From The Prophetic School: Safeguards To Spiritual Perception And Revelation

 (Have you ever received a word from God? Did you ever submit it to others in ministry? How can you know if it is a genuine word from God? What are the safeguards to keep you from being led astray? It takes true humility to submit your perceived word to others, to set aside your own pride and allow for the fact that others can also hear from God on your behalf.)

This entire lesson will revolve around the area of pride.

One of the greatest dangers to spiritual perception is the pride- that exists in believers who are a little more developed, resulting in a lack of humility in one area.

The devil is not interested in making a man proud in every area.

A man may be repenting in sackcloth and ashes most of his life, but he may have one line of pride- a stubbornness, a pride in his opinion, a pride in what he feels he knows- until his mind and spirit become closed to the wonderful healthy words from other brothers and sisters that keep us on the mainline.

When that happens, the effectiveness of Body ministry is lost.

It is almost a proud renouncing of anyone else having anything he might need.

This is a danger.

We could illustrate this with the story about the fellow who was cantankerous over a doctrine in his church.

He began having meetings in his home with his wife and family. Soon his family could not stand it; so he and his wife studied together.

He started expounding certain things she did not like, and before long they were rocking in chairs at different ends f the room, finding their own separate Bible studies and their own separate interpretations.

Even though this is an extreme illustration of the pride and the lack of humility that comes to people

who may have a great deal of revelation, you would be amazed at how many people lose out over this one matter.

In fact, in the early development of the apostles, one of the saddest contentions took place between Barnabas and Paul over the young man Mark after the first missionary journey ( Acts 15 ) .

Actually, neither one of them had any revelation on the matter, but they had strong opinion about what they thought the Lord wanted.

Had the Lord abandoned Mark?

No. He had not.

Did Mark need some very careful seasoning?

Yes he did.

There was an element of right on both sides, but their contention about it was most regrettable.

What should have been done?

I think Paul made the mistake, rather than Barnabas. Why do I think so?

Because anyone like Mark is not going to learn courage unless he is around men of courage.

 If he had been taken on the second missionary journey, he might have been standing beside young Timothy as he watched Paul being stoned and left for dead.

Although e had fled the first time when the going was rough, I think he would have learned the lesson the second time, God had to make him face it again and Barnabas knew that.

When you are traveling through the country and you come to a river, you may try to swim it and find that it is too wide to swim across.

This does not mean you can forget about the river. You still have to get across. Likewise, Mark had to get across that one problem.

I think Paul made the mistake. You can do much better by keeping your problems with you than by forsaking them and expecting then to solve themselves of their own accord, especially problems like this, that young ministers have.

Some may disagree with me on that. Yet if I were to become opinionated and hold to my guns in this matter, soon the spirit of debate would fill the church.

Actually, it does not matter whether Paul or Barnabas was to blame. The fact I rejoice in is that Mark was finally redeemed.

Paul himself gave the testimony in his epistle when he sent for Mark: "For he is profitable to me for the ministry" ( II Timothy 4:11 ) .

I like that, don't you? It turned out all right. Today, 2000 years after the whole fiasco, we can have opinions about who was right and who was wrong, but that is futile.

There can be many causes for division and the changing of opinions.

This great danger of pride could also be emphasized in this way. People make their own minds and their thinking and reasoning of things. If they believe one way, it would not make any difference if ten angels swearing on a stack of Bibles said it was different; they still would not believe it.

In a sense we need to be decisive. We know we do. If we are not decisive at all, we will be vacillating and blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and the sleight and craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ( Ephesians 4:14 ) .

We do not want to be like that, nor do we want to be opinionated.

There are certain safeguards given in the Scriptures that can teach us how to avoid error in spiritual perception.

The errors in spiritual perception and revelation usually come to sincere people who honestly believe with all their hearts that they have perceived something or have received something as a revelation, and they are determined that all hell is not going to move them.

