Future Not Fixed

1 Samuel 23:7-13 (NIV)

⁷ Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, and he said, “God has handed him over to me, for David has imprisoned himself by entering a town with gates and bars.”

⁸ And Saul called up all his forces for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.

⁹ When David learned that Saul was plotting against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod.”

¹⁰ David said, “O LORD, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me.

¹¹ Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O LORD, God of Israel, tell your servant.” And the LORD said, “He will.”

¹² Again David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?” And the LORD said, “They will.”

¹³ So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there.

David saved the inhabitants of Keilah from a Philistine invasion and pillage but as soon as the jealous King Saul heard about it then he immediately planned to besiege David and his men at Keilah. Abiathar the priest had an ephod which was used together with Urim and Thummim to discern the will of God. David inquired of God if Saul would come to besiege the town of Keilah and if the citizens of Keilah would betray David to Saul in order to save their own lives. God answered that Saul would come and that the people would betray David and his men. So as soon this information was received from God then David and his men immediately left Keilah. This caused King Saul to cancel his planned siege of Keilah and Saul never came and therefore the citizens never betrayed David to save themselves.

This is an illustration of the fact that the future is not fixed. God can see the future and knows what will happen but at the same time humans can still change their future by making decisions which will affect their own destiny. The word of the Lord said that King Saul would come and the citizens if Keilah would betray David yet neither of these two events transpired because David changed the future with his decision to leave Keilah immediately. When David left the town then this caused Saul to cancel his plans and the predicted betrayal also did not occur.

This means that human life is comprised of choices and God can see the path a person will chose even before they choose that path. God can even give warning to a person about the results of a path “yet untaken” even before that person takes that pathway. If they will change their path and go in another direction, they can be saved of the negative results predicted for following such a path.

Altered Path

1 Kings 18:46 (NLT2)

⁴⁶ Then the LORD gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.

God empowered Elijah with divine energy to run faster than the horses and chariot of Ahab! Elijah ran about 25-miles from Mount Carmel to the winter palace at Jezreel. I believe that the purpose of Elijah being divinely empowered to run ahead of Ahab to Jezreel was that Elijah was to destroy the wicked woman Jezebel before Ahab arrived at Jezreel.

1 Samuel 15:32-33 (NKJV)

³² Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

³³ But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.

The prophet Samuel hacked Agag the king of the Amalekites to pieces at Gilgal and I believe that the prophet Elijah was divinely empowered to run faster than horses and chariots for the purpose that he would hack Jezebel to pieces in Jezreel before Ahab arrived. Jezebel was the head of the snake and destroying her would have worked to abolish the false religion of Baal worship in Israel which was supplanting the worship of the true God.

But somehow Elijah failed to do his job of killing this wicked woman and when he hesitated then Jezebel was able to use his authority against him and intimidated Elijah into running for his life (instead of destroying her with boldness). If a Prophet (or any Fivefold Ministry Gift) allows themselves to be intimidated then they can have their gift go dormant and the adversary can take their God-given authority and use it against them.

See the link “Gift Gone Dormant” for more details.

When Elijah failed to destroy Jezebel then this prolonged her judgment for a long period of time. It was not until Jehu came upon the scene many years later that this wicked woman was finally put to death.

2 Kings 9:30-33 (NIV)

³⁰ Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window.

³¹ As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, “Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?”

³² He looked up at the window and called out, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked down at him.

³³ “Throw her down!” Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.

Jehu completed the delayed-execution of Jezebel many years later by having her thrown from an upper story window and trampled with horses and fed to the dogs! But if Elijah had done his job when he was empowered by God to do so then this wicked woman would have been put to death much sooner. As it was, Jezebel lived many more years before Jehu finished the job and put her to death. The country languished under the rule of this evil woman who put the priests and prophets of God to death and sought to replace the worship of God with the worship of the false idol Baal.

Whenever God’s men fail to do their job this can have grave consequences for others. Many people languished and suffered for many more years under the rule of Jezebel because Elijah failed to put her to death when he had been empowered by God to do so. Elijah destroyed the false prophets of Baal and he also should have also put Jezebel to death on the same day after being empowered by God to run to Jezreel to destroy Jezebel. History can be altered whenever a man of God fails his assignment so that the evil reign of Jezebel was prolonged instead of being terminated by Elijah.

But God’s will is like flowing water which passes around obstacles or large rocks in a stream bed. Regardless of how many turns the water may make, this water will always make it to the ocean. God’s will is like flowing water and even if Elijah failed to destroy Jezebel on that fateful day then God raised up Jehu to finish the job later. But the prolonged reign of Jezebel caused much suffering for those who were godly and who worshiped the God of Israel.

History can change based upon the decisions that humans make. When Elijah failed to destroy Jezebel, it altered history by prolonging her evil reign. Never should a man of God allow himself to be intimidated into disobeying God. Failing in a mission can change history and God will have to make other arrangements to get the job done later.

History is based upon human decisions made in the past and based on these decisions’ history will change accordingly. History is therefore a product of past human decisions which affect an outcome of events in the future.

The Future is a Product of Human Decisions

Below is an example of the operation of spiritual gifts through a Prophet named Agabus who warned Paul of what was going to happen in the future. There have been theological wars fought over this topic (about whether Paul was in God’s will or out of God’s will when he proceeded to go to Jerusalem after he was first warned by the Holy Spirit not to proceed). But these scriptures were not given to cause people to get into strife with one another or to have a rift develop between them or for them to have a debate. These scriptures are recorded to teach believers about the operation of spiritual things and how we can discern what God is saying to us through prophetic messages.

Acts 21:10-14 (NIV2011)

¹⁰ After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

¹¹ Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ”

¹² When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.

¹³ Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴ When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

The scriptures above say that a prophet named Agabus took Paul’s belt and tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles.”’

The believers who heard this prophecy immediately tried to dissuade Apostle Paul from going to Jerusalem knowing what was going to happen to him there. But Paul refused to listen and he proceed to Jerusalem where he experienced everything that was predicted would happen through this prophetic word.

The source of the debate over all of this is that some people assume that because God told Apostle Paul in advance about what was going to happen then this means it was God’s will for these things to occur. But those who hold this point of view fail to understand some basic biblical principles.

1. God has given all mankind a human freewill and God will not supersede their human freewill. If humans make a choice to do anything then God will not stop them but will allow them to follow their own decisions.

2. The course of a human’s life is determined by their own decisions and God will not stop them from making those decisions even if those decisions affect them in a detrimental way.

3. When discerning the meaning of a prophetic word given by the Holy Spirit, it must be understood within the context of existing principles of human freewill and the human right to choose the path they will take.

Therefore, just because the Holy Spirit said that Paul would be arrested and bound and handed over to the Gentile authorities in Jerusalem that does not mean it was God’s will for these things to happen. Paul still had a human freewill and he could have made a decision right then and there to turn around and go in another direction and refuse to go to Jerusalem. But Paul used his human freewill and he chose to proceed toward Jerusalem despite the warning to the contrary.

Romans 11:13 (NASB)

¹³ But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,

Paul was called by God as an Apostle to the Gentiles but Jerusalem was almost entirely Jewish in population and it was the center of Judaism and was the location of the Jewish temple. When Paul insisted that he would go to Jerusalem he was in fact insisting on going contrary to his God-given purpose to preach to the Gentiles and he intruded into the role of trying to reach the Jews instead!

Galatians 2:7-8 (NIV)

⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.

⁸ For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.

These scriptures make it clear that Peter was called by God to be an Apostle to the Jews while Paul was called by God to be an Apostle to the Gentiles. Both men were Apostles but they had been given specific grace or ability from God to reach a specific group of people. As long as they remained within their specific gift and calling then they would see results and have a fruitful ministry.

Peter was given a special grace of God to minister to the Jewish people and Peter lived in Jerusalem (the Jewish capital) and he had little problem with the Jews. Paul however was not called to reach the Jewish people and he had no grace for ministry to the Jews. Therefore, whenever Paul tried to minister to the Jews, he was met with nothing but trouble and turmoil as the Jews sought to kill him whenever they laid eyes upon him!

The grace of God was upon Paul for ministry to the Gentiles and therefore he should have restricted his own ministry to those people for which he had been given the grace to minister to.

Romans 9:2-4 (NIV)

² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race,

⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.

Paul was so zealous about reaching the Jewish people that he said that he would happily be accursed and cut off from Christ himself if that would help his brethren the Jews to be saved! That is even a stronger statement that if someone said they were willing to die for some cause. To say you would happily suffer eternal damnation just to save the Jews means that Paul was literally “obsessed” with trying to reach the Jewish people with the salvation message!

But the problem is that Paul was called by God to reach the Gentiles (not the Jews). In fact, there are many men of God who have never been fully happy or content with the role God has given to them to fulfill. Paul never fully accepted his call to the Gentiles and continued longing for the chance to reach this own Jewish people instead.

