said, “Oh, not any more, thank you.” But then he tried to pressure me by saying I was being religious and just fearful, and I had to decline pointedly several times. I explained I’m not a recovering alcoholic, and I think it’s fine for Christians to drink a little if they want to, but God asked me not to personally. It’s my choice. My obedience.

Oh come on! And he ordered me a wine and needled me about being afraid and bound by made-up religious legalism.

“No, it’s not sin, and I CAN drink, I just choose not to.” Am I scared of what one glass of house white wine will do to me?

“OK, let’s have a toast, pick up your glass.”

I was embarrassed for his sake and didn’t want to make a scene in front of his staff, most, like I said, were unsaved. Knowing my freedom in Christ, and to avoid a faux pas scene in public I sipped for the toast to the team. Cheap white wine? What’s the temptation?

Now I was above any silly moral dilemmas on the issue. This was not a question of sin or disobedience. God never TOLD me not to drink alcohol, he said it was wisdom, being a good example, it’s not for a king to get drunk. The Lord never threatened me with punishment. I was obeying this advice out of respect and honor to the Lord, not from fear of a threat of punishment. God’s kindness leads us to repentance. Those who love him obey his commands. If you make a vow be swift to act on it. That kind of thing. So I didn’t have guilt or a crisis in my conscience. And I’m certainly not thin-skinned, but as I got home I was feeling, well, slightly disrespected I think, that’s all. I didn’t take the matter to heart, but it seems that someone else did. I just grabbed the Bible casually when I got home—I mean it was instant—and it opened itself up to this verse that I wasn’t even familiar with: Amos 2:12, which reads, “But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’”

I even shared this with him later. Let him ferment over that for a while! And no they never were awarded that courthouse.

The Spirit gives Freedom from Man’s Control!

Also in that season Jesus gave me this prophetic word about Emotions, Covering and Submitting to False Authority to help me understand his thinking and to strengthen my heart to withstand the pressure I was under and not collapse or become bitter. Jesus told me this:

Emotions

“People say when you warfare to ‘sow in the opposite spirit,’ but if that were always true then your warfare is sown against what demonic environment? Peace? No, I tell you to put on your armor every day.

“Instead of merely ‘sowing in the opposite spirit,’ I tell you today I want my chosen vessels to ‘flow in the Holy Spirit.’ That will lead you to victory in all warfare, not just being able to respond with a calm demeanor when someone comes against you in impatience or anger. For I tell you, not all anger is from me, but not all ‘peace’ is from me either. If you want to pacify people, be wise in handling your emotions. And if you want to be victorious in your warfare, then ‘flow in the Holy Spirit’ and you will conquer the forces of darkness that seek to enslave your soul—which is what you really want, isn’t it?

“I want you to read my Word carefully, and understand who I AM. I also have ‘emotions’ for I am an emotional God, and I am the author of your capacity for emotions. I do not function emotionally entirely as you do, you who are still subject to the chaos and confusion of the fallen world, but through my redemptive purposes of the Son of God dying in your stead, you have been made free from the hold of confusion and corruption. Don’t trust all of your emotions, but don’t discount all of them either. Sometimes your passionate emotions are from Me too you know, from my Spirit into your inner man, such as compassion, the bitterness of grief [at sin, injustice, etc.], and the hunger of longing that my holy apostles and prophets such as Jesus displayed with such fervency.

“I want you to be clear in seeing that I get upset at people. It is not a cover to the flesh emotions, but I got mad enough at Moses to want to kill him and all the people more than once.

“This is dismissed by people nowadays saying, ‘But that is the God of the Old Testament”—Am I two different God’s? This is a false teaching. I AM the same Yesterday, Today and Forever.”

Covering

“Second, about ‘covering’—this means control—and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is FREEDOM—so where is the room for control? The only control I do is through you to be conformed willingly into the image of My Son who is One with Me—we, you and I, are or will be One as well—so where is there need for me to control you and FORCE you to become like me, follow my plans, or play ‘follow the leader’?

