We have discussed signs and wonders and healings which are miracles whereby, in their own way, God speaks to us.
Here we will discuss and testify to many other kinds of miraculous events like angelic appearances, super strength, prayerfully overcoming powerful thugs and rapists, unexpected monetary blessings, etc.
These subjects will then conclude my teaching on the ways in which God speaks to us.
Thank you.
Friday, April 25, 2008
19. God speaks to us thru miracles
18. God speaks to us thru trial-and-error.
In the book of Acts, it is pointed out that Paul sought God's will for his next ministerial move by using the trial and error method.
Acts 16:6 - 8 - Then they passed thru Phrygia and the Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia.
And having come down to the borders of Mysia, by a trial and error method they kept on attempting to discover whether it was right to go to Bithynia. But the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them to do so...(Wuest's Expanded Translation of the New Testament)
One way to discover God's will in a matter is to try to do what seems right to you but at the same time, to be fully prepared to back off from it if God should send some kind of a hindrance to point out your error.
The story of Balaam and his donkey (Numbers 22 thru 24) is a great example of God speaking by sending hindrances to a man, to try to correct his misguided course of action. Had he not been so stubborn in his evil course, he would have seen these hindrances as God's signal of error in his actions and he would have backed away from them. But he didn't, so later he paid the price of his own death for that stubborn pursuit of an erroneous pathway (Joshuah 13:22).
Thank you.
17. God speaks to us thru 2 or more witnesses.
II Corinthians 13:1b - ...every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
God has elected to occasionally speak to us thru the agreeing testimony of more than one witness.
Ecclesiastes 4:9 - 12 -Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.
Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
When Jesus was being tried by the Sanhedrin, no two agreeing witnesses could be found because the devil and his forces are so divisive that they cannot agree on anything, even something as important to him as prosecuting Jesus Christ.
Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, "We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'"
Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.
So, God can elect speak to us thru the consistent testimony of two or more witnesses to give us the truth on some matters.Thank you.
16. God speaks to us thru many counselors
Wise counselors are men and women who are given special insights by God to be good advisers on certain issues. These people are made available by God to those making decisions in life so that they may choose wise and prudent courses of action for their affairs which will better them and as many of those involved with them as possible.
Proverbs 15:22 - Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.
Wise people will seek out, carefully listen to and then seriously consider the advice of all of those that they can find who might be knowledgeable of their circumstances and needs.
Proverbs 11: 14 -Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.
They will realize that God Himself could be using the mouths of any of these advisers to enlighten them about and to wisely guide them thru their affairs of life. So, in this manner God can speak to the wise.
15. God speaks to us thru all of our authorities
John 19:11 - ...You would not have any power or authority whatsoever...if it were not given you from above.
According to Jesus, all human power and authority comes down from God. It is distributed to each according to God's will, which all know can be so inscrutable.
Isaiah 55:8 - For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.
So God says in His Word that we are to position ourselves under all of the authorities and powers which He places over us so that he may richly bless us and not punish us.
Romans 13: 1 - 7 - Let every person be loyally subject to the governing (civil) authorities. For there is no authority except from God [by His permission, His sanction], and those that exist do so by God's appointment.
Therefore he who resists and sets himself up against the authorities resists what God has appointed and arranged [in divine order]. And those who resist will bring down judgment upon themselves [receiving the penalty due them]
For civil authorities are not a terror to [people of] good conduct, but to [those of] bad behavior. Would you have no dread of him who is in authority? Then do what is right and you will receive his approval and commendation. For he is God's servant for your good.
But if you do wrong, [you should dread him and] be afraid, for he does not bear and wear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant to execute His wrath (punishment, vengeance) on the wrongdoer.
Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath and escape punishment, but also as a matter of principle and for the sake of conscience.
God constantly works in the lives of men and women thru the powers and authorities which He places over us thru Divinely ordained life circumstances. This is a huge subject and one to which, over time, I will keep adding more Scriptures and testimonies. Suffice to say for now that we need to see anyone who is over us in any way (even if that person or those people are being difficult to deal with) as being a divinely ordained minister for our good!
So, learn to hear God speaking to you in the words and actions of any of your authorities including all civil authorities and...
parents
older relatives
older siblings
your boss(es) at work
any administrator(s) over you
your church officers
etc.
In fact, Jesus admonished us to go so far as to consider ourselves as being servants of all if we wished to be great in God's sight!
14. God speaks to us in healings.
I Corinthians 4: 20 - For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.
God is actually speaking to us in power, not in words, whenever He brings about a miraculous healing. By giving us a powerful healing He is telling us that He exists and He is helping us. In the book of Acts a number of miraculous healings and even some resurrections from the dead are described. In every case, the observers of the miraculous event confessed that they saw God's working in it. So, can it not be said that God spoke to them in power in these events?
One time I was visiting my mother and she mentioned to me about how she had lost most of her pep recently and she was becoming very distraught about it. So I responded that I would pray for her to get it back but in the meantime, perhaps she should go to a doctor for a checkup.
A couple of days later I was visiting her again and she exclaimed to me how the next morning after I told her that I would pray for her, all of her old pep came back! We both saw this as a miracle from God and rejoiced together in it. To me this was a wonderful, welcome message from God, saying to her that...
Hebrews 11:6b - ...He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
Another time a woman who worked with me told me that her mother-in-law was seriously ill and riddled with cancer and that she was about to be operated upon the next day. She then told me how much she valued and appreciated her mother-in-law and could not imagine life without her and she was terrified that she would die soon. She told me that the whole family revolved around her wonderful goodness and that her loss would be a disaster for all of them. So I asked her if she could believe that God would heal her?