If they are wrong, it becomes very disastrous to them.

I am reminded of an incident that happened many years ago, in the early days of this end-time walk. At that time, I could not understand it, but now I understand it well.

It involved a family in the church. The father was an amazing man. He did a lot of work around the church and should be walking with God here with us to this day.

He was rather mystical in his ability to see in the spiritual realm. One day while I was preaching, his wife suddenly saw many demonic spirits surrounding me. She was so stirred up about it that she called it to her husband's attention.

He started praying about it, and several services later, he too, saw demons all around me. He and his wife came to the seemingly realistic conclusion that I was wrong, that I had gone astray.

They thought I was motivated and directed in my ministry by the devil.

They did not want to have any part of that, and so they quit the church, even though God had blessed them.

I can understand their sincerity, and I remember how earnestly they told me: "This place is being harassed and oppressed by the devil."

Later they must have modified their opinion somewhat because three or four years later after this incident, they came back and visited the church, but they were soon gone again because they were convinced that something was wrong with me.

Since that time, I have learned a great deal about the spirit realm. I have come in contact with many hundreds of people.

Occasionally I see someone who is completely surrounded by a ring of evil spirits. I understand how people can be ringed in.

It is very difficult for prayers and blessings to get through to a person in that situation.

Demons will sometimes try to make a spiritual blockade in order to reach the individual. But if that individual goes on a fast or into prayer, soon the breakthrough in God is so tremendous that it repels the devil power.

It is very common for the most spiritual of prophets to be ringed in by devils at a time when there is great spiritual conflict. There is nothing strange about it at all.

If that couple in the church had interpreted the situation correctly, they would have seen that I was moving into a new realm in God and the devil was fighting me every inch of the way, because I certainly am not going to allow my self to become a spokesman of Satan.

I may sometimes be defeated on other points, but I believe in the victory God has for me and I know everything will be all right.

But how sad it is for someone to lose out over such a situation. It is easy to judge a situation, to come to a conclusion, to feel that you somehow gained spiritual perception in an area and then find out that it is wrong.

Deception can come to you in many ways. Spirits can come just as Lucifer comes, as an angel of light.

His ministers are transformed as ministers of righteousness ( II Corinthians 11 ) .

They will come to you sometimes and present a very plausible religious explanation for things, and you think, "Oh, this is right."

But you may be very wrong.

I like to read books by William Barkclay. He is one of the few authors I really enjoy, because he is not opinionated.

He gives you a lot of material and lets you form your own conclusions from it.

I like someone who can do all the research and all the work and then lay it out for you so you can sort it out, think about it, mull it over, put it in the mill, pray over it, and then let the Lord give you something of real value.

In one story he told about a train trip he made to London. In a dark little town, a big foreboding man got on the train. He had a long, ferocious, evil-looking face.

His bloodshot eyes were furtively dashing to and fro. He ha a rather desperate look on his face and his mouth was turned down in an evil grimace most of the time.

When William Barkclay was placed in the same little compartment with this man, he sat there in fear and trembling.

Every time the man reached over as if he were going to talk to him, William Barkclay would cringe in his corner; so fearful was he.

He was persuaded that he was in a compartment with a man who was devil-possessed and that at any moment he might pounce on him like the demoniac of Gadara and tear him to pieces.

With fear upon his heart, he rode along until finally this tall man, crouching down in the seat across from him and reaching over when they came to the station, asked him, "Sir, would you like a cup of tea?"

He answered, "Yes, I would."

So the man jumped out of the train, ran over to where they were selling tea, and brought back a hot

cup for each of them.

They drank tea the tea together. Soon the man asked, "would you like to share my meat pie?"

William Barkclay said, "He turned out to be a gentle soul and a wonderful Christian. How I had misjudged the man by his outward appearance and manner!"

It often happens that way. It can happen the other way, too. People with a sweet, innocent, angelic look may actually be just the opposite.