Prior to about 33 A.D., the Jewish people were about the only clean and sanitary and civilized and moral people that could be found on earth. Before salvation came to the Gentiles the Gentiles were basically godless and immoral. The Gentiles had unclean food and poor sanitation and generally lived immoral lifestyles of debauchery. Crime and wickedness were a way of life for those who have no fear of God. But Paul changed all of that when he preached the gospel to the Gentiles and many become spiritually reborn and put away their idolatry and immorality and crimes and became good and clean and moral people like the Jews. The gospel can change entire societies and nations of people as they come into the knowledge of the God of Israel and change their heathen ways!

No doubt Paul had some pride in being Jewish and it probably grieved him to have to dwell among the godless Gentiles who behaved like heathens. Only after the Gentiles got saved did they improve their quality of life after they were instructed about how to follow the laws of the God of Israel and the principles of the Torah which were the same principles that made the Jews into good and honest and clean people. In fact, the greatest civilizations on earth have been those that are established upon the principles of the Torah given to mankind by God through the Jews!

But as much as Paul loved his own Jewish people and preferred to eat with them and eat sanitary food that was kosher and live in a society that was based on the Torah, he could not disobey God and he was forced to go out and preach the gospel to the heathen Gentiles who previously had no knowledge of the God of Israel whatsoever!

1 Corinthians 9:16-17 (NIV)

¹⁶ Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

¹⁷ If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.

Paul was called by God to preach to the Gentiles and he was compelled to preach for this reason. He literally had no choice in the matter. If he was unwilling, then he would be forced to do it anyway. But if he did this job willingly (with a good attitude) then God would reward him. But if against his will then he would have no reward but would still be required to discharge this trust given to him by God.

It is evident by the scriptures that Apostle Paul was not fully “willing” to be an Apostle to the Gentiles. He certainly must have envied men like Apostle Peter who was called to reach the Jews. Peter was therefore free to live among the Jews who were clean and sanitary and moral and just and totally unlike that godless heathen Gentiles whom had no knowledge of God and were totally ignorant of the Torah.

Throughout the history of this present New Testament era there have been Fivefold ministers like Apostle Paul who have not been happy with their lot in life that God gave to them. It is because of this that sometimes they use their human freewill to intrude into places there they do not belong. It is this intrusion and straying into unauthorized areas that opens the door for the devil to wreak havoc in their lives!

Acts 21:30-36 (NIV)

³⁰ The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut.

³¹ While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.

³² He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

³³ The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.

³⁴ Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks.

³⁵ When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers.

³⁶ The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”

Paul entered Jerusalem against the warning of the Holy Spirit because he insisted on reaching the Jews with the gospel. But immediately the Jews were incensed and set about trying to kill him! The Roman soldiers came upon the ensuing uproar and saved Paul from being killed but they had to carry him out upon their shoulders because of the violence of the mob!

This shows that Paul had no grace of God for ministry to the Jews and in fact he was intruding into the office and calling of another when he insisted to go to Jerusalem. It was Peter who was called to minister to the Jews (not Paul) and that is why Peter had little trouble with the Jews in Jerusalem.

Acts 21:10-11 (NIV)

¹⁰ After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

¹¹ Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'”

Again, we see that the Prophet Agabus had given a prophetic word of warning to the Apostle Paul what would happen to him if he insisted on going to Jerusalem. But this should not be misunderstood that it was God’s will for Paul to suffer such abuse. This prophetic word was given as a warning that if Paul continued to insist on following this path he had chosen then he would experience the predicted results!

If Paul had listened to the prophetic word given to him by the Prophet then he could have spared himself a lot of trouble. What happened was that Paul was put on trial but the Gentile government authorities could not release him for his own safety because the Jews had vowed to kill him!

Acts 23:12-13 (NIV)

¹² The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³ More than forty men were involved in this plot.

After Paul was in custody of the Roman officials then the conspiracy to assassinate Paul was uncovered and then these circumstances set in motion the events that led to Paul being sent to Rome.

Acts 25:11-12 (NIV)

¹¹ If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

¹² After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”

Paul would have been killed by Jewish assassins if he went to trial in Jerusalem so in order to save his own life Paul appealed his case to Caesar and so the Roman legal system was forced to send Paul to Rome for his trial.

Paul’s Past Plans to Preach in Rome

Acts 19:21 (NIV)

²¹ After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.”

In the past, Paul had traveled all over that region ministering the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul stated clearly his intention to visit Rome and preach the gospel to the Roman Gentiles in that city. But Paul never made it to Rome as a free man because he foolishly ignored the warning he had received from the Holy Spirit and he went to Jerusalem instead. All of the resulting turmoil and legal troubles in Jerusalem resulted in Paul being sent to Rome as a prisoner (not as a free man).

Acts 28:16 (NIV)

¹⁶ When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.

Paul ended up living as a prisoner in chains with a soldier appointed to guard him. This condition greatly restricted his ministry. Only those people who came to Paul in his confinement could receive ministry from him. Paul could have been freely speaking to masses of people if he came to Rome as a free man and was able to preach in public to all of the people.

Acts 27:23-24 (NIV)

²³ Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me

²⁴ and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’

When Apostle Paul was sent on ship to Rome as a prisoner then the devil tried to destroy him by instigating a huge storm at sea that destroyed the ship. But even in this terrible situation God sent an angel of the Lord to encourage Paul. Many have assumed that just because the angel appeared and spoke of Paul going to Rome for trial that this meant that it was God’s will for Paul to have been arrested! But this is not confirmation of God’s will but rather it is God’s mercy to help Paul who got himself out of the will of God like a sheep gone astray. All of the hardships and troubles and storms that Paul experienced started when he left his calling to the Gentiles and intruded into the calling of someone else when he insisted on going to the Jewish capital of Jerusalem.

In all of these troubles and problems the angel of the Lord graciously encouraged Paul with words that God would not permit him to die in this life-threatening situation. God spared Paul in the midst of this storm but this does not mean these problems were God’s will for Paul! Paul created his own problems when he ignored the warning of the Holy Spirit and insisted on going to Jerusalem anyway. Being out of God’s will opens the door to the devil and Paul was almost killed on numerous occasions. The mob in Jerusalem tried to kill him and then there were 40-Jewish assassins who vowed to kill him when he came to trial. Then the devil instigated a storm at sea to kill Paul and the entire ship was destroyed and Paul barely made it out alive.

Acts 28:3-5 (NIV)

³ Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.

⁴ When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”

⁵ But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.

After Paul survived the shipwreck then the devil caused a venomous snake to come out of the firewood Paul had gathered and it fastened itself onto his hand. But God again saved Paul from death and he had no ill effects from the snakebite.

The repeated attempts of the devil on the life of Paul give evidence that Paul was out of God’s will. Being out of God’s ordained place is what opened the door to the devil to attack him. But God preserved his life and did not permit Paul to die and he escaped all of these near-death experiences.

How much better it would have been if Paul would have just turned around when the Holy Spirit warned him through the Prophet Agabus instead of going to Jerusalem? Paul could have gone the opposite direction and went to Rome as a free man. He would not have been sent in chains as a prisoner and he would not have suffered the shipwreck and the snakebite and all of the troubles he suffered. These things all happened because he disregarded the warning of the Holy Spirit and insisted on his own way and pushed forward using his own freewill to go to Jerusalem.

Example of Prophetic Warning

I know a man who was warned by the Holy Spirit about future events but he misunderstood the warning and supposed instead that this was a revelation of God’s will rather than a warning of coming events. This man was given an utterance in tongues and the interpretation of those tongues by the operation of spiritual gifts. He was told that he would be discharged from the army in a near death condition and that he would become a son-in law of a certain older woman by marriage to her daughter. But instead of heeding the word of God as a warning, he instead insisted on going forward to see that these things were accomplished because he wrongly presumed it was God’s will.

He did not have to join the army but he insisted on doing so even after he had been warned by the Holy Spirit what would happen if he did. He entered the army and he indeed ended up near death with a life-threatening major surgery (where a large portion of his intestines were removed) in a military hospital. He exercised his own human freewill to insist on entering the military even after he was warned what would happen to him if he did that.

Herein people have missed it presuming that if God revealed something to them then it was God’s will for that thing to happen and they cannot do anything to change it. But in fact, these prophetic revelations are not given for the purpose of revealing God’s will but to provide warning of what will occur if they proceed in that direction.

This is exactly what happened to Apostle Paul who was warned not to go to Jerusalem because if he did then the resulting consequences would be his arrest and all of the events that transpired in relation to that.

Yes, God graciously spared the life of Paul through all of his troubles but he did not have to suffer any of those things if he had just taken heed to the warning given by the Holy Spirit and went to Rome as a freeman rather than being sent there as a prisoner in chains against his will.

