Should We Listen to Prophecy? (Part 3)

Paul and Silas were clicking along from city to city until the Holy Spirit forbid them from heading north into Bithynia. They instead responded to a vision that Paul had about a man who said, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.

The twosome hurried to Troas, boarded a ship to cross the northern tip of the Aegean Sea, and landed in Neapolis. They then journeyed thirteen miles by foot to Philippi.

The city of Philippi had a population of 2000 people and a large Roman garrison. It was the chief city in the province of Macedonia, but the Jewish population was too small to support a synagogue, which required ten Jewish men.

Thus, Paul and Silas searched for and found a Jewish prayer meeting along the banks of the Gangites River. The two spoke to the Jewish women attending the meeting where a woman named Lydia was converted and baptized as a believer in Christ. Paul and Silas then stayed at Lydia’s house.

All of this sets the stage for a powerful scene.

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:16-17)

If we use our New Testament Bibles – which Paul and Silas did not have at the time – how would we judge the accuracy of the slave girl’s prophetic words? We would have to admit that the girl’s words were accurate because Paul and Silas were God’s servants and did proclaim the gospel.

Yet, Paul was greatly annoyed by the slave girl’s proclamations and said to the spirit in the girl:

I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her…” (Acts 16: 18)

As the Apostle Paul demonstrated in this scene, spiritual discernment is a two-sided coin. On the one hand, we need to know if the prophetic words line up with scripture, and on the other hand, we need to know what spirit backs the prophetic words. Is it the Holy Spirit, a demon or our own fleshly spirit?

How can we do this?

(Continued in Part 4)

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Should We Listen to Prophecy? (Part 2)

Let’s break down the process of speaking a prophecy from my experience, okay?

When I prophesy, I first feel a nudge in my inner man from the Holy Spirit to speak something. Along with my nudge or inner witness, I usually have the opening words, which may be something like, “I believe the Lord wants to speak to us…” As I speak the opening words, a few more words are given to me by the Holy Spirit and then more words gush through me as I speak, until I finish.

There are a few inner things happening in me while I prophesy.

On the one hand, I’m trying to listen to the Holy Spirit and speak His words in a similar manner. If He is cheerful, I want to be cheerful. If He is sober, I want to speak in the same way. Etc. Etc.

At the same time, I am trying to check my words against scripture because every prophetic word must line up with the Bible and its intent. If my words do not line up, they should be judged as false.

So, I like to think of myself as a computer with a few tabs open while I am prophesying.

Don’t worry!

It’s not as hard as it sounds because the Holy Spirit is doing the heavy work. I am just a vessel allowing Him to work through me. He fully understands my capabilities, my insecurities, my audience and my faith level. He then gives me more than enough grace to handle all of this.

Now, whether or not you prophesy like I do really doesn’t matter because we are all unique individuals. Allow Him to train you to prophesy according to the measure of faith that God has assigned you.

Okay, what about spiritual discernment?

(Continued in Part 3)

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Flee California Now! Episode 2

I have just posted Episode 2 of Flee California Now on Youtube. It is entitled, “What You Should Do if You are not Fleeing California Now.”

You can check out the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJT3Kcy_hTE

Check it out, especially if you live in California.

Thanks.

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Should We Listen to Prophecy? (Part 1)



A friend sent me an email with a YouTube video link by an evangelist who talked about the New World Order, 6000 FEMA camps in America, pastors pledging allegiance to the New World Order, railroad cars moving Christians to camps and countless other statements

I listened to three or four minutes of the video and turned it off.

Then, I gritted my teeth and listened to the full message. Did I feel any better after listening to the twenty-six minute message? No, absolutely not. It still felt like ice water dripping on my inner spirit.

There is no doubt the evangelist has a prophetic gifting, sincerely loves the Lord and has a little bit of truth mixed into her message. But just because a person talks about dreams, visions, prophetic words, has a few revelations and inserts some scriptures along the way, are we supposed to accept her message as an inspired word of the Lord?

So let two or three prophets speak [those inspired to preach or teach], while the rest pay attention and weigh and discern what is said. (1 Corinthians 14:29 AMP)

It is not just the responsibility of leaders to discern whether prophecies are accurate words of the Lord. We all are called to do this. Why? Because the Holy Spirit dwells in each of us and does not just fall upon prophets, kings and priests as in the Old Testament.

Okay, let’s be honest with ourselves.

Most of our spiritual ears have been dulled by the world around us, by our teachings, by our dependence on leaders, by television and movies and by countless other things. Our spiritual discernment is probably at its lowest level right now.

So, what can we do to sharpen our spiritual discernment?

(Continued in Part 2)

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Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Sufferers Through Us (Conclusion)

What is the plan of action for healing a sufferer of dementia?

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV)

In Part 4, I wrote:

I discerned a demon caused her ailment rather than being a physical issue. As my prayers increased in tempo, I felt an inner urge to command it to leave.

“Go!” I proclaimed.

Then, I spun around and looked at the daughter-in-law. “You’re going to have a baby. Fix up a room for your new baby,” I prophesied.

