Failed Prophets

This article by Julia Duin describes a disturbing problem for the American church. While some are refusing to back down, and others have admitted their mistake, many others are sitting quiet hoping that their words about Trump will be fulfiled, and if not, forgotten. They need to come clean about where they stand.

My concern with the modern American prophets is that none of them are explaining what is happening in America at this time. Most are promising a great revival. That is a possibility, and it might be what God would prefer to happen, but it seems unlikely, because it would need a massive change in attitudes to Jesus (and to politics) and an even more massive change in the way that the church functions.

I would expect true prophets to be warning what would happen, if this revival that Christians have dreamed about for many years (but not experienced) does not come. That might be a more realistic message.

Book on Economics

God’s Economy has three parts.

Part One describes God’s Instructions for Economic Life. Jesus confirmed these instructions and adapted them to work in a society in which tribal connections have broken down. He explained how they apply to the communities of love that he was establishing amongst the people who chose to follow him. He shifted the focus from neighbours to people who are committed to loving one another, but the core principles are the same.

Part Two applies God’s Instructions for Economic Life to modern society. God does not expect the people of the world to live according to these instructions, but he requires those who have chosen to serve Jesus to apply his wisdom in their lives and communities.

These instructions are only practical amongst people who are being the church where they live. They can apply God’s instructions without relying on government enforcement while continuing to live in a world that is dominated by the existing power systems. God’s economy will become a witness and sign to a world that has lost its way.

The first two chapters of Part Three describe the problems with modern money and banking. These flaws inevitably produce economic instability, inequality and often extreme poverty. Followers of Jesus need to understand these problems, but they do not prevent them from living out God’s Instructions for Economic Life within their Kingdom Communities.

The last three chapters of Part 3 explain how better money and financial institutions can be established within their Kingdom Communities in preparation for the time when the kingdoms of the world collapse and fall.

Getting everything that needs to be in a book about God’s Economy is almost impossible. I have concentrated on economic ideas that are new and different, rather than trying to cover everything that might be relevant. I focus on the changes that are necessary for the emergence of the Government of God.

Jeremiah Johnson

His voice grates on a Kiwi ear, but this thirty-minute talk called by Trump and Idolatry by Jeremiah Johnson is worth a listen. He was one of the first to apologise for his prophecy that Donald Trump would win the presidential election.

He explains the difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant prophecy. He lists four important differences.

• New Testament prophets no longer operate in the same authority as they did in the Old Testament (standing alone between God and humans).

• New Testament prophets have now been placed in the body of Christ where they are to develop community and accountability.

• The primary focus of New Testament prophets is not predicting future events, but reveal Jesus to his body (and what God is doing).

• The words of New Testament prophets are not infallible, so what they prophesy must be tested.

I witness with the word that he shared toward the end of the video.

We have unified under a false movement of prophets and politicians.

If God had given Donald Trump another four years, parts of the charismatic prophetic movement would have that they were invincible.

God has sent a spirit of confusion. It is a judgment on a movement that has placed prophet and politicians in a place that only Jesus should have.

God's Economy

From the Preface to my book called God's Economy.

I grew up on a farm, so I left school early to work in farming. After a couple of years, I realised that I did not have the strength and stamina that farming needs, so I decided to go to university. While working with sheep and driving the tractor, I had plenty of time to think about the poverty and suffering that were rampant throughout the world. The problems seemed to be economic and political, so I enrolled to study economics and politics.

After four years of study, I realised that I was digging a dry well. The assumptions that economists have to make to ensure their models work are so unrealistic that their theories are irrelevant to the real world. It seemed that during the first three years of economics, they told you all the solutions, but in the fourth year, they explained why they would not work. (I noted that my fellow students who went into politics, often only did the three-year course, so they went out boldly assuming they had effective policies).

While growing up, our family had gone to church every Sunday, but for me, it was just a habit. When I reached university and encountered modern philosophy, I gave up my religious habit. However, just when I became disillusioned with economics, I heard the gospel of Jesus clearly for the first time. I surrendered to him and committed to living by his word and Spirit.

