8/11/07 – Prophetic Meaning

Hi all,

This week I'd like to share some thoughts about the increasingly common belief (in some circles) that nearly every event in life may have a prophetic or spiritual significance attached to it. I'd like to share first some observations before balancing these things against the Word, so stay with me.

The attaching of a prophetic or spiritual significance to events is not a belief that can stand by itself however. It has an underlying foundational belief that supports it. That belief is that one side of the spiritual world is to blame and the other side has a prophetic meaning to be derived from it. Sounds normal at first blush, but there is one thing left out with people who spiritualize everything; that is that the Bible presents man as quite capable of being solely responsible for events. 

The foundation therefore of their theology becomes a belief that God or the devil has every event tagged with some meaning in a way that must be revealed by certain prophetic people in a higher revelation than common man may have.

Years ago I became curious about this trend to spiritualize things because Barb and I were giving spiritual guidance to couples in crisis, and very often one of them would blame everything on the devil or generational spirits instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. Everything was spiritualized to the point we couldn't talk about normal day-to-day issues of life.

One wife insisted it really was some demon that was causing her to have a bad week and yell and hit her husband, and the devil was to blame. Next time she just needed to take authority over the devil and listen to Joyce Meyer tapes and would emerge victorious, all without having to say "I'm sorry, it was my fault" to her husband or take any personal responsibility.

She had no interest in tackling the real issues of changing habits she'd learned in previous abusive relationships and how to overcome them with determination, God, and God's Word. It was all a demon's fault. Even when she did acknowledge some responsibility it was half hearted, deflecting most of the blame to the enemy rather than herself.

I've seen many wives (and a few husbands) run to this meeting and that because they are going to pray for families at the conference and pull down strongholds in the heavenlies that come against families, while their spouse and kids have the weekend to themselves once again their mom or dad is off doing their "God" thing. In the past my advice has been to get real spiritual and become a doer of the Word - stay home and be a wife and mother (or husband and dad as a case could be) and watch the real spiritual breakthroughs happen!

When I would point out that the apostle Paul did not counsel former thieves in Ephesians 4:28 to take authority over the devil and the 'spirit of stealing' or the spirits in the neighborhood that opened the door to a life of crime, but rather told them to get a job and use those proceeds to learn to be a giver to those in need, it fell on deaf ears.

Others blamed the devil on everything from why they lost their job to their car failing to start in the morning - forgetting that they deserved to get fired and that no regular maintenance had been done on the car for years - that 4 year old battery was due to give out anyway with or without the devil's help - but to them it was the devil, not their poor job performance nor neglect of their car.

One lady cussed a blue streak when she got mad, but rather than follow Paul's advice of Ephesians 4:29-30 to not let corrupt words out of her mouth and not grieve the Spirit of God, she blamed it all on the devil and how she talked like that before she knew the Lord and some spirit over the area or her family or her past was making her do it. 

A person can spiritualize things so that they see a demon behind every event - like why their kid acted up in school, or they didn't get the raise, or the neighbor's sprinkler system sprayed their car, or they didn't get that parking space close to the Wal-mart door, or anything that happens not to one's liking - every dream has a spiritual meaning, every event that makes the headlines becomes a spiritual event with a prophetic significance attached.

These are people who have a spiritual answer for everything in life but no constructive practical answers, which allows someone else to always be blamed; preferably an unseen demon or God, that no spouse, business partner, pastor, or friend can counter, therefore no personal responsibility is accepted and friends drop by the wayside - except those 'friends' in that circle of belief.

A common element is spiritual arrogance - they have a higher knowledge because they went to this meeting and prayed a particular way or against a particular ruling spirit - generally speaking, they believe they have a higher revelation than others not in their stream of faith and THEIR stream of belief is the key to all other streams, and when revival is ushered in they will have the satisfaction that THEY prayed it in.

This arrogance manifests when you try to talk in practical down-to-earth terms - they keep going back to this meeting or this prayer or this spirit and what this teacher or prophet said. You can't bring them to a point of talking practical application because there is little application of the Word in their daily walk. They may pray, they may follow such and such teacher or prophet(ess), but in terms of real Christianity outside that narrow stream they are a part of, there is little application of the Word in their lives.

