What's your Reality? (Part 1)
Signs, Wonders, and modern flavors of Apostolic / Prophetic Confusion
This is the first in a three-part series about the realities people of faith choose or are deceived by. In this first one, we will focus on prophecy, signs, and wonders. Reality anchors to the wonder of scripture outside of us, or lands in personal feelings and experiences that are easily deceived. Satan and Demons lie and often entertain in their deceptions. When casting out demons, or performing signs and wonders, how do we know that happened according to God’s will… or was it part of the Host of Heaven’s deception operation? Deception is an operation that happens exponentially at the velocity of information.
Next week, Part Two is:
Jhn 18:38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.
Let’s tell a Bible Story about discernment and seeking the truth in the face of deception, false signs, and fake wonders…
Vision Things
Too often, the body of Christ swerves off the road less traveled onto the four-lane highway of common hooo hum deception anchored to charismatic experience. It’s too much like, as Morris Albert sings… “Feeeeelings.”
In 1Ki 22:1 – 6 we read about King Ahab meeting with King Jehosaphat. 400 of King Ahab’s prophets gather and told Ahab to attack Ramoth Gilead.
1Ki 22:7 And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of Him?”
In 1Ki 22: 10 - 14 King Ahab gathered 400 prophets for a show (Not Worship) but King Jehosaphat had the discernment to know that none of them was a prophet of the Lord. Finally, one true prophet is called. Meanwhile, King Ahab’s 400 ‘prophets’ perform… A noisy, loud show… using signs and wonders.
At this point, Micaiah refuses to be the nice guy and reveals a scene from Heaven.
1Ki 22:19 Then Micaiah said, “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.
1Ki 22:20 “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.
1Ki 22:21 “Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’
1Ki 22:22 “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.’
1Ki 22:23 “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.”
1Ki 22:24 Now Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go from me to speak to you?”
1Ki 22:25 And Micaiah said, “Indeed, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide!”
This same story is in II Chronicles 18. It’s a story that lands in scripture twice… Maybe we should pay attention?
Jeremiah wrote the I Kings account when supernatural signs and paganism was presented through Baal to people by the host of heaven. The account below in II Chronicles was written by Ezra after Israel returned from 70 years of Babylonian captivity… and Molech was the supernatural presence of the Host of Heaven.
I believe the key is that Jeremiah and Ezra, though seventy years separate their accounts, reveal the host of heaven, its lying words, and its lying signs and wonders… Often used as a test and sifting of God’s people by Yahweh himself. This is a sober challenge to the body of faith that no matter how good something looks or sounds, we are to test the spirits and obey Jesus’ command to NOT be deceived.
2Ch 18:18 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left.
2Ch 18:19 “And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab king of Israel to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.
2Ch 18:20 “Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’
2Ch 18:21 “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.’
Two things reach out from these passages. One is the term, ‘host of heaven,’ and the other is ‘lying spirit.’ If we examine the concept of host of heaven, first use of this term is in:
Deu 4:19 “And take heed, lest you lift your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.
This term, host of heaven, occurs 90+ times in the Bible. Its last use in Greek comes from Stephen’s history lesson in Acts 7
Act 7:42 “Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:
In other words, the ‘Host of Heaven’ is not a benevolent group of nice little angels with the best interests of humanity in their hearts. In fact, God harshly criticizes them in his divine council in Psalm 82. In the situation with King Ahab, both accounts reveal that a member of the host of heaven was a lying spirit in the mouths of 400 prophets.
As ‘prophets’ in our day declare their words, does the story of King Ahab resonate? Are church leaders engaging in order to assess truth or deception? To test the spirits? What is more important? The personal experiences and signs and wonders of the ‘prophet?’ Or scripture? Recall what Jesus said…
Mat 12:39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
That is increasingly the Body of Christ as we fail to discern signs and wonders because ‘flash-bang’ is much more exciting than studying a book that begins with creation and ends with the wedding feast of the lamb. It is interesting that Jesus told the Pharisees that their only sign came from the Word.
My point is that when someone ‘prophesies,’ I personally am immediately suspicious of deception. No doubt, supernatural things often lead to a ‘prophecies,’ but how do we test the spirit and discern the truth? We have to go to the anchor of scripture. Obeying Jesus’ command to not be deceived, I declare to purveyors of signs, wonders, and prophets, “Prove it.” I reside in the camp of cautious charismatics, seeing that it is critical for the Church to discern that deception and propaganda operations usually have enough truth to deceive the target. As it happened to Ahab and the children of Israel for their sin. The Body of Christ in America is increasingly like Northern Israel. Our flavor is charismatic and too many are deceived into being butts in seats in mega churches that are major targets of evil. I believe our day is experiencing a sifting of the church by spirits who… “go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.”
The ‘flash-bang’ velocity of information increases deception, and AI will prove to be among the greatest deceivers. That will be in a future SubStack.
What to do??? Exercise Be, Know, Do Face to Face. (Joshua 1)
BE in Scripture
KNOW how to Discern the velocity of information and ask Jesus to not let us be deceived, (We are told to not be deceived 22 times in the New Testament. Ask the Lord to help with that scriptural command of discernment.)
DO what God’s word tells us to do… Face to Face as we love one another.
Jay
On a beautiful Colorado day continuing to work through Cardio Recovery and enjoying Blue Sky that AI did not create.