She responded that she believed that of course God could do it but she did not have any faith that He would do it. So I asked her if she could just have faith that He might heal her. "Yes" she said, she could believe that He might heal her but not that He would for sure heal her. So we prayed together in agreement on that, humbly asking God if He might heal her.
James 4:6b - God...gives grace to the humble.
The day after the operation she came to work rejoicing. She said that when the surgeon opened her mother-in-law up there was not one trace of any cancer being present. He even asked the hospital personnel if they had the right woman on his operating table!
Deuteronomy 32:39b - ...I wound, and I heal...
We both saw this as an event in which God spoke to us in power.
Here is another example of the Lord speaking to us in the power of a miraculous healing.
A lady that I know of had very sore knees. She thought that it was arthritis but I sensed that perhaps a demon was in them. So boldly I commanded the demon to come out of her knees in the name of Jesus and instantly the pain left them. Then I encouraged her to get up and walk around. She did so, no longer hindered in any way.
Again, God spoke to us in the miraculous removal of her pain and discomfort saying that demons can immobilize people but God can remove them. The Lord speaks to us in every healing (or any other miracle for that matter) but He speaks in power, not in words because the kingdom of God consists in power. We just need to learn to hear Him in His manifested power.
13. God speaks to us thru the casting of lots.
Proverbs 16:33 - The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord [even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him].
Is the flipping of coins a viable way to hear from God today? David used something similar (the Urim and the Thumim) to repeatedly inquire of God as to when or how to do battle.
The priests would use this device to determine the guilt or innocence of parties to crimes unseen by humans.
The first apostles resorted to the lot to inquire of God as to which of the accompanying disciples was to replace Judas and become known as one of the twelve apostles.
Acts 1:26 - And they drew lots [between the two], and the lot fell on Matthias
In my own life I feel that I have been moved by the Lord to utilize the casting of lots to help me to find God's will for many, many different events. I have cast lots hundreds of times over the past 25 years of ministry using the yes or no answer symbolized by a coin flip of heads or tails.
However, in order to be sure that God truly wanted to so speak to me whenever I felt moved to cast a lot on an issue, the first coin flip was to ask Him if He did want to so speak to me (heads = yes, tails = no). Whenever I received a tails = no answer to that first coin flip I would then proceed the hard way to act in that event about which I was inquiring. I took that path in order to be sure that I was not self gratifying in my actions.
If I was given the heads = yes answer to go ahead cast another lot on the issue and then I received a tails = no answer, I did the same thing. If I received a heads = yes answer to my query, I would proceed down that path and if it was the easier path I would proceed without fear of self gratification. Either way, in following this procedure, I always reached peace about the matter of which I was inquiring and I always ended up blessed in my subsequent actions.
I do not recommend this method of seeking God's will to anyone who is not absolutely wholehearted to do His will. Remember that after Saul ceased to be sold out to God, he could no longer find the Lord's will thru his use of the Urim and the Thummim!
I Samuel 28:4 - 6 - So the Philistines gathered together and came and camped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together and they camped in Gilboa.
When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly.
When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.
Also remember that we are not fighting enemies of flesh and blood but we are standing against evil enemies of the spirit world who wish to misdirect us in all of our affairs. So, tools like this one and others like dreams and visions appear like foolishness to the worldly wise who have fallen into their mind trap. But they are actually brilliantly designed faith weapons from God which in certain circumstances are the only means that God will use to show us to not fall for their misdirections!Never underestimate any of these spiritual devices and not utilize or follow them or you may be very sorry!
12. God speaks to us thru signs and wonders.
God may elect at any time to speak to His believers thru signs and wonders that He will create by which for them to believe more strongly in Him. Signs and wonders are only for believers and they accompany the correct preaching and teaching of God's Word.
Mark 16:20b - ..the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Like sign posts on a road they can become remembrance points in our lives to remind us of His directions to us for some of our affairs. The following testimonies about signs and wonders from God are in that vein.
Marriage within God's will.
This is a story about a prophetic sign God that gave to one of the brethren in our home fellowship when he was struggling over marrying within God's will.
One evening a few of the brethren and I were driving on a toll road just outside of
We discussed the pros and the cons of unequal yoking for a while then we all prayed together for guidance. Just as we opened our eyes, we found ourselves driving up to a huge roadside commercial billboard that was emblazoned with lights that announced in the darkness -
ZENITH - THE QUALITY GOES IN BEFORE THE NAME GOES ON!
Immediately it entered my mind and I told him that I felt that this billboard was a sign from God to him.
Habakkuk 2:2 - "Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance...(the Living Bible)
I felt that we had been guided by God to see this message as applying to his situation, just after we prayed about the matter.
Hebrews 4:12 - for the word of God is living and active...
I felt that God was speaking a word right to him thru the billboard, telling him that in order for him to have a zenith marriage, a really top quality marriage, he should first make sure that the girl was saved before he married her, whereby she would assume his name!
Habakkuk 2:2 - Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness - pointing to what's coming... (the Message Bible).
I also told him that I felt that the billboard's bright lights were a sign that when he did this, he'd have a wonderful marriage in the darkness of so many bad marriages occurring in our times.
He looked with huge eyes at that sign and he heard my interpretation of it and he knew in his heart that this was a prophetic word to him from God and that my interpretation of it was right. But he still struggled because he wanted to get married to her as soon as possible in order to vent his incessant passions.
Habakkuk
If it seems slow in coming, just wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time (the Message Bible).
He knew in his heart and was convicted that he was being called by God to wait for Him to do His saving work with her, even though it might be a painful, long wait for him. Finally, he quit struggling against the message and agreed that he would wait for her salvation to happen first, before proposing marriage to her.