“Think long and hard about this the next time some man or woman tells you to ‘submit’ in this forceful way—I do not force my way—I am God, and yet I invite you to come and reason with Me. You can come to me with any question you might have and I am good. I am your Father. I know your thoughts. I know what you are going through. I know what you are dealing with. I will love. I will understand. I will help. I will guide. I will teach. I will instruct. I will explain. I work with infinite patience and mercy. I am slow to anger and I do not control like man controls. My heart is to set you free, not to force my way. Herein lies the difference.

“I love you—what reason could I give, what possible justification could I give to MYSELF for wanting or trying to control you by shouting SUBMIT! There is a creature that seeks to control you who shouts like that from every lofty hill—his will is to steal, kill and destroy the sheep of my pasture. But I cannot let him for I Am perfect and that would be wrong of Me to violate the trust of innocent lambs who’ve placed their trust in Me after I told them I would protect and provide for them.

“This is what a covering actually means—it is a wedding song—a bridal veil—a delicate embroidery that touches your head with love, joy, singing—and more love! It is a JOY to wear the wedding gown!—it is never a burden to have to submit to wearing the garment of praise! Who has led you astray by speaking counsel without wisdom or proper enlightenment?

“Yes, anyone can give you their reasoned opinions—but they can still be dead wrong, and I don’t use that term lightly—dead wrong, as wrong as death, do you get it?”

Submitting to False Spiritual Authority

“Again I speak to you My Bride, DO NOT SUBMIT TO FALSE ANYTHING. Did My Son submit to those under the influence of the religious spirits? People say submit at all cost to your leader even if he’s dead wrong—why do they say that? Otherwise you will be labeled a rebel? Yes, there are rebels, but do not entertain every accusation against yourself. They called my humble servant David rebellious, and even my son Jesus—yet did they worry about their reputations? What is the worst that man can do? Slander you, cast you out, stone you, kill you? Do not fear the one who can kill the body and after that do no more—for the time has come for them to fear the God who has the power to cast into hell. The time has come NOW to choose whom ye shall serve: Me, or Baal, Mammon and control spirits of wickedness that afflict my people. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Freedom!

“And where do I ever say submit to Satan? [James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:8-9] Where do I ever say to submit to false prophets who say, “Peace, peace—there is no need to fight or struggle. There is no need to pray or fight the enemy or loose your sword!” NO, do not submit to them but defy them to their face! [Ezekiel 3:8-9] Stand like a Lion that I AM in and through you to tear down the works of the enemy and deliver my weak, humble people from these devouring jaws that cry out ‘peace’ when there is no peace!” [End]

I don’t need to add any explanation to that! Do I? So I’ll just end it with a full-stop!

Gate 14—A Church with Godly Leadership Style

And also I had a dream of a mall called Gate 14, which was actually a church or ministry, and when I asked Jesus to explain the symbolism and behavior of the leaders in the vision, who were making space for me and others to be involved in leadership decisions, he told me this about true leadership and talked also about getting prophetic direction from people not in leadership. I didn’t know which ministry this meant for over 15 years! But here is God’s insight, God’s heart on the matter:

“People are allowed, even invited to have access to leadership roles and decision making. That is what you want, isn’t it? Yes, to share and contribute your own part. That is what MY PEOPLE want, to serve me where it counts … I satisfy them, without letting go of order … control is death of order, peace and satisfaction since it is the death of involvement of my sheep in affairs that affect them. They are allowed to be included in decision making; some of the best decisions I’ve made have come through innocent, benevolent vessels who had no power or authority in man’s realms of ‘divide and control’ … yet they were from ME. Think about it the next time you take charge, are you willing to do it without the help of my Holy Spirit because that is what you will unavoidably do if you offend Him; he’ll stop helping you in the way you really need Him to. Like the Father, He’s not a doormat either!

