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 3^rd. 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.