As he confessed this, I felt moved to expound to him that sometimes Jesus, as the master fisherman, uses an attractive man or woman as bait to allure a potential mate into their salvation. He uses that unsaved person's unfulfilled desires which are pressing upon them (just as they are upon the saved person), to cause him or her to really listen to the gospel message coming forth from that strongly desired but resistant, potential Christian mate.
God then led me to go on and mention to him that on the other hand, He may want to use some other minister to do the job of leading that unbeliever to Christ, while the saved potential mate stonewalls and suffers and waits, because any suffering on the part of one of the Father's dear children moves strongly upon Him to deliver that child from it.
Forgiveness
Here's another example of a wonderful message from God given in a sign that could be read on the run...
One day I was very upset with myself because I had accidentally betrayed a confidence with my uncontrolled mouth. Ever since I was a young person I had always talked too much and over the years as a Christian I felt that I had been getting this problem under control. But this night, as I drove along, I was under great conviction about this still recurring flaw and I was bawling like a baby before the Lord about it and its consequences. Suddenly a car pulled right in front of me and my tear filled eyes fell upon its license plate which said -
IEXCUSU
At the sight of those words and the realization that they were a sign to me, sent from God; a prophetic word by which He was reassuring me and comforting me, all of my tears of repentance turned into tears of joy.
Then I began praising God for this wonderful message of forgiveness to me in my heartfelt distress. I also began pondering and then marveling at all that He had to do in order to to put that particular car with that particular license plate right in front of me at that particular moment! Truly this sign on the run was a wonder for me to behold!
Deliverance and Freedom
This is a major testimony of a convergence of many signs and wonders that were in the spirit of Moses in Egypt sent to announce the deliverance of an entire fellowship from personal and financial bondage!
A new apostle of whom I know was married to a woman who went to church and to Bible studies with him for a year or so. But after she confessed to him that she felt the call from God to tithe, she then resisted that call, hardened her heart and abandoned all of their Bible studies together and her church attendance.
I Timothy 6:10 - for the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith...
So it wasn't long before the devil had her mocking and ridiculing him about his continued growing faith in the Word of God. She said that she felt that he was going way off the deep end with his Biblical religion. She said this because, he had confided to her about his apostolic calling and how he was experiencing many of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit and a whole variety of signs and wonders. The devil now firmly ensconced within her snidely asked him which apostle he felt that he was; Peter, Paul, James or John?
This couple had been struggling financially for a long time and they were just beginning to prosper in their business. So she did not want to give away any of their new-found prosperity into tithing. Therefore, in order to continue to justify herself and fight off God's call to her, she would constantly negate any and all of her husband's testimonies of God's workings in his life by attributing them to pure coincidence or to his imagination or to chance.
When someone she knew very well had a doctor certified healing from cancer right after that person had prayed for a healing with her husband, she said to him that he just got lucky?!? So her hardened heart just kept getting harder and harder towards him and towards God.
One day she encountered a Catholic priest who, upon hearing her complaint about him, told her that he had ministered for years in a religious psychiatric institution and that he had seen much of this kind of apostle-delusion and that it was invariably incurable. He informed her that, from what she was telling him, he felt that her husband was probably going into this same kind of delusional psychosis.So she latched onto that opinion to further justify herself against him and then she secretly began divorce proceedings.In the meantime, his life with her just got more and more difficult and bitter, which led him to pray long and hard for God to improve their situation and show him how best to deal with her until things did get better.
Ecclesiastes 7:26a - ...more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains.
One day a freak hailstorm hit their neighborhood and big hailstones shattered all of the front windows in their house. She told him that she was at home alone when it happened and the shattering windows frightened her so badly that she hid behind the sofa in terror until the storm passed!
Next, a small plague of fruit flies which she could not eradicate infested their kitchen for a while. After that he came upon about 20 or so small dead frog carcasses on the floor in his daughter's bedroom! When he showed them to his wife and asked her where these could have come from she told him that unbeknownst to him their daughter had bought some tadpoles. She said that the child probably forgot about them and they must have grown big enough to jump out of their bowl and die from starvation right there on the bedroom floor.
Then God gave him a revelation that these unique events were signs to him telling him that his wife had entered into the pharaoh spirit of hardheartedness and stubbornness. He also felt God telling him to not entertain any bitterness towards her over her resistance to Him but that humility was the way for him to deal with her pharaoh spirit, just as Moses had humility towards the Egyptian Pharaoh and it led to Israel's deliverance.
Numbers 12:3 - Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man on the face of the earth.
During the events leading up to this potentially disastrous day a prophet in the group had been given the verse...
Romans 8:1 - There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.The whole fellowship had confirmed this verse's quickening within each of them as applying to the forthcoming day's home condemnation. So prayers of belief and faith in that verse's validity for their situation ensued.
Suddenly someone noticed that 2 of the wallpapered walls in the main room were almost entirely glossing over with roof leak water from the rainstorm. As one of their prophets saw it, he exclaimed, "Walls of water! I believe that God is using these wet walls to signal us that tomorrow we'll all be delivered from our problems, just as Israel was!"
Well, the next morning the renter of the house was unexpectedly handed a few hundred dollars! It came as a loan from a person who had refused to lend any money to him before, but who that morning had a change of heart and brought the loan to him. It was more than enough cash to pay the electric bill, which he immediately did!
He came back home with the paid receipt just as the city inspectors arrived. So he showed them this document which said the electric would be turned on that day (which it was). This receipt stopped the inspector's condemnation so just as the word of knowledge said - there was no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus!
What money was left also tided him over until the court settlement check that he was expecting any day, came in (and from which the loan was easily and quickly repaid).
