by haRold Smith
from Jerusalem, Israel
"THEN CAME certain of the elders of Israel to me and sat before me. And the word of the Lord came to me:
Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and put the stumbling block of their iniquity and guilt before their faces; should I permit Myself to be inquired of at all by them?
Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols (of self-will and unsubmissiveness) into his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity (idols of silver and gold) before his face, and yet comes to the prophet (to inquire of him), I the Lord will answer him, answer him according to the multitude of his idols, That I may lay hold of the house of Israel in the thoughts of their own mind and heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols.
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who separates himself from Me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity and guilt before his face, and yet comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of Me, I the Lord will answer him Myself!
And I will set My face against that (false worshiper) and will make him a sign and a byword, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.
(The prophet has not been granted permission to give an answer to the hypocritical inquirer) but if the prophet does give the man the answer he desires (thus allowing himself to be a party to the inquirer's sin), I the Lord will see to it that the prophet is deceived in his answer, and I will stretch out My hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel.
And they both shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the iniquity of the (presumptuous) prophet shall be the same as the iniquity of the (hypocritical) inquirer, That the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people, and I may be their God, says the Lord God." Ezekiel 14:1-11
Within just a very short time after meeting this One True God Who is Truth and beginning a life-long journey of understanding Who He is, He gave me a glimpse into this spirit world we occupy and I saw the face of the spirit of deception up close and personal. What I saw scared me. It scared me so much, that right then and there I told the Lord that if He ever found me in the grips of that spirit of deception, He had my total permission to do what ever it took to get me out. Being young at the time, I thought that to be a pretty safe prayer because I could not imagine myself being in that situation to begin with, let alone conceive of a set of circumstances that would so captivate me. Little did I know that 20 years later the Lord would look down at this miserable wreck of a life I had created (still believing myself to be aligned with Him), reach into His pocket and say, "Look at what I have here - a get out of jail free card." In His Graciousness, in His Mercy, He honored that prayer and, today, I am so glad He did. The issue itself that put me into that state is not of importance, for any one of us could find ourselves in a similar position over a host of issues. What is important to know is that spirit cost me everything I had held dear in life - wife, family, friends, possessions, honor and dignity. I am so eternally grateful that Elohim had compassion on me. It was something He didn't have to do - I have no one to blame but myself for being as deceived as I was.
What I had seen in the face of that spirit that scared me so badly back then, was that when you are deceived - you don't know it. In fact, you will go to great lengths to defend what you believe to be true even in the face of those who are closest to you, those who you would normally trust, telling you otherwise. So how did I get in that predicament? How does someone who loves the Lord, is filled with the Holy Spirit and is determined to walk righteously before God and men wind up in such a dark place?
The passage of scripture above from Ezekiel is extremely revealing of the manner by which the Lord shows Himself to us. We become deceived through self-will (a determination to succeed in our endeavor at all costs) and an unsubmissive heart (an unwillingness to listen, to hear Him through the Body of believers He has surrounded us with). As a result, because we THINK we are hearing His Voice properly, we come to believe He is condoning our walk and, thus, we become determined to see what we believe to be Him through to the end - regardless of the cost of relationships, regardless of what others are saying to us and regardless of the pitfalls we continually encounter that we think are the enemy trying to keep us from 'doing the will of the Lord.' I have news for you - the enemy cannot thwart the will of God (1John 4:4 - click on highlighted references to view scripture). - only we can do that. If it seems to be happening that the enemy is continually preventing you from carrying out God's mission - it probably isn't God. The Lord doesn't need you to accomplish His Plans and Purposes in this earthly realm. He wants to use you as a vessel through which He can manifest Himself - but He doesn't need you. He can use rocks and donkeys if He has to.
What is sobering about that passage is that God says HE WILL CONTINUE TO SPEAK TO US. But, because we have set up these self-will and unsubmissiveness idols before the face of our heart, those idols then become a filtering mechanism by which His Words travel THROUGH those idols ('I will answer him according to the multitude of his idols') so that by the time His Words reach our spiritual ears, they are skewed - they have lost their original meaning and intent. Since we hear those words coming from the same Voice we have become accustomed to, however, we become deceived into thinking He is certifying and sanctioning our way when just the opposite is true. When He sends us others to speak to our waywardness, we write them off as being insensitive to the Spirit because WE HAVE HEARD GOD. Folks, I don't know about you - but, to me, that's a scary place to be in.
The sneaky thing about the way this spirit works is that he doesn't just hit you all at once with a big fat falsehood - that would be too obvious. He sets you up little by little into believing you are hearing more clearly than anyone else in your immediate range of connectedness to others in the Body. In the time prior to my being totally enveloped in deception as well as when I was in the depths of darkness, God kept sending people by who would try for a while to convince me that I needed to consider some other facts - but I wouldn't listen, eventually wearing them out to the extent they just quit trying. Scripture says the way we stay out of error is to hear our brothers (1John 4:6). I am not talking about every winky-dink that comes off the highway - but those whom He has put us in close proximity with, that have shown themselves to be trustworthy in deed as well as in word. These are the ones that we must listen to. If they are speaking something counter to what we think God is saying, we must lay down at the feet of the Father what we think Him to be saying to us and WAIT on Him to give us HIS DISCERNMENT. He is faithful to do that if we don't try to possess what we are wrestling over.