Without the gifts of the Spirit, none of this would have happened. The woman with Tourette Syndrome would not have been healed and her daughter-in-law would not have had a baby girl. 

The gifts involved in these two miracles were the gift of faith, the gift of discerning of spirits and the gift of prophecy.

I had another Holy Spirit experience over thirty-five years ago. It happened when I was preaching at a small house group. A woman showed up that night, suffering from muscular dystrophy. She used a cane and hobbled over to a chair and sat down.

When I finished my message, I walked over to her, reached out my hand and said, “Let’s dance.”

She took my hand and danced with me around the family room. After a minute or so, I stopped and looked at her. “What do you think?” I said.

Her eyes opened wide. “Oh Lord, I’m healed!” she proclaimed.

The woman carried her cane home, totally healed. The next day, she enrolled at a gym to get herself back in shape.

This happened through the gift of faith and the gift of working of miracles.

None of this was through my efforts. It was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit working in me. 

If I could turn the gifts on when I wanted to, I would, but it doesn’t work that way. The Holy Spirit determines when He will manifest Himself in believers, and not us.

Here’s my thinking:

If we want to be used by the Lord to heal dementia sufferers, we need to eagerly pursue the spiritual gifts. All of them. I just don’t believe there is any other option.

Also, it’s my belief that dementia/Alzheimer’s is caused by demons. And I think these demons have built up strongholds in our minds so that very few believers are praying for dementia sufferers to be healed.

Thus, like Jesus said about casting out the demon in the young boy, “But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:21)

It will take the Spiritual gifts, faith, prayer and fasting. 

How much fasting? Seek the Lord.

(Conclusion)

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Flee California Now! Episode #1

My new podcast is named Flee California Now! Episode #1 is now available on YouTube and is entitled, “Why would anyone name their podcast Flee California Now?

You can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjwQPOoeScE

Check it out, especially if you live in California.

Thanks.

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Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Suffers Through Us (Part 5)

Peter, James, John and Jesus walked back to the crowd after their transfiguration experience. A father approached Jesus and explained how His disciples could not cast a demon out of his son.

Jesus asked that the boy be brought to Him. He rebuked the demon and it came out of him. He was cured at once.

Later, the disciples asked why they were unsuccessful.

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:20-21 ESV)

Faith like a grain of mustard seed.

The mustard seed was the smallest seed in Israel. When germinated and under the proper growing conditions, the seed grew into a mature bush within three months’ time to an average height of seven feet tall.

Therefore, when Jesus used the mustard seed as a metaphor for His teaching here, he was talking about the seed’s one-sided genetic focus (or faith) to be the largest garden plant.

The seed never doubted or waivered in its faith to be all God called it to be. The seed could even lie dormant for over sixty years, but when the conditions were right, it would fulfill its genetic calling by growing into a mature plant.

Although the mustard seed is tiny, mustard-seed faith is not a small amount of faith. It is 100%, put-your-hand-to-the-plow-and-not-look-back, all-in faith. It is the pinnacle of faith and where we need to set our sights.

Prayer.

The word prayer, as used by Jesus, signifies the many different types of prayer, such as supplications, intercessions, thanksgivings, praises, worship and more. But no matter what type we believers use, we must draw near to God and believe He will reward our efforts.

Prayers depend upon our relationship with our Father. We must act little children and rush into His presence, knowing He loves us and desires to answer our prayers.

Fasting.

Fasting is probably the least popular of all of the spiritual disciplines. Starving for Jesus’ sake, right?

But as Paul discovered, God’s power works best in weakness. And the weakness God was referring to is our fleshly nature, especially our desire to eat and drink.

My experience on fasting is that we have to trust that God’s grace is truly sufficient, even when we don’t eat for a period of time.

So, what’s the plan of action for healing dementia?

(Continued in Part 6)

 

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Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Sufferers Through Us? (Part 4) 

The following is an excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who:

In the midst of the auto sales drought, I felt the Lord wanted me to fast. How long? I had no idea. Why? I did not ask and had no clue. So, I began fasting by drinking only water and morning coffee, but eating no food.

Did things improve for me? Heavens no! My auto sales drought continued.

On the fourteenth evening of the fast, a former client’s wife phoned me. I had mentioned to her husband that the Lord could heal his wife of her long-term ailment.

“Larry, do you really believe the Lord can heal me?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“When can you pray for me?”

My pastor, her husband and I showed up at the woman’s house two days later. The sick woman’s daughter-in-law was also there to support the woman. We chatted a bit until I felt the presence of God descending upon us. I walked over and began praying for the woman.

I discerned a demon caused her ailment rather than being a physical issue. As my prayers increased in tempo, I felt an inner urge to command it to leave.

“Go!” I proclaimed.

Then, I spun around and looked at the daughter-in-law.

“You’re going to have a baby. Fix up a room for your new baby,” I prophesied.

The daughter-in-law broke down and cried. She eventually collected herself enough to tell us how she and her husband had just undergone extensive tests at a Sioux City hospital, discovering they could never have children.

That night, on the sixteenth day of the fast, I ate again.

The woman phoned two nights later.

“Larry, do you know what ailment I suffered from?” she asked.

