Wednesday

Properly Discerning Judgment


Recently, I'd been asking Father for an upgrade in the gift of discernment, as He’d been emphasizing 1 Corinthians 14:29 to me (“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.”). And what do you know, but suddenly I began getting scores of submissions for the www.northwestprophetic.com website, many of them with what I would call a fairly judgment-oriented interpretation.

Cool! I was getting schooled! 

So I brought each word to Him for my lessons, and he’d have me separately discern the revelation portion of the prophecy from the interpretation portion. In those particular prophetic words, over and over, I sensed the Holy Spirit in the revelation, but not in the interpretation. 

“They’re interpreting through their expectations. They’re not listening to me, but they’re listening to what they already believe,” he said.

One illustration from this season: one of the prophecies came from a fairly mature prophet, a mature man whom I knew and trusted personally. It spoke about the county where he lived, and it carried a deadline: two weeks away. The revelation spoke of earthquakes and volcanoes, and I could sense God in it. The interpretation spoke of disaster and judgment, and I did not sense God on it (whew!). I heard Father say, “This is not a literal revelation; it’s a metaphor. The earthquakes are about things that he thought were stable getting shaken, and the volcanoes are about deep, hidden things being brought to light, violently.” I had the fairly strong sense that the word applied to him personally.

I asked the prophet if maybe that word could be metaphorical rather than literal, and he rejected it out of hand. OK. Maybe I’m wrong. But God was not directing me to respond as if it were literal and I did not publish the prophecy on the website.

Three weeks later the deadline was behind us, and no earthquake or volcano had struck. He called me: “That word was right, but I got the date wrong!” and he gave me a new date. Then he added, “But could you pray for me? My whole life is getting shaken, and there’s stuff I thought was way behind me that’s becoming public now!” The revelation had been correct, but the interpretation, and therefore the application, were incorrect.

Frankly, I’m one of those prophetic folks who was always quick to interpret prophecies with words like “judgment” or “the remnant.” He corrected me: in this season, Father asked me, “Son, why do you expect judgment? Everything – every sin – that deserved judgment was paid for in the Cross.”

I have since come to believe that one day, those who rejected his payment for their sin would have the “privilege” of paying for their own sin (Revelation 20:12), but there were no sins – past, present, or future; individual or corporate – that were not covered by the blood of Jesus on the Cross.

This is not to say that I don’t think real trouble is coming to America, and to our region in particular. I actually do believe we’re in for tough times, and I’m asking for more revelation for how to prepare. But from the way I think I’m learning to understand the cross, those troubles are not about judgment, certainly not about judgment from God, and a good number of the prognostications of disaster are errors in interpreting true prophetic revelation. 

More recently, He’s been teaching me more about the power of our declarations as believers. It’s a lot. We’re made in God’s image, and he did his first big project by words: “And God said… and it was so.” Thats my Dad! I'm in his line of work.

Here’s where I’m going: there are a lot of believers who don’t understand the cross very well. (Yeah, I was one for a bunch of decades, durn it.) And a lot of believers have been declaring disaster coming to America, or declaring Mr. Obama’s incompetence, or similar things. Recently, I’ve begun to question whether our declarations of disaster may have a hand in causing disaster to come about, about whether our declaring icky things about Mr. Obama are bringing some of those things to pass, whether we are seeing the fulfillment of our own declarations.

By way of illustration, God himself (Genesis 18:21) seems to declare that the reason that Sodom & Gomorrah were judged was because of the outcry against it. I wonder– if there is judgment coming against our nation, or against “famously sinful” cities in our nation (San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, New Orleans, etc) – whether the judgment is not from God, but from God’s people.

So I’m pretty careful about speaking un-lovely things about people or nations; I’m really, really careful that I’m not interpreting prophetic words according to my own expectations.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i enjoyed your article as i went to pastor doseck for

prayer last year for a greater ability yo interpet dreams

and visions* you mentioned the cross as far as the church

is concerned as paul stated what has the beleiver to do

with judging the world judgement in this sense is

concerning beleivers as purchased and created by God

according to His purpose but the Spirit is the Lord and

to him who knows to do good and does not there remaineth

no more sacrifice for sin thank God we can repent but

what happens when the new creation hardens their heart

due to the deceitfulness of sin and in the process sears

their conscience and is no longer open to repentance

wether thru deception self or doctorines of demons or

worse yet neglect the aspect of the cross as demas did

with his call judgement can mean descion example

chastening as God is love but will not neglect writtin

scripture in the Fathers love for Jesus he calls a people

and creates them with an ability to respond and enter

into fellowship and submission to him but grants the

right of freewill having purpose for those who respond

and seek relationship so to define cross-where your will

meets his as to judgement beleivers need only be real

concerned if they do not count the cost the body and

blood of jesus refuse him as lord not honoring His spirit

and continue on in a form of religion deny his power

Spirit of power and right referenced in the old testament

and God looked and the thoughts and intents of mans heart

where evil continually hence My Spirit will not strive

with man forever as to dreams and visions some things

revealed are not meant to be spoken others may be spoken

concerning future events old testament prophets spoke of

judgements to come future tense others may be parabolic

three tenses past present future physical spiritual all

have informational value past as revealing secrets

present as pivotel pray now change it or its going to

happen prepare for it future pre trib post trib things to

come physical spiritual events the revelation gifts and

the ability to seek and hear from God is essential as we

want to disceren the source and not prophecey or speak

forth the enemies plans and deceptions or worse yet the

thoughts and imagination of our own hearts wich seems to

be happening quite frequently as is stated in jeramiahs

warning concerning the last days wich he said we will

understand perfectly this involves the whole council of

his word and some of the hard things paul talked about

and many times many aspects of your life may play into

interpetation so aspects to consider beleiver non

beleiver world events God wanting control of His temple

and church to fulfill His will and purpose example have

you ever been in a church service the way Paul said it

should be when you come together or as Jesus stated these

signs shall follow those who beleive or where there is

strife and division every evil thing is or it is the

traditions and teachings of men that make the word of no

effect or that paul stated the word of God was preached

with power lest it be of no effect not in the wisdom of

mans words but God himself bearing witness this is a

process as all things are but in my limited experience

they are all true as a testimony when paul said we are

not to walk as mere men well he was right be blessed

scott

Dessa said...

Good lesson. Thank you for sharing your journey.