Oh God, Would You Rend The Heavens?

Chapter four, if it's odd, it's not necessarily God. First John 4.1, beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. So as we begin chapter four here, it's important to note that I'm not saying if it's odd, it's God and that weird things happen and we should just assume that it is God. I'm not saying any of that. All I've been saying up to this point is when God brings a spiritual awakening, it often does not fit within our theological box that we have put God in. Sometimes he breaks out of that box as long as it lines up with scripture. So here we go. Christians can embrace one of two extremes concerning the word revival. At one extreme are those who embrace pure emotionalism and hysteria. If it's odd, it's God and all weird behavior is excused. The other extreme that I just addressed earlier in this, if you go back and read chapter three, this extreme lacks a living, vibrant spiritual life. The church feels dead, cold, and lifeless. Talk of reviving the things of God is either dismissed or it's ridiculed. Both extremes can hinder the work of the Holy Spirit and genuine Christian growth. Those extremes being the circus or the cemetery. But in this section, I will primarily address the first extreme of hysteria and pure emotionalism. I view videos of people supposedly getting high on the Holy Spirit, toking the Holy Spirit, drunk on the Holy Ghost. This is not the same as being filled with the Spirit. Now there are times when people just have tremendous joy and people might make fun of as laughing and a lot of the videos I've seen about the laughing sure seem fake to me. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about just tremendous joy and crying out to God and excited and sometimes that seems bizarre or weird to people. And yes, I'm serious. I've seen bizarre and grossly unbiblical manifestations that are not reflective of one filled with the Spirit. You cannot toke the Holy Ghost and get high on the Holy Ghost. This is coming from people with no spiritual character. Those truly filled with the Spirit reflect the personality and the nature of God. Next section, I know it seems bizarre, but when people are questioned about extremes and this type of odd behavior, they cannot give any answers from Scripture. Common responses are, oh, I know it seems bizarre, but, or I know it's weird, but, or Shane, you're quenching and grieving the Spirit by not being open. No, I don't think so. These are not biblically sound responses to bizarre manifestations that do not line up with Scripture. The Holy Spirit is not quenched and grieved when we honor God's Word and test the Spirit, whether they are of God. Again, 1 John 4, 1. So I'd rather say, Lord, I don't know if this is you. I wanna test the Spirit. God, would you confirm? Would you lead me into confirmation in your Word? Lord, I'm waiting on you, but I don't have a good feeling about this unless it's blatantly false. That's what I would do in certain situations that aren't crystal clear. And God is quenched and grieved when we do not test the Spirits, when we allow the Holy Spirit to be misrepresented. And so a lot of this falls on the shepherds of the church, where we should steward what God is doing, discerning the Spirits, testing the Spirits, but at the same time being open and teachable and wanting God to change the lives of people he comes in contact with. And normally when God is filling someone with His Spirit, setting them free, it's not a passive type of experience. Our emotions are engaged. The Apostle Paul said that we are to judge or discern all things in 1 Corinthians 2. Someone truly filled with the Spirit, although bold, is often not bizarre. Now prophets in the Old Testament did some bizarre things, laying on their side for a certain period of time and these different things, but this was imagery that God was giving to the nation of Israel. And we don't believe that the prophetic type of ministry is on the same level of the prophets of the Old Testament. We believe the gift exists, but the office of prophet as outlined in scripture and who breathed life into scripture and were used of God to write the scripture, we do not see that same type of level of, well, I don't know what the right word is. I just know that office of prophet or the gifting of prophet, prophetically speaking things, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, and even prophetic preaching like Leonard Ravenhill, A.W. Tozer is still valid and active today, but the office of prophet, that's where we really need to be careful in how we define that because people do not speak the words equal with scripture or we look to their words as above scripture or new scripture, new truths. If it's new, it's not true. And if it's true, it's not new. So that's how we kind of work around that issue. But sadly, scripture is often used in an attempt to support very odd behavior. For example, Acts 2.15 says, for they are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. And John 18.6 records that men drew back and fell where? To the ground when Jesus surrendered himself shortly before his death. These scriptures, when used to validate wild ranting fanaticism are incorrect and misleading. Granted, we cannot dismiss the truly miraculous works of God that happen daily, nor can