“Remember, some of my weakest vessels are used in POWER by Me to do MY WILL, and you will never see this in action if you quench the leading of the Holy Spirit and only lean upon who you think are ‘tried and tested’ leaders among men … I do not think this way … and I do not want YOU to think this way. Trusting in Men who follow my leading is OK, but if you start trusting in Men to make decisions and do your job for you of discerning and listening to My heart, it will result in chaos. … every man can fall away or fall behind or fall among thieves, traps and snares … if you give men a blanket exemption from doing what is right, meaning to lean upon ME for his wisdom and direction and you let him choose HIS OWN WAY you will be doomed. Do not do this: let people lead, but trust them to need a little help from their friends from time to time … you and Me both!”

Wow, that’s Hidden Manna if I ever heard it!

They won’t listen to me! So send someone they WILL Listen to!

As the Lord had told me, “Many opportunities have passed them right by,” since the church leadership would not listen to the Lord’s direction, and so would not position themselves to be able to understand or receive his blessings, and it was getting more and more serious! They certainly would not listen to me or the Lord speaking through me. So I prayed in earnest that if I was the problem, that if they didn’t respect or would not listen to ME personally, then would the Lord please send people who they WOULD listen to, at which Jackie Pullinger came and did a big series of sermons, and then Alan Hood from IHOP came and they both gave the same kind of direction in their messages, but there was no change. Esteban Antonio the prophet and guitar player even came, who is someone I consider a real prophet, and also Maurice Sklar the violin player who used to work with Benny Hinn, who is another authentic prophet I am so blessed to have met. But nothing came of it.

Turning Back in the Day of Battle

And you know there was a terrible betrayal recorded in Psalm 76 saying:

⁹ “The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle. ¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God; They refused to walk in His law, ¹¹ And forgot His works And His wonders that He had shown them.”

This is like what happened to Eunice, one of the church elders and ‘lead intercessor’ who was in the right position and had the respect of everyone in the church community and could have stopped this nonsense, cold! But she refused to do it. One person taking a stand could have done it because she was the right person in the right position, at least that was what God showed me in a vision. That church did not have to fail he said as everything collapsed. This one lady, Eunice, was in the position to do that, she was equipped and armed, but she refused to take a stand.

I knew her situation maybe was difficult. I saw her husband had strong religious control over her. He was a professor in a theological seminary and I saw a huge wooden structure built over his head, man’s ideas and man’s framework of doctrines, and some of it had gotten into her thinking as well, but she was a respected ‘voice’—the person closest to being a Prophet in our entire community and who had everyone’s respect­—and God was surely showing her his truth, but maybe her husband made it hard to do the right thing, but she knew what was right and could have fixed it God said. Anyway here’s the vision, you decide:

(Not) Shooting Bears in a Boat

I had two dreams of her, one I didn’t want to believe but her ministry and effectiveness were being subverted by the people around her who wanted their prophets to be on a short leash, not strong and resourceful, not independent and effective!

When the leadership were just beyond help and reached what in God’s view was a point of no return I had this second very detailed dream involving her.

It was at a beach. Sand can mean walking in man’s ways or it can mean God’s innumerable thoughts towards us. Which one might this mean? And I saw the pastor in a small boat near shore but far enough out that no one could reach him easily, but also he wasn’t alone. The boat was full of several large bears, demonic powers, that were seemingly keeping him company, hugging him, protecting him. I noticed she was heavily armed with a large rifle—it was the right weapon to defeat those bears—but she refused to use it! She said in the vision, that the bears are comforting the pastor, and she therefore would not kill them or it would upset the pastor. But I was already so upset in the dream and so I began looking around for a weapon for myself to use instead—I’ll kill those bears myself!—but I could only get a target rifle and some old antique display pieces that didn’t even have the right ammunition. So I took the only weapon I could get, the target rifle, and began to shoot the bears in the face again and again and again but all it did was anger them—I could not kill them with this target practice rifle! I needed a real weapon! I went to find one but could not. It was so frustrating so see that Eunice had the right weapon but no, she wouldn’t use it … and the bears took over.

Later, after we both left that church I actually shared this vision with her, but I didn’t tell her it was her in the vision. I asked her, What I should do? “Pray for that woman to wake up!” she said.

A few days later I emailed her and said casually that maybe the lady in the vision was her? What did she think? She wrote back to confirm that yes, she knew it was her. But by then it was too late. God had already stopped warning people and just gave advice on how to leave and what would happen next in due course.

