The Spirit of Prophecy Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 We’re going to start in Revelation chapter 19:10. Remember, the angel has been talking to John for 19 chapters, and, uh, it’s the same angel that’s in Revelation 17:7. The angel said to me, it’s the same one talking. And, uh, John fell at his feet to worship this angel, and the angel said, “Don’t do that. Worship God. I am your fellow servant and of your brethren. I am the servant of the same master as you and your brethren.” See, worship God, and me, the angel, the fellow servant, and the brethren have the testimony of Jesus. What do they have? The testimony of Jesus. So there is a testimony of Jesus, and then he tells us what that testimony is: the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

▶ 1:13 Prophecy, and that’s what this angel had been doing for 19 chapters. He had been speaking by the inspiration. Prophecy means speaking by the inspiration of the Spirit. The Spirit’s involved, not your human intellect, not your human wishes, your human opinions, but it’s the Spirit’s truth and facts that is being spoken. And so the testimony, the witness of Jesus, is the spirit of prophecy. Now, if you’ve ever been in a courtroom (I’ve been there several times), a person gives their testimony. They’re giving the testimony, the evidence of what they experience, or what they are, or who they are, or whatever, you see. So Jesus’s testimony, the evidence of who He is, is the spirit of prophecy. When His presence comes, the proof that it’s Jesus’s presence is the spirit of prophecy.

▶ 2:25 Are you out there? Now, I know this is new to a lot of people, but we have been religious for too long in America. We need to get into Bible doctrine and Bible experience. Is that an amen? Yes! We need to buck up and come up. So in the church, it is imperative that we have the witness, the proof, the evidence, the testimony of Jesus, and that would be shown by the spirit of prophecy. Hallelujah. See, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14, “Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you...” What? What? Prophesy: speak by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. How many can say amen to that? You know, healing lasts for the time that you get healed, but tomorrow and the days after, in all your life, you’ve got to talk, and some of us don’t talk too well, do we? So we need that, the spirit of prophecy.

▶ 3:41 Now, just to show you that the angel knows what he’s talking about, going back to Jesus, John 7:46. The temple soldiers were sent down to get Jesus and arrest Him and bring Him back. Well, these soldiers went down there, and Jesus was teaching the people, and the soldiers were so influenced by what was coming out of His mouth, that spirit of prophecy, that they wouldn’t arrest Him. They came back empty-handed, and when the temple leaders said, “Well, where’s this man Jesus?” they said, “Never spake a man like this Man.” Why? He was speaking by the spirit of prophecy.

▶ 4:31 See, He wasn’t speaking His opinions, He wasn’t speaking His feelings, He wasn’t speaking what He wished the Bible said; He spoke what the Bible did say, the spirit of prophecy. In Matthew 1:22, they were astonished at His teaching because He spoke with authority. See, that’s the spirit of prophecy. When the Spirit is involved, it comes across with power. It’s not psychology or philosophy; it is the living word of God that pierces and pricks men’s hearts. It has power in it. Amen. Second Peter 1:19. This is very important, because I’m telling you, I was saved in a Pentecostal church. I got filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the Pentecostal church. [unclear] was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, but us Pentecostals did a lot of weird things, and we certainly didn’t focus on the spirit of prophecy.

▶ 5:42 And so we need boundaries for this, don’t we? And here’s the boundaries. Peter said, “We have a more sure word of prophecy. No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation,” any personal understanding. See, it’s not human ability. He said, “But the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man.” See, men’s opinions, men’s thinking, men’s deciding of what’s right and wrong had nothing to do with this. It was totally the Spirit. Doesn’t that make you feel safe? Yeah. Isaiah and Jeremiah, they weren’t allowed to throw in their opinions. They were only allowed to write and speak what the Spirit told them to. They didn’t say, “I believe.” Where did Isaiah and Jeremiah say, “Well, I believe it’s this way”? Is it in there? No. The Psalms: does the psalmist ever say, “Well, I believe this is what is truth”? No. Why? The Spirit’s talking, and the Spirit is a Spirit of what? Truth. And when the Spirit speaks, He don’t care what you believe. And I can prove it to you.