A few months later, I had an exam for a post-graduate course on comparative economics. The lecturer was a staunch Marxist. Full of my new-found faith, I wrote in my paper that Marx has no solution to human problems and that Jesus is the answer. I gave a similar response in a paper on macroeconomics.

Surprisingly, I passed the course with first class honours. However, at the beginning of the following year, one of my professors asked to meet with me. He disclosed that he was an atheist, but acknowledged that my faith seemed to be genuine. He told me that it was not enough to say that Jesus is the answer. I needed to explain how he could be a solution to the problems that concerned me. He concluded with a telling question: “What would the economy and society look like if everyone was a Christian”.

I could not answer his question, but I knew that I had to find the answer to it. I did not know enough about God, or his solutions to economic problems, but I made it my goal to find out.

I went to seminary for three years and studied theology and New Testament Greek. Later I studied Hebrew for two years to get a better understanding of the Old Testament. While employed as an economist, I read every book and article that I could find that is relevant to economics and the gospel.

About ten years ago, I felt that I was ready to answer the question that my atheist teacher had asked, but one more obstacle lay in the way. I still had faith in political power. I believed that God’s people could use political power to establish his Kingdom on earth. I needed to grasp the failures and futility of politics.

Modern economics is mostly politics. The solutions dreamt up by economists can only be implemented by a government with coercive power, so economics becomes a servant of politics.

• Fiscal policy explains why politicians should take money from some people and use it to benefit others.
• Monetary policy explains how governments can control the creation of money and who should benefit.
• Labour economics guides politicians who want to control employment practices and pay.

Modern economics and politics are hard to separate. Economic principles get caught up in political power.

Jesus refused to use political power to advance the Kingdom of God (Luke 22:25-26; John 18:36). Political spirits and government spirits have used political authority to leverage their power on earth. Evil cannot be used to accomplish good.

When I studied this issue seriously, I discovered that God had already given a system of government to Moses that does not rely on force and coercion. I described his system of local judges applying his law and voluntary military leaders protecting their community in a book called Government of God (2017). It explains how Kingdom Communities can function without political power. They can voluntarily provide all the services that human governments promise, but fail to deliver.

Once I understood the problems of political power, my understanding of the nature of economics changed dramatically. The policies of modern economists cannot enter the Kingdom of God because they need to be imposed from the top by human governments with the power to make people do the right thing. I began seeking a politics-free economics.

I discovered the Instructions for Economic Life that God gave to Moses (see chapter 2). I also found that Jesus had validated these instructions in his teaching about economics (see chapter 3). God’s instructions allow a community of people to develop an economy that can function effectively without the need for political power and coercion.

The advance of the gospel by the power of the Spirit should produce a radically different economy. The most significant change is that there will be no human government to enforce economic policies. Economic change will come as more and more people choose to follow Jesus and are prompted by the Holy Spirit to obey his commands.

God’s economy is not modern capitalism. Modern capitalism is a system in which all activities are commercialised. Big businesses collude with political power to gain wealth at the expense of ordinary people. Materialism and consumerism are advanced at the expense of relationships. The strong are rewarded, the weak suffer. God’s economy is radically different from modern capitalism.

This book describes the changes to economic activity that will occur as the Government of God comes to fullness. It seeks to answer the following question: “What would an economy look like if most people chose to follow Jesus and the Holy Spirit was able to establish the Government of God?”. This is the question my economics teacher asked me back in 1975.

As the gospel advances, followers of Jesus will form Kingdom Communities that implement his system of justice, protection and welfare (as described in Government of God). God’s economy will emerge as these communities apply Jesus’ interpretation of the Instructions for Economic Life.

The practical outworking of God’s economic wisdom will vary according to local cultural and living arrangements. People will have to work out the details by following the leading of the Holy Spirit and adapting the principles to their local situation.

Free Book

The Kindle version of my book called God's Economy will be available for free on Amazon for the next three days. If you are concerned about the state of your nation's economy, you should read this book.

If you don't have a Kindle download the Kindle app and you can read it on your phone, tablet or laptop.