The man in my example was warned what would happen in the army but this warning was given before he ever entered the army. He still had a choice to make of his own human freewill. He could have made the right choice and refused to join the army and thus spared himself of this great suffering that resulted from this decision.

This same man was also given prophetic warning that he would become a son-in-law of a certain older woman by marriage to her daughter. Again, he assumed this meant that it was God’s will for him to do this and so he submitted to this idea and he married this woman’s daughter (for whom he had no attraction for and who was not compatible with him at all).

This prophetic word however was not given as a revelation of God’s will for him to obey but a warning because he was being pushed to marry this person by the girl’s mother who wanted to control him. The Spirit of God could see what was going to happen and so issued a warning of what was coming if he went down that path. If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved himself from being pushed into marrying the wrong person who caused him much heartache and trouble for the rest of his life.

I have heard numerous stories of people who received a prophetic word from the Holy Spirit but these people misinterpreted the warning as to mean it was God’s will. But in fact, the Holy Spirit can see the future and was giving them advanced warning of what would happen if they continued on down that path. Instead of embracing these things as being “God’s will” they should have run in the opposite direction. Apostle Paul could have been spared untold trouble for himself if he had gone the opposite direction rather than going to Jerusalem after he was warned!

God has a plan for the lives of his people and God knows the future and God can communicate direction to his people by the operation of Spiritual Gifts. It is ironic however that instead of taking heed to the warnings God gives there have been many who have embraced these things presuming God was revealing his “will” to them rather than his warning!

God spoke to this man about what would happen to him in the army before he ever joined the army so he falsely presumed it was God’s will for him to go to the army and therefore forced himself to enter. But God saw the future and where this guy was headed before it happened. God therefore gave him a warning before he joined. This was an opportunity for this man to avoid joining the army at all costs knowing in advance what would be the outcome if he did.

God also warned him of marriage to an incompatible woman before he was married because God can see he future and knew that he was going to be manipulated by the mother-in-law to marry her daughter. God warned him in advance before he was married so that he could have avoided marrying this girl and avoided being manipulated by her mother. The prophetic revelation was not given to reveal God’s will to him but rather it was given to provide him with a chance to avoid ruining the rest of his life!

One common-sense principle to follow is that if a prophetic word speaks to tell someone that they will marry another (for whom they have zero attraction) then they can just automatically write it off that it is not God’s will! Such a prophecy is a warning to avoid that marriage not to embrace it!

Herein people have assumed evil of God that God will force them to do things against their will to make them do things that they loathe or hate (like marrying someone who they have no attraction for)! This is not God at all because the Lord will not make them marry someone who is repulsive to them. That would be the biggest mistake of their lives if they marry someone just because they misunderstood the warning of God given to them while they were still single.

The Holy Spirit can see the future and knows what lies ahead for the believer. The Holy Spirit can warn them about what they are headed toward by going down the wrong path even before they come to that path. Telling them in advance is not a revelation of God’s will but a warning to avoid that path completely. If they learn how to discern the will of God when prophetic words are given, then they would have been spared much suffering and heartache for the rest of their lives!

Marriage by Proxy

In the case of the man who was given prophetic direction by the operation of tongues and the interpretation of tongues, we must first clarify some details surrounding his case. The reason that this prophetic word was given to him was that the Holy Spirit could see what was coming in his future and therefore a warning was given before these events transpired. When the tongues and interpretation of tongues were given (through his own mouth) this young man was still unmarried and was attending a bible school. He was directed to pray for an older married woman classmate who was attending the same bible school and the prophetic word about marriage was given in a way that it said this woman would become his mother-in-law. Not being familiar with the operation of spiritual gifts he falsely assumed it was a revelation of God’s will rather than a warning about this woman.

This older woman was in fact a Levite woman who herself was married to a layman (who was not called into the ministry). The definition of the term “Levite Woman” means that certain women are born to be a helpmeet to a Levite man. We coined the term “Levite Woman” because this speaks of a woman who is born to be a wife to a man who is a Levite. Those men who are born with a Fivefold Ministry Gift are a direct counterpart of the Levites of the Old Testament who were set aside to minister spiritual things. We call such men that are called to the ministry as “New Testament Fivefold Ministry Levites” or just “Levites” for short and the women who are created to be their helpmeets as “Levite Women” for this reason.

See the link “Levite Women” for more details.

The problem is that if a Levite woman marries a layman then they will find no outlet for their spiritual resources. Some Levite women have even tried to start their own church and then attempted to drag their layman husband into it in order to endorse themselves as being submitted to their husbands. Some Levite women have started a traveling ministry and went off traveling around preaching while neglecting their husband and children left at home. When a Levite woman has no outlet for her ministry, she will typically seek an outlet through other avenues.

Marriage by Proxy

This brings me to this subject of “marriage by proxy” because this happened to the man in my example and I have experienced this same thing firsthand myself. In my own example, I was traveling as a single International minister and I would teach in various churches. Once while I was doing bible teaching in South Korea there happened to be an older Levite married woman at one of the churches where I spoke who became totally enamored over me! I was shocked by her behavior as she was much older than I and she was also married. But what I perceived about her was that she was a Levite woman who had been called to marry a Levite man and be a spiritual helpmeet to him. But somehow, she failed to marry such a man and ended up married to a layman instead. This woman noticed immediately that I was a Levite man because of my gifts and ability to teach God’s word. She could not marry me herself because of her age and the fact that she was already married but she tried desperately to have me marry her daughter who was closer to my own age. There have been only a few people who have been as assertive as this woman as she was constantly trying to arrange for me to meet her daughter and was always trying to fix me up with her. The daughter however was not a Levite woman like her mother was and it was evident that it was her mother who was interested in me rather than her daughter. It was revealed to me by the Lord that this older married Levite woman was seeking to marry me by proxy through her own daughter.

This sort of thing often happens when a Levite woman marries a layman and finds no outlet for her ministry. Such women will often seek to find another outlet for ministry and one way to accomplish this is to find a young man that they can marry through their daughter and so become a mother-in-law to a Levite man. I perceived what was going on with this woman with all of her advances and manipulation. I therefore informed one of the pastors (at whose church I was teaching) about this persistent woman who would not leave me alone. He then cussed her out over the phone when she tried to call me at his church and spoke to her in straightforward manner using their native Korean language and that finally put a stop to the advances of this obsessed Levite woman!

It was because of my own experiences with this older married Levite woman trying to marry me through proxy to her daughter that I came to understand what happened to this man in my example. The Holy Spirit knew that this older married woman (who was attending the same bible school) was a Levite woman who married a layman and had no ministry outlet. The Holy Spirit knew that this woman was looking for another avenue of ministry and would seek to find this ministry avenue through this young Levite man. The prophecy was given in the form of tongues and the interpretation of tongues to this young man and he spoke these two warnings for himself that he would be discharged from the army near death with a serious major surgery and that this woman would become his mother-in-law.

In fact, both of these prophetic utterances were warnings of bad things to come and they were later proven to be true. Since my own experience with an older Levite woman trying to marry me by proxy through her own daughter, I was able to see the situation of this man from a different light. This is exactly what happened to him because this older Levite woman at his bible school also sought to marry him by proxy through her own daughter. In this manner, she could gain an avenue of control in his church which this young man would later start.

Some more evidence of this being true is that fact that this older Levite woman tried to start a church of her own among the slums of Seoul but it never grew and was in a pitiful condition. But when this same young man got involved then it soon grew to be over 3,000 people and continued to grow in numbers! This young man needed to marry a Levite woman but this older married Levite woman was very dominating and controlling in his church and she would drive away any young ladies who would even attempt to talk to this young man. He was left all alone as this older married Levite woman would constantly manipulate him and drive away any young females who came near him! She was saving this young man for her own daughter when the girl became of age to marry. But this woman’s daughter was not a Levite woman and had no interest in spiritual things.

It was because of this prophecy which said he would one day become the son-in-law of this older Levite woman that this young pastor submitted to these plans to marry her daughter whom he had no attraction for at all! The mother of this girl then gained a position of control in his church being mother-in-law to the pastor.

This older Levite woman (now turned mother-in-law) manipulated and controlled many people within the church of this young man. She was dominating and bossy asserted her will over others without hesitation. One example of this is that this older Levite woman read in the bible in (1 Timothy 2:9) that women should not adorn themselves with costly things like pearls. Whenever this older Levite woman saw another woman wear a pearl necklace in the church, she would boldly snatch that necklace from their necks causing it to break and the expensive pearls to scatter all over the church floor! Women soon learned not to wear pearls to that church and not to wear them within arms-reach of the mother-in-law of this Pastor! This mother-in-law was characterized by rude and aggressive behavior and she did many things like this to assert her “will” over the congregation and even manipulated the pastor in so many ways! She even meddled in the decision making of the church and also in financial matters!

