GOD'S INTENTIONS VS ACTIONS Your Response Determines Your Future
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Since the fear of making a mistake or being wrong is one of the greatest weapons the enemy will use against you to prevent you from hearing God’s voice in your own life and for your own world, I want to deal with a misunderstanding regarding false prophets that has incited fear in many regarding the subject.
Although I do not believe it’s important to defend my reputation as a prophet of Christ, I do believe it’s very important to have an accurate biblical foundation and a historical perspective regarding the subject from which to derive principles and provide a reliable source of knowledge. This has always been essential, especially for those called to this office, to avoid the possibility of being deceived by erroneous teachings or even becoming counter productive to the call through immaturity and ignorance.
Even in the early stages of Christ’s ministry, He warned His followers in the writings of several gospel accounts, including Matthew, to beware of false prophets, who are in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves (see Matt. 7:15). Being forewarned by the greatest of all prophets, who accurately foresaw the impostors who have come and gone since then, manipulating and deceiving the people, and those yet to emerge, should cause us to not take the matter lightly.
Christ’s words show that a false prophet is one who portrays to be something he’s not. Though he seems to be one of the sheep, on careful inspection it can be seen that he is actually an extremely hungry predator lurking upon his prey. That’s why it is important to judge the fruit of the tree to determine if it is good or bad. However, on the other hand, many today are restricted so much by an unhealthy fear they would rather dismiss the idea of prophets in today’s world, and the possibility of hearing God’s voice for themselves altogether than to take a risk in pursuit of this lost treasure and benefit from His intended purpose of interacting in our lives.
Because there were numerous prophets in a given generation during the time of the Exodus, the matter arose of who should be trusted and believed to speak on behalf of the Almighty. We find in the ancient manuscripts many examples of prophets and dreamers, functioning on various levels of authority and relating uniquely in their community and societies.
It’s also clear that the prophets functioned in various levels of prominence and national influence, depending on the specific gifting and assignment each was given. These different levels can be seen in the example given of Eldad and Medad, who prophesied within the Israelite camp, as reported by Joshua to Moses. Though Joshua told Moses to stop them, Moses answered in Numbers chapter 11, Joshua, son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”
29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them!”
This surprising answer from Moses showed again the original intention God had for humankind to hear His voice for themselves, and conveyed the desire of the mature prophet to see others excel in the field in which he was called to provide inspiration.
As the immature dreamers and prophets began to share and discuss their revelations in the communities, the frauds also arose, lying about dreams and visions, making up prophecies, and stealing the words of other prophets as they attempted to exploit the people, and selfishly promote themselves to a greater place of prominence.
To compound the problem even further, there also arose prophets speaking on behalf of false gods, confusing the people and causing them to turn away from the simple faith that was taught and received from their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their ordained leader, Moses. With this becoming an increasing problem, the Book of Deuteronomy reveals some general laws that Moses put into place and strictly enforced to discourage the agenda of the impostors and deceivers.
Judging Prophecy
This brings us to the myth that has stopped many dead in their tracks who desire to hear God speak to them. It is frequently misquoted or taken out of context from the Book of Deuteronomy, chapters 13 and 18. From Moses’ instructions we will look at two basic scenarios regarding the ancient prophets and their predictions. The first being those prophets whose words do come to pass (see Deut. 13), and the second being those whose words do not come to pass (see Deut. 18).
Many within the modern establishment of the church, who oppose my work and that of other forefront prophetic voices, adhere to an ideal that demands nothing less than 100 percent fulfillment of a prophet’s words and predictions, otherwise condemning one as a false prophet. I do realize that there are some well-meaning individuals who may sincerely misunderstand the subject, perhaps from following the opinions of other respected leaders.
However, I have found that many who believe and teach this variation usually despise anything that does not fit into their narrow-minded view of God and become quite inflamed when challenged by its accurate quotation, as well as examples of biblical prophets who did not measure up to their demanded standard.
To help overcome this obstacle in your own journey to hear God, we’ll take a closer look at the ancient manuscript to precisely extract the truth found on this subject. This is the message that Moses had given in this composition of the Torah.