“No.”

“I had Tourette Syndrome,” she said and explained how her tics and rants kept her housebound and away from public gatherings for years. “I’m totally healed. Thanks.”

A year later, I received a card from the daughter-in-law announcing the birth of their baby girl.

So, what is Tourette Syndrome?

Tourette Syndrome is a disorder that involves repetitive movements or unwanted sounds (tics) that can’t be easily controlled. For instance, you might repeatedly blink your eyes, shrug your shoulders or blurt out unusual sounds or offensive words.

Tics typically show up between ages 2 and 15, with the average being around 6 years of age. Males are about three to four times more likely than females to develop Tourette syndrome.

Although there’s no cure for Tourette syndrome, treatments are available. (Mayo Clinic)

So, how can this help with healing dementia sufferers?

(Continued in Part 5)

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Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Sufferers Through Us? (Part 3)

This article came about because of close friends, both around my age. The wife fell and was going through rehab. Next, her husband died of a heart attack. Then, I learned the wife suffered from dementia/Alzheimer’s syndrome.

I messaged a son-in-law to learn how the wife was doing. He messaged back that she was struggling and the stress only exacerbated her dementia. One of the family members stayed with her during the night and part of the day.

I replied that we would continue to pray for her, also leaving a praying hands emoji with my comment.

Would Jesus have just tossed out a general statement like that and left a prayer emoji?

No, absolutely not! Jesus WOULD have healed her. So, what am I doing wrong?

Somehow, I had just accepted dementia as being one of those tough-luck, too-bad-for-you disorders. A disease that I really never gave a second thought about, even though the families of the seven million sufferers in America live with the sad debilitating symptoms on a daily basis…and with no hope of a medical cure.

Neil Cole, in his book, Pray, summed up my attitude on dementia: “We often underestimate Jesus as well. We pray for things that are far less than what He could actually do.

So, what is dementia?

Dementia involves a decline in the mental abilities you need for daily living. It develops when there’s damage to the parts of your brain involved with learning, memory, decision-making and language.

It’s not a specific disease. It’s a clinical description of a set of symptoms caused by underlying brain diseases. The most common cause is Alzheimer’s disease.

If you have it, you might forget the name of a close friend or loved one. Or you might get lost in the neighborhood where you’ve lived for many years. It isn’t part of normal aging and may shorten a person’s lifespan.

How did Jesus handle sickness?

The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics and He healed them. (Matthew 4:24)

Somewhere amongst the above diseases is dementia. So, what does Jesus want us to do?

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. (John 14:12)

So, how can we possibly heal dementia sufferers?

(Continued in Part 4)

 

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Is Jesus Still Using Believers to Heal the Sick Today? Can He Heal Dementia Suffers Through Us? (Part 2)

            Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother Lazarus would not have died.”(John 11:24 ESV)

“Everyone in the story, including Jesus’ enemies, believed that He could have healed Lazarus if He had arrived sooner. His power to heal was unquestioned, even by His opponents. But they were limiting Jesus’ power. None had the imagination to think about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

We often underestimate Jesus as well. We pray for things that are far less than what He could actually do. Even those of us with faith and enough experience to know better, still expect lesser things of Jesus than He is capable of doing.)

 Begging. A passage of Scripture that has shaped my life every day for decades occurs twice in the New Testament. In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus tells us that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

His solution is not a program for leadership development or a teaching curriculum to produce more ministers. No, his solution is far more effective and simple. We are to pray for more workers – but not just pray. The word used is translated in some of our Bibles as “beseech.” What exactly does that mean? It means “to beg as if your life depends on it.”

 We’ve all watched the scene in a drama where the hero is suddenly at the antagonist’s mercy. With a gun barrel inches from the good guy’s forehead, we see a sly grin on the bad guy’s face as he says, “Beg me for your life.”

When Jesus instructs us to beg as if our life depends on it, this is not what is happening. We must realize that He is the Lord of the harvest – it is His field. It is His desire to have a plentiful harvest even more than ours, so He is not wanting us to bend our will to His own. Instead, He is inviting us to want it as badly as He does.

When we beseech Him for this, we are being summoned to His level of concern, not the other way around. We don’t bend God to our own desire; true spirituality is quite the opposite. You can be sure that God will hear and answer this prayer, because it is His idea. It is actually His command for us, and it is His desire much more than ours.

When my children were young and in vulnerable situations, I would beg the Lord to watch over them. When my babies had a high fever and I felt helpless, I would beg for their healing.

(Both of the above excerpts are from PRAY: Finding Ways for Ordinary People to Connect with God by Neil Cole, 2020, Starling Initiatives Publications Series, eBook on Amazon, pages 40, 58, 59)

 I believe that our prayers for Dementia/Alzheimer’s sufferers have underestimated the power of Jesus. We have prayed things for the sufferers that are far less than what Jesus could do for them.

 And begging?

 I believe that we are in a season that we can beseech the Lord for healing for dementia/Alzheimer’s sufferers.

 But to do so, we have to make up our minds to be a part of the Church that hates losing!

  (Continued in Part 3)

           

 

 

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