That same morning, this apostle's fully backslidden (at best) wife drove over to further disrespect him and after she left, her car's brakes failed and totally immobilized her car, leaving her stranded on the highway. He found out about it later that day and this was interpreted as a sign from the Lord telling him that just as God knocked off the wheels of the Egyptian Pharaoh's army chariots when they went between the walls of water, He had similarly done that to her car's wheels for coming by the holy place where He had formed the wallpapered walls of water.
Ecclesiastes 7:26b, (a) - One who is pleasing to the Lord will be freed from (the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains)Right after that, the divorce proceedings from her (which that apostle knew nothing about) came up for trial. When he got over his surprise and initial hurt as he was notified of the proceedings, he felt moved by God to not attend them nor contest the divorce in any way. So during the court proceedings, he was freed by the judge from his marriage to his now demonic wife but without their home or their business which were both in her name alone and all of which she had requested in the divorce suit.
Because he did not attend she won the divorce and both of these properties by default. He had put both of them exclusively into her name because he loved her and if he died, he wanted her to have both of them without having to go thru state probate. So, even though she was killing him out of her life with this divorce and he was hurt terribly by it, he still loved her greatly and he still wanted her to be happy and to have the house and the business in spite of everything. Therefore, in his heart he approved of all of his loss that God permitted to occur.
John 15:13 - Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
But to her chagrin, on one item the judge did rule unexpectedly in his favor. That was to give him all of his IRA retirement money which they had been saving and which, in her now ravenous, devilish greed, she was trying to keep for herself!
With those unanticipated and greatly appreciated funds combined with the other brother's anticipated settlement funds (which he soon received), this small fellowship pulled entirely out of all of their financial distress. Between both of these monetary miracles they had enough money to buy a full ensemble of musical instruments and recording equipment for their music ministry for which they had been praying. They also had enough left over for a six month deposit on a new, modern, well heated, rental townhouse big enough for the apostle and the hosting family to live in!
Opening the Bible to the page
Many Christians have testified to opening to the exact page in the Bible which contained a verse or a passage that directly spoke to them on a matter in their life. The most famous of these that I know of is the testimony of the World War I American hero, Sergeant York. He had His Bible open when he was praying and the wind blew its pages until it stopped on a page with a verse that answered his question to God about whether or not he should go to war.
So here is my testimony about just such an event...
One evening, just after I had just finished reading the whole Bible for the first time, I got into a conversation about it with a Catholic relative of mine. In the course of our conversation I mentioned to her how surprised I was to read that God had moved 2 of His prophets walk around naked, as a testimony against Israel and Judah. To this she responded, "I read my Bible all of the time and I've never read anything like that in there. You must be nuts!"
Well, I just happened to have a brand new copy of the Good News Bible with me, so I pulled it out and told her I'd try to find the verse. Of course, she smugly stated that I'd never find it because it wasn't there!
So I pulled off its cellophane wrapping and flipped it open towards the middle where the prophetic books are located.
Then I looked at the page that I happened to open to and in shock I exclaimed, "Look, it's right here on this page (Isaiah 20:1)! I opened right to the page! Can you believe that! 1200+ pages in this brand spanking new Bible and I just happened to open it right to the exact page! This is a miracle! God opened it to this page for me because I didn't really know where to find it. So, now do you believe it's in your Bible?"
She was embarrassed in front of the whole family, but she stubbornly stuck to her guns by trying to close the subject with, "I know that that verse is not in my Catholic Bible!" So I let her off the hook by responding, "When you go home, look up Isaiah chapter 20, verse 1, in your Catholic Bible and see if it's not there!" Of course, she's never told me whether she did this or not and I've never asked.
Proverbs 9:8 - So don't waste your time on a scoffer; all you'll get for your pains is abuse.The outcome of a Christian's Dissipations
This is a testimony of how living and active even a very small, obscure passage in the Word of God can really be!
There was an occasion where some of the brothers in the fellowship and I were visiting my relative at a drug abuse program and ministering the gospel to all of those whom we met there. As we hopped into my van to leave, an old man came up to us and asked us for a ride to a suburb over 50 miles away. He said that he had no money and that he had no way to get home.
Well, I had a full tank of gas and we all had the rest of the afternoon free so we talked it over amongst ourselves and agreed to take him there. During the ride we preached to him about salvation and he assured us that he had already received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior many, many years ago. Then he told us that he was in reduced circumstances and he could only get short-lasting part time jobs or occasional odd jobs. He said that he went to church regularly but he was always broke so he had to live with one of his relatives to whom we were taking him. We then asked him why he thought that God was not letting him prosper?
Sheepishly, he responded that he'd probably never get ahead because he was a habitual frequenter of prostitutes. We asked him how he could do that as a Christian and why he didn't stop it and just look for a wife of his own? He then confessed that he probably would never do that because no matter how many times he repented of it, there was just something about the working girls that got to him on and every time he had any money at all, he was compelled to run right over to one and give it to her for her services.
Of course we then counseled him to seek addiction help from a church counselor or his minister.
As we finished this discussion we arrived at the place to which he was going. So we let him out and told him that we'd be praying for him. He thanked us for that and then asked if we had any food in the van because he was hungry and he didn't think there was any food where he was going.
Well, we were all broke but I had purchased a loaf of bread earlier for my house with my last couple of dollars and that's all that we had with us. So I offered it to him and he took it gratefully and left.
The next day I happened to read the following verse...
Proverbs 6:26 - For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread!Here's another testimony that is similar in nature.