we minimize the incredible power of God to radically change lives through the power of the spirit. However, in our zeal and excitement, we often minimize the need for discernment. Sincere but wrong. A discerning person considers supernatural experiences in light of God's word. That's all I'm saying. We look at his nature and his character, and then we consider those supernatural experiences in that light. We ask, is there genuine fruit? In other words, does the experience align with God's word, his nature, his character? Is the fruit of the spirit found in Galatians 5 present? Love and joy and peace and longsuffering and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control, are those things present? Now, self-control is interesting because sometimes if the Holy Spirit overcomes a person, when he's overcome my emotions in the past and I just start weeping before preaching and I can't go up and preach sometimes, and I'm trying to control myself, but it's hard when God's pouring into your heart. So this fruit of the spirit, self-control, is controlling yourself when that presents itself. And it doesn't give us an excuse to speak in tongues in public and do all these weird things and say, ah, the Holy Spirit's moving, man. I just can't control myself. Now, you can control yourself in those types of things, but sometimes it's hard to control yourself when God's pouring into your heart and you're trying to control your tears. That's when it gets challenging. A true, genuine experience with the Holy Spirit will produce godly fruit and obedience to God. It seeks to promote those things that are pure and righteous. But a word of caution here. Even those in the New Age movement experience powerful feelings of love and euphoria, but it doesn't draw them closer to Jesus Christ or lead to repentance or surrender to the true God. So those types of feelings are not good and God-given. Although sincere, we can be sincerely wrong and seriously misled. Having an experience or being enlightened can create feel-good emotions, but it does not necessarily mean that it is of God. That's why God's word is so important. Does this line up with God's word, number one? Number two, look at their character. I don't care how high you jump. I wanna know how straight you walk when you come down. Many of these people at these highly emotional services or different things, they have no character. They have no spiritual maturity. So they're just getting loud in a circus environment, but there's no godly character and you have to look. There's no fruit there. So it's not hard to see if something is genuine if you look at the fruit, the character of the people. What is being produced is God's word being elevated and Christ glorified and hearts broken and repentance taking place and holiness sought. I mean, if it is, that's a no-brainer. Now, even though there is flexibility and freedom, our experiences must align with Scripture and the character of God. Remember what I said earlier from D. Martin Lloyd-Jones that we should not interpret God's Scripture in the light of our experiences, but rather we interpret our experiences in the penetrating light of Scripture. Do not touch my anointed ones. Feelings can be good and God-given. However, we cannot forget the prophet Jeremiah's words that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Profoundly moving experiences do stir our emotions. Did you hear me? Profoundly moving experience. You could say profound. These moving experiences are profound in my life. They do stir emotions and they may feel right, but emotions are primarily a vehicle for expression, not a gauge for truth. So that's where you see the difference. I'm having a moving experience that is stirring my emotions. Okay, that is a vehicle for expression, but that does not gauge truth. How do you gauge truth? By the truth of it, according to God's word, God's character and nature. But as I'm embracing the truth, my feelings should be engaged. Sadly, some of the disturbing behavior mentioned earlier has been excused and some of the leaders of these movements are rarely challenged. They can divorce their spouse and remain in leadership using 1 Chronicles 16.22 as a proof text. Do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm. Boy, that is out of context. The context is when I have called someone to prophetically speak my word, do not touch them. Do not try to harm them because I will defend them, thus say the Lord. God is not saying he will defend wrong, abusive, manipulative behavior. That's just not the case. This is an abuse of grace at the highest level and a twisting of scripture. We should forgive people and there's grace, but reinstating them in the ministry, that raises several questions if they're not yet ready and a period of time has not elapsed. And it takes time. Again, that's a whole other subject. But in our zeal to defend the Holy Spirit, we sometimes run the risk of defending wrong behavior. They can rise to the top because of ability, let's say, but plummet to the bottom because he or she lacks character, spiritual character. In other words, they rise to the top because they're charismatic and all these things, but they plummet to the bottom because they lack spiritual character. And throughout the Old Testament, God gave people the opportunity to be leaders, but it was their character and their humility, not their position that determined their outcome. But to counter this criticism, some of the followers of weird movements say that those who oppose them will suffer the judgment of God. Well, when in reality, it's those who refuse God's correction and God's offer of salvation who will suffer judgment. A person is not judged for seeking discernment, they are judged for rejecting the truth. What you seek is what you find. Although some well-intentioned Christians are anxious to hear from God, many seek signs and wonders rather than seeking God. We cannot become unstable, I'm sorry, we can become unstable, confused, and deceived when our spirituality hinges on signs, wonders, and manifestations. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will fall into place. Please understand, it's not my intention to paint experience-oriented movements with a broad brush. Praise God when we experience him. God wants us to experience him. The presence and the power of the Holy Spirit can provoke overwhelming feelings, and rightly so. When truth penetrates the heart, excitement, passion, and enthusiasm often follow. As stated earlier, these emotions can be good and God-given. So my goal is not to limit the gifts, the power and presence of the Spirit, but to seek balance and discernment. And again, I'm not painting everyone with a broad brush. There are different types of ministries, different types of callings. Some have genuine fruit, some have fake fruit. It's hard to really pinpoint this whole topic down unless we look specifically at the ministry, the fruit that is being produced, what the teacher is saying, their own personal relationship with the Lord. There's so much there. But one of the reasons people embrace unbiblical experiences is because they are not in the Word seeking balance, confirmation, and discernment. Simply stated, if we are not in the Word, the Word will not be in us. Did you catch that? If you're not in the Word, the Word will not be in you. We can easily be deceived. Searching for spiritual fulfillment isn't wrong, but where we search can be. Spiritual hunger is good, yet we can become so hungry spiritually that we'll consume anything. Eagerness to consume anything can lead to experience-oriented movements with no scriptural basis, especially when we begin to look to experiences to validate truth. God is working whether we feel something or not. Toking the Holy Ghost. Some of the events where oddities occur can feed sinful desires rather than challenge them. Granted, some people who attend these events are truly seeking God. I'm not minimizing that. I applaud them for seeking. But the signs and wonder gospel is not the real gospel, nor is the prosperity gospel the real gospel. God may prosper us and miracles do happen, but these are secondary. Christ is primary. That's why in this issue I mentioned earlier of toking the Holy Ghost and things like that, that is blasphemy. That is something that should be rebuked. And we have to recognize that many godly people do not experience great prosperity, great blessings, great riches, knowing that those things can draw us away from God. The greatest miracle is that God saved us and now calls us to help others and live holy lives. Granted, Christians can look odd to the culture and spirit-filled Christians can look odd to modern-day Pharisees and carnal Christians. God is not predictable. But this is not what I'm referring to. Instead, in this section and earlier what I mentioned, I'm referring to bizarre occurrences such as people appearing drunk at the pulpit, toking the Holy Ghost, acting like animals, and screaming as if they were on fire. Can we honestly believe that Jesus, Peter, and Paul would endorse or worse, partake in such weird behavior? Now granted, there have been times in deliverance ministry where somebody is being set free from demonic bondage and strongholds. The word is demonize in the New Testament. And there is screaming, there's acting out. But I'm talking right now about a person filled with the Spirit of God and how they conduct themselves. I think we have to be careful. We have to put some things under a microscope and be careful that we are leading people in the right direction. Again, it's hard to paint all experiences with a broad brush because there are different experiences. I've seen people weeping at the altar and just so broken over their prodigal son or daughter. And it sounds a little odd. I mean, it's like travail, like a woman giving birth. But who am I to say that God is not moving powerfully in her heart? How else would human beings, how else would we respond when a holy God fills us mightily with His Spirit? Some people, there's tremendous joy and laughter and they're just excited and they can't contain it to some degree. And other people, there's so much brokenness and pain and tears and weeping. And so, you know, again, we have to be careful. But at the same time, we don't want to quench and grieve a genuine work of God's Spirit. That's why it's all about stewarding what God is doing, making sure your heart is right first. Because that verse definitely applies where we have to remove the plank from our eye before helping our brother remove the speck in theirs. And I'm amazed at how many heresy hunters