Jesus told us to judge righteous judgement ( John 7:24 ) .

When we come face to face with things and we are praying for revelation, I think it is difficult for us to avoid getting hung up occasionally on something that is wrong.

Everyone makes mistakes in this, and it is at this point that our pride, our lack of humility, can make our mind the final court of appeal, and we refuse to change it.

It can make us refuse to submit to the Lord's servants or to the authorities over us when we think, "I am right and they are wrong. If they don't like it, I will leave the church."

That is not being submissive to the elders and ministries over you. That is not the way that it is to be done.

There is another way in which we move together as brethren. There are ways that this process should be strengthened and followed very carefully in the churches.

We should surrender problems of which we are not certain and ask the elders to pray earnestly with us over them.

Another great danger in not submitting our revelation is that we sometimes leap to conclusions, without the proper deliberation in what we are praying over.

Many times the processes of divine revelation are such that God does a great deal in your spirit by delaying an answer.

The delay leads you to dig down in your heart and lay things on the altar. It leads you to examine closely your motivations in what you think.

Suppose a young couple are praying for a car. They ask the Lord for it and they have great faith that they will receive it.

When the Lord does not answer the prayer immediately their faith is tested. Everything seems to go wrong for them, and they begin to think that maybe the Lord does not want to give them a new car.

He builds their faith through delay, and He also leads them to examine their motivations.

They may have wanted a sports car at first, but then they begin to consider, "Maybe we just wanted that for the pride of the flesh. Perhaps we should be more conservative. Why do we want a new car?

Is it because the neighbors just got a new one or because six other families in the church just bought new cars? Do we really need a new car?" They lay their motivation before the Lord.

The delays that God brings often accomplish much good in your life. Your faith is tempered by putting it under fire and by examining your motivations as you go through the delay.

You finally realize that the selfish desire has to die.

Then you say, "Lord, for Thy glory we pray for the car. If it cannot be for Thy glory, then we do not want the car."

Then before long, here comes the car. ( You may get a car much easier then that; but this illustrates the process of delay. )

You may come to an issue and instead of laying it before the Lord, examining the whole problem prayerfully, giving it time, and waiting upon the Lord, you leap to conclusions.

This lack of deliberation is one of the reasons people move hastily and dogmatically into wrong decisions. Take plenty of time to deliberate.

Take plenty of time to come to a decision without any element of haste in it, and seek the Lord carefully.

There came that time when the Lord spoke to the children of Israel, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."

Then they became fidgety, because everything within them was beginning to get stirred up. They thought, "How terrible this is. Here come the Egyptians. The Red Sea is in front of us. Oh, we are dead!"

When the Lord heard them crying to Him, He told Moses, "Speak to My people that they go forward."

God has the right command for the right time.

But believe me, God has never said anything to any man that has not had a tendency to gall the old flesh and test his spirit.

Until the day that the word of the Lord came to pass in Joseph's life, that word tried him ( Psalm 105:19 ) .

The word comes to you to bless you, but first it will try you and prove you and search your heart.

Just hang on and let God do His work within you. Then the fulfillment will come. God has a dual purpose in mind in His Word.

We see that there are safeguards in this process of spiritual perception and revelation. Take it easy. Seek God. Submit your revelation to authority.

See what comes to pass out of it. Lay the entire issue on the altar of the Lord. Cry unto Him until He gives an answer.

These keys are especially necessary in boy -girl relationships. A boy and a girl meet each other today and wish they had been married yesterday.

That is the way it happens; and sometimes it is good to delay.

In matters of the heart, a man can feel that he absolutely knows his own mind.

Yet, sometimes as the couple wait, they come to the conclusion that they have followed an affection of the heart and not the will of God.

It is in this one matter of mating that young people miss the perfect will of God more than any other way. We can provide a safeguard for them, however.

Before they ever come to these crisis hours, we should prepare them and condition them to accept counsel, to accept delays, and to take it easy.