It was his mother-in-law’s idea to build an apartment complex to earn money for the church but this project of human “self-effort” in raising funds caused the church finances to dry up! The ensuing financial pressure nearly caused this young Pastor to commit suicide! Human self-effort will negate faith in God for income and the meddling of this older Levite woman caused the church funds to dry up by closing the avenue to faith! She did many things like this with her constant meddling and led the pastor to remark publicly that he actually “hated” this woman!

But this woman was able to marry this young pastor by proxy through her own daughter. She drove all of the other females away in gruff manner until her own daughter was old enough to graduate high school and marry this young pastor. She was keeping this pastor single so that she could use him as an avenue for herself to enter into the ministry as his mother-in-law! She had no church congregation of her own that she could manipulate herself except it was the congregation of this young Levite man.

This is what it means to marry someone by proxy when an older Levite woman manipulates a young Levite man to marry her daughter so that she can gain access and control within the church that he started. If a Levite woman is married to a layman, then she will have no outlet for her spiritual resources and will be like a fish out of water. Such women can become desperate to find an outlet of ministry even if it means they have to marry a young Levite man by proxy using their own daughter.

In the case of this older Levite woman she was able to gain full-power and control as the mother-in-law of this Pastor and she implemented many of her own ideas into the church and asserted her own will over the congregation in numerous ways! It was as if she had more control over the Pastor than if she had been married to him directly herself! In fact, there was no biblical requirement for her to submit to the Pastor as her husband because she was his mother-in-law rather than his wife! It is for this reason she asserted more control over the church than what a wife typically could have done!

Again, the prophecy that was given by the operation of tongues and the operation of interpretation of tongues came from this young man’s own mouth. It gave him two warnings of bad things to come in the same prophetic word! He was warned that he would be discharged from the army near death with a major surgery and he was warned he would become the son-in-law to this older Levite woman classmate he met in the bible school where he was attending.

Both prophetic messages were warnings of bad things to come but becoming the son-in-law of this manipulating woman was probably a worse thing than what he suffered by going into the army and nearly dying! The mother-in-law asserted almost unlimited power and control in that church and caused much offense and problems within the congregation which she continually dominated.

He was also stuck for the rest of his life married to a laywoman who shared no spiritual perception with him and who never honored or respected him as a Levite man. She caused him many problems in the church because his wife only wanted to exalt herself and get more money!

His own prophetic word warned him before he entered the army what would happen to him and the same prophetic word also warned him before he was married that he would become son-in-law to this older Levite woman. In both cases these were a forewarning of bad things to come.

He possessed the human freewill to have changed his own future. He could have refused to join the army rather than insisting on entering and forcing his way in. He could have refused to marry the laywoman daughter of this older Levite woman and he could have refused to allow his mother-in-law to control his church.

This is exactly the same case as Apostle Paul who was warned in advance what would happen if he set foot in Jerusalem. But Paul used his own human freewill to determine to go to Jerusalem despite the warning of the Holy Spirit not to go there! Paul ruined the rest of his life because he went to his grave as a prisoner in chains and his ministry was greatly hindered and limited from what he could have done if he had gone as a free man to minister in Rome.

The same is true of the man in my example because he was warned by the Holy Spirit of two bad things that would happen to him in his future. In both cases, he was warned in advance before he joined the army and before he married the mother-in-law by proxy! Both situations were detrimental to his life and caused much suffering and hardship and sorrow!

If he had instead married a Levite wife who honored and cared for him and served him then he could have done even more than he did. As it was, he suffered as a lonely man married to a laywoman who never had the spiritual perception as a Levite wife would. His laywoman wife also compared him to other preachers constantly and degraded his confidence in how God made him. He was a man of sorrows and grief and his troubles were caused mostly by his laywoman wife and his domineering mother-in-law!

The point of the matter is that when a prophetic word comes from God the receiver of that word should understand that God deals with humans based on their own freewill. God will warn them of what is coming and give them a chance to change their course before they make a fatal mistake!

But if they misunderstand God’s warning, they might falsely assume that this was revealed as the “Will of God” and so they will try to submit to something that will result in their own downfall! Such prophetic utterances were given to Apostle Paul by Agabus the Prophet and to this man in my example by his own tongues and interpretation of tongues but they were not given to reveal God’s will. Rather these prophetic utterances were given to warn about what is going to happen if they continue down the path they are headed on. The Holy Spirit knows the future and was providing them with a warning of the results of their pathway even before they walked down that path!

Therefore, the proper response is not to embrace such a prophecy as if it was God’s will but rather use your human freewill to change your course and refuse to go down that path. Only then can those negative consequences be canceled rather than embraced!

It is a big mistake for a believer to embrace prophetic words as if it was the “will of God” and presume, they have no choice but to accept it. In fact, God is giving them a prophetic word as a warning because it is not God’s will for them to go through all of that needless suffering and heartache and God wants to spare them from ruining the rest of their lives!

God is a good God and does not want his children to suffer or be married to the wrong one who is indifferent toward them and does not honor them for what God created them to be. To assume that God wants you to embrace something that you do not want (like marrying someone you have no attraction for) is to assume the worst of God. God loves his people and does not want them to suffer so he graciously provides an avenue for them to escape by allowing them to use their human freewill to choose another path for their life.

The prophetic is used to warn God’s people what is coming in the future so they should not misinterpret this to suppose God is asking them to embrace the very thing he has warned them to stay away from!

The reason God does not say things like, “Thou shalt not do such and such!” is because he has given humans a freewill and he will not supersede that freewill. They can even go to hell if they want to and God will not stop them!

Therefore, when God gives a warning he is saying, “You will have this this happen in your future because I can see the path you will take in advance and I am now telling you the outcome of going down that path!”

But the believer is not to embrace that path as if was God’s ordained will for them but instead use their human freewill to change their course and refuse to go down that path which they were warned about. Going down a specific path of life will result in producing some specific results and if they take the wrong path then those results can be bad and ruin the rest of their lives on earth!

Acts 21:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'”

Again, some people might ask why didn’t the Holy Spirit not speak in a clear manner and say to Paul, “Thus says the Lord, ‘It is not my will for you to go to Jerusalem!”’ rather than saying, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and hand him over to the Gentiles!’”

It should be understood that this prophetic utterance given by Agabus was not an expression of God’s will but rather a warning of the end results of Paul following the path that he was currently taking. God can see the future and knows the path a person will take even before they take that path. Therefore, God can warn them of the results of taking that path even before they start down that path. After all, what point would there be in giving a warning unless it was given before they started down the wrong path? How could someone change their course unless they had received an advance warning?

If someone sees a “Bridge-Out” sign in advance they can stop their car before they drive over the edge and kill themselves. The warning sign does them good only if it is placed out in advance of the problem so they have a chance to change the course that they are traveling before it is too late.

But foolish people often misinterpret the divine direction of God (not as an advance warning) but as a (confirmation of God’s will)! Instead of stepping on their brakes they will push on the accelerator and head forward with abandon toward their own destruction!

God has a purpose in giving a warning in advance. What good would it do if they drove over the edge and fell into a deep ravine and at the bottom of the ravine, they saw a sign that read, “Bridge Out!” It would be too late if they received the warning after they already drove over the edge! The warning sign is only of value if given before they drive over the edge!

In the same way, this is why God gives advance warning of what the outcome will be if they proceed to take the path that lays ahead of them. God can see the future and God knows the path that they are going to take even before they take it. God can therefore warn them of the bad results even before they begin to go down the wrong path.

But because they have not yet even started down that wrong path then they falsely presume that the warning given is a confirmation of God’s will. They falsely assume that they have no choice in the matter but to embrace that wrong path together with its bad results! Many have passed by their prophetic “Bridge-Out-Ahead” sign and experienced destruction as they fell into a ravine that God tried to warn them about in advance!

Again, when a person sees a “Bridge-Out-Ahead” warning sign it is their duty to stop and turn around and take a different route! Anyone who assumes that warning sign is given to reveal “God’s will” is going to foolishly plunge down into their own destruction!

The great suffering of Apostle Paul (all started when he ignored God’s advance warning). This was a result of him taking the wrong path and the consequences he suffered were his own fault. But religious people have created “suffering-for-Jesus” doctrines using the example of Paul’s suffering as evidence that it is God’s will to make his people suffer! But this suffering could largely have been avoided if Paul had not insisted on taking his own route and proceeding in the wrong direction even after God had given him advanced warning of the outcome!

The fact remains that God does speak to his people and he seeks to warn them of events that are in the future. If they will listen and obey, they can avoid many of these negative circumstances that result from going down the wrong path!

But if they are ignorant of how God’s leads then they might falsely interpret what God is saying. God can see the path that they will take even before they take it so when he tells them the end result that is not a confirmation of his will but rather a warning of things to come. But by not knowing this many have taken a prophetic word about future events and embraced it rather than avoiding it.