“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God… (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).
THE WORD WILL COME TO PASS
In this first scenario we find the prophet or dreamer of dreams whose words did in fact come to pass and attempted to exploit the audience and lead them astray to serve false gods. It’s clear, according to the Mosaic Law, that he was to be stoned.
Stoning was used, not only during Moses’ times, but also later throughout history in a number of places as a form of capital punishment. The practice became common in Judaism, among the ancient Greeks, and later in Islam, where stoning was promoted in their religious texts as the punishment for a variety of offenses. Some crimes that warranted stoning included blasphemy, prostitution, adultery, murder, and apostasy. Although many have suffered martyrdom from the abused law of stoning, including those who followed Christ, His teachings discourage this practice.
In Judaism, strategically, there was no appointed person to execute a criminal because that person would be responsible and guilty of murder. In fact, those who were witnesses of the event were required to throw the first stones, serving the community as a societal punishment to the criminal and preventing any definite way of tracking the individual whose stone killed the condemned. This would protect all who participated in the act since no one specifically could be held responsible.
Although not common, it is reported that stoning remains as a form of execution in several Islamic countries where the religion dictates the law and people can be punished or killed for minor violations.
To put the instruction by Moses for condemning and stoning prophets in its correct context, it’s important to review the entire 13th chapter of Deuteronomy which deals with instructing the people to stone anyone who attempts to turn the people away from the Lord, including brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, or even a spouse.
If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. So all Israel shall hear and fear, and not again do such wickedness as this among you (Deuteronomy 13:6-11).
In these verses of Scripture, the people were instructed to stone everyone guilty of this grievous offense, not just prophets. However, since the prophetic office carries with it a great stigma that arouses various reactions, especially among the religious, many find it easier to focus on the potential failure of a prophet than that of the average person. Though stoning is not permitted in most cultures today, those who despise the prophets usually find their satisfaction in other crafty attempts to arouse fears, suspicion, and unreasonable judgments.
Hundreds of years after the Law was given, the teachings and life of the Prophet Jesus Christ radically challenged the established religious community in many ways, even regarding the subject of stoning. Christ taught that the law of stoning resulted in the death of many of God’s choice messengers, signifying a gross abuse of its original purpose, since the time of its initiation.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Matthew 23:37).
This was clearly an attempt of the corrupt religious system to silence God’s voice in the earth in the generations following Moses and has continued its work even to this day. When confronted by the religious leaders of the day who wanted to test him regarding their desire to stone a woman exposed and taken in the act of adultery, Christ demonstrated mercy inconceivable to their narrow-minded view of God. Though they tested Christ, when about to stone a woman taken in adultery, His words disarmed each of her accusers.
In John 8:1-12, they said “Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him.” However, his simple reply was, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” At this they all walked away, and Christ said, “neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
This simple display of God’s love and forgiveness through the Prophet Jesus Christ, spared the life of a woman who was to be stoned, and signified the beginning of a new era in which God would deal with people by His Spirit, rather than strictly according to laws. This newly demonstrated grace was a symbol of the life of this Prophet, foreseen by Moses, who would eventually lay His own life down for the spiritual freedom of all people. It also provided a new example for those who would become His disciples and prophets, and the radical positive message that they would spread throughout the world.
When the Prophet’s Words Do Not Come To Pass
The second scenario is one when the prophet’s words did not come to pass. Contradicting the abuses of the religious system of many generations, including some of the modern world, Moses instructed that a prophet whose words do not come to pass was not to be feared. However, Deuteronomy chapter 18 also gives further instruction regarding how to judge whether or not a word is given by God, and how to respond to the prophet whose predictions did not come to pass. It begins with Moses’ prophecy about the Prophet that would eventually arise and be like him and the importance of his message, which is widely accepted in the Christian community as that of Jesus Christ.
The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’
“And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him (Deuteronomy 18:15-22).