We should drill into their hearts the necessity of not having pride in their own decision and not making their own minds the final court of appeal.

They should be conditioned to allow God to be Supreme Court that can overrule them at any time, if He chooses to bring that revelation.

You can tell young people this, but it is quite another thing to get them to do it.

We are learning where people make their mistakes. People can even have a dream from the Lord and

then afterwards be so attacked by devil power that they misinterpret the dream.

Dreams and thoughts can invade your mind from other sources too.

I have read enough on this subject to realize that a person can impose his thoughts upon others, especially if he has a strong mind and he knows the art of thought projection.

This can be done very easily, with the result that the other person begins to think the thoughts that are being projected to him.

An individual who is easily impressed by other people's thinking, especially strong-minded people, can talk to one person about an issue and be fully persuaded one way.

He can meet someone else who gives him the opposite viewpoint and soon he is fully persuaded on that point.

Finally he shakes his head in utter confusion. They have had so many thoughts projected to them that decisions are actually projected to them.

It is good to build up your mind to the place where you commit all your problems to the Lord.

Philippians 4 tells you to be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication to let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard ( the literal translation ) your minds and hearts.

We need that guarding of our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus in order that we do not believe something to be a revelation from God when it is not.

This principle will save congregations from disaster. This lesson shows you why some of the most spiritual people come to a certain plane and then leave the church, because they have neither the patience nor the humility to submit to the process by which spiritual perception and revelation are confirmed.

What they believe is revelation is set aside in a process that God has for purging out of their minds that which is not to be followed.

A real problem in this end-time walk is that God can show you things both individually and through collective ministry.

Think on this for a moment. Has God spoken words directly to you which are fundamental and basic to your walk with God today?

Did He communicate them directly to your own heart while you were alone or while you were praying?

Have you also had words spoken to your heart that were  basic and essential to your walk with God- words that came through elders or groups of ministries prophesying to you?

You may have received words not only individually, directly from God, but also as they were ministered to you by others.

The trial and the test in this is that people are willing to seek God and get answers by themselves, but they are not willing to submit to a word coming through other channels.

Others may have an aggressive faith or confidence in themselves as they stand before the Lord, and so they come and say, "Dear elders, tell me what I am to do this week."

There is no decisiveness whatsoever, and this is wrong too.

There should be an aggressiveness to seek God and a confidence in the word God gives you. At the same time, there should be an aggressiveness to be open to any word that God gives you through multiple ministries.

Let the two balance each other, because there must be an aggressive walk together as a body of people. Both of these factors are absolutely essential.

If only the first one is used, you will become so independent that you will feel you do not need anyone else.

If you only use the latter, you will become so passive and indecisive that you will depend upon someone else to make all of your decisions for you, and that is a bad state too.

Both can lead to disaster if they are not balanced. Safeguards are necessary for good, healthy spiritual perception and revelation.

Keep your heart open to hear from God, and then honestly seek confirmation to every word that comes. Be open to hear every word that comes from the mouths of the brothers.

If there is a question, look to God for confirmation, because if twelve elders stood in a row and they all prophesied the same word, you would be the greatest of fools to turn aside from that word.

But you also would be violating something of your own integrity before God if you did not lay it before the Lord.

Even if it seems a foregone conclusion, say, "Lord, here it is. This is the prophecy they gave me. Speak to me, Lord. Witness to my own heart."

If I have not had a witness to my own heart of a word that comes, even though the word may be true, it does not have force in me until it becomes real to me.

When you hear a sermon, you may acknowledge that the word is true, but it does not become true until it is true to your own heart. As a result you need both witnesses and you need to constantly insist upon that.

Let us look in the Scriptures and see how this really works. When Paul wrote his testimony to the Galatian churches, he told them what happened to him and the way he had found the Lord.

In the process of doing so, he showed himself to be very much an individualist.