They really aren't growing more Christ-like in character and as a person on a daily basis, they are merely becoming made over into the image of their pet doctrine. Thinking themselves wise, in reality they are off balance and shallow. Thinking they are in the deep things of God, the reality is they are self-deceived, for they are hearers of the Word but not doers. 

It is much harder to stay in a marriage and love and forgive your spouse, and learn how to argue and give and take, or learn how to discipline and spend time with your children, than it is to run off to this meeting or that to cast down spiritual rulers with 1,000 other people. Massive meetings that get people worked up into assigning this or that spiritual and prophetic meaning to events or spirits over an area stir the flesh and emotions, while staying home and becoming a better spouse and parent is difficult and mundane.

Yet the truly mature and deep ones are the spouses and parents who are doing the nitty gritty work of applying the Word in their marriages and parenting - they are the ones heaven really notices. They aren't hiding behind good sounding prayers and platitudes, they are actually applying God to their situations, and they are the maturing ones.

If we see the spiritualizing of events like I've listed above continuously throughout the New Testament letters then my teaching here is all wet. If Jesus regularly spiritualized natural events and taught about them in the gospels, then I could see my error and repent. But I ask you, did Jesus or the apostles teach the readers of the News Testament to spiritualize everything to the point they looked for a spiritual or prophetic significance in every facet of life?

For example: After the wind and waves swamped the boat Jesus and the disciples were in, and they awoke him out of fear, (and he told the wind and waves to be still); did he then teach them the spiritual and prophetic meaning of the wind and waves as it pertained to what God was about to do in the area? (No)

I see Acts 11:28-30 where the prophet Agabus prophesied a famine was coming, so everyone according to their ability gave in order to have a storehouse when it hit. There was no one calling the prophet to see what prophetic significance was attached to the famine. There was no blaming of the devil and no one said God would raise up a mighty army as a response to the devil's famine. It was just a temporary drought that caused a food shortage for a time and God was gracious enough to let them know about it in advance so they could stock the pantry ahead of time.

In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are released from jail during an earthquake. Certainly there was significance to the timing and purpose of the quake, yet nowhere in his writings, even his very warm letter to the Philippians, does Paul refer back to that event, nor does Luke (author of Acts) spend anymore time on it other than to mention it happened.  - after the narrative of Acts 16 it isn't even mentioned again.

There is no looking back in any of the letters of the NT to say that earthquake symbolized God's shaking of the local spirits. No one looked for a prophetic significance, no one prophesied the great work God would do in Philippi, though certainly it was the start of a wonderful church - they just preached the gospel and tried to live like Jesus would want them to live. 

In Acts 27:10 Paul, now a prisoner of Rome on a ship, discerns the voyage will be with much damage to the ship, cargo, and their lives. Once shipwrecked and washed up on shore he did not spiritualize the event by blaming the devil nor attaching God's ability to turn things around. He did not attach a spiritual meaning to the snake biting him but having no effect and being shaken into the fire - like God is going to shake Malta and the snake spirit holding that island in bondage would be tossed back into the flames of hell. (Hey that's pretty good)

He told them not to go on the voyage at that time, they disobeyed, they got shipwrecked, God spared all 276 people, and the island of Malta heard the Word of the Lord - no prophesying about what God would do on Malta, no pronouncement on what the storm meant - no spiritualizing of it at all. It just happened and is listed in our Bibles without spiritual commentary attached.

I'm not saying it's wrong to recognize a demonic attack when it comes, I'm saying scripture does not teach that everything has some prophetic or spiritual meaning attached to it.

If you read through the New Testament you will find that all the writers emphasized individual responsibility rather than spiritualizing every facet of life and finding some hidden spiritual or prophetic meaning. When James told his readers that true religion was remembering the fatherless and widows in their giving (1:27), he didn't say to spiritualize things and find out what demon was in their family that caused poverty. He said help them out.