We need each other if we are to hear His Voice in Purity and in Truth. Determination and an unwillingness to walk in humility of Spirit that would allow the Lord to change our course, our direction, is what will keep us from that Truth. I know many of you reading this are coming up with a thousand excuses in your mind as to why you shouldn't listen to those around you. I know because I have heard them all - I was in the clutches of those thoughts for a lot of years. That way of thinking is designed by the enemy to isolate you and to keep you from comparing notes with others in the Body of Christ. The reason the Body, the Church, spoken of in Acts 5 walked in the Power they did was because they understood this concept of 'being in one accord' and in Ephesians 4:3 of 'maintaining" the unity of the Spirit ALREADY among us. The way they did that was to hear one another and not be so stubborn when it comes to the things of the Spirit. We are ALL susceptible to error otherwise.
I wrote this article prior to the elections being held in the United States. The Lord told me to wait until after the elections were over to post it so as to judge what prophesy there was being flung around the Body of Christ that somehow the outcome of that election was in the hands of believers. For weeks prior to this presidential election, inboxes have been filled from those who said they were speaking for God with panic-stricken prophecies, calls to all night prayer and fasting vigils and urgent repentance over all the iniquity that has been committed by the nation. We were told that, if those things were done with earnestness, if we would 'hold on to the end' in our belief there would be a last minute miracle and all would be well - 'our guy would win.' But, more importantly it seemed, 'the enemy would be vanquished.'
So - what happened? Did God make a mistake? Did we as a people fail the test? Did the enemy overwhelm God? No. What happened was there were a lot of people who thought more highly of themselves than they should have and proclaimed themselves as speaking for God things that He never said. How can I say that? Because scripture tells us to judge prophecy (1Corinthians 14:29) and there are three distinct tests to determine the validity of whether the Lord is actually in those words - or not.
The first and primary test of prophecy is - does it come to pass. (Jeremiah 28:9) In the original Book, those prophets were given one opportunity to be wrong. If it didn't come to pass, they were stoned to death. Fortunately, for those of us who are called into that realm today, we live in an age of Grace where the consequences for failure are not quite as harsh as they were back then - but the seriousness with which the Lord places on such speaking is still measured with considerable weight, not something to be taken lightly. If it does not come to pass, simply put - it is not God.
The second test of prophecy is - is it validated by scripture? (Matthew 22:29) Does it confirm what God is already revealing to us or does it lead us away from the precepts of the Father in any aspect and point us in another direction from which we are motivated to action. God will not deny Himself - He is not the author of confusion. If it is not clearly found in a balanced, measured regard in scripture - it is not God.
And, lastly, is it in keeping with the testimony of the Life of Yeshua (Revelation 19:10). Does it elevate the Character of Who He is? Does it speak of His Nature of Purity, Love and, yes, unvarnished Righteousness? Does it align itself with the Life He lived among us as an example for us to walk? He is Love. Perfect Love casts out fear. We fear God because of the awesomeness of Who He is, not because He is subjecting Himself upon us. If it instills fear, a terror of what will happen if we do not do a thing properly - it is not God.
Weighed against these three tests, most of the prophecy put out by well-meaning believers prior to and concerning the election was false. There has been a spirit of deception like none other before loosed upon this earth to fulfill what is written in scripture concerning this time. If we are not careful, even the very elect would be deceived (Matthew 24:24).
It would not have mattered who was elected President or what party would have been ushered into power. This is not about a political regime or a subservient government bending to the will of a people. This spirit of deception is one that would try to convince us that there is something we as the righteous can do in praying that would actually be to thwart the Plans and Purposes the Lord God has set in motion. While that might have been true at one time, today, the whole of all the nations are now set on a collision course with Israel to fulfill the prophesies contained in the Book (Zechariah 14, specifically verse 1-5). The forces that have been loosed upon the earth are designed to hasten the return of HaMashiach ben David, setting the stage for Him to rule from Yerushalyim. These forces make it impossible for any nation to do anything but to align themselves against Israel. The very fact of her vulnerability in the face of these nations arrayed against her is what will cause the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to not forget His Covenant with His People and rise to her defense. The time for prayer over a nation has ended - save for Israel. The time for prayer over a people has ended save for that remnant whom the Lord will cause to cling to His Bosom - and for the People of Israel.
Most of us consider judgment to be fire and brimstone God meets out to people for misdeeds against Him. Yeshua said He did not come to judge us - but there is a judgment that has come into the world. The judgment Yeshua speaks of in
John 3:18-21
is that Light has come into the world and men loved darkness more than they loved to bring their deeds into the Light for reproof, to see if they be wrought in God - or not. Most don't understand that judgment is something we bring upon ourselves by the choices we make to remain in darkness
(Romans 2:4-6)
or to live in Light - that, too, is a judgment of a different nature.
When we choose to embrace those judgments willingly, that is what causes us to become righteous (Psalm 19:9-11). By so doing they become a part of us, they become Life to us, they live within us - we carry judgment within us. As we allow that Life to begin to shine through our words and deeds, as Yeshua did, the Father's judgments then become manifest through our life as it was with Yeshua because, after all, it is His Life we are talking about. The darkness of men's hearts we encounter begin to become exposed, placing upon them the responsibility for the choices made in their own behalf - to embrace Light or to remain in darkness (2Thessalonians 1:4-6). If we walk in the Light of judgment, as He is in the Light - we then can have fellowship one with another because we are walking together in righteousness (1John 1:7). That Light shines through the Body of Believers congregated around us within whom He Lives. If we are to stay on course, we need one another. With all our faults, with all our short-comings, with all our idiotness - we need one another if we are to stay free of deception (1John 3:16).
| "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31 |