Again, some of the brethren and I were driving in my van. This time we had a new convert on board whom we were carrying to one of our meetings. As we came to a stop sign there was a very pretty girl standing on the corner. This new convert was sitting in the front passenger seat so he noticed her first as we pulled up to the corner and he said, "Hey, look at that cutie!" Then, as we stopped at the crossing, she saw him and she smiled and called to him and beckoned him alluringly by posing and crooking her finger, signaling him to get out of the van and join her.
At that he exclaimed, "Do you see that! She wants me! That pretty thing wants me!" to which I felt led to respond, "But so does God! The question now is which one do you want, He who created that cutie or her, one of his creations?" So he looked at her and then he looked at me and then he looked at her again, to which she then made an exaggerated kiss gesture at him and mouthed, "Come here!" while still wiggling her finger.
"God Almighty she's a doll and she wants me!" he blurted out struggling with the temptation. I felt led to go on, "Then maybe I should just drop you off here so she can have you. But if I do, just remember this, that very God Almighty that you just mentioned in your excitement only reaches out so much to each person and if you leave now you may never be given another chance from Him to come back to Him! That girl could actually be Satan standing right there, using her beauty to lure you right now into eternal damnation!"
He struggled for a moment longer and then finally decided to stick with us and said,"Ah, let's just go!" As we drove off, in my rear view mirror I could see the devil making sure that she showed that she was not too pleased by disgustedly waving him off. But thank God that this young man made the right choice!
Proverbs 9:13 - 18 - A prostitute is loud and brash...she stands at the street corners of the city, whispering to men going by..."Come home with me," she urges simpletons, "Stolen melons are the sweetest; stolen apples taste best!" But they don't realize that her former guests are now citizens of hell!(the Living Bible)
Again, here in this event, the Word of God was living and active.
Giving the Lord His due
One day one of my younger relatives mentioned to me how he had just purchased a speed boat and how he was going to spend his summer weekends on it. Suspecting that he was backslidden, I then asked him when he was going to go to be able to go church if all of his weekends were so occupied? He replied that he didn't feel that he needed to go to church.
So I then pointed out to him that it seemed to me that in the Bible the Lord asks His true believers to give Him at least a seventh of their time and a tenth of their money. He responded that he didn't think that my beliefs applied to him. So I let the conversation end on that note.
That weekend he got into a boating accident and his new boat was completely ruined! Some drunk in a bigger boat rammed his boat in a spot that made it irreparable. When he told me about it I suggested that maybe he was mistaken about churching and tithing and perhaps the Lord was using this loss to get him to reconsider his beliefs. He responded smugly that he hadn't lost anything because his boat insurance was going to totally replace it, so he didn't see this event as any reason to reconsider his beliefs.
A couple of weeks later he received his new boat and went off again on Friday for another of his boating weekends. A few hours later he came back thoroughly disgruntled. When he encountered me he bitterly snarled, "The Lord got His tithe!" and he stormed away from me.
It seems that as he was driving to the river with his boat cover wadded up inside his boat, a passing smart aleck motorist must have flipped a lit cigarette into it and that set it afire! When he noticed the smoke in his rear-view mirror he pulled right over, just happening to stop right in front of a church. So he ran to the church door for help but the old maintenance man there said that he could not help him. My relative saw a fire extinguisher hanging there on a wall of the church but the maintenance guy would not let him use it. He would only let him use the phone to call the fire department which he did but by the time they arrived, the boat was utterly destroyed.
So when he told me the whole story later I mentioned to him that when we are not doing that which we know that we should be doing with God, we can lose some of our protection from evil and this can result in these kinds of bad things occurring.
Demonic Truck Driver
One of the men in the first church that I attended upon my conversion to Christ told me this story of his conversion.
Late one night after he'd been on a drunken binge for over a week, he was driving his tractor trailer on an interstate in a very remote area in one of the northwest states. As he proceeded in this dark, barren area he approached another tractor trailer. So he went to pass it and as he did so he looked over to wave to its driver.
To his utter horror there was a huge, terribly ugly frog driving that truck and leering at him!
In shock he finished passing it, trembling uncontrollably yet not really believing what he'd just seen. Then it sped up and began to pass him. He looked over again at the driver and sure enough, there was that horrible, ugly, evil frog leering at him. So he slowed down to let it go by but it slowed down right with him, scaring him immeasurably. For quite a few miles he could not shake it. It just stayed right even with him no matter how he drove with its demon driver learing evilly at him. Now he was in abject terror. He began to feel like maybe he had died and gone to hell! So he began to think of his dissipated life and how it had led to this terrifying experience.
After about a half an hour, which felt like a lifetime to him, he saw a motel sign off of the road to the right so he exited right to it. Fortunately, the other truck was in the left lane so it just kept on going. When he parked, he grabbed his gun from the truck just in case it came after him and he took a room there.
When he entered the room, there was a Gideon Bible sitting out on the dresser. Well, he said that he grabbed it and began reading it and praying and repenting like crazy and begging God to save him! He said that he never wanted to see that horrible frog ever again and he knew right then and there that he needed Jesus Christ in his life from then on in order to forever avoid it. If you think about the timing and manifestation of all of these signs and wonders for a while, you will begin to realize and then believe that these things could not be just coincidental! And to further inspire you, I will be putting up many, many more of these kinds of testimonies here as they come back to mind. So, please come back to this entry occasionally to read the new testimonies that I'll be tacking into it.
Thank you and may God richly bless you.
11. God speaks to us in dreams and visions.
Sometimes God elects to speak to us in our dreams even though (and probably because) most of us think pretty lightly of them. God can use them as a means to give us directions for all kinds of tasks. The best example of this is when He spoke repeatedly as an angel, to Jesus' stepfather Joseph in his dreams, giving him understanding and directing his actions regarding his very unique stepson and the child's mother!