The Pastor’s Son gets the Same Word!

Like I said the Lord soon let me leave because they had exhausted their last chances and God moved me onto other tasks, but not before letting me witness this: the pastor’s son, Kurt, (not his real name) had the SAME VISION so many people were having, that the Tree of Life Church was sinking … and in Quicksand! But they still didn’t do anything about it.

The Lord had asked me to go to a specific ‘Leaders’ Meeting’ before I left where they wanted to plan how to move the church to a new building in the heart of the prostitution area in Wan Chai they were preparing to sign a lease on, and God said, ‘Go and just watch.’ It was a total waste of manpower, let alone the manpower of all the leaders and ministry heads.

We first sat in a circle and started to ‘invite God’ to talk to us about ‘our plans’ for moving into their new venue which was an old pornography theater that was going to be leased from the unsaved landlord for 15 years at an enormous cost to rent and renovate. This was what God said was his chastisement to them for not following his word! They were leaving his chosen position for them and that he would not go with them into this wilderness where they were headed in rebellion to his guidance. He would also give their regional calling to someone else, a different church which actually moved into their old premises! At this time only I and a few other people knew this however.

So in this meeting people began to walk around and pray in tongues and ask God to come, but first the spirit in the room was NOT the Lord. I then saw a picture of many monkeys babbling. Then we sought God for a time and people shared what God told them. The first to share was a totally make up word by a Mr N. It was absolutely fake. A FALSE PROPHECY! Nobody cares!

Then others shared, but nothing to report. The son of the other co-head-pastor, one of the trendy youth leaders had a word I think, which he started by talking about the new video games he bought for the youth ministry, and how he knows he is not supposed to entertain but to equip, and he saw an airplane, a coffee cup and a great sword cutting the earth in two … There may be something real in that, I’m not sure. But then Kurt, the other pastor’s son shared.

Who is Kurt? (Again, not his real name!) Well, he’s the face of the music ministry which by all accounts was the most professional and well rehearsed band in Asia save Hillsongs and other mega-church bands. They are a very good church band and have made several recordings. Kurt is gifted by the Holy Spirit in ways I personally can’t even grasp God showed me once—really a chosen vessel for a specific task. But also a part of the corruption and worldly ways that were eating the church. By this time God had told me twice in dreams that he always refused to listen to God’s warnings and God told me I was to no longer share any revelations from the Lord with him. Soft spoken and likable, he was the face of the band and the brand, so the face of the Church’s ‘DNA’ to the young audience. Actually God told me the ‘key’ to the band was someone else, a truly professional musician but also barely saved and immoral. But that’s neither here nor there.

So in this meeting, Kurt shared he also had a word.

First he heard the verse, but he said he didn’t know why he had that verse or what it meant, but it was, “The wise man builds his house upon a rock, the foolish man builds his house upon the sand.” That sounds familiar! It was the core verse God gave me in the word that I shared that caused so much stir before! Here the pastor’s son was now sharing the exact same prophetic word! But he said he didn’t know what it meant.

And second he said he saw a picture of the Tree of Life building … it was on top of large pillars that were ALL SINKING INTO THE QUICKSAND! On top the people were busy building something new and modern, not knowing the whole thing was sinking, and when he described it he even said it was not just sinking in sand—but in quicksand!

I myself had heard this same ‘sinking’ word about the church several times from several other people but now the pastor’s son himself was even saying it.

So he then said what he thinks this vision means is that we need to change our perspective to see the foundation as well as the top floor, and then build as God said we should, and do it well, and do it with a spirit of excellence! Let’s go!

OK, anyone else? Good. Now let’s plan how we are going to move into the new building. They totally ignored Kurt’s word, but it was the same thing God had told me before: there is a house built upon sand, and there is a house built upon a rock! And this time it came from KURT, not me, so how could they say it was a false prophecy or me trying to subvert their goals, or me trying to take over their church?!

But they just ignored it anyway. There is much more to the story but it’s too much to share now; take at look at 8+Splash if you want to know more.

