From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life (15 page)

I personally believe that any person who reaches his or her destiny in God will also be a person who knows His Word. So if you want to reach your destiny, you must come to the place where you know and love the Bible.

The Bible is God’s Book. And until the time that your dream comes to pass, God’s Book is testing you. God’s Book is testing your character. God’s Book is testing your faith. God’s Book is building your faith. And God’s Book, the Bible, is the book that will bring you to your destiny.

God Still Speaks Today

We are very blessed to have the Bible. You know, Joseph didn’t have the written Word of God as we have. All Joseph had at that time was the word that God had put in his heart—the prophetic word of God. And since that was all he had, I believe he held on to that, as the word that God had given him. But we are doubly blessed today. We are blessed to have God’s written Word in the Bible—that is our standard, and we must hold on to that. And we also are blessed to have God’s prophetic word; we must hold on to that as well.

Let me repeat that. God has given us His prophetic word today, and we are to hold on to it—because God still speaks today!

If you have been a part of a theological or doctrinal system that says God doesn’t speak today, I want you to know something very important—that idea simply does not agree with the Scriptures! God did not lose His voice 2,000 years ago. Why in the world would you pray if you couldn’t get an answer to your prayers? God does speak today. He never says anything contrary to what He has already said in the Bible, but He does speak. He hasn’t lost His voice.

I’m sorry to say that many seminaries today are teaching that God stopped speaking 2,000 ago. Unfortunately, that is also what I was taught in Bible college. I was taught that God said everything He’s ever going to say through the Bible, and that He doesn’t speak anymore. But it’s not true. He does speak! He still speaks—and one way that He speaks to us is by speaking to our hearts.

I used to be an associate pastor with Pastor Olen Griffing at Shady Grove Church (which used to be Shady Grove Baptist Church). When God began to move in that church, Pastor Griffing was called in front of a credentials committee to be questioned—because God was moving, you see, and this was a serious problem to be addressed!

For three hours Pastor Griffing was grilled by this committee about the nature of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit and whether God moves today. At the end of three hours, the committee asked him, “Do you believe that when a tongue is interpreted, or when someone prophesies, that God could be speaking through that person?”

“Yes, I do,” Pastor Griffing replied. “I don’t believe that it is always God that is speaking when that happens. But, yes, I do believe that God sometimes speaks in that way today.”

“That is where we’ve got you!” they said. “After three hours, that is where we’ve got you—because the Bible contains everything that God has said, and He does not speak to us anymore. If you say that God told you something, and you can’t give us ‘chapter and verse’ in the Bible, then you are adding to the Bible—and you know what happens when you add to the Bible.”

Brother Griffing replied, “You men have been questioning me for three hours now, and I’ve been answering your questions. Now may I ask each of you one question?” After the gentleman agreed, he said, “You’re telling me that God doesn’t speak today. So I have just one question for you. If God doesn’t speak today, then who called you to preach?”

At that, all five committee members began looking at their shoes. They had nothing to say. So Pastor Griffing addressed the chairman of the committee. “Dr. So-and-So, I asked you a question. Who called you to preach?”

Dr. So-and-So cleared his throat—and then reluctantly answered, “God did.”

“Good,” said Brother Griffing. “Would you mind giving me ‘chapter and verse’ in the Bible for that?”

But Dr. So-and-So had no reply.

So Brother Griffing said, “It is obvious that God must speak today—because He spoke to you in your heart when He called you to preach. We know that God never says anything contrary to this Bible—but He does speak today.”

That was a word of wisdom that the Holy Spirit gave to Pastor Griffing for that moment. But in spite of that word of wisdom, they still kicked him out! Pastor Griffing didn’t mind, though. He understood the truth that God still speaks today—and that if God is speaking, we shouldn’t let anyone or anything talk us out of it!

The apostle Paul must have encountered a problem similar to Pastor Griffing’s, because he wrote to the church at Thessalonica: “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thess. 5:19-21).

According to the Bible, God does have some things to say to us today through prophecies. And we are not to “despise” those prophecies. If we do, Paul says that we run the risk of “quenching” the Holy Spirit Himself.

Of course, God speaks to us in His written Word, and we must always hold on to what He has said in His written Word—the Bible is our standard. But according to this verse of Scripture, God also speaks to us through the prophetic word. And we are commanded to “hold fast” to those prophetic words.

If we are to hold on to the prophetic word of God, there are some important things about the prophetic that we must understand. One thing we must understand is that prophetic words are only a part of what God is saying.

Prophetic Words Are Only a Part of the Puzzle

There are many verses about prophecy in chapters 12 through 14 of 1 Corinthians. And 1 Corinthians 13:9 has this to say: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part.” This verse says that, “we know in part”—which just means that we don’t know everything. God knows everything, but we don’t. We only know a part of everything. And since we don’t know everything, our prophecy isn’t everything. Our prophecy is just a part of everything. That is why “we prophesy in part” (13:9). Since what we know is just a part of the bigger picture, our prophecy can only be a part of that bigger picture.