and conservative, arrogant, stiff-necked believers want to pull the plank out of the eye of others instead of the little splinter there. And they neglect the very large plank of pride and arrogance and having an unteachable spirit in their own heart. But with that said, falsehood and confusion, they do go hand in hand. So when something is false, it gets confusing. And Paul often corrected errors in his epistles. And at 1 Corinthians 14, 40, he said, let all things be done decently in order. That's why I believe he did that, is to not let things get out of hand. I like what D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said many years ago that living children need rules, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14. Dead children do not. So you just take that however you want, but he made a great point there. Living children, living, vibrant, filled with God's spirit. We need boundaries sometimes. We need that because it's living and vibrant. But a dead relationship with God, really there's no rules there because it's a cemetery environment. But rather than quenching and grieving the spirit, Paul is pleading for sound action, decency, and order within the church when possible, as the standard. According to 1 Timothy 3, the church is to be the pillar and ground, not of air, not of weirdness, not of hysteria, but of truth. The church is the pillar and ground of truth. Being controversial isn't necessarily wrong. There are incidents of odd behavior in the Bible. I've said that before, such as the man from the country of the Gadarenes who was possessed, but after he met Jesus, he was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. We also have an account of a man who brought his possessed son to Jesus. But again, these are all demonic possessions. And so it does make you wonder when certain things are manifesting at events or church services. Not everything's of God. The enemy is working overtime as well. And it's going to take people loving others enough to tell them the truth, hold to God's truth, and not allow things to go beyond the scope of what the Holy Spirit might be doing. The account of the man who was possessed, the demons threw him down and it convulsed and Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit. He healed the child and he gave him back to his father in Luke 9. It's an incredible story. And in these cases, though, very odd behavior is the result of people needing Christ. Did you catch that? In these cases, very odd behavior is the result of people needing Christ and his presence and deliverance brings peace and order. Think about this for a minute. So a genuine move of God's spirit, a spiritual awakening, there's odd behavior. Well, why rebuke the whole movement if a few people are experiencing deliverance? So these oddities that are happening, how do we know the person doesn't need to be prayed for and delivered? Why would you say, oh, that church is odd or too charismatic, look what happened in the service. Well, look what happened in the service. This demon manifests itself and the person got delivered along with God moving among his people. You see, where God's moving, so is the enemy. Where there's wheat, there's tear. Where there's truth, there's air. Where there's light, there's darkness. Where there's right, there's wrong. And we have to be able to discern that and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. As a student of revivals, I understand that being controversial isn't necessarily a bad thing. All revivals are controversial. Every revival I have studied, there's always a word spoken against it. Always a word spoken against it. And sadly, it often comes from very conservative, rigid churches who haven't experienced the power of God and jealousy comes in and they put down other churches. I know that's happened to us many times within our community as well. And it's sad to see, but all you can do is keep serving God and let him sort it out. Again, God is not predictable and odd things can happen when a sinful person is overcome by the power of God. And as I read the journals of George Whitefield, the Welsh revivals and the firsthand accounts of the first great awakening in America, I found that Pastor Jonathan Edwards, I had some interesting points here, about five points, and he observed that the work of the Holy Spirit, a true work of the Holy Spirit, would be evident because it would elevate the truth. At a church or at an event or wherever, is the truth being elevated? Where some of these churches that are called revival churches or whatever, there's no call to repentance. There's no promotion of the inerrancy of scripture. They're embracing ungodly organizations and they're sappy, what I call sappy. It's all about love and love and love and love. No, no, when God's really bringing revival, the truth will be elevated. And when the truth is elevated, timeless truths are elevated. Foundational truths are elevated. The sin of man, the blood of Christ, the judgment of God, the necessity of repentance, those are all signs of a genuine move of the Spirit. Number two, exalt Christ. Christ will be exalted, not necessarily the Holy Spirit. And I talk about the Holy Spirit a lot, but I make sure that it points people to Christ. And a genuine move of the Holy Spirit will oppose Satan. There