Murderous Pirates Stealing Money

I finally will share that I had a dream of leaving the church just as murderous pirates, demonic powers, took it over. It started and I was again on a beach and the young people were honoring us for our exploits in the Lord when I saw money float ashore attached to a life preserver, but when I looked closer it was not ‘rescue money,’ it was money being driven ashore by demonic murderous pirates who had just murdered the real owners they had hijacked! I saw these demonic pirates walking proudly on the surface of the water in a line abreast, coming our way quickly. There were maybe five or six of these large beings all striding proudly side by side. They were marching with great strides very purposefully, swaggering, swinging their arms as they walked, like proud bullies, coming on the surface of the water in my direction. They were murderers—demonic principalities obviously—and this was their money that they just stole.

I turned to flee.

My ‘vehicle’ or my ministry was parked facing the ocean and I needed to leave as fast as I could. So I ‘shrunk’ my vehicle (my ministry shrunk obviously when I left that church) and turned it around, ready to leave—but they were already ashore! So I hid and watched the pirates who sat in a circle around a campfire as they began dividing up the money. But then a man walked up not appreciating the danger of taking money from murderous pirates and he asked to join them! “I want a share,” he said. He looked like one of the two new elders that church had just ‘voted in’ to replace that pilot and Eunice who both had just quit—he looked like the businessman’s ministry leader, a young guy from Singapore. And the pirates said, knowingly and with a sinister joy, “OK, we’ll give you insurance.” Which may be easy to interpret.

Upon seeing this and confirming my suspicions I fled carefully and my vehicle, which was like a camper van / caravan before now seemed to turn into a boat and I drove away and then out into a bay behind the beach and boated out into a clear, open area of water where I was safe but alone and I stopped, waiting for further directions about what I should do next. [End]

Micaiah Tells the Truth

And finally, before I wrap things up, I just want to share one of the best examples of prophets who are raised up under the control of a worldly man in the Bible, the story of Ahab and Macaiah. You maybe already know the story from 1 Kings 22.

So after all that went on with Jezebel killing the prophets and Elijah’s showdown at Mt. Carmel, just a few years later King Jehoshaphat from Judah visited King Ahab, Jezebel’s husband, who asked him to join forces to fight Syria to take back a city on the border, but Jehoshaphat wanted a prophetic word first. This was a few years after Jezebel killed all the prophets in Israel, don’t you recall? But Ahab suddenly was able to gather about four hundred prophets of the Lord in Samaria who all said Yes! God says go up to fight against Syria and you will be successful in taking back that city. They even said God would be the one to deliver it into his hands, I mean their hands.

Funny, but Jehoshaphat was not so easily convinced. Good for him. How did Ahab suddenly find 400 righteous men who were the Lord’s real, mature prophets and who were not afraid to speak God’s true word to Ahab in his own palace? What kind of ‘prophets’ do these men appear to be?

Jehoshaphat asks for a second opinion, I mean a 401st opinion, and he says OK there is one more guy we can ask but I hate him! He never prophesies good things for me, only evil.

Is this the first time we hear this doctrine? No ‘negative words’ allowed here!? But Jehoshaphat wants to know God’s real direction and he seems to know he is not getting it from these 400 obedient ‘court prophets.’ One of them, a Zedekiah by name, made a prop of metal horns and paraded himself around showing how Ahab and Jehoshaphat were going to smite the Syrians!

They summoned Macaiah and told him, You’d better tow the line here! Make sure your prophecy is the same as everyone else’s!

1 Kings 22 verse 14 says: “And Micaiah said, ‘As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak.’”

Bah!­

And when he arrives King Ahab asks him bluntly, Shall we go to war against Syria or not? And Micaiah says something but you can’t hear the tone of sarcasm easily. He says, Sure, do it. Ha! Go, fight, win! And the king knows he’s mocking him and says, “How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” I assume this is the first time.

But then the whole truth comes out!

In verse 17 he says, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master. Let each return to his house in peace.’ ” Ahab takes it personally, as he was supposed to. He’s no caring shepherd of the people! Then the prophet really lets him have it.