Matthew 1:18 - 25 - Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."
And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.
Matthew 2:13b - 15 - ...behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him."
So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON."
Matthew 2:19 - 23 - But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, "Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child's life are dead."
So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: "He shall be called a Nazarene."
God also spoke to Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel in many important dreams as written about in the Old Testament.
God may also decide to speak in visions, during which the recipient may be asleep or awake. He spoke to Paul in an awake vision that no one else near him could fully perceive.
Acts 9:3b - 7 - ...suddenly a light from heaven flashed around Paul; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do."
The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.
So, as is described in these Scriptures, dreams and visions are 2 means that God may use to direct His Christians in their activities for him. Sometimes the Lord will combine them as when Peter was freed from Herod's imprisonment.
Acts 12:6b -11 - ...Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly " And his chains fell off his hands.
And the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me."
And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but HE THOUGHT THAT HE WAS HAVING A DREAM. When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.
When Peter came to himself (out of his sleep walk) , he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me..."
Visions and dreams are mental perceptions from God that, just as is true of any other spiritual gift, have to be accepted by faith as having been given by Him because...
Hebrews 11:1 -2 - ...faith is the assurance of things hoped for...
Sometimes an apostle or a prophet is given such a heavy anointing of the spiritual gift from God of dreams that just being around them can cause other people to increase their own amount of dreams. This is God using that so gifted apostle or prophet to impart this gift and at the same time substantiate the apostle's or prophet's heavy anointing in this gift and to spiritually strengthen those to whom it is being imparted...
Romans 1:11 (Amplified Bible) - For I am yearning to see you, that I may impart and share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen and establish you
10. God speaks to us in tongues with interpretations.
God may elect to speak to Christians thru a prophet or an apostle in a prophecy brought forth as an interpretation of an unknown tongue.
I Corinthians 1:1 - If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels...
God's Holy Spirit gives the tongue to one of the brethren and the interpretation to another, either or both of which may be an apostle or a prophet or just one of the brethren that is present.
This gift of prophesying thru a tongue's interpretation is the same as any prophesying except that for reasons of His own, God elects to send it forth in this manner. The tongue speaker's mind is not edified when it is spoken but it becomes edified, as does the minds of others, by the interpretation that is given in his own language.
I Corinthians 1:2 -4 - For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands; but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.
But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.
One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the whole church.
Please refer to entry 9 for a complete discussion on prophecy. What is taught there also applies to a prophetic interpretation of a tongue.
Please refer to entry 7 for a complete discussion on tongues. Here I give testimony of how this happened totally unexpectedly to one of my own tongue speakings.
Thank you.
9. God speaks to us in prophecies.
Matthew 23:34 - ...behold, I am sending you prophets...
Jesus promised that he would send all religious people prophets in order to guide them into taking the right course with God for their lives. But at the same time He prophesied that many of these religious people would reject them and their God-sent messages because they just wouldn't believe them.
Hebrews 3:19 - So we see that they were not able to enter (into truth) because of (their) unbelief.
So for those who can accept and believe in prophets and prophecies as being viable gifts from God for today, we will here discuss how God speaks to us thru prophecies.
God may elect to speak to any one of His Christians or to groups of them by sending a prophet or an apostle to prophesy His message to them. This is a very important means of personal communication from God which he makes available to all of His believers.
I Corinthians 14:22b - ...prophecy is for...those who believe.
Prophecy is so important that Moses desired that all of God's children would be given the gift of becoming a prophet!
Numbers 11:29 - Would that ALL of the LORD'S people were prophets...!
The apostle Paul joined Moses with a similar desire for all Christians to become prophets because he was also shown by God the importance of the bringing forth of inspired messages to help the brethren.
I Corinthians 14:1 -5 - ...desire earnestly (to be given) spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation (and)...one who prophesies edifies the church.
How I wish that you ALL...would prophesy.
Paul points out how the gift of a prophetic message from God can spiritually improve each Christian who receives and believes it.
I Corinthians 14:6b - what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy...?
Paul also points out that prophetic messages are a given through His prophets as a sign from God to demonstrate that He is personally attentive to each of His Christians.
I Corinthians 14:22b - ...prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.
Paul exhorts Christians everywhere to allow the prophets in their churches to bring forth messages for everyone, one at a time in an orderly manner, at any given church meeting.
I Corinthians 14:29 - 31 - Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.
He points out that in a church meeting, when the gift of prophecy is allowed to be fully practiced in such an orderly fashion by all those who are present, the effect will be so spiritually powerful that if unbelievers are visiting, they will perceive and believe that God is truly present within that meeting!
I Corinthians 14:24 - But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called into account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.
One time a few brothers and I went in my van to the home of a Catholic family. After ministering for a while to the wife and her grown kids we said our goodbyes and climbed into the van to leave. Just as we were about to drive off the husband, who had been drinking in the back yard while we were there, staggered out front and called for us to stop, which we did. We slid the side door open for him and he stumbled up into the van with us to talk with us. As he got in, his feet were muddied and he tracked that mud onto the van's floor carpet.
When he noticed it he apologized profusely but we reassured him that it wasn't important and that we'd easily clean it right up at the gas station to which we were going. So he thanked us for coming and talking with his family (they had 3 boys with cases of muscular dystrophy who had already died). He said that he admired our faith and that he too believed in Jesus for his salvation but he couldn't be the way that we were himself (he was known as a womanizer). He was very nice though and he wished us all well on our trip back.
Just then one of the prophetic brothers was moved to say to him, "You have a lot of nightmares don't you?" Startled, he replied, "How did you know about that?" to which the brother answered,"The thought just came into my mind and I felt moved to ask it of you." So we all looked at him with compassion and testified to him that he might want to repent of his sins and begin to seek the Lord in His life.