It is the purpose of this lesson to clarify that if God gives the end results of a future path yet untaken and can provide a warning (even years in advance) not because he is revealing his will but rather giving a warning. This is like a “Bridge-Out-Ahead” sign and the believer is to use their human freewill to make a decision to change the course they are on and thus spare themselves from great suffering that will come if they proceed down the wrong path.

We see that God does not supersede the human freewill but allows people to make a choice about what path they will take. God gives advance notice to his children of what lays head and reveals to them what the results of following that path will be (which they are going to take in their future).

Prophetic Word of Wife Going Astray

I also personally know a man who had a prophet deliver a specific word of the Lord to him warning him that his wife was going to leave him for another man. This occurred many years before this event actually transpired but rather than doing something to restore his marriage (before it fell apart) he instead said, “If God has predicted it then what can I do because it has already been determined this should happen!” But again, this man assumed that the will of God was fixed and unchangeable instead of realizing God was warning him in advance of what was coming if he continued to neglect his marriage relationship with his wife. He should have stopped everything and focused on restoring his marriage and this would not have taken place. He could have taken action to divert the coming disaster before it took place. Again, believers must realize that God has given them a human freewill and they are free to choose any road they like but there are consequences to all of their decisions. God sees the future and even sees the path that humans are going to take and in God’s mercy he will often warn them before they take a future path. This advance warning can spare the believers much heartache if they will take heed and work to divert the consequences of going down a bad road by choosing to go another route instead.

The principle to see here is that the future is not fixed but instead the future is made up of human choices. When a believer makes a choice to go down a certain path then that will create their future. The future is made of the decisions of people exercising their human freewill. If they will listen to God’s prophetic warning, they can avoid the consequences that result from taking the wrong path in life. But in order to benefit from the warning they must realize that God can see the path they are going to take before they take it. So, the warning is not a confirmation of God’s will but instead a warning of things to come. The believer still has the option to change the path they are going to take and thus saved themselves the predicted trouble to come!

A believer should seek God about every path that they take and wait on God until they have peace within and do not make any life-changing decisions in a haphazard manner! If they will carefully follow God’s direction, they can experience the blessings that come from being in the will of God and thus save themselves a lot of heartache and trouble from proceeding down the wrong path and reaping the bad results of choosing the wrong way to go for their lives!

God Speaks in General Manner

When God speaks to believers, he will often use general terms or concise statements. This is similar to a parent who catches their two-year-old eating dirt clods or dead bugs and slapping their hand and saying, “Dirty” because the child is not old enough to comprehend complex things like invisible pathogens or parasites. Saying one word, “Dirty” is enough to communicate to the child not to eat dirty things until such time as the child is old enough to understand more complex issues about the word “dirty” and what it means in relation to sanitation and human health.

God often uses general terminology when speaking to believers or revealing direction to them for their lives. This is because they are required to live by faith. If God told them all of the details in advance then this would be too much information for them and they would no longer be living by faith. Believers are to instead required to seek God and take one step at a time by faith as the plan of God unfolds for their lives over a process of time.

Farmer Knowing Future Commodity Prices

My father Marvin was a farmer and as such the most important thing he needed to receive was God’s direction on when to sell his grain. A good example of this is the time that the bean price when up to the then unheard-of price of $10.00 per bushel. The neighbor farmers were all excited about the rising soybean price and said, “Hang onto your beans because the price is going to go over $15.00 per bushel! My father said that he knew that the bean price was not going to go over $10.00 per bushel. I encouraged him that he was hearing God’s voice (this was the inward witness) and the Spirit of God was communicating to him about what is going to happened with the soybean prices. I encouraged him to sell his beans at this good price because it was God who showed him what is going to happen in the future.

When God spoke to my father Marvin, he gave him an impression or intuition (or knowing inside) that the soybean price would not go over $10.00 per bushel. God did not say, “Go and sell all of your beans at $10.00 per bushel!” Instead God allowed Marvin the freedom to exercise his human freewill to decide how many beans to sell (if any) because it was left up to Marvin to decide.

Marvin played it safe however and only sold half his beans at $10.00 per bushel and then the next day the price plummeted down below $2.00 per bushel and were totally devalued. When a farmer is dealing with selling tens of thousands of bushels of grain, then one-dollar difference in price per bushel means thousands of dollars of loss or profits. Averaging the price of beans sold at a high price together with the beans sold at a low price means the farmer may make only half as much on the sale of all of his grain total. Selling all of the beans for a good price requires faith on the part of the farmer to know that he is indeed hearing God’s voice correctly.

God often only speaks in general terms and says, “The price of beans will not go over ten-dollars per bushel” but then God allows the farmer to decide how much he will sell (if any). It is up to the human freewill of the believer to decide what they will do with the information God provided for them.

Capacity to Receive from God

2 Kings 4:2-7 (NIV2011)

² Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”

³ Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few.

⁴ Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

⁵ She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring.

⁶ When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

⁷ She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

The prophet Elisha told a widow to gather empty vessels and specifically told her not to gather just a few of them. This means that the number of jars the widow collected reflected her capacity to receive from God. When the widow began to pour oil into the jars, they were all filled to the brim and she asked her son to bring her another empty jar but they had no more vessels left to fill so this is the time when the oil stopped flowing. This is a testimony about the capacity of a believer to receive from God.

It is evident that the believer must use their capacity to receive from God and that capacity will determine the amount of blessing they will receive. If the widow was extremely zealous in gathering jars, she might have got hundreds or even thousands of vessels and could potentially have become a millionaire out of the resulting oil sales! Instead the blessing was restricted to her faith and how many empty vessels she collected.

It should be noted that when God speaks, it is usually in concise manner and God does not give all of the details but spoke through the prophet to tell the widow to gather as many jars as she could (noting that she should not get just a few). The final number collected was determined by the woman and the effort she put out looking to borrow empty vessels to hold the multiplied oil.

God spoke in simple terms to gather vessels then left the details to the widow about how many vessels she would gather. In this manner, God works with the believer according to their capacity to receive.

Half-Capacity to Receive

When God spoke to my father Marvin and said that the beans would not go over ten-dollars per bushel, he did not say any more. Marvin was left to decide how many bushels he would sell (if any at all). The capacity of Marvin to receive from God was reflected by selling only half-his beans at $10.00 per bushel. But when price plummeted down below $2.00 per bushel the next day, then he lost a great deal of money compared to selling tens of thousands of bushels at $10.00 per bushel. The capacity of Marvin to receive God’s blessing was half-hearted so he only sold half his beans at the good price. Of course, this was better for him than the unbeliever farmer neighbors who were holding onto their beans waiting for $15.00 per bushel and they got nothing but a poor price for all their beans later.

2 Kings 13:18-19 (NIV2011)

¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped.

¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”

This scripture shows that the King of Israel went to see the prophet Elisha and the prophet told him to strike the ground with the arrows in his hand (which was symbolic of victory over his enemies in battle). But the King was half-hearted in his obedience to God’s word from the Prophet Elisha so he only struck the ground three times and stopped. The Prophet was angry with him and told him that if he would have struck the ground five or six times then the King of Israel would have destroyed his enemy completely. Instead the King of Israel would only defeat his enemy three times and leave this enemy intact to bring continued trouble and harassment to his nation.

2 Kings 13:24-25 (NASB)

²⁴ When Hazel king of Aram died, Ben-hadad his son became king in his place.

²⁵ Then Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again from the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken in war from the hand of Jehoahaz his father. Three times Joash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel.

The king of Israel had victory over his enemy Aram three times and defeated them and recovered the cities of Israel previously held by the enemy. But if the king had a greater capacity to receive (evidenced by striking the ground with the arrows) then he could have destroyed the enemy completely and ended the menace forever.

The capacity to receive is reflected by the number of vessels a widow collected and the number of times a king struck the ground with the arrows in obedience to God’s command and it is also reflected by the number of soybeans my father sold at the good price of $10.00 per bushel. God spoke only in concise manner in all three examples saying:

1. Collect empty vessels (not a few).

2. Strike the ground with a handful of arrows.

3. The price of soybeans will not go over ten-dollars per bushel.

God said no more than this (using only short and concise statements) but he left it up to the hearer if they would obey or not. Collecting empty vessels and striking the ground with arrows was left up to the hearer and the hearer decided how many vessels of oil they wanted (or how many victories in battle they wanted). This was important for the support of a widow and important for a king to defeat an eternal foe and gain lasting peace for his nation.

It is also important for a farmer to determine how much income he will have for his labor in growing soybeans. Did he want $10.00 per bushel or below $2.00 per bushel? The choice was left up to him to decide how many bushels or how few bushels to sell (if any at all)!