In other words, if the message is really from God, it will come to pass. If the message is not from God, it will not come to pass. This was the test for whether or not a word or dream was from God. There was no need in stoning a prophet if his words did not come to pass since his words carried no weight of credibility.
Since Moses could not possibly go among the people to judge every word or dream that was being shared, he simply educated them regarding how to judge the prophecies that were being given in the community. Although this may seem insignificant, it was critical to help them properly discern which words possibly were and which were not of divine origin.
People feared the true prophet in those days, having witnessed firsthand the unearthly authority demonstrated by Moses, even inflicting dreadful judgments on the Egyptians and this warranted a genuine basis for fear of the prophet. Therefore Moses instructed the people to no longer be afraid of those whose predictions did not come to pass. This is the opposite approach of many religious zealots, even today, who spread panic and have made it their life’s work to look for inaccuracies and flaws in others. According to Deuteronomy chapter 13, those who believe that the sign of a true prophet is simply accuracy or that his words always come to pass, are actually in greater danger of deception.
On the other hand, it is important now to clarify that this Law did not say to stone the presumed messenger for giving a failed prediction, but specified rather that the prophet who spoke presumptuously or in the name of other gods shall die. This warning is the same warning given to Adam in the Garden, regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In the Book of Genesis 2:16-17 it is written: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”
As the story goes, Adam and his wife, Eve, eventually ate from the tree that they were clearly warned not to eat from and yet were not put to death by God for doing so, as it would be easy to assume in reading. Adam and Eve were not killed for their outright disobedience. In fact, after they had tasted the forbidden fruit and God pronounced the curse that would come upon the human race as a result, the ancient manuscripts tell us that God made coats of skins for them to cover their shame and nakedness. Even though they messed things up, God did not kill Adam and Eve or disown them. In fact, they went on to have children and lived a long time. According to the genealogies of Genesis, Adam died at the ripe old age of 930.
So what was the point in saying that the presumptuous prophet and the prophet of false gods whose words did not come to pass, would die? These who never really knew the voice of the true God or may have once known and forfeited their right to it, were without true prophetic vision. They could not operate from an eternal perspective of divine authority, being limited to their mere natural vision to guide them and would eventually be overcome by death. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
In conclusion, the heart of the matter was to equip the people, at least at a basic level, to recognize the God’s voice for themselves and protect them from the impostors and corrupting influence of false religions. However, the Law was not perfect. The writings do not provide a clear definition of what a false prophet was, but did educate the people to no longer fear those whose predictions failed. It was apparently effective for some time bringing order and accountability to those who claimed to represent God as they spoke. However, the coming decades and centuries would yield some complicated instances of prophets giving predictions that could not be judged precisely using these basic instructions.
After the time of Moses, many other true prophetic voices continued to emerge and be used to speak on behalf of the Almighty. Though controversial, there are examples even in the ancient manuscripts, the Bible, perhaps overlooked by the casual reader, which show things did not always come to pass as they were predicted by some of the most well-known prophetic voices. To understand the dynamics of these prophetic predictions properly, you must understand God’s actions are not always His original intentions.
God's Intentions Versus Actions
When God speaks to human beings about their future, His word is based on His intention to see all people blessed. He will make known His intentions without a doubt in His mind that He will do it. However, His actions are many times determined by the response of the recipient. It is then left to that person to decide whether to accept or reject God’s intention for their lives. This is hard for many people to understand but God’s actions do not always line up with His intentions because He has given us the power to decide our own destiny.
People make mistakes every day of their lives and unfortunately, this often determines the outcome of a word given. God is all powerful but He has given us a will to choose for ourselves and has always patiently allowed us to do so. God’s intention was for Moses to bring water from the rock by “speaking” to it instead of hitting it: God’s actions were determined by Moses’ anger toward the people and his disobedience to God. God’s intention was that the people of Israel would hear His voice directly. His actions were determined by the people’s fear of His voice and their request to “never hear Him speak to them directly;” and they appointed Moses to go and hear for them and to tell them what God was saying.