He was drunk so he peered a bit dazedly and slowly at each of us before proclaiming, "God is really with all of you guys! That's the only way you'd know about my nightmares. You're probably right, maybe I should start going back to church. This way of life of mine stinks!" Then he began crying and he thanked each of us for coming and stumbled back out of the van and waved goodbye through his tears as we left.
A bit later we were all discussing the subject of whether people in his condition were really saved, especially considering the stereotype of so many Catholics carousing around all week and then going to church on Sunday. One of the brother's was thumbing around in his Bible as the discussion ensued when all of a sudden he said, "Hey guys, maybe the Lord is giving us our answer in this verse...
John 13:10 - ...He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean...
"Maybe God is saying to us here that this fellow's muddy feet were His sign to us to declare that this man is saved in his heart but he just needs to clean up his walk with the Lord. Maybe the mud on his feet and this verse are our sign from God that even though no drunkard or immoral person can enter the kingdom of heaven, this man just needs to change his attitude and his behavior about these sins and he'll make it. What do you all think?" Well, after further discussion we all ended up agreeing that God had enlightened us to the truth on this man's heart salvation with his muddy feet and this verse.
The first point to be made about this testimony is that when we all prophesied to him together one of the secrets of his heart was revealed and he did just what I Corinthians 14:24 above said he'd do by declaring that God was certainly among us.
Hebrews 4:12 - the Word of God is living and active...
The second point I'd like to to make about this testimony is that God then sent us a Word of wisdom in a verse from the Scriptures to enlighten all of us about the truth of this man's salvation and that offered all of us hope for our friends and loved ones who we see as being backslidden and astray.
Paul sums up his exhortation on the subject of prophesying by encouraging all Christians to greatly desire that they may become gifted by God with the power to prophesy!
I Corinthians 14:39 - Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.
Thru prophecy God will give each of His saved people and / or the leaders of His local churches; guidance and direction in regards to their life's affairs and needs and doctrines.
Manifestation Prophecy
I Corinthians 9:1b - ...have I not seen Jesus our Lord?
I had been praying for years for some detailed guidance from God about finding the truth of His will in so many issues that were pertinent to my life. Yet I believed that Jesus wouldn't come and visit me to instruct me because His reappearance upon the earth is reserved for His 2nd coming. But, because of the many doctrinal errors that I felt that I was perceiving in every Bible teacher's teachings which I had been encountering, I just wished that somehow He would come and instruct me Himself. I wanted to really know the truth of His Word about the many doctrines around today that seemed to me to contradict it. Well, did He have a surprise for me!
One beautiful spring morning He did an entirely unexpected and totally thrilling thing for me. He led me (unbeknownst to me) to drive out to a local park in my van with one of the young sisters in our fellowship to pray for a while. I was in the driver's seat and she was sitting on the couch in the back of the van when we each started to pray silently to the Lord.
All of a sudden I heard her call my name! But her voice was different? It was somehow very commanding! So I opened my eyes and turned to look at her. Well, there she was sitting in the center of the couch and she had an extremely noble upright quality to her posture! So, unsure of what was happening, I asked her, "Did you call me?" to which she responded, "Jim, I the Lord Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, have called the two of you to come out here this morning so that I could talk with you and answer your questions!"
I John 4:2 - This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God...Instantly I knew that this was not her speaking but that it was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself somehow possessing her and speaking thru her mouth! Her voice was somehow the most regal voice imaginable and her demeanor was utterly majestic.
John 7:46 - ...No man speaks as this man speaks!
This was definitely not her voice or manner! So instantly, tears of joy began flying from my eyes like machine gun bullets! I knew that somehow thru her I was being addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself right there in my van in that park! For Him to converse with me is what I had hoped to happen for so long but it was being done in a fashion of which I had never heard or read anywhere.
So thru my tears I timidly asked, "Is that you Lord?" to which He responded, "Yes it is I. I've been sent here today in response to your many prayers to My Father asking for Me to help you find the truths for which you are longing." Well at this statement I was struck speechless! So, in awe, I just kept looking at Him (in her) but He kept her eyes shut while He calmly and patiently sat there, waiting for me to recover from my initial shock over all of this.
It took a while but eventually I stopped crying enough to lamely ask Him where she was? He then explained that He had her spirit in a pleasant place while both she and I were experiencing this gift from God which He called Manifestation Prophecy. He explained that this is a supernatural gift wherein His Holy Spirit possesses a vessel (hers in this case) and uses it to converse in human form with the brethren.
He then said that He came in this manner to me alone because He had given me enough faith to believe that it was Him so doing. He said that when we were done conversing, I was to go back to my brethren in the fellowship and help them to also believe in this gift. He said that I was to tell them that if they could have the faith for this gift, He would come thru her again that evening to converse with them also!
Needless to say I was thrilled beyond belief at His appearance but there was of course a tiny doubt within me about the genuineness of such a manifestation. Could she be faking it for some strange reason or could Satan be possessing her and tricking me? After all, the Scriptures say that the devil can come as an angel of light! So I proceeded to ask Him in her a few questions that I felt that she, in her newly embraced but still uneducated faith, could not possibly know.
One question that I asked was about the greatness of His original disciples / apostles compared to other Christians. He surprised me by telling me how those men saw Him and walked with Him and experienced all that He had to say and all of His miracles for years and they still had trouble really believing in Him. Yet thereafter, all Christians have just read a book of words or heard preaching and testimonies of Him and thru that alone they have been able to firmly believe in Him. So why would God consider the original apostles any greater than those who never saw Him and yet still believed?