Typically, God will speak in concise and simple commands and then leave the execution of these orders up to the believer. How the believer responds is a reflection of their capacity to receive from God.

A believer can do better than an unbeliever by hearing God’s voice about future events. But a believer who has a greater capacity to receive will receive more than a believer who is limited in their faith and is afraid to act upon the information God has provided for them. Selling half is better than the unbelievers who sold nothing at $10.00 but it is only half as good as it could have been if he had sold all of his beans at $10.00 per bushel instead of holding back because of insecurity or fear.

Capacity to Receive a Husband

When my wife was still a young single woman she wanted to marry and she set her heart that she would seek God to send her a mate. She determined that she would fast and pray until God gave her an answer or else, she would perish! Usually when a believer is determined like this then they will not have to wait long or an answer. When she was outside praying in tongues for a mate at Prayer Mountain in Korea suddenly, she heard and audible voice say, “According to your faith be it done unto you!” She was startled and looked around to see if there was someone speaking with her but there was no one present! She realized this was the voice of God that spoke to her. Encouraged that God spoke to her she went home rejoicing that God had answered her prayer and she supposed that her mate would show up shortly. But several more decades passed by and she was still unmarried and had not yet met the man of her dreams!

Again, when God spoke to her, he said something concise and spoke nothing more. God said, “According to your faith be it done unto you!” But Helen did not pursue it any farther or inquire about what this concise statement from God meant. Some years later she read a book written by her pastor David Yonggi Cho called the Fourth Dimension. In this book, Cho spoke of the testimony of a single spinster woman who was praying for a spouse (just like Helen was doing). This spinster wondered why she was growing old without meeting her husband (she had already prayed for ten years for a husband without any answers). Dr. Cho asked this spinster some questions about what kind of husband she wanted to marry. The spinster replied that God knows best about who she should marry so that was up to God!

But Cho said that God cannot answer vague prayers because she would never know if the prayers were answered unless they were specific. Cho asked her if she wanted to marry Asian, Caucasian, or Black husband. Then Cho had her write down the answers to his questions and she listed the details of what she wanted in a husband and what occupation he would have. To make a long story short this spinster was married to just such a man (as she had described in exact detail). This man become enamored with her when he met her and asked her to marry him and he fit the description exactly as she had written down! This testimony can be seen at the following link:

Cho-Testimony of Specific Prayer

In the case of Helen, God had told her, “According to her faith be it done unto her!” This means that she had to be specific in what she wanted from God because she cannot have faith if she is vague or general in her prayers. So just like the spinster testimony given in the Cho book, Helen decided to write a detailed description of what she wanted in a mate. She made a list that included nationality, height, and every detail she wanted in a husband (just as the former spinster did in the book of Cho).

But on the point of her future husband’s occupation Helen struggled for some time because as a woman she desired to have financial security so she thought of marrying a prosperous businessman. But the problem with this idea was that she was created to be a Levite woman who is made to be a helpmeet to a Levite man called into the Fivefold ministry. Typically, those in the ministry and are living by faith will not have a lot of money like a layman such as a prosperous businessman. But Helen also knew that if she married a laymen businessman then she would be forever lonely and unable to have any point of fellowship over spiritual things. A layman does not have the same spiritual perception as a New Testament Levite called into the Fivefold Ministry.

See the link “Fivefold Ministry Gifts” for more details

More time was wasted as Helen struggled with the decision to ask for a laymen businessman or a Levite called into the Fivefold ministry but in the end, she knew she had only one choice for a husband and that has to be a New Testament Levite called into the Fivefold ministry. She would not be satisfied being married to anyone else!

When Helen formulated her request, she attended Hampstead Bible College in London England and many of the visiting Bible teachers were Americans so she decided she wanted an American itinerant Bible teacher. She once read the testimony of a man who saw Jesus in a vision and estimated him to be five-feet and eleven inches tall so she asked for the same height in her man. As a Korean she has black Asian hair so she thought a blonde-hair husband would be too great a contrast with her black hair so she specified light brown hair. She asked for a husband with blue/grey eyes as not to be such a contrast with her dark eyes. She has tiny petite hands and fingers and was unable to reach the keys of a piano so she asked for a man with long artistic fingers. She created a list with detail after detail describing the husband she wanted to have.

But this time, Helen was already beyond her youth because she waited so long before becoming specific about her request for a mate so she also added that when God brought the man of her prayers that this man would propose immediately because she did not want to endure a long courtship because she already waited long enough.

Meeting God’s Choice

I was an itinerant bible teacher traveling internationally to many different countries in Asia. I spent 14-years in the Philippines visiting churches and bible schools and teaching God’s word. When I was in Singapore in 1988, I met a Korean pastor who was attending a bible school there. This Korean pastor repeatedly invited me to come and do bible teaching in Korea but I was not interested. Then in 1995, I finally went to Korea for the first time and visited many different churches and taught God’s word there using an interpreter. Then in 1996, I was invited to return again and this time one of the daycare center workers working at the Korean church introduced me to Helen who was overseeing a fellowship of overseas workers which met in the administration building on the church campus of David Yonggi Cho.

I was invited to preach at this church and here I met Helen. She had everything I desired in a wife and as I was preaching Helen was going down the list she had made about a husband and saw that I met every detail on her list. I was five-feet eleven inches tall with long artistic fingers and had light brown hair and blue/grey eyes. I was an American international traveling bible teacher of the same background and belief as Helen. I had every one of her long-list of specific requests she had made to the Lord for a husband.

After the service was over, I asked Helen to dinner and I shared my life story with her. We had so many things in common and even knew many of the same people who were common acquaintances. She even stayed at the house of a family of a friend of mine in Tulsa Oklahoma when she attended a camp-meeting there because his brother attended her fellowship in Korea and he gave his brother’s contact information to her so she could stay with his family while in Tulsa USA. She even knew a guy on the US military base in Korea whom I also knew and was friends of his family. We shared on and on together and were surprised how we had so many things in common and how we held the same beliefs!

Afterward when we took a taxi back, I felt compelled to propose to Helen right away! I did not want to lose her to some other guy by being passive when I did not meet anyone like her in all of my life! She had everything I wanted in a wife so I proposed the same day that I met her because I was leaving the country the next day and wanted to secure her as my wife! I did not know this was part of Helen’s specific request to God that when she met the right man that he would propose to her right away.

We married when I came back to Korea in March 1997 but we may have been married much sooner (when we were still young) if Helen had been more specific in her prayer instead of asking God in a vague manner and wasting decades without answer.

I also read the same book of Dr. Cho when I was a young man in college in 1981 but I believe this testimony of the spinster has specific application to women asking God for a spouse. The reason for this is that women are called to be a helpmeet to a man and it is of vital importance that they marry the right man for this reason. A man is a bit different because the woman is required by God to submit to her husband. Therefore, if I met any number of young women who were “Levite Women” and created to be a helpmeet to a Levite man called into the Fivefold ministry then I could have married one of them and if they were submissive to me then the marriage could have worked. But a woman needs to be more specific in the requirements for her spouse because she has to become one-person with him and become his helpmeet.

A Levite woman cannot be a helpmeet to a layman because they would be unequally yoked. The layman would not see the value in the spiritual assets that a Levite woman would bring to the marriage. But the Levite man would very much see the value of these spiritual assets and could not fulfill his ministry without them! The Levite man needs a Levite woman just as much as the Levite woman needs a Levite man.

Confusing God’s Warning with God’s Will

I also heard of a testimony of a Korean woman who was a Levite woman who had a dream and this woman assumed this dream meant she was supposed to marry a certain individual. But in fact, that dream was a warning to her of the exact opposite that she was not to follow this path she was headed down. God knows the future and knows the path the believer will take and can warn the believer in advance before they go down that path and spare them from shipwreck. But the problem is that many misguided believers falsely assume that God’s warning is a confirmation of God’s will. Instead of stopping and turning around they instead speed forward with great confidence to fulfill what God has warned them about.

It is for this reason that believers must be taught about how to discern the will of God and how to interpret divine direction given by God about future events. God speaks in concise terms only and they have to learn how to discern the meaning of this divine direction. If believers understand that the future is not fixed then they can understand that they create their own future by the decisions they make in the present. God can see the future and warn them before they even take a path (yet untaken). This therefore is not a revelation of God’s will to be obeyed but rather a revelation a path they are headed toward. They still have a human freewill and they can decide to stop and turn around and go in the opposite direction and avoid the pitfall and destruction and shipwreck they are headed toward. God warns people but many believers have falsely assumed this is a revelation of God’s will instead of a warning of things to come (before they even start down a path yet untaken).

God Granted Human Freewill

It is a major theological principle that God has granted humans a freewill and God will not supersede that human freewill. God provided salvation for all humanity by the sacrifice of his own son but humans must choose to receive that free gift of eternal life or they will automatically perish into eternal punishment.