God’s intention was for Samson to be the strong man who would rise up against the Philistines with a healthy body and mind; His actions were determined by Samson’s will to reveal his secret strength under the seduction of Delilah thereby fulfilling God’s will with no eyes and in chains. God’s intention was that Eli and his family would carry the priesthood throughout their generations; His actions were determined by Eli’s toleration of sin in the temple and God said: “I did say that…but now I say….”
God’s intention was that Israel would remain free from the enemy’s control during the time of Gideon. A prophet gave them the reason why they were overpowered and controlled by the Midianites. His actions were determined by Israel’s disobedience and sin. God’s intention was for Moses to take the children of Israel into the Promised Land; ten spies came with a bad report and influenced the wills of over 3.5 million people. God’s action was to force them to walk in circles for 40 years and then give it to them. God’s actions were determined by man’s unbelief and their desire to go back to Egypt.
The Judges—Prophets in a Time of Transition
In the time of the judges, there arose Deborah (Judg. 4-5), who was called “a mother in Israel.” She served as a judge among the people, and communicated God’s orders concerning the War of Independence to Barac and the tribes. The word of God was rare in those days of anarchy as He dealt with the wavering nation by letting them go astray unto their own demise. Over this period, there were 15 judges in all, the last being Samuel, whose divine mission was to restore the code of the elder, and to oversee the beginning of the royalty of Israel.
Samuel—Prophet to the Kings
Samuel, according to rabbinical literature, was the last of the Hebrew judges and the first of the major prophets who began to prophesy throughout the land of Israel. According to First Samuel 1:20, Hannah was the mother of Samuel; and she named him in memory of her answered prayer request to God for a child. Samuel, was the only prophet of whom it is said that God, “let none of his words fall to the ground” (1 Sam. 3:19). Samuel was used to identify and anoint the very first King of Israel, Saul, as well as his successor, David.
Under the guidance of Samuel, or at least closely united to him, we find for the first time the prophets (see 1 Sam. 10:5), grouped together with the accompaniment of musical instruments. It seems these prophets used music for worship and to set the tone from which to release their revelations, and possibly to inspire their followers to make united declarations. Although not much detail is given regarding these prophets, it’s possible they joined Samuel playing music and speaking as oracles under his leadership among the people. They displayed some giftings similar to those that were later bestowed upon Christ’s disciples, as recorded in the Book of Acts.
The prophet King David was also a skilled musician and warrior. Using the sword and the harp, he demonstrated his kingship and defeated his enemies. However, it wasn’t the harp, lyre, or sword that made him a great King, it was his heart. As a musician, my style of prophetic delivery is also strongly connected to music and with it I create a prophetic atmosphere to prepare the people for a moment with God.
Isaiah—Statesman Prophet
The prophet Isaiah accurately predicted many things, including the virgin birth of Christ (see Isa. 7:14). Isaiah was a great prophetic voice who according to historical writings, suffered a horrible death being sawn in two. Isaiah also gave a prediction that would be difficult to judge by simply by the law. Prophetically he announced to the dying King Hezekiah that he should immediately put his house in order because he would in fact die. Hezekiah wept and immediately prayed and reminded God of all the good he had done in his lifetime.
Hezekiah’s response to the prophetic prediction changed God’s mind and he was immediately granted another 15 years to live; but Isaiah’s initial prediction did not come to pass. This is a situation where you can see that the Law was not enough to judge every prediction properly. According to the standard some hold today, Isaiah would have been called a false prophet because his initial prediction did not come to pass. However, this example demonstrates the unfolding progression of prophecy which is determined by the response of the recipient.
In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.’” Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.”’” (2 Kings 20:1-6).
Jonah—Reluctant Prophet
God told the prophet Jonah to go and prophesy to the city of Nineveh that it would be destroyed. Jonah, being apprehensive, first fled from Nineveh, because he didn’t want to do it, knowing that God may change His mind and not destroy them. Yet, the story says that God put Jonah through some very tough circumstances until he would finally agree to go and prophesy. After Jonah went to the city Nineveh and pronounced the destruction would come in 40 days, the people responded just as God desired. Their repentance changed God’s mind, and He did not destroy a single person:
Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish? Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it (Jonah 3:1-10).