J0hn 20:29 - ... Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
This answer and this verse has been food for thought for me ever since He spoke it to me, especially because I believe that I also am now one of those He refers to as having seen Him. But technically, the truth is that I didn't really see Him in His own flesh. My encounter with Him as His Holy Spirit manifested in her in this special way is still a matter of my own personal faith that it was truly from God.
Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him!
That is the brilliance of God in rewarding me with this Manifestation Prophecy gift because it is an encounter with God that must still be accepted by faith, even after testing it (but not testing God) with pointed questions (which I made of the Spirit manifesting within the person)!Another question that I asked of Him manifesting in her was where the original autographs of the Scriptures are now? She could not have possibly known the answer to this question since she probably never even heard of the term Biblical autographs. So I felt that it was a good test of the validity of the Manifestation. He in her blew me away and proved that she was not the one giving me the answer by saying very matter of factly, "In Heaven."
Well, of course they're in heaven! But when I asked that question I never even considered that fact because my evil heart was masking my true intentions that even I was not aware of. I was only conscious of the fact that this question was a test of the girl and of the Manifestation. That's why I was referring to the original earthly parchments.
I felt that this was a question that was merely testing the Manifestation Spirit, not the Lord Himself and He knew it.
I John 4:1 - ...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.
However, in giving me this particular answer, He revealed to me the evil motive stuck deep in my deceitful heart for asking this question. That motive was that I would have become exceedingly proud had He answered me by telling me of an earthly place in which to find them! After all, would not finding the original autographs of the Scriptures be the greatest discovery ever for mankind! And where would little old phony me have been when I in turn exposed the secret earthly location of these original autographs to the world? Wicked me would have been right in the center of that discovery, grabbing for glory while feigning humility!
Jeremiah 17:10 - I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Luke 24:32a (the brethren) said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He (Jesus) was speaking...?"
Knowing the pain that immediately hit me from this conviction of my deceitful heart's deep seated proud motive, He then reassured me to be at peace. He repeatedly exhorted me to peace during His manifestation because every question I posed to Him would bring an answer that I did not expect and that would force me to face my own deceitful heart's reasons for asking it! So pretty soon, in reverent fear, I ran out of questions to ask Him.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 - Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God...therefore let your words be few!
But I was so thrilled and excited at this wonderful, supernatural gift of His actually appearing to me to converse with me, that I didn't absorb all of the really deep stuff that was occurring at the time. Most of it came to me much later. That morning I was just out of my mind with joy at this amazing gift from God of the Lord's personal appearance to me! I was more excited than I've ever been before in my life!
Yet after a little less than an hour, the Lord in her suggested that we stop and He would leave her, but only until that evening when He promised to manifest back within her, if the brethren wanted Him to so appear to them. He also suggested that we write out our questions so that when He appeared, we wouldn't be nervous and forget them.
He then instructed me that the girl would need to be told all that had happened thru her because she was not aware of it. So I thanked Him profusely for visiting me, we said our goodbyes and He left her. Immediately, she blinked her eyes a couple of times and asked me what had happened. So I told her everything about the Lord's use of her to speak with me and she rejoiced exceedingly along with me about His visitation. Even though she was not there for it, she was greatly thankful that He chose her as His vessel thru whom to appear.
Then we drove back to the fellowship house and burst in excitedly to share our testimony of this wondrous event with all of the brethren. Of course they were skeptical at first, but so were Jesus original disciples when Mary Magdalene announced that Jesus had risen and conversed with her. After we all calmed down and could more quietly discuss the event, they all came around and agreed that they too wanted to talk directly with Jesus in this manner, just as I had.
So we all gathered together that evening and when we prayed for Him to come, He reappeared within her and we were all given answers to our many questions by Him for the next couple of hours. Then, when He left, we dissected everything that was discussed and came to the conclusion that this Manifestation was truly the Lord Jesus Christ! So, many times thereafter we prayed for Him to come again and He always did.
According to the Lord (speaking thru this girl), the Manifestation Prophecy gift was given to us only after we had done all that we could do in all of our own Bible studies to find the correct answers to our questions. After many times getting such manifestation appearances from Him, we have not asked for Him to come back in that manner any more because thru them He eventually resolved all of our questions.
He gave most of His answers to our questions by first starting with a question of His own, "What does your current faith tell you?" We'd then respond by telling Him where our thinking on that particular issue was and then He would discuss our position with us. But He never redirected us thru the Manifestation to some new position. He'd only encourage us to go on in our present faith and Bible studies while watching and waiting for God to send us new teachings or events or other prophecies by which to redirect us.
Romans 14:22 - The faith which you have (currently), have as your own conviction before God.Well, after a while we all began to understand that we should just sit, stand and walk in our current faith positions, whatever they were. As long as those positions were the best that we could come up with, whether they were right or wrong, God would be pleased with us. Then, if they were right, God would be faithful to strengthen us in that particular faith position or if they were wrong, He would somehow direct us into a new, better understanding and wisdom for them.
Also, He would also always manifest in her with the greeting , "Peace be with you. Yes, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." and He would always depart with similar words.
But when He led one of us to find this version of Col 3:15, we knew that we no longer needed for Him to manifest Himself in this manner amongst us anymore to answer our questions, because His peace in us is what proves to us that we already have the answer to that question that God wants us to have faith for at that time.
Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
The gift of manifestation prophecy was given to us initially to answer our questions because God had no earthly teacher to take us further along in our faith. But now that we knew how to interpret God's peace within us as being the umpire and the final decider of all of our doctrinal issues, this gift is only an occasionally manifested, just for those times when we feel the need to rest and comfort ourselves in His sweet, loving presence coming through a prophet!
Thank you.
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