God gives warning of things to come as well but he speaks in concise manner leaving humans with their freewill to choose what they will do with the direction God provides. Believers must spend time seeking God in order to interpret his concise revelation in the correct manner.

God’s Warning of a Path Yet Untaken

The word of God provides an example of God warning a prophet not to do something even before he did it. In this case, God told a young prophet not to return to a town again after he left it (knowing in advance that this young prophet would be deceived to do just such a thing) and this action would result in bringing judgment upon himself.

I call this prophet a “young-prophet” because he displayed his spiritual immaturity by publicly telling others about God’s private directions for him. These words were then used against him and later this resulted in his own death!

In this example, a young prophet of Judah was given an assignment to go to Bethel (in the time of King Jeroboam) and deliver a rebuke from God for the false religion that this king had started at both Bethel and Dan.

False Religion Rebuked by Prophet

1 Kings 13:1-3 (NIV)

¹ By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering.

² He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: “O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.'”

³ That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

This young prophet predicted the destruction of this false religious system and its idol-worship centers during the future reign of a king named Josiah who had not yet been born at this time. This is amazing because Josiah was not born until 290 years later and he reigned from 640 to 609 B.C. (long after this prophecy of God was given through this young prophet).

This man’s prophecy is one of the most remarkable in Scripture because it predicted the name and actions of a king who would not appear on the scene for 290 years. Josiah, who reigned from 640 to 609 b.c., fulfilled this prophecy just as the man of God predicted (2 Kings 23:15-20).

The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.

2 Kings 23:14-18 (NIV)

¹⁴ Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

¹⁵ Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin–even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also.

¹⁶ Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

¹⁷ The king asked, “What is that tombstone I see?” The men of the city said, “It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it.”

¹⁸ “Leave it alone,” he said. “Don’t let anyone disturb his bones.” So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

It was about 300-years later that Josiah came to Bethel and destroyed the idol-worship center and its false religion. Here he saw the grave of the young prophet who predicted exactly the things Josiah had done and who even gave King Josiah’s name centuries in advance of this same man being born and doing these very things!

It should be noted that God can see the future and even knows the name of those people who will be alive in the future and can even name them specifically long before they are even born! This young prophet predicted centuries in advance that a man named Josiah would come and destroy this center of idol-worship at Bethel.

King has No Authority Over Prophet

1 Kings 13:4-6 (NIV)

⁴ When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.

⁵ Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD.

⁶ Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

King Jeroboam had at his disposal an entire army but he was in no position to issue commands to a Prophet of God who carried God’s authority. When the king dared to point his finger at the Prophet and say, “Seize him” then his entire hand (and possibly his forearm as well) shriveled up! He found out that he was not going to be giving commands to seize the Prophet because God’s Prophet was in authority over the king! The King’s hand was not restored until he first humbled himself and asked the Prophet to pray for him!

1 Kings 13:7-9 (NIV)

⁷ The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.”

⁸ But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here.

⁹ For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.'”

After the king had his shriveled hand restored, he took on a more conciliatory tone with the Prophet and even invited him to the palace for a meal and offered to give him a gift. This was probably an offer to try and buy the young Prophet in order to get him to join the false religious system (after the king failed to dominate him by force).

But the young prophet refused but then made the big mistake of uttering publicly what God told him to do. This young Prophet said that he could not eat or drink in that place and was not return the way that he had come. These words were overheard by the sons of an old prophet who were present in this idolatrous temple. Later they reported these words to their father (the apostate prophet) who then used these words against the young Prophet.

1 Kings 13:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

The young prophet took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel. This is only logical because the directions he received from God said he should not return the way he came. But in fact, the directions he had received were prophetic and they were a warning of future events which had not yet taken place at this point. This was a prophetic warning about future events and thus provided directions even before the young prophet met with these circumstances.

Old Apostate Prophet Deceives Young Prophet

1 Kings 13:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king.

When the young Prophet spoke out God’s commands to him publicly it was heard by the sons of an old apostate prophet who lived in Bethel. I call his old prophet “apostate” because he was living in a town of false religion and did not leave this place of abomination. Therefore, he must have found a means of livelihood within this false religious system and this was keeping him in this wicked place. His own sons were present in the false idol-worship temple and heard the words of the young Prophet which he spoke to King Jeroboam. No doubt this old prophet was apostate and had become part of this false religious system which his own sons also participated in.

1 Kings 13:12-22 (NIV)

¹² Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken.

¹³ So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it

¹⁴ and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied.

¹⁵ So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”

¹⁶ The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷ I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.'”

¹⁸ The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.'” (But he was lying to him.)

¹⁹ So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet who had brought him back.

²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.

²² You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore, your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.'”

This old prophet inquired of the route the young Prophet had taken and then chased after him and found him. The old prophet then lied to him and said that an angel of the Lord told him to come back with him and share a meal. This old prophet had knowledge of the ways of God and knew that if this young Prophet disobeyed God it would result in his death. So probably to eliminate any competition from a real Prophet (who had not yet fallen into compromise) this old prophet deceived him to return again with him to Bethel to share a meal.

1 Corinthians 5:11 (NIV)

¹¹ But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

Apostle Paul warned that believers should never share a meal with someone who is called a believer who is living in compromise and unrighteousness because this would be equal to condoning their sin and showing them acceptance while they were still in their unrepentant condition.

This is the reason that the young Prophet was not to share a meal in that place with these wicked people who were engaged in a false religion and idol-worship.

1 Kings 13:9 (NIV)

⁹ For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.'”

The young Prophet was actually given advance warning before he ever met the old prophet who deceived him and brought him back to Bethel to share a meal. God warned him not to return the way he came but this was speaking of yet future things when he would meet the old apostate prophet. God was warning the young Prophet in advance not to return to the place of false religion after he had left it. But the young Prophet was deceived and he retraced his steps and returned again to Bethel and here he shared a meal with the apostate old prophet.

1 Kings 13:10 (NIV)

¹⁰ So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

So young Prophet’s warning was not speaking about not returning by the way which he had come to Bethel. It was in fact referring to not returning to Bethel again after he had rebuked King Jeroboam and left this place of false religion. He was not to retrace his steps and return to Bethel and he was not to share a meal with those living in apostasy. Therefore, the prophetic directions applied to the yet future event of meeting the old apostate prophet who brought him back to Bethel after he had already left this place.

Murder by Deception

1 Kings 13:20-26 (NIV)

²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet who had brought him back.

²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.

²² You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.'”

²³ When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him.

²⁴ As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown down on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

²⁵ Some people who passed by saw the body thrown down there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶ When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him.”

The old apostate prophet deceived the young Prophet to return and share a meal and thus the young Prophet disobeyed God and this resulted in his own death. He was later killed by a lion in judgment for his disobedience. The old apostate prophet knew that disobedience is a “death-penalty” for a Prophet and therefore he deceived the young Prophet to disobey God and this in fact is tantamount to murder!

Again, the young prophet misapplied the directions of God supposing it meant he was not to return on the same road he used to when he came to Bethel. But in fact, the prophetic directions were speaking of (then) yet future events after he left Bethel and the old prophet deceived him to retrace his steps to return back to Bethel again. The young Prophet was warned in advance not to return to Bethel by the way he had come when he left Bethel (after he had delivered the rebuke to the king).

1 Kings 13:27-32 (NIV)

²⁷ The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so.

²⁸ Then he went out and found the body thrown down on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey.

²⁹ So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.

³⁰ Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Oh, my brother!”

³¹ After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

³² For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

The old prophet then collected the corpse of the young Prophet who was slain by the lion and brought it back to Bethel again. Here the young Prophet was buried in an apostate city of false religion and ended up being buried next to an apostate old prophet for centuries to come. The young Prophet misinterpreted the directions of God supposing he was not to return on the same route he had arrived in Bethel but in fact the prophetic warning was given that he was not to return to Bethel after he left this cursed place. It was a prophetic warning not to heed the voice of the “liar” old prophet and not go back again with him in the way he had just come when he left that evil place.

Even after his death the young prophet was placed in association with the cursed by being buried in this cursed place of false religion!

Again, two essential points should be noted here:

1. God sees the future and can give advance warning and instructions even before a believer arrives in the future.

2. God has given humans a freewill and he will not supersede that human freewill but warns them in advance so they can choose the right path to avoid their own destruction.

God warned the young prophet in advance of him meeting the old apostate prophet so that he would not return again to Bethel and share a meal in that wicked place with those wicked people who were all cursed by idol-worship. But because he did not heed the prophetic warning the young Prophet was killed and brought back to the cursed place to be buried forever with those who were cursed.

This was a decision that was irreversible and resulted in his own destruction and placed him forever in association with the damned! God’s people are to keep and maintain separation from the wicked who are compromised by false religion and never share a meal with them or associate with them in any way. This is especially true of those who claim to be believers but live in unrepentant sin before God.