▶ 7:11 Caiaphas hated Jesus, didn’t he? Didn’t he? He wanted to kill Jesus, didn’t he? The high priest in Jerusalem when Jesus was there, didn’t he? Yeah. And one day the Spirit came upon Caiaphas, who hated Jesus, didn’t believe in Jesus, didn’t want Him to be the Messiah, and prophesied that Jesus was the Messiah, come to die for the sins of that nation, and not only that nation but those everywhere. Now, Caiaphas didn’t want to say that. He didn’t want to hear that. In fact, he didn’t even hear it after he spoke it. He still hated Jesus. But “holy men of God spoke as they were” what? Moved, stirred, initiated, stimulated by the Holy Spirit.

▶ 8:01 And, church, this is what we’ve got to get skillful at. See, a lot of you raised your hand a few weeks ago and said you would give one hour a day to God. I guarantee you, most of you felt guilty. Why? Because I was young once and made these promises. I had to get up many times from the failure and get back to my commitment. I didn’t stay in my failure. Hallelujah. In fact, I worked; I started work at 6:00, so I had to get up with enough time to seek God in the morning and all the rest and drive to work, and sometimes I would fall asleep seeking God, and I would feel so guilty. But God came to me and said, “Son, at least you’re laying before the Lord.” And that encouraged me. He didn’t come, “Well, you know, you’re goofed up, you’re off the map now, that’s it.” No. I had to get up the next morning and stay awake. Amen.

▶ 9:10 Moved by the Holy Ghost, stirred by the Holy Ghost. How many of us want to be a church where the Holy Ghost is stirring? Yeah. This is what the Pentecostals were good at. Yes, we made mistakes, but let me tell you, we knew the power of the Holy Ghost and what it could do, and in every service we were looking for the Holy Ghost to move, and most of the time He would honor our desire. Hallelujah. Now, we did funny things when He came, but, you know, you get them corrected, you get them changed, and don’t act like these [unclear] people don’t make mistakes. I can give you a whole list of failures they do. All right, so when these people want to argue with me about the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the kooks in the Pentecostal circles, well, I can show you a lot of kooks in the fundamental circles. I’ve been there. In the Catholic circles, I can show you a lot of kooks. Hallelujah. So, you know, don’t go throw mud stones at the Pentecostals if your own house has glass. You get it?

▶ 10:24 Now, so what’s the sure word? The Scriptures. The Holy Ghost will never ask you to say anything or do anything that violates Scriptures. Never. So when people tell me, you know, the Holy Spirit told them to divorce their spouse, or the Holy Spirit told them to, you know, divorce their parents, or whatever, I say, “That ain’t no Holy Ghost talking that violates Scripture.” The Scripture is, “If the unbelieving depart, let them depart.” Let them do the action; you stay faithful to your marriage, stay faithful to your family. You let them make the wrong decision; you don’t say, “In the name of the Holy Ghost, I’m going to violate the Bible.” Can I hear an amen?

▶ 11:11 Amen. Then I witnessed to a lot of people, you know, and they tell me, “God said,” and they tell me, “This is what I believe.” I don’t care what you believe. You’ve got to believe what God told you to believe. You don’t have the freedom to believe what you want to believe. You’ve got to believe what Jesus told you to believe. Amen. And we need the move of the Holy Spirit, and if we will start spending this one hour a day, and we will come into our services with the goal to let the Holy Spirit move and stir us and speak through us and pray through us and sing through us, I want to show you what will happen. Now, 1 Corinthians 14:31: “Some of you will prophesy.” Is that what it says? No, it doesn’t. “All may” what? Prophesy. Now, this is not the office of a prophet predicting the future. This is the gift of speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

▶ 12:18 “All may prophesy one by one.” In other words, don’t two of you talk at the same time. And, uh, the purpose is that we may learn. The purpose of prophecy is to teach the people, and not just teach them but comfort them, encourage them, strengthen them, and call them alongside Jesus. If what we’re saying isn’t bringing them to Jesus, we’re off base. See, if what we’re saying isn’t clear enough to encourage and motivate them to turn from sin and live a better life and come to Jesus, we’re off base. See, prophecy is a teaching avenue, an instruction avenue. Hallelujah. And, and, and, church, I believe in this stuff, and I’ve experienced this stuff, and I’ve preached all over the world, and this stuff works. I’m 70 years old, I’ve been around. I’ve preached in the jungles of Paraguay, I’ve preached in the jungles of Africa, because “jungle” seems to think, “Wow!” I also preached in the capital of Paraguay. “Oh, really?” But I say “jungle,” “Oh man, you suffered for Christ.” Yes! You go to the jungles; you go wherever people are that want to hear the word of God. Amen. See, I preached out in the volcanoes of San Salvador.

