Prophecy and Hope - David Mitts
At this I fell at
his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Don't do that! I am a fellow
servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony
of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to
Jesus." (Rev 19:10)
Click here to listen to "Prophesy and Hope"
We have been looking at hope as the tractor beam from the Spirit realm, in our future, that is pulling us to our destiny. We have looked specifically at the role of vision. Vision is the image we carry on the inside of our hearts and minds. It isn’t just what we see but the lens we see it through. Vision determines possibility. If we can’t see it as a possibility, then we tend to believe for what we do see. To change our possibilities in life we need to change how we see in our hearts.
How we see in our hearts is often developed by what we have
listened to in our lives. Words have been spoken into our lives that affect the
image on the inside. The image on the inside affects what we have in our lives.
Therefore, take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to
him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have
will be taken from him." (Luke 8:18)
Our “hearing”, then,
directly affects our hope, our possibility.
Our hearing is the foundation stone of what our lives contain, what we
are entrusted with to be stewards over.
If our hearing
becomes distorted, then our lives project the distortion. Randi Lechner taught me once that people will
only prophesy consistent with their theology, or another way of saying that is
the voice we hear on the inside. Our
beliefs and hopes are reflected by our inner speaking which in turn affects how
to what we will listen.
"The good man out of the good treasure of his heart
brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings
forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. (Luke
6:45)
Hope is one of the
treasures of the heart. It is one of the three abiding keys. 1 Corinthians
13:13 tells us that there are three, faith, hope and love. As an abiding reality, hope has the power to
tap into the Holy Spirit who lives in our heart to empower us to bear fruit.
"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides
in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
(Joh 15:5)
True hope accesses
the abiding reality of the realm of the Spirit.
It is the possibility and the promise that reveals the Messiah who lives
in us and through us to reveal our destiny in Him, what the Bible calls our
glory.
to whom God willed to make known what the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles is, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. (Col 1:27)
Today, I want to
take this one step further to connect hope with prophecy.
Revelations 19:10
tells us that the spirit of prophecy bears testimony to Jesus. To me, this means there is a resonance between
true prophecy and the revelation of who Jesus is.
Another way to
think of this is that false prophecy then would be prophecy that denies who Jesus
is.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the
spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone
out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that
confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit
that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the
antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in
the world.(1Jn 4:1-3)
Certainly, the
direct verbal denial of Jesus is antichrist by definition. Yet there is also a more subtle level of
antichrist that is at work in each of our hearts. This is the true battleground of warfare of
the spirit. This is truly a battle of listening and then speaking.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according
to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely
powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and
every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking
every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, (2Co 10:3-5)
Speculations and
lofty things are antichrists. We have
become so preoccupied with the identity of an individual antichrist while
allowing ourselves to be degree by degree turned into antichrists. How? By
knowledge or internal listening and speaking, which exalts itself against the
knowledge of God. We allow our thoughts
to become rebellious against the knowledge of Messiah as our total salvation,
body soul and spirit.
In this place, we
prophesy a different gospel, one of politics, or one of religious control or
one of narcissism-oriented works that leave us in bondage to god of this
world. We have been conned into thinking
ministry is about identity, my ministry syndrome.
In all of this
hubris, the enemy of our soul laughs at our impotence and challenges us with a
declaration of where is your God! Turn to Psalm 42:3
My tears have been my food day and night, While they say
to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
This is the cry in
our hearts if we are honest. The place
of warfare against the knowledge of who God is to us. David helps us: Psalm
42:4-5
These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within
me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the
house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping
festival. Why are you in despair, o my soul? And why have you become disturbed
within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His Presence.
(Psa 42:4-5)
Hope activates His
Presence in us. But we have to return to
the place of the throngs, the voice of joy and thanksgiving, the rejoicing in
the festivals, the Feasts that recount the destiny of God for God’s children,
the promises of hope.
How do we return?
By owning our listening and thus our speaking.
This is where our life is transformed past, present and future. There is no spiritual reality apart from how
we listen.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
(Rom 10:17).
It isn’t just the
scriptures we listen to by the inner listening to Christ, the anointing that
lives in us through His Spirit which we access by hope, through the knowledge
of His love and through the transformative power of healing that we call faith.
The opposite of
this is antichrist or even witchcraft. Look with me at Gal 3:1-9:
You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? (antichrist)This
is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the Law, or by hearing with
faith? Are you so foolish? Having
begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you
suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who
provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works
of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.
The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS WILL
BE BLESSED IN YOU." So then those who are of faith are blessed with
Abraham, the believer. (Gal 3:1-9)
Do you see the
emphasis on hearing? This is the
foundation of prophecy. The Spirit in us
will speak to us and through us if we see the image of God and are full of
hope.
Christ in us is the
hope of Glory. We access that hope on
the basis of our listening in our heart and then prophesying out of that hope.
When Revelations
tells us that the spirit of prophecy is Jesus, it is telling us that as we come
to know the image of God, who He came to show us, we prophesy that same image. This expands our awareness of what and who we
need to succeed. Our success is the
outflow of our coming together as one.
This is the key to
unlocking the hearing with faith. Faith
comes by hearing but hearing comes by faith.
Faith at it’s core essence is based on what voice we are listening to. If we listen to the image of God, then He
leads us in triumph.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in
Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in
every place. (2Co 2:14)
As our knowledge of
Him increases, so does our expectation, our confident assurance of the things
that He promises us, our hopes and dreams.
God not only has
dreams for us, He has us for His dreams.
He manifests His aroma as we come into unity and operate in
oneness. His fragrance is released as we
surrender and allow the prophetic voice to speak through us which brings about
hope.
Activation:
We are not called to isolation, we are called into relationship. The voice of the Spirit is
confirmed in the image. Remember the image of God is plural, two or more.
"For where two or three have gathered together in My
name, I am there in their midst."(Mat 18:20)
Let’s form groups
of 3 and pray in the Spirit for each other. 2 pray for the 3rd. and
then switch. We are pressing in for the
bigger vision that requires more people to come to pass. Let’s ask the Lord
also to show us something about a person who will be part of the vision.
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