¹⁹ … “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. ²⁰ And the Lord said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. ²¹ Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ ²² The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ ²³ Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you.”

I think I’m beginning to like this guy!

And you know that guy who made the props? He’s upset and SLAPS Micaiah in the face, saying, “Which way did the spirit from the Lord go from me to speak to you?” I mean, does this guy not know he’s a fake? Is it all just to protect his professional pride? Or he may be a real prophet and deceived by this ‘lying spirit.’

Micaiah was ready for this with a vision he already had and retorts to his tort saying something like, “You’ll soon find out when you run into your closet to hide! You big crying lying diaper baby!” (But, I added that last part just for dramatic effect.)

Taking Micaiah off to prison under Ahab’s son he says, Abuse him until I return in victory. Micaiah, ready for this too, shoots back with, “If you ever return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” His parting shot is, “Take heed, all you people!”

Woah! Now I know I definitely like this guy!

Several words of judgment were hanging over Ahab’s head by this time already, this was only the last of many. This prophet said he would die in that battle and what happened? Ahab died in that battle. Then they washed his blood out of his chariot which dogs licked up and where the prostitutes bathed themselves, assumingly after work—gross!—but this was just as God had said would happen many years before by Elijah. So write it down, wait for it if it tarries. It will surely come to pass and not prove false!

But this is a very hard story. What is the lying spirit? Why would God allow court prophets seemingly who think they are prophets of the Lord to be deceived this way? Wouldn’t it ruin their reputations in Samaria? How did 400 men after Jezebel’s dire persecution openly admit to being the Lord’s prophets and serve in the court of the king who murdered thousands of their predecessors? Do only apostate leaders despise ‘negative’ words?

It’s fine that God wanted Ahab to die this way—but there’s no need to bring Micaiah into it and especially no need to pull the curtains back on these perplexing behind-the-scenes workings of heavenly counsel, and to do it before an apostate king in Samaria!

I mean why not just give Ahab a heart attack?

Or have him slip on a banana peel and hit his head on the floor? Or trip and fall on his own sword in the toilet while he’s shaving and kill himself that way in private? My only answer, and I worry that I might be right, is that God has a flair for the dramatic and likes the drama of poetic justice playing out in public spaces. Shakespeare’s got NOTHING on Jehovah when it comes to writing a good page-turner.

But for us here now, why do I recount this story? For me, it’s the best biblical insight into what happens when men raise up ‘obedient’ prophets in their midst—they are obedient to man, but clearly disobedient to God, and never can be trusted to have his real word.

Such ‘court prophets’ are on the payroll of the leaders, the pastors and the elders, in some way or the other. They only can aspire to ever really become impostors! Flatterers! Cowards!

But David also put hundreds of prophets on salary so they could minister without interruption, including Nathan. Not everyone who is on salary is a puppet telling the leaders only the ‘smooth things’ their itching ears want to hear. But I think you can pretty much guarantee that everyone who does, is.

An Unwelcome Guest?

When God begins to move, speak, teach and act in a church it causes ALL KINDS of problems for Men. How ironic. Getting spirit-filled often splits a church right in half, and not to be callous, but in a way sometimes I say, Good! Cut off the dead weight!

I mean why do ‘God’s people’ have so many problems in their crutches, I mean churches when God finally shows up? Why do these church leaders, elders, pastors and ‘Bible experts’ have such a hard time maintaining ‘order’ and solving the ‘problems’ caused when this alien-like presence suddenly appears? You’d think the people of God would be more prepared for his sudden appearing. Why are they so uncomfortable with God in the room? That’s a real indictment against them, don’t you think?!

But still, why are they at such a loss to know what to do to handle his seemingly unwelcome presence?

Instead of oh, I don’t know, praying and asking God to teach them how to manage this new normal, or even better, to ask God to manage the chaos himself!—how is it that they just have NO IDEA how to handle Him and worse, resort to all kinds of carnal rules and fleshly behaviors to deal with him instead?

Do you see the real problem here?