▶ 14:08 God’s whole purpose in this church is to touch people’s lives, not to flatter you and make you feel good, but to get you to a place where you can be used by the Holy Spirit. Is that an amen? Now, remember, seven times it says in Revelation, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.” Not what the philosophers are saying to the church, what the latest authors are saying to the church. No: what the Spirit is saying to the church. I could care the least what Billy Graham has to say. I could care the least what Oral Roberts and Joyce Meyer and all them have to say. What I need is what the Holy Spirit is saying to me, for my family, my time, in my place. I need a word from the Spirit encouraging me, moving me, strengthening me. Can I hear an amen?

▶ 15:08 Amen. And I don’t need psychology, and I don’t need you to pat me on the back to make me feel good. What I need is a word from the Holy Ghost that strengthens, quickens me on the inside. Hallelujah. I don’t need a 12-step program when I got a one-step program: Jesus Christ. Maybe two steps: His word. Jesus and His word heals you and sets you free, that Holy Spirit. Can I hear an amen? Now, I want to show you the marks of a false prophet. It’s easy to identify them. Jeremiah 2:8, number one: the prophets prophesy by Baal. All right, the Bible says Baal’s an idol, and Baal was many idols, and the Bible says when they talked about this that they sacrificed to devils. So some people do speak by the anointing of the demonic world. Now, I know scientists don’t believe in demons and all that, but, you know, they’re scientists. All they do, they just think we’re just a physical world and that’s it. We are also in a spiritual world.

▶ 16:22 Amen. And this is where the church comes in. Whether you like it or not, you’re in a spiritual world that’s influenced by principalities and powers of the spirit, and you have a spirit in you. Like the woman with the, uh, familiar spirit in Acts: she could tell the people that Paul and them were servants of the Most High God. She had a limited knowledge of things by the demonic spirit. Are you there? Limited. They do have limited power; they can only do what God allows them to do, number one. And so God didn’t care if she told them they were servants of the Most High God. God wanted them to know they were servants of the Most High God. See, her owners (she was a slave) and her owners made a lot of money with her fortune telling.

▶ 17:21 Yeah, and Paul just said, “Bam, come out of here,” and that thing was gone, and there went their money, and they got mad and they wanted to kill Paul. Okay, some people speak by demonic spirit. I’ve been in churches, in meetings, where people are speaking by demonic sources, and Christians are so naive because they don’t know this. Christ, and they don’t know their Bible, they, you know, they don’t do it and say, “I’m a demon talking.” They do it in the name of Jesus. God and the Bible, are you there? I remember my first encounter was in Alabama. I went to this advertised meeting, and that woman up there was speaking by a demon, and she was telling people their addresses and, you know, “You got cigarettes in your pocket,” and all that. And I kept my eyes right on her. I dared her to come to me. I was daring her, and she knew it. I would have set her straight in a jiffy.

▶ 18:24 And I was only a year and a half old in God, but I had read my Bible through a couple of times by now, and studied it, and been active in soul winning and all the rest. I had gotten strong in a year and a half. I didn’t mess around, you know. Three months after I was saved, I was going door-to-door witnessing. Are you there? I took a soul-winning class, I got with the program, I got up and sung special songs like they did today in church, at the missions, at the jails. I got my guitar, and I took it out there where the sinners were, and I would sing, then I would preach. Hello! People say, “What makes you different?” That’s one of the things that makes you different. I got involved very quickly. I didn’t use excuses. I worked six days a week; I worked 12 hours a day for five of them and a half a day for the other one, and yet I still found time for the kingdom. So you get strong. Amen.

▶ 19:34 Church, now they walk after things that do not profit you. You can tell them by their lifestyle. See, they behave in things that do not profit you spiritually. They give themselves to things that don’t profit you spiritually and don’t profit the kingdom. Number three, the prophets of Samaria (that’s the capital of the northern kingdom, Israel). They prophesy in Baal, and they cause my people Israel to err. See, you lead people astray. You lead people astray from what? Jesus and righteousness. Number four, the prophets of Jerusalem (that’s the capital of the southern kingdom, Judah and Benjamin). They commit adultery. “Homosexuality is okay, adultery is okay, sex with children is okay, incest is okay, you know, hallelujah, you’re saved by grace through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works. It don’t matter what you do, you can just, you know, you believe in Jesus, you’re just going to heaven.” That is a lie from the pit of hell.