When Peter said that when we are reproached for the name of Christ and the glory and Spirit of God rests on us, he didn't continue by saying to rebuke the devil that is persecuting you and to find out what head demon is over that town and do spiritual battle - he said "happy are you". (II Peter 4:14).

When Jesus told John in Revelation 2:13-16 that the believers living in Pergamos lived "where Satan's seat is", he didn't tell them to spiritualize the reasons and blame the local demonic power on why some of them held to false teaching - he told them to repent and straighten up - taking personal responsibility for their natural and spiritual lives even though circumstances were difficult.

Yet today the doctrine of spiritualizing everything in life and attaching a spiritual or prophetic significance to it is taken as gospel by many, though it is clearly contrary to the teaching and practice of the New Testament. Are there times the Lord reveals the spiritual reason or significance to an event? By all means yes. (Like when he tied the coming destruction of Jerusalem to their rejection of him - Luke 19: 41-44)

But scripture clearly shows this is the exception rather than the rule. The Pharisee's big error was that they elevated their own teachings above the Word of God. It is sad to say that in some streams today popular doctrine is taken as a more sure word than scripture.

If attaching a spiritual and prophetic meaning to events in life are so important, or if the devil is to blame for everything negative in the world (with man playing a miniscule role if any), then why didn't Jesus or Paul or James or John spend time teaching this practice and doctrine? If spiritualizing everything is scriptural, why then did the above people teach personal responsibility and accountability instead of how to find the hidden spiritual or prophetic meaning of everything? 

If the reader responds that they did not have the revelation we have today, I would not only beg to differ, but suggest you have succumbed to spiritual arrogance yourself. They wrote the New Testament not any of us, and even the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus wept", is deeper and more sublime than a bookstore filled with the latest spiritual warfare books, or books on the prophetic!

We must ask instead, why did they teach taking personal responsibility? Certainly they acknowledged the devil was out there and that there was wrestling and resisting that we should do in that realm. But it wasn't their focus and neither did they assign spiritual reasons as to why a person could not mature in Christ or could not apply the Word to their lives. They focused on telling people to simply do what Jesus said to do, to live like he lived, to love like he loved.

Could it be that we are free-willed agents who will stand face to face with Jesus one day to give account of our lives, and there will be no occasion to tell him "The devil made me do it"? Could it therefore be that your will is stronger than either the devil's or God's, and though each may try to influence a person, each person is a sovereign being fully responsible and accountable for his or her actions in this life?

A thousand times YES! Instead of seeking what prophetic significance or evil spirit might be responsible for events in the headlines or our lives, we should daily, humbly, be seeking God and what He would do in us, that we may be more like him.

In John 9 Jesus and the disciples approached a man known to have been born blind. The disciples immediately spiritualized his condition asking, "Who sinned that he was born blind? This man or his parents?" They wanted to spiritualize his medical condition, seeking to blame someone - him, his parents, or the devil (sin).

Jesus said "Neither".

It wasn't sin or evil spirit behind the scenes that caused his blindness, it wasn't his parents fault, nor his. It just happened. Jesus added though, "But that the works of God should be manifest (in him), I must do the works of him that sent me.", and he healed him. Jesus declined to assign spirituality to the man's condition, but rather focused on doing the work the Father had put before him.

May the whole of the body of Christ become as focused on the harvest the Father has set before us as Jesus was, instead of being like the disciples of John 9 trying to assign a spiritual significance to every tragedy encountered in the world.

If we stick to the Word and Christianity as practiced in the New Testament we will stay balanced. That means the body of Christ needs to stop blaming the devil, or our forefathers and what they let into our families, or what spirit hindered us today.

It also means we must stop looking for some hidden spiritual or prophetic meaning to everything that happens to us or what is in the national headlines - just be responsible for our own spiritual and natural life - for in the end we will stand before Jesus individually, and we won't be able to say 'the devil made me do it' and he won't be quizzing us on the subtle prophetic meanings discerned in the headlines or events in our personal lives.

Some thoughts offered this day,

Blessings,
John Fenn
www.ifaithhome.org