The teenagers begin to get prophetic words and the leaders have to make up all kinds of hard-and-fast rules on their own to deal with the ‘problems’ they are having: no words on ‘Mates or Dates,’ although there are clearly examples of God doing this in the Bible. No words on correction! (which is also a word of correction!) No words about the leaders. No words about the followers! No words after service when we can’t monitor what you’re saying. And no words during service either. In fact, let’s have no more words at all!—problem solved!

No words on ‘mates or dates’!?—when God began to speak to me most of his words to me over several years were about my future mate. Biblically, I first think of Joseph who wanted to divorce Mary until he got a prophecy about his mate. There are not dozens of examples, but yes, God does speak to us in this area. For me it was confusing, but also a lifeline when I really needed help. And that was more than once!

Don’t Correct Me!—but isn’t that also a Correction?

Then they say, no words of correction or rebuke. So have they really forgotten the exhortation in Hebrews 12 that calls them sons?

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; ⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

⁷ “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? ⁸ But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”

Or Jesus saying in Revelation 3:19—

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”

You cannot say he will rebuke and chasten but then ban God from speaking personal prophecy to rebuke or chasten.

And because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, as it says in 2 Timothy 3:16, or Luke 17:3 which reads, “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.”—therefore you don’t need a prophetic word to rebuke someone who is sinning in church, especially in leadership. Just use the Bible! Protect your community! Edify each other!

But I’ll say it again and again, I don’t get tired of saying it, that if there are any warnings or rebukes, chastisements or corrections in the Bible itself, if those things are in the Scriptures, then that will sometimes be the personal prophecy as well.

OK, so 1 Timothy 5:1 says, “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father,” but an exhortation is still an emotional plea like a fiery sermon to tell people to stop sinning. So fine, don’t ‘rebuke’ your apostate leaders, but at least do make them sit down and listen for two hours while you ‘fire and brimstone’ the sin out of their sorry butts, Old School style. They’re not only stealing FROM the church, they’re stealing the church! They’re claiming their ‘authority’ to rule and do as they please is above even God in whose place they are his shepherds! Are you confused who is wearing the white robe here?

If you ban all words on correction or chastisement, all you will accomplish is to remove God’s correction and direction from peoples’ lives. Read Hebrew 12 a littler further where it continues—

¹¹ “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

If there’s no correction, then there will be no fruit of righteousness to those trained by it either! How can people grow, learn or improve if you ban anyone telling them how to do so? How can they avoid shipwreck if you blindfold them while telling them to go faster and make a lot of twisty turns! We make important decisions every day and you NEED God’s insight to be successful—I think I might have read that somewhere: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper. Is that from Steinbeck? Hemingway? Rowling? Where did I read that from?

Why is GOD such a Problem to these People?

All of these situations pose such difficult dilemmas—at least to carnal pastors who aren’t used to seeking God for solutions to these kinds of ‘problems!’ And if the pastors can’t find God’s help, God help us!

So they try every other solution, consider every advice posted on-line, follow every comment left in the chat box—but never humble themselves and repent, sit in quietness and trust and seek God to ask him what he wants them to do about it??!!

This then reveals the real problem, and it’s not God showing up and the ‘chaos’ he seems to unleash—but carnal minds in charge of ministry who seem to ask everyone and everything for advice on how to deal with God … EXCEPT for asking God himself.

Such ministries are increasingly NOT OF GOD, even if they think they still are FOR him. Increasingly they are God’s churches in name only. A ministry needs to be run as God would have you run it—it belongs to him as do the people you minister to, and you must soon give an account! It cannot only be run in Man’s ways of leadership and control and problem solving, all just to maintain ‘order’ because that’s what the Bible says! “So no more of this Holy Spirit chaotic nonsense! It’s MY church!”—Are you sure?

In truth, how dare YOU be upset at God moving in your midst! How dare you consider God in your midst to be like a pest that needs to be removed!? How dare you!

The main issue here is therefore not making a list of what can go wrong, and listing witty ways to deal with it, but learning in all things to rely on God, to be intimate with God in all our ways and lean NOT on Man’s understanding and in doing so God will be pleased with how we rely on Him and will make our paths straight, even ones we’ve never walked before!