To the average skeptic of the day, Jonah probably appeared to be completely out of his mind, especially when his prediction did not come to pass. He did not give the stipulation in his prediction that if they repented God would prevent the destruction of the city; but nonetheless, it was used in such as way that it motivated the people to get back to where they were supposed to be.
According to the Law, it may be said that his word was not from God, since it did not come to pass. It seemed there was no threat of Jonah being stoned, but he very well may have lost his credibility with some, while others must have celebrated him as a hero for helping them prevent the predicted disaster.
What I am saying is, God has given you the gift of free will and for you to see His revealed intention for your life come to pass you must remain in agreement with it and take the appropriate actions.
Your response to God determines whether or not you will enter the promise He gave you. You have been given the right to determine whether or not His intention for your life will come to pass. You are responsible for your future and there is nothing anyone can say that will change it, especially if you are determined to walk another course in life. God leaves the matter in your hands and He then responds accordingly. This makes your image and idea of God a critical factor in the process, so you have the utmost confidence that He truly wants the best for you.
As one maturing in any gift or vocation, there will also be times when you will be wrong about what you believe God showed you. This is when it’s important to have the proper basis to judge what you think may be a potential word from God. If it opposes the revealed and established truth about the ways and character of God, then you do not need to waste your time searching out the matter. Even when you feel you have weighed the word carefully, there will be times when what you felt God may have shown you is proven incorrect. Don’t let that discourage you on your journey.
There are times when some of my predictions have not come to pass and appear to be wrong, and for this I can only judge myself. However, it’s a tragic misunderstanding to believe that God will only speak to us when we are perfect, and that a prophet cannot make any mistakes. That’s not only ludicrous; it’s inconsistent with the nature of God revealed in the teachings and examples of the greatest leaders of the faith, found in both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.
I believe that a person who is said to be a prophet should have a track record of accuracy backing their words, but perfection is not required to be a voice for God. The Source is complete, but the voice that is chosen to communicate the word is merely human. It’s God in us, expressing Himself as a friend to humankind. This prophetic amalgamation is the beauty of being an instrument of God.
Simply being inaccurate in any vocation, skill, gift, or calling doesn’t make one false. A teacher may unintentionally give some wrong or misleading information but that alone doesn’t make the teacher false. The same goes for prophets. The human characteristics of a prophet are independent of the message God has given and does not negate the validity of the prophecy. The important thing to remember is that God is never wrong and everyone must acknowledge their own imperfections before Him.
Because I know this is true, I will never stop prophesying, for I know this is what God has called me to do, though I will always remain accountable to my friends and counselors. I will always endeavor to obey God as best I can, for my desire is to reach out to people from a heart of love and compassion. It’s also important that you do not allow the fear of being wrong to stop you either. The reward far outweighs the potential risks, if you will follow His voice.
The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. —George Mueller
On old world maps of earlier centuries, you will find symbols of sea serpents and other mythological creatures in the blank areas, denoting the danger of the unexplored or the unknown. On the Lenox Globe, the second oldest known terrestrial globe dating from 1503-07, you will find the inscription “Here be Dragons.” These were meant to incite fear of the potential dangers of stepping outside the realm of the ordinary and the familiar, confining many of the otherwise adventurous hearts who desired to explore the world, to settle for merely dreaming and telling stories of others who took great risks and made history.
The fear of the unknown can be crippling and is many times propagated by the skeptics, hoping to confine us to the boundaries of their own limited understanding, and attempting to prevent a possible interruption in their fragile world by a discovery of something greater than they can explain.
However, the voice of the Creator cannot be eradicated, suppressed, or lost in the babblings of the skeptics. You and you alone can determine the outcome of your journey to encounter and explore the voice of God.
This article is an excerpt from Kim's book "Call Me Crazy But I'm Hearing God". For more information, or for a complete listing of available products, visit The Shop online now. Click Here
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