will be demonstrations of spiritual power that will oppose Satan. Number four, a genuine spiritual awakening points people to the scripture without a shadow of a doubt. Not only does it elevate the truth, but it points people to the scripture. Let's see what the Bible says. Let's see what the Bible says. Some of these guys that don't wanna see what the Bible says, that's because they're not following what the Bible says. You should be able at any time say, let's put my words under the microscope of God's word. Let's put this experience under the microscope of God's word. For example, a couple years ago we had a service and it went on for a little while. People were at the altar and the worship leader was camping out. You know, just singing, worthy is the Lord, worthy were, and just, I can't sing, but you know what I'm saying. And he was just camping out there like, I don't know, five, six, seven, eight minutes. And that bothered some people. They said, oh, oh, I don't know what's going on here. This is like demonic. Um, no, no, no, no, it's not demonic. It's elevating the truth in the service. We're exalting Christ, we're opposing Satan, we're pointing people to the scriptures. And then number five, it results in love for God and others. The problem is this person was just uncomfortable with emotional worship. Their heart's never been engaged with God to that level and that makes them feel uncomfortable. Then they have to say, well, clearly this young worship leader is not more filled with the Spirit than me. Clearly, look at these people praising God. They're being brainwashed. No, no, no, stop that silliness. You need to humble yourself and repent of your hard heart. And that's, I see it all the time. I see people, they look at people experiencing God and they say, well, I'm more spiritual than them. I've memorized the whole book of James. How can they, this can't be real because I'm not experiencing it. And we put down, and God uses the foolish things. He will use the foolish, why he called me to do what I'm doing is that is my life verse. He uses the foolish things of this world to confound, to confuse the wise, the wise in this world. I've seen it so many times. So if that's you, I would just encourage you to humble yourself and repent of your hard heart and say, God, work in my heart. I want to have sound doctrine. I want to hold your truth, but I also want to experience you in a profound way. Not everything done in God's name bears his approval. Some suggest that today's battle is not so much against liberals in the church, but against those who are not open to new prophecies and visions. Those who religiously hold to the written word of God alone. I guess that must be me then because I'm not open to new prophecies and visions. I believe in the gift, the prophetic gift and the word of wisdom, word of prophetic words. And God can use visions and dreams, but we do hold to the written word alone. These things never supersede the word. If anything, they supplement the word. They confirm what God is already doing in your heart. And this statement concerns me because it can be used to promote anything done in the name of the Lord. Now, granted, Acts 2.17 is relevant for us today. And it shall come to pass in the last days, God will pour out his spirit on all flesh. Sons and daughters will prophesy. Young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. That's biblical. So I just find it ironic that all these people, conservatives, they say they hold to the Bible alone. But when somebody says, you know, I just, this vision or this dream that God put in my heart. Oh, well, brother, that's not for today. God needed that to guide Joseph and the wise men, but not for us today. Well, what do you do with Acts 2.17, especially when Peter said, today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. But you have to balance the scripture with 1 John 4.1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit. Okay, don't be gullible. But test the spirits, whether they are of God. So we test the spirits by going to God, by asking for confirmation, by looking to his word. And it says many false prophets have gone into the world. That's why we have to test the spirits. And not everything done in God's name bears his approval. Did you get that? Not everything done in God's name bears his approval. And I would go as far as to say, anytime people are forcing that, hey, I'm a prophet of God. I'm an apostle such and such. Look at my business card. God has called me to do this. You better listen. And they have to do that? Then I would really have a problem with them because God's word and a true work of God, and when God reveals himself in the season of revival, people are not elevating themselves. You don't have to say, oh, this is truly of God. Listen to me, I'm an apostle, I'm a prophet. No, you just let God prove it. And you stay back like John the Baptist. He must increase, but I must decrease. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. A prophet, as mentioned in the Bible, can be anyone in a position of spiritual authority or claiming to be. They are not to be elevated or idolized. We follow Christ, not men. False teachers aren't dressed in red and armed with pitchforks. They often look credible and talk convincingly. However, they bring destructive teachings into the church. And I've noticed, at least during this season, it's a lot about love, like just love people, love this movement, love this organization, just love people who are sinning. And that's true, we are to love, but if that love overshadows theology, like the other side of God, love is one attribute of God, not the only one. God is also God of holiness and righteousness and calls people to repentance. So false teachers often gravitate just towards love. I can't say anything about abortion because the government, we're under the government's control. I can't say anything about gay marriage or LGBT or transgender, just love them. And we are, that's we're to love them. But we also have to speak the truth in love. So that's one of the signs of a false prophet is they avoid the difficult things. They tend to avoid difficult truths. They don't mention sin, judgment, repentance. And they focus really on what people want to hear rather than what they need to hear. Think of some of the most popular pastors right now in the United States on TV, not all of them, I know some of them, but a lot of them, they're just focusing on what the audience wants to hear, not what they need to hear. False teachers provide layers of truth mixed with error, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. Now we do need to be careful, just because a pastor or a leader is more of a motivational speaker, that doesn't mean they're a false prophet. A false prophet is intentionally deceiving people. They are not saved, they are not sealed by the spirit of God. Some pastors and Christian leaders are just, they've been given the gift of love and grace and a motivational speaker. They have a shepherd's pastor's heart. And so you're not gonna see them preaching like say a Paul Washer or a Leonard Ravenhill or a John the Baptist. You're just, you're not gonna see that because they have a different calling. So they're not false prophets. And in other cases, some of these people have quenched and grieved the spirit because they're chasing the wrong things. And so they're not false prophets. So I'm just careful when I use that statement. I think we all need to be careful. But today when the truth of God's word is spoken, people are often offended because they've been conditioned to hear feel-good messages that do little in calling out sin. As a result, churches are filled with people whose lifestyles reflect little change. William Steele said it well many years ago, many who for the first time come under the sound of Holy Ghost preaching are mortally offended because they have never been exposed to the white light of the spirit. And that's just the truth. The reason the true preaching offends people is because they've never been exposed to the word of God going and penetrating their heart and dividing it and dividing right from wrong and good from evil, the blackness of satanic influence to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And Jesus warns, beware of false prophets. They will come to you in sheep's clothing. And there are false teachers within the church and we're encouraged to pray for wisdom and discernment and words from the Lord should not supersede the Bible but instead confirm what the Bible says. And I like what Wayne Grudem in his book on systematic theology said prophecy involves not authoritative Bible teaching and not speaking words of God which are equal to scripture but rather reporting something which God spontaneously brings to mind. We hold religiously to the written word of God because it's our guide to test what is being said. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, 1 Corinthians 14. The speaker should be careful since his words must be under or subject to God's word. If those who look to the word are accused of quenching and grieving the spirit, we are reminded that Jesus used the word of God himself for finality, discernment, and power. But what if a prophet is wrong? Okay, well I'm gonna try to get through this quickly here. What about if a prophet is wrong? Can a person have the gift of prophecy yet still make a mistake in which case an apology is required? What do we say to this? The prophecy fiasco during the 2020 election is one such example. But I don't think we can make a blanket statement nor should we let opinions sway our thinking. For example, I know very godly people with the gift of prophecy. They've been so accurate that only God could have revealed the information they've conveyed. But there have also been a few times when these same people told me things that didn't come to pass. So are they false prophets? Well, in the Bible, it's crystal clear that false prophets intentionally deceive people. Jude 4 says that certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for condemnation. The people mentioned above, however, love the Lord, but they allow emotion and personal desire to lead their words. Some become overconfident because of past accuracy. So when these people miss it, I don't consider them a false prophet. Their mistake was that they didn't take their word to the Lord and ask for confirmation. They reacted on impulse rather than receive a true burden from the Lord, much like the prophet Nathan, who told King David, go, do all that's in your heart and the Lord will be with you. Build