General Direction-Follow God by Faith

1 Samuel 16:1 (NIV)

¹ The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

When God sent the prophet Samuel to the household of Jessie of Bethlehem, he told him that he had chosen one of his sons as king. But God did not provide all of the details because Samuel was required to obey God by faith and just go and then it would be revealed to him what to do after he arrived.

1 Samuel 16:6-13 (NIV)

⁶ When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed stands here before the LORD.”

⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

⁸ Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The LORD has not chosen this one either.”

⁹ Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the LORD chosen this one.”

¹⁰ Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The LORD has not chosen these.”

¹¹ So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered, “but he is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

¹² So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.”

¹³ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.

After Samuel had seen all of Jessie’s sons (except David) he discovered that none of them were appointed by God to be king. So, he asked if there was any more sons and he was told of the youngest son who was tending the sheep. David was called and when he arrived then he was anointed as the next king of Israel.

There is a principle to be seen here in that God often speaks only in general terms and the believer will have to go forward by faith and define their way as they go along. God does not always give details but rather general direction only. When they go, then God will give them more direction and they can obey as they go along.

The same is also true when God gives advance prophetic warning of a path as yet not taken. God can show a believer the outcome of a path even before they take that path. The purpose is to warn them of the negative results of taking that route so that they can still use their human freewill to change their course before they start down that wrong path!

These principles can apply to all believers in general but they also have specific application to those who are New Testament Levites called into the Fivefold Ministry. These men must learn to hear and obey God’s direction and learn also how to apply that direction in accurate manner. If they cannot discern God’s direction accurately, they will end up in a ditch and bring great ruination for themselves!

A Levite who disobeys God can even experience death (as did the young Prophet) so it is of vital importance to discern when God is given an advance warning before a path is taken. Then they should know not to take this path which they were warned of in advance rather than plunging headlong toward their own destruction assuming it was a confirmation of “God’s will” instead of a warning of something to avoid.

All believers can learn to hear and obey God but they also must have the wisdom to discern the direction of God given to them. God has a wonderful plan for their lives but if they do not learn to discern God’s direction, they can mess up that plan by taking a wrong path in life that can lead to their own destruction. Discerning God’s direction given by prophetic words is a key and vital subject for any believer desiring to follow the plan of God for their lives on earth.

Story of Man Spared in Oilfield Accident

I heard a testimony in which a pastor and his wife were awaken in the middle of the night with God’s directions to pray for one of their church members. They did not know what was wrong but they began to pray in tongues. Praying in tongues allows believers to pray the perfect will of God even when they do not know how to pray in specific manner. They continued to pray until they had peace and they also prayed with their understanding saying that if their member was headed for trouble then they asked God to please warn him in advance.

Later they heard of the events that transpired with one of their church members who worked in the oilfield. That night before that fateful day this member was given a prophetic dream of warning. In the dream his foremen told him to climb the derrick which was used to pull heavy pipes out of the ground with a large steel cable. In the dream he climbed up the derrick only to have the cable snap and the loose end flew through the air with great velocity and cut off his head like a cheese-cutter! He woke up in a great sweat and terror with his heart palpitating!

Then the next day his foreman asked him to climb the derrick and it was exactly the same situation that he had already seen in his dream. He told his boss that he just had a bad dream that this same foreman told him to climb the derrick and he did so only to have his head cut off when the drill-line snapped. Another man standing there said that he was not afraid of any bad dreams so he proceeded to climb the derrick himself. As soon as this other man reached the top, the drill-line snapped and the high-tension cable flew through the air and cut off his head and the severed head fell down at the feet of that foreman!

This believer was warned in advance by a prophetic dream and he was able to use his own human freewill to disobey orders and he refused to climb that derrick on that fateful day (and so saved his own life)! God could see the future and this believers’ pastor and wife prayed for him that he would be warned by God and he received a prophetic dream like a video player showing a movie of the actual event even before it took place!

This testimony illustrates several things and these are:

1. God can see the future and can warn believers with prophecy or dreams even before these events transpire.

2. Believers still have a human freewill and they can use their human freewill to choose to change the course that they are on and thus save themselves from disaster by heeding God’s warning!

It should be noted however that normally God does not give such detailed prophecy as this man received in a dream to show every detail of what would take place (before it happened). Most often God will speak in general terms and the believer has to obey by faith even if they do not fully understand why.

Woman Warned of Car Crash in Advance

In the case of my own mother I have already shared her testimony in other lessons that she was driving to the city from our farm which was a trip she did almost daily for many years. But one day she had an inward witness that she was to pull over and stop her car and pray. However, she argued with the impression and said that she could pray when she got home later. So, she proceeded (to her own great regret) and continued on her path without stopping. When she headed north and approached the river bridge before the city there was a pickup truck facing south and the driver foolishly turned his wheels in advance preparing to make a left-hand turn as soon as my mother’s car had passed by. But there was a distracted driver going south over the river bridge and while she was busy looking at her smartphone, she plowed full-speed right into the rear-end of this pickup truck which was waiting to make a left-hand turn. The force of the impact shot his pickup straight into the path of my mother’s car (because his front steer wheels were already turned in that direction). The pickup was pushed into her path just as she arrived and it totally destroyed both vehicles. My mother also received some painful injuries that took a long time to heal and caused her a great deal of suffering. In fact, if she had waited only 30-seconds (when she had the prompting of the Holy Spirit) she would have missed that accident entirely!

Again, it should be emphasized in this testimony that two things were evident:

1. God could see the future and can warn a believer in advance before these events transpired.

2. The believer has a human freewill and they can choose to obey God and avoid an accident or they can argue with the impression and go forward and meet their own destruction!

Some ignorant religious people might blame God for such an accident but God in fact provided ample warning to spare this believer from trouble. It was the fault of the believer who did not heed this warning and proceeded toward their own detriment!

God Does not Always Share Details

I know of an Apostle/Evangelist who was sent by God to do a worldwide traveling ministry with a Prophet/Teacher. But he did not know where this man was and heard many conflicting reports that this man was in various countries in different parts of the world. So, he prayed and asked God where this man was (which he was supposed to find in order to have a joint-ministry together). The answer God gave was unusual because God said only “Go to the bottom and look up!” So, he purchased a ticket to the land down-under on a ship headed toward Australia and it landed in New Zealand first. Here he was informed that his “would-be” ministry partner was already in New Zealand but he was given instructions to continue to Australia and engage in ministry there and his ministry partner would later follow and meet him in Australia.

The leading was concise and short and God only spoke a few words saying, “Go to the bottom and look up!” If God had explained everything in detail then it would have been too much information. God often speaks in concise manner because he requires people to live by faith and so God often gives believers general directions only.

My mother was told to “stop and pray” but God did not speak about an elaborate and detailed message concerning the coming car-wreck! If she had just stopped and prayed (even for 30-seconds) it would have been long enough to save her from a costly and painful car accident!

God can reveal the future to believers but God also will not supersede the freewill of humans. God therefore gives people the choice to either obey or disobey his commands. If they will take heed to what God is showing them, they can avoid a lot of trouble. If a person is spiritually sensitive and careful before making decision, they may never have to be warned of bad things to come. This means they are following God’s will and making the right choices. Human lives on earth are comprised of choices. Every path they choose will alter their future and bring a different result. At times God will warn a believer in advance even before they take a certain pathway. They should never assume this was a revelation of God’s will but rather an advance warning of what will happen if they proceed to take certain path (yet untaken). God can see the future and warn believers of the result even before the take that path. But never should a believer presume this is a confirmation of God’s will for their lives.

Fivefold Ministry Topics

About Us

Fivefold Ministry Gifts

Levites Naturally Gifted

Religious Vultures

Mechanics of a Cult

Fivefold Not by Lineage

Levite Woman

Levite Choosing Specific Woman

Levites Commanded to Live of Ministry

Spiritual Gifts

Prophetic Words

Idols of the Heart

Apostles Abolish Disorder

Apostle Poem

Apostolic Foundation

Apostolic Perception

Apostolic Theme

No Apostle, No Prophet, No Heaven

When Milk Fails

Purpose of the Church

Correct Ministry Application

Ruth-A Spiritual Analogy

Sword of Division

Gift Gone Dormant

Heresy of the Evangelist

Sin of Denial

Pastor’s Dilemma

Endorsing Laymen Intruders

Idolatry – Curse of a Nation

Glossary

Church at Ephesus

Root of Bitterness

Sin of Unforgiveness

Rules of Engagement

Valley of Decision

Curse of Bitter Water

Defining God’s Direction

Handwriting on the Wall

Leave Not Post

Never Apologize for God’s Word

Projects and Levites

Retaining Spiritual Substance

Precious Hungry Hearts