Galatians 1:11-2:10King James Version (KJV)

  ¹¹ But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

¹² For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³ For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

¹⁴ And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
 
¹⁵ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

¹⁶ To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

¹⁷ Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

¹⁹ But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.

²⁰ Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.

²¹ Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;

²² And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:

²³ But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.

²⁴ And they glorified God in me.

2 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

² And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.

³ But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

⁴ And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:

⁵ To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

⁶ But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:

⁷ But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

⁸ (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

⁹ And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

¹⁰ Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

This is interesting. It shows how Paul received his revelation, but still had the grace to look for the safeguards to his spiritual perception and revelation by submitting it to those who were apostles before him.

He also had a revelation about those who wanted him to submit to the law.

Notice what he said: "They did not compel Titus who was with me, being a Greek, to be circumcised in order to be in the Christian Church.

Those others only came in to spy out our liberty that they might bring us into bondage, and we did not submit to them for one hour."

Can you see the decisions Paul had to make?

He had to submit to the apostles and to the truth, and not submit for one hour to others who had steered the Christian Church away from the grace of God into a course of legalism.

This shows you that there has always been that great problem of spiritual perception and revelation

and the question of what we must do about it.

Although we may be certain of a word that we would be willing to lay down our lives for it, we must also recognize that the safeguard is in submitting them to see if God reveals these things to be true through the mouths of those who are before us in the Lord.

One of the things that made the Reformation such a great release to so many people was the fact that men like Martin Luther submitted their revelations to those who were over them.

What a safeguard that was!

It was good for Martin Luther too, because he was a headstrong German. When he set his mind on something, that was it.

Stubbornness is a wonderful trait, if you are right. He did everything he could, not to rebel or to sever himself from the church, but to reform it and to be submissive to the ministry over him.

Even when he took a trip to Rome and saw the evil and the wickedness of the hierarchy, he was still reluctant to break from the church.

I like that attitude.

John Wesley could be called a heretic, but he was striving as long as he lived for a relationship with the Church of England because he believed in the episcopal form of church government.

That is why the Methodist Episcopal church is so named; he wanted it to be an episcopal church. He wanted it to be under the ordination that had come down through the centuries from the apostles.

he believed in the apostolic succession with all of his heart. It led him to submit himself again and again to great indignities.

That was very much in the will of God because God finally brought him forth, He had shown him great truths. Yet he constantly submitted them even to a hierarchy that was wrong.

God used that situation to perfect his own spiritual perception and revelation, and lead him in the correct channel.

Sometimes Christians in the denominational churches who receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit try to be submissive to their pastor, but he gives them a very bad time.

If you are in that situation, do not be hasty; do not leave or run. Stay right there. You will learn something. If you have a revelation from God, it can be tried in the fire, and it will come out the same revelation.

If you have something that is your own idea, it will not stand up; and the quicker you find out it is your own idea, the better.

If it is a genuine truth you have seen in honest perception or received by divine revelation, it can stand a lot of opposition.

As a sidelight, let me suggest that you study a lesson in The First Principles called "The Law Of Witness" ( Another lesson previously taught ) .

It outlines how at the mouths of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. I Corinthians 14 tells how the prophets are to speak two or three and the others are to judge.

If anything is revealed to one who is sitting by, the first is to hold his peace.

This illustrates the general contribution that rounds out that which God will speak.

If we go by the word of one person, we have a tendency to build spiritual pride in that individual and make a little god out of him.

If we go by the word of several, we then have a company of believers who bring a word from Gd, and then God receives the glory.

If a great healer is in our midst, it is better to have other people minister to him and lay their hands on the sick also.

Then when someone asks, "Whose hands did it?" the obvious conclusion is that God did it.

When we focus on a one~man operation, it is very easy to get our eyes on the one man and force him, though he may be reluctant to face it, into a position of having to be too much to too many people.

This is not good either.

So we constantly call for the multiple witness in ministry. This is a great safeguard so that we are not led astray and we do not make mistakes.