One thing I have noticed is when a person moves in the gifts of the spirit people automatically equate that this person moving in the gifts has a life of good character and is most likely very sound on all their doctrinal stands. This is complete non-sense and a huge trap. The church in California that is most known for signs and wonders has moved into some erroneous teachings but since they are signs and wonders movement people accept all that they teach. Obviously Jesus was perfect in every way but some that followed him or maybe just acknowledged him did so because of the signs and wonders, not his words.
John 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
As this person says to Jesus people apply to ministers today when they see the power of God and signs and wonders. At The Father’s House I had a person come a few times in the early years of the church that was a very talented musician that created a powerful atmosphere of worship and celebration and at the end of the service they would lay hands of people and there was a great release of power. In between the music was an extremely watered down message on extreme grace that was always without balance to the whole life of the believer which followed a lot of what happens today with messages of encouragement and the lack of biblical standards. The power this person released was real, the worship was anointed and with much talent, yet the preaching was off course at best and deceptive and miss-leading at worse. With saying all this I want to show you biblical examples of dead on prophecy in the midst of poor character.
The Prophet of Bethel
In the Thirteenth chapter of First Kings there is a story about a prophet that was sent from Judah to Jeroboham at Bethel to tear down an altar and prophesy. We know nothing about the origins of this prophet, his previous life or prophecies, just that he chosen and sent on this occasion.
I Kings 13: 6 And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.
This prophet that we do not even get a name for shows up unannounced, gives powerful prophecy for those present as well as future generations and is used in healing the hand of Jeroboam as well. Using what happens in the church world today this unnamed prophet would be believed to be practically infallible because of the signs and wonders and not susceptible to being tricked or deceived.
The Old Prophet of Bethel
An old prophet from Bethel comes into the story after the unnamed prophet completes his mission. This old prophet sends messengers to have the new prophet come visit him but the invitation is refuse because the new prophet was told by God not to eat or drink but do his job and return home. This first question is why the old home town prophet was not used by God and we will never know for sure and can only assume that maybe he lost his edge, his objectivity, was too close to the situation, or maybe became complacent. Some today that give blanket endorsement when signs and wonders show up may say that the old prophet was not praying enough, spending enough time in his quiet place, or some other religious/traditional rhetoric but we simple do not know and are not told. To get his way, the old prophet lies and goes himself to say that he is prophet too and an angel told him that the new prophet should return to his house and eat and drink with him. Now maybe you are thinking this is why the old prophet was not used because he had poor character and was so prideful and jealous of the new prophet he lied to him to get in on what God was doing and find out what he missed and you would be wrong most likely!
Lies and Being Deceived
How in the world could a prophet be deceived so easy that just gave prophecy, performed a prophetic act, and healed a hand of leprosy yet he was that easy! He believed the lie of the old prophet and returned to the old prophet’s home. The question is why did he believe the lie? Was it because he was feeling like a prophetic celebrity and got caught up in the moment and did not think?
Liars that Prophesy
In the first part of this story we have a man that we know nothing of his character previous to this story, not even his name and God using him in a very powerful way and now we have the older prophet that our introduction to him is that he is a liar. In fact the lie and the new prophet following for the lie cost the new prophet his life. In our American justice system that almost could be grounds for man-slaughter charges.
I Kings 13: 24 And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.
A guess who prophesied the death of the new prophet and pronounced his failure of not obeying God and letting himself be lied to, the prophet with dead on accurate revelation and prophecy was the lying old prophet.
I Kings 13: 20 And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back: 21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee, 22 But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
This man that moments earlier lied and deceived another minister of God now gives revelation of the failure of the new prophet and consequences of his action to come. In one story you have two prophets, one with problems of being deceived very easily and not sticking with what God told him and the other just being an outright liar with little or no regard for the consequences being used by God to deliver his words. This is not what is taught in the churches today or even understood by believers in general that serious character problems do not necessarily prohibit the gift of a person from being used by God.
Lying Spirit From God?
Moving on to a lying spirit. Most people would think that a spirit that was planting thoughts or prophetic utterances would be from the devil not God but you would be wrong. In the book of I Kings, chapter 22 we find of story of Israel and Judah uniting forces for war and bringing together the prophets to find out what to do.
I Kings 22: 5 And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day. 6 Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
This may actually sound a lot like some of the events advertised today by revivalist organizing prayer and worship events to hear the heart of God. This was not a conference of 400 attendees but a conference with 400 prophets for the nations. Today we would say something like image, all the Kansas City prophets, all the Morning Star prophets, Chuck Pierce, and maybe Kim Clement in one conference how powerful that would be with that much prophetic anointing in one place. These were the Old Testament prophets of the time and there were 400 of them which I would think may overshadow those of today. How could anything go wrong with the volume and gifting. One of the prophets had such powerful revelation that he made horns of iron as objects to demonstrate his prophetic words.
I Kings 22: 11 And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron: and he said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until thou have consumed them.
How convincing that prophetic words and visual aids were used to present that word of God from a gathering of 400 national prophets to the kings of two nations yet it was a word that would lead to death and defeat.
A Gathering Around the Throne
I Kings 22: 19 And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. 20 And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. 21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. 22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.
When man gets caught up in his own plan as was happening at this point in history God is looking for the results he wants not the ones that man wants so God sent a word that would let them think they were going to defeat the enemy that would end in their own defeat. There was one prophet that had it right, Micaiah, which initially gave the same word to the kings. Now one might try to rationalize that this could never happen in New Testament times but God is the same yesterday, today, and forever and so are people. Many people in the renewal, revival, kingdom, and prophetic movements come up with all kinds of plans that often seem to contradict themselves and ignore the simplicity of sending disciples out by twos just to share the good news. Huge city taking events, kingdom now, and glory meetings amongst some seem to overshadow just sharing good news with your neighbor and the love of God to all around us.
Balaam
One last example is Balaam and if you read the story again you will see a very gifted prophetic man that we really know very little about but was anointed so much that God sent an angel with a sword to stop him because of his own carnal natural that was about to corrupt the gifting that came from God. Remember that Satan and all his power were created by God for God and today all power that Satan has, came from God initially and God is allowing him to use that power. Likewise all prophetic gifting is from God but not all prophets or those operating in prophetic gifting are using their gifts properly.
Next week, the fallacy of the encouraging word doctrine.
Flagship Apostolic 
Posted on June 7, 2015
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