▶ 21:01 When the rich man came to Jesus and said, “What must I do to have eternal life?” did He say believe, or did He say keep the commandments? See, salvation is a two-banked river: faith in Christ and His blood and death on the cross for forgiveness, and living right. Amen. See, it doesn’t help my wife (I’ve told you this many times), it doesn’t help my wife and my children if I believe in Christ. What helps them is when I live for Christ. See, I don’t go out on my wife, I don’t mistreat my children, I encourage them and I bring them up in the way. See, if I just believe, that doesn’t help them a hill of beans. They don’t do them any good if I’m a bad example to them. What good is my religion? They walk in lies.

▶ 21:58 They strengthen the hands of evildoers. Now, I’m going to tell you something that’s going to hurt some of you, but you need to hear this. Obama has strengthened the hand of evildoers when he says homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle and forcing it on us. He claims to be a Christian. His Democratic Party, which is 52% liberals, and if you ever read the Democratic platform, it has strengthened the hand of evildoers, you know, using abortion as a contraceptive. “Go ahead and commit adultery, make a mistake, we’ll pay you to have an abortion.” See, and they call it women’s health. And I’m sorry that this offends people, but, folks, I, as a preacher, have to hit the, the, the iron where it’s at, and when these people are blatantly disobeying and encouraging sin in the nation, preachers have got to stand up and blatantly tell them they are wrong. Can I hear an amen?

▶ 23:17 He don’t even want chaplain to preach their conviction in the military. That’s horrible. And America elected him president, and he strengthens the hand of evildoers, “and none return from their wickedness.” Their prophesying does not result in people changing their life. That’s false prophets. See, they would rather have a thousand in their church than preach anything that would hurt anybody and cause them to be offended and leave. You know, we let them go to hell, we’ll let him suffer the judgment of God here on earth, but God forbid that we lose one member from preaching sin and getting them to change. And the spirit of prophecy is very important. See, it’s not hard to figure out a false prophet. They violate Scriptures all the time. Real Bible prophecy turns people from doing wrong. Can I hear an amen?

▶ 24:28 Adultery, homosexuality, theft, divorce, murder, drugs, deceit, laziness (they don’t even want to get out and work now; they just get stuff from the government). Real Bible prophecy will hit all these issues. Can I hear an amen? Jeremiah 23:16, number eight: the prophets make you vain. They make you worthless. Most of the American church world is worthless. They don’t know how to pray, they don’t read their Bible, they don’t know Scriptures, they don’t know how to lead anyone to Christ. They’re worthless. Are you there? Somebody asked them, “How do I find Christ?” “Oh, let me take you to the pastor.” Somebody asked them, “Well, what’s a baptism of the Holy Ghost?” “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. Never heard of such a thing. Let me take you to the Pentecostal church.” These false prophets make us worthless. They’re worthless, and what you are, you pass on.

▶ 25:43 Number nine: they speak a vision of their own heart, mind. They just say what they feel is truth. “I believe this, I believe that.” They say them words all the time. “Well, I believe, and the way I see it...” It doesn’t matter what you believe. It doesn’t matter the way you see it. What is the Spirit saying, and what is the Bible saying? Because I only have those boundaries to speak in, “not from the mouth of the Lord.” Number 10: “I have not spoken to nor sent these prophets.” I haven’t spoken to them, I didn’t anoint them and send them. They’re self-appointed, or their church group appointed them. I didn’t send them. See, if God would have sent them, He would have gave them the message that He gave Adam and Eve. See, we showed you at the beginning the whole gospel was there last week, right? The whole gospel is right there in Genesis, the first few chapters, the mysteries of God. Yet they ran and prophesied.

▶ 27:02 All right, number 11: “If they had stood in my counsel.” They didn’t stand in my counsel. David said, “Thy word has been my counselors all the days of my pilgrimage.” David was a reader and a studier of Scriptures, and, you know, why Christians have to go to counseling? Because they don’t read the book. “If they would have stood in my counsel, they would have called my people to hear my word.” So they do not cause the people to hear the word of God; it’s their own opinions. And the last one is, they “would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doing.” See, because God didn’t send them, because they’re not in the Word, they can’t teach the Word to the people, and when you don’t teach the Word to the people, they’re not going to turn and repent from their sin. That’s false prophets. Now, you know as well as I do, the megachurches are filled with sinners. You know, when you stay in sin, there’s pain in sin. Eventually there’s pain in sin, isn’t there?