Revelation

When I read the book of Revelation, I don’t see God whacking the world, I see him letting people who have rejected his gospel way of love and service and chosen instead to trust in political and military power get a complete experience of full-blown political and military power. This massive political power will eventually collapse under its own weight, as warned by the prophets, hurting many people as it falls (because it has amplified the powers of evil), but God will use the remnant he has prepared to rescue and restore the people of the world by the power of the Spirit when their eyes are opened to the futility of political and military power.

More in Times and Seasons.

Prophets and Nations

Many prophets have had their fingers burnt predicting the outcome of the US presidential election. This is not surprising, because predicting the outcome of elections is a mug’s game, like predicting the sex of babies before they are born. You have a fifty percent chance of being right, so even if your prediction is right, you were probably just lucky.

Elections predictions do not help God’s people understand what to do and how to live. They seem to be mostly about boosting the ego of the prophet. That said, God needs prophets who can explain to his people what is going on in their world, so that they will know what they should do and how they should live. They need to know what God is doing, so they can join with it, and what the spiritual powers of evil are doing, so they can resist and not be deceived. In a world that is dominated by political power and facing tumultuous events, a true prophetic voice will need to address these things. That is what Jesus did.

However, this type of prophecy is a tough call that only a few prophets will have the maturity/purity to handle. In addition to being able to hear God speak, they will need to be able to leave the political loyalties that they grew up with behind (Jesus disciples could not do that so they could not understand what he was saying).

These prophets will need to rise above the left/right thinking that dominates discussion in the media. They may need to shake off incorrect end-times thinking that they absorbed as young Christians. They will need to be able to get above the petty issues of the day-to-day world and get the big picture of what Jesus is doing.

In these times when the church is struggling and confusion abounds, we need this prophetic role more than ever, but looking at the current state of the prophetic movement, it seems further away than ever, too. Hopefully out of some serious soul-searching about the current debacle, a purer prophetic voice to the nation(s) will emerge.

Prophet to the Nations

One role of the OT prophets was to monitor the covenant that God made with Israel and challenge the nation’s failure to comply, and warn of the consequences. That role has finished because God has not extended the old covenant to other nations, but established a new covenant through Jesus. The role of covenant guardian perhaps still applies to the nation of Israel which claims to be under the old covenant, but it would be serious critic, rather than a cheerleader for what the Israel government is doing that the American church has become. The nation probably needs modern prophets to challenge its failure to comply with God’s covenant.

The other role of the Old Testament prophets was to speak to the surrounding nations and warn them what was going on spiritually and what would happen if they carried on in the way they were going. See Isaiah 13-21, Jeremiah 46-52, Ezekiel 25-30. There were others including Elijah, Elisha and Jonah. Daniel and Joseph spoke to the emperors of their time.

These prophetic words to nations and rulers were not couched in the context of covenant, because God did not have a special covenant with the surrounding nations. They warned the nations of what would happen if they continued on their existing path. This was a substantial part of the prophet’s ministry and I see nothing in the New Testament that says that this role is discontinued, or that God has stopped speaking to kings and nations. Why would a God who speaks stop speaking? Rather, Rev 10:11 suggests that the role will continue.

What has changed is that God no longer relies on one prophet to speak to many nations. He will use many prophets, but just a few speaking to each nation or ruler, because the role has been split up and spread around since the Holy Spirit has been poured out widely. "One to many" should have been replaced by "many to each one". The modern prophet movement is a long way from being able to exercise this role, but it is still needed.

The United States is on a dangerous path, far more dangerous than most Christians realise, and it is being led down that path by nationalistic/patriotic failed/false prophets. The nation really needs a clear prophetic voice to warn it if of the dangers it faces (and that has nothing to do with the Old Covenant).

Seven Mountains

The problem with the seven mountains teaching is that it is partly true. The so-called mountains (media, government, education, economy, family, religion, and arts and entertainment) are really important for shaping the direction of society. The problem is that in the past, Christians often dominated the culture of their nation, so they tended to dominate the seven mountains (some more than others). That was wrong because people who were not Christian hated having Christian ideals imposed on them against their will. God does not impose his authority on people. He prefers that people serve him because they love him.