I know a gifted musician and prophet and he shared how God told him one time, “Son, there are people who I say ‘Do this,’ and they do it. That is like you.” Wow, thank you Lord he said. But wait for it! Because then God said, “But then there are people who, when I say, ‘Do this,’ they say, “Yes Lord but how.” … crickets … awkward silence … humbling introspection. We need to do what God wants. Go peach the gospel. But mind your HOW! Don’t ever do it like they did it here in Philippines where they used torture and the sword. HOW we obey is as important, sometimes more important, than if we merely obey at all.

I already shared that How we Lead is such an important part of the gospel that while most of our doctrines come from only one or two verses in the Bible, the admonition that we must ‘lead as servants’ is NINE TIMES IN THE GOSPELS ALONE—look it up! So we must be examples of God in all things, and in all ways we must lead by example. We can’t take a ‘Do as I say not as I do,’ approach. We must lead as servants. We must lean upon God in all our ways. And when we are confused we must learn how to solve our problems with spiritual solutions which He will readily give us if we ask him, and never resort to carnal ways, ever—especially in the area of prophecy, or church administration, or ministry, or evangelism, or training programs, or worship, or child care ….

Man’s Ways ALWAYS Limit God

So no, it is NOT OK to forbid prophecy in any area simply because we don’t know how to deal with it. It’s prophecy, for crying out loud!—It’s self correcting! Just ask God to teach you how to manage the turbulence his sudden presence has caused! People instead just stare at it while the church splits! Maybe the split is the solution after all, and I hope you know which side you need to be on when it all comes down! In any case, God has the wisdom we need to solve any problem we face, especially the ‘problem’ of how to deal with him as an abiding presence in our churches. There are some problems you want to have, like having too much money, being too smart or too good looking. Having the ‘problem’ of God’s presence in your church is exactly where you want to be.

What I see is that when MAN is in charge of training God’s prophets they ALWAYS put limits on what God is allowed to do—Do you put limits on an unlimited God? Why would you think this is wisdom? To limit the chaos? To be safe? So people can learn man’s ways first and later after they are broken in they can learn God’s ways instead? Do you really think that’s going to work!?

Having seen both sides, and what this kind of ‘training’ produces, I can say it is NOT God’s wisdom to teach people Man’s Ways in the church—ever—especially with regard to prophecy. Man’s training makes wimps, yes-men under Man’s control who are on a short leash and had better behave, or else!—this does not produce vessels of honor fit for the Master’s use, but house eunuchs obedient to man and clearly disobedient to God.

Jesus said to First Un-train the Prophets

Lastly, after I left that sinking church God told me it was time to start the school. So I said, OK, what school? He said the School to Train the Prophets. We had a bit of a back-and-forth on this until I understood what he wanted me to do, and how to do it! He said he wanted me to train people to serve him as prophets, but the first training they needed was to be UNTRAINED.

Untrained?

Yes, he said, first we have to un-train them in the ways of man regarding the prophetic ministry they have been taught.

Most or all of what I am sharing, teaching and discussing is to this end. It is to first EXPOSE Man’s ways affecting ministry, prophecy, the Kingdom, and whatever gift he gives us or role God lets us serve him in—but for me yes it is especially concerning prophecy and serving God as a prophet.

A time is coming and is already here when we NEED the prophets of God to stand up and take back what Man and Satan have stolen from them and us. I think it is better to teach prophets to serve the Living God and sometimes that means, yes, they need to be taken off your leash, unlearn your rules, open the cage door—and fly! You need, I need, WE ALL NEED people to walk in the real authority and power of God as Prophets in every area they are meant to walk in, whether it be for warfare, or training, equipping or standing in authority over cities, teaching or ruling the nations: wherever God wants to use them for is what we need … or else if they do not, Satan will fill that vacuum which we have allowed Man’s ways to create. The time has really come when we must let the Prophets speak, to despise not prophecy, to not forbid the prophets from speaking … because if we believe in the Lord God we will be established and if we believe in his prophets we will be successful. Who wants to be a loser? Not I! So believe his prophets! And I say … Let Them Speak!