Restoring the Word and Spirit to Our Generation
Concerning prophecy and prophetic ministry, what we’ve mostly witnessed has been visualizations and imaginings and just speaking whatever pops up in our heads, and calling it prophecy. In other more serious cases, ministers have given over to familiar spirits through performance.
Anything that brings attention to flesh and the greatness of man is not an utterance from the Spirit of God. How many times have you turned on Christian television and heard some version of the following from another one of the many false prophets?
“You are about to be blessed and favored. The Lord has shown me that you are about to be wealthy beyond your dreams. You do not realize how much Daddy loves you and wants to bless you.” So many other such prophecies being touted from our nation’s pulpits through the air waves are sickeningly similar. Still others are utterly meaningless, high probability predictions.
There is a cry for the genuine gospel and the real power and demonstration of the Spirit. Many younger ministers and those of my generation are waking up to it and realizing that what they are doing is not working. Something is missing.
“Everywhere I go, and I mean everywhere—in Europe and Africa, younger ministers are approaching me and saying, ‘This stuff we’re preaching just does not work. Tell us something that works. Tell us about how to get ahold of the old-time power your father and mother walked in’.”—Dr. Ladonna Osborn, T.L. Osborn’s daughter.
The principles and power that men of old walked in are fading from this generation. One of the problems we have is the lack of wisdom to blend the old and the new.
Let us read this Scripture carefully:
“Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things that are new and fresh and things that are old and familiar” (Matt. 13:52, AMP).
“Then He added, ‘Those experts in Jewish law who are now my disciples have double treasures—from the Old Testament as well as from the New!” (Matt. 13:52, TLB).
One of the things Jesus is saying here is that knowledge of the Old Testament provides insight into Jesus’ new message of the kingdom of God. In the same way, knowledge of what the past giants of the faith taught and practiced needs to be blended with what God is doing and saying today. The wise scribe or householder will build on each truth that is revealed.
Excesses, extremes, and abuses will surely be manifest, but we must learn to garner the wheat into our spiritual storehouses and burn up the chaff. As one wise old man used to say, “Have the sense of an old cow—eat the hay and leave the sticks.”
We cannot afford to throw out the baby with the dirty bath water. This is another area where many believers miss it. There are great truths on tongues and the operations of the Holy Spirit, on finances, and on faith and healing that have come to us in this generation, but because of some excesses and extremes people throw everything out. Don’t do that.
Recognizing the difference between the wheat and the chaff is the key. Being exposed to the wheat is vital in making the distinction. Just as bank tellers learn to distinguish counterfeit bills from the real by being familiar with the real, so it is with the things of the Spirit.
Blend the old with the new and have a balance of the true Word and the Spirit.