the temple. It was a good idea, but God said, no, that's not my idea. So God corrected Nathan and told him that David was not to build a house for him. A false proclaimer of God's truth is much different than godly Miss Martha, for example, not a real name, who loves the Lord and has the gift of prophecy, but she missed it because of her desire for godly leadership, as in the case of a presidential candidate. Granted, if Miss Martha keeps missing it, we have a problem on our hands, but not necessarily a false prophet. In this case, she needs to take a season and not exercise this gift and instead seek God for wisdom and discernment. I would also add that people should not be quick to exercise this gift. It should be a burden that God puts on you and it can be tested, it can be weighed by others. An example of the gift of prophecy. A true prophetic word is specific and often speaks to a particular issue in your life. It will always align with scripture and God's wisdom and is never to take the place of God's word. I will never forget a night in 2003 when my wife and I were visiting a church. I was digging ditches and working hard in construction and I came back to the Lord a few years prior. Each day when I studied God's word, I kept sensing powerful, bold messages rising up in my spirit. At one point, I even told my wife, these messages are bold. People are going to think I'm arrogant if I say these things. God, please show me what you're doing. I knew that God was calling me to preach, but I kept backing down because of what I just mentioned to you and to my wife. It was a crucial turning point. Would I become a preacher or a motivational speaker? Approximately 200 people were present at a church service. The man who was the guest speaker that night completely spoke to this issue. He said, young man, stand up. And I was the only one to stand up and he gave a word to that night. He said, God is giving you boldness. It's not arrogance. I believe you can actually hear it in the e-book version of this book. So he just started saying it's boldness. It's not arrogance. It's God. God's gonna call you to this bold ministry and it was incredible. It was life-changing and just what I needed to move forward. It has motivated me countless times to preach boldly in the face of adversity. That's why it's called a gift. The spirit helps us discern God's will and confirm his calling on our life. Another incident I'll just give you real quick was a few years ago, I had to say something hard to the church and I was saying, Lord, I don't know if this is me or you. I'm just angry about this issue. I'm not gonna say it unless I know it's you. And right then, this older lady who's passed away now, Marilyn, got up, came right to me and she said, today, I believe God's putting on my heart to tell you to preach what God has put on your heart. Do not hold back a word. Say everything that God wants you to say. And she went back down to the altar and began praying. I'm like, okay, wow, are these incidences and many more simply coincidence? Oh, not a chance. The gift of the spirit is, the gifts of the spirit is so relevant today, it's not even funny. A final word to those who mislead. A false prophet intentionally misleads people by influencing them to act in a way contrary to God's word. They don't apologize when they're wrong and they, maybe they might say a quick apology, like, oh yeah, I'm so sorry, but it's more of an excuse. It's not really a heartfelt apology. And false prophets are often flamboyant, but they lack godly character. They usually include the title of prophet or apostle on their business card. Not always, some people are just overly anxious to promote themselves, but sometimes they do. They're wolves in sheep's clothing and they often focus on making money or sensuality or drawing congregational members into sexual activity or promoting sin. I know one false, I would consider a false prophet, and I've been praying for him, a pastor who embraces gay marriage and he also told people in his congregation, if you ever struggle with those feelings, just embrace them and go with it. That's a person who's unconverted and they're not telling people the truth. Have you been manipulating or falsely misrepresenting the work of the spirit? Don't live your life with a question mark here. If you are walking that tightrope of possibly being a false prophet or someone leading others astray, are you truly saved? Are you truly saved? Because those who are truly saved want to protect and honor the work of the spirit. I want to just encourage you to repent, let others know, let God know, I need to repent of this. I've been leading people astray. Don't waste another minute living like this. Take time now and repent. God will rend the heavens and fill you with his spirit if you follow his order outlined in his word, and that order is repent of your sin, repent of being a false proclaimer of genuine truth, and say, Lord, I'm giving my life completely to you. I want to know who you are, what your word says, and I want to help people. This is not about me anymore. This is about others. God, I repent of my selfishness and my desire to lead others astray or my desire to promote myself. God, I want to throw all that at your feet, and I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.