2 p.m. Monday January 30, 2023. 28F/-3C.
Adventurous. With the ground solidly frozen, it is a good day to venture into parts of the woods rarely visited. Rare visits makes picking out a path more difficult. One foot is raised a good twelve inches above the path so that thorny vines may be trampled down and walked upon. The usual spot by the creek was found and the water was cold, running swiftly, but not icy. The tree across the water had both roots dipped into the clear stream. The level is certainly higher than it was last week. Only a few feet up, the bank suddenly rose to about twelve feet above the water. And there was the path to the road. Deer hoof prints pointed the way. The noisy creek was behind, the muddy road before. With a light coating of ice on every surface, it is not a day for many humans to venture out this way.
The Gospel of Matthew, chapter seven
Abba Father, I humbly beseech thee to challenge us to get into your word, to challenge us to be filled with your glory, to challenge us to belong to you and serve you. In the name of Yeshua Jesus, your son, I pray. Amen.
Within chapter seven, Yeshua explained how we can recognize false prophets.
Spoiler alert: it has nothing to do with delivering a precise accounting of future events. It has everything to do with the intention of the prophet’s heart.
“Guard yourselves from the prophets of deception, a who come in clothing of ewes but in their inside they are rending wolves. By their deeds you will recognize them – for a man is not able to gather grapes from a bramble, neither figs from thorn bushes. And every good tree produces good fruit, and a bad fruit tree produces bad fruit. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and burned. By their deeds you will recognize them.”
The Sepharadic gospel of Matityahu, chapter seven, translation by Justin van Rensburg
A prophet does not predict the future. A prophet is a person who speaks what God’s Spirit tells him or her to speak. A false prophet is one who speaks in a manner that purposefully deceives God’s people, for personal gain.
How do we recognize them? They love to drive fancy cars. They love to own big houses. Their desired reward for speaking in Yeshua’s name has already been claimed. They will have no prophet’s reward in heaven. Some will have no reward in heaven at all.
We are to beware of prophets of deception. The true prophet is the one who produces righteousness, in himself and in his followers.
Watch for their fruit.
Life in the hollow, Monday
The golden feral cat has barged into the cabin to nap in my recliner again. He’s an oddity who acts more like a bobcat than a domestic short hair – round eyes, long tail, sits upright on his haunches and claps his front paws together, regular cat ears, golden-red stripes and splotches in his coat. Strange.
Speaking of unusual, an image of Yeshua got my attention this morning and I watched him send out sparkles and flowers and Holy Spirit to children. I’m very interested in seeing what children across the nations do after that!
One time, when my blog had more followers, the Holy Spirit gave me a “thus saith the Lord” word to publish. I cannot remember the word. It seemed like nonsense, really. Here was the problem with the Holy Spirit’s word: It was clearly not an accurate prediction, given the state of the world.
So, what he gave me was actually a mental puzzle to solve. Should I present the word as a metaphor for something else, in other words, should I justify his word? Should I just do as the Holy Spirit instructed, and do not worry about the consequences? In the end, I printed his “word” to my blog and promptly lost several followers.
I asked him later, “Did you get the result you wanted when I published your word?”
“Oh, yes!” his Holy Spirit replied in gleeful words on my heart.
I guess that was what mattered. A prophet is not one who accurately predicts the future. A prophet is someone who faithfully speaks or writes what God desires, achieving the results that God desires. And it doesn’t matter the cost.
Enter My Peace 