The bigger picture is just like a puzzle. God knows the whole puzzle—He designed it! But we know only a part of the puzzle. And since we know only a part of the puzzle, our prophecy is only a part of the puzzle. It is not the whole picture—it is just a part.

If you were perfect, you could prophesy perfectly—but none of us is perfect. Only God is perfect. And there is always a human element to prophecy. The Bible tells us, “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” (1 Cor. 14:32). So we have to take the prophetic word and consider it in light of the bigger picture.

God has given us prophetic words to encourage us and to cause us to seek Him. But prophetic words are not the whole picture. That is why we must take the prophetic word God has spoken to us and submit it to the bigger Word God has spoken in His Book. His Book is the perfect Word of God. When we put the prophetic word God has spoken to us together with His perfect written Word, we will come up with a more complete picture of what God is saying.

I can think of a story that is a good illustration of how this works.

On the last day of December, it is not uncommon for me to have a prophetic dream regarding the coming year. This does not happen every year, but there are certain years when this has occurred. (I think it
depends on what I eat that night—just kidding!)

Years ago I had just such a dream on New Year’s Eve. In the dream, I was riding in a car with my friend Mark Jobe, who is an evangelist. A pastor friend of mine was in the driver’s seat, I was in the middle, and Mark was sitting to my right, by the passenger door. All three of us were together in the front seat. (Is that in itself an indication that perhaps I had a little too much pizza?)

The three of us began to discuss what God was saying about the coming year. Mark had just preached a prophetic message that God had spoken to him. In Mark’s message, God was saying that the coming year was going to be a year of darkness.

The pastor said, “You know, Mark, I don’t want to argue with you at all. I’m really just trying to understand what God is saying. But I really believe God spoke to me also. And when God spoke to me, He said this was going to be a year of light.”

Mark said quite pleasantly, “Well, I understand that, and I wouldn’t want to disagree. But I really believe God spoke to me. And He said it is going to be a year of darkness.”

“I certainly appreciate that,” the pastor replied. “But I believe it is going to be a year of light.”

Mark responded, “Well, I understand what you are trying to say, but …” And so the conversation went on and on. It wasn’t an argument by any means; it was a discussion. But they kept going back and forth, and I was sitting in the middle watching them, as if I were watching a tennis match.

Then suddenly I broke in. “Guys, don’t you understand? Don’t you remember the story in the Bible about the ninth plague in Egypt? Darkness covered the whole land—but the children of Israel had light in their dwelling places. So both of you are right! God is saying that it is going to be a year of darkness for those who are not following Him; and a year of light for those who are following Him.”

When I woke up from that dream, I knew the Lord had just spoken to me about the coming year. I even preached that prophetic word that very year!

Here is my point: In the dream, each man had a part of what God was saying. And it was only by putting the parts together that the full
message of God could be understood.

It is important that we understand this, because all too often we choose the prophecies that we like, and we only listen to those. Or we choose the pastors or ministers we like, and we only listen to them. But all of the ministry gifts have a part in God’s puzzle—and if we leave some out, we won’t see the full picture.

When we’re listening to different ministers of God, on the television for example, we shouldn’t tune in to watch only those who strike the “right chord” for us at that moment. Instead, we ought to be asking, “God, what are You saying through that preacher? And what are You saying through this one? And what are You saying through that man?” We need to take heed of all of the ministry gifts, because they are all pieces of the puzzle.

If we had heard those two prophecies from my dream, we might be tempted to see which one suits our fancy. “Let’s see, now. A year of darkness, and a year of light. Hmm. I think I like that one about a year of light. Yes, I think that one about a year of light is from the Lord! That is God’s word for me!” If we do that, we are embracing one prophecy and ignoring the other. Yet God is speaking through both.

As humans, we know only “in part”; therefore, we prophesy only “in part” (1 Cor. 13:9). So if you have a prophetic word, you must understand that it is not everything. It is only a part. And because God wants
us to follow Him by faith, He often does not tell us everything or show us the whole picture.

Prophetic Words Are to Be Judged

In the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is talking about prophecies, and he says, “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge” (1 Cor. 14:29).

This verse makes it clear that we are to allow prophecies to be spoken. But it also says that when those prophecies have been spoken, we are to
judge
them, or test them. Why? Because when humans speak under the prophetic influence, there will always be a human element involved. And it is up to us to discern, or “judge,” what is truly the word of the Lord—and what is human influence. That is why the Bible tells us to judge prophecy.

Prophecy can be compared to pure water from a hose that is being sprayed through a window screen. God’s words are the pure water, and our human spirits are the window screens. This illustration was given to me by a pastor after I had ministered prophetically at his church. After the meeting was over, he said to me, “Thank you for coming to my church with a clean screen.”

“A clean screen?” I said to him. “I’ve never heard that expression. What do you mean by a clean screen?”