As the gospel advances, the influence of Christianity on the seven mountains should increase, but this influence will come as followers of Jesus serve the people of the world and demonstrate excellence in their spheres of influence. They should rise up because they have the wisdom of God and are fuelled with a spirit of wisdom and humility, and are willing to serve generously. They must not attempt to impose God’s standard on they spheres/mountains they serve in. Rather they will love and serve, and do their work more excellently than anyone else. If they are squeezed out, they will not fight back.

The mountain that will be hardest to change is the mountain of government. All government is a way for one person, or a small group, or a majority of the people to impose their will on the rest of society. That means they have no place in the Kingdom of God, which is based on love and service, not imposed power and authority.

The problem with the seven mountains teaching is that many Christians want to use political power to impose Christian values on the seven mountains. This gives God a bad name, because people hate being forced to do things against their will.

The Kingdom of God is established by love suffering and service. In my book Government of God, I have described an effective model of government that that is not imposed using force and coercion.

The Gospel of Jesus

Bad News
When the spiritual powers of evil tricked humans into rejecting God, they set about making life miserable for them and wrecking the beautiful world that God had created.

Good News
God loved the world so much that he sent his son Jesus to live on earth and die to pay for us the ransom that the spiritual powers of evil demanded. He raised Jesus from the dead to destroy their power and returned him to a place of honour in the spiritual realms. From there, Jesus sent a living Spirit to empower those who follow him and teach them how to live in peace and harmony.

Gospel Challenge
Change sides and give your allegiance to Jesus and work with him and his Spirit to restore the good world that God created.

Islam

The news media in New Zealand are developing a fascination for Islam. Most don't know much about the religion of Islam, apart from what they have seen on television. In the past, they have only seen Islamic terrorists bombing crowds and Islamic State soldiers beheading people. So the graceious response of Moslems to the Mosque shooting in Christchurch has surprised people who knew very little about the religion. Most don't want to sign up to a religion, but they have become curious about what is going on.

One reason for the confusion is that there are different streams to Islam, just as there are different streams in Christianity. Humans love factions. The historic split between Sunni and Shia streams is, like the Catholic-Protestant distinction in Christianity, very important to the people involved, but from the outside looks fairly trivial.

More importantly, there are large numbers of Moslems around the world whose faith is fairly nominal, just like the large numbers of nominal Christians, who take the name of Jesus, but not much more. They call themselves Moslem because their parents and grandparents were Moslem, but their religion has very little effect on their day-to-day lives, apart from a few cultural practices.

All of the world, more radical groups of Moslems want to take their religion more seriously. These are a bit like the Pentecostal movements, who see themselves as challenging their wider religion to become more serious in their faith.

A few really hard-core groups have focused on the violent parts of the Koran and made Islam violent. They have taken up weapons to fight for the advance of Islam. Al Qaeda and Islamic State are the two most prominent of these groups in recent years. These are the groups who have had the most attention on the television, so they are not representative of most Moslems, just as the IRA was not representative of most Catholics in Ireland.

The more cultural form of Islam has two things about that make it appealing for some people.

1. Cultural Islam is an easy religion because its rules are simple, and relatively easy to follow. There are five pillars: things that a good Moslem should do.

   1. Profession of Faith (shahada) – declaring with conviction that "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God". This really only has to be done once, but most will recite the words more frequently.
   2. Prayer (salat) - pray facing Mecca five times a day: at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and after dark.
   3. Alms (zakat) – giving generously to the poor.
   4. Fasting (sawm) – fasting during the daylight hours of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.
   5. Pilgrimage (hajj) - every Muslim whose health and finances permit it should make at least one visit to the holy city of Mecca, in present-day Saudi Arabia.
   The hardest of these is the daily prayers. The rest only have to be done if and when circumstances allow.

   These five pillars contrast with Judaism which has 613 commandments that adherents must obey. And of course, Christianity has thousands of rules that must be obeyed by people who have mistakenly turned their faith into a system of rules. So if you have chosen to live by religious rules, as many people have (I have not), Islam is a good option, because its rules are less demanding than any other religion.

2. Islam is an extremely fatalistic religion. Moslems submit to the will of Allah and just accept whatever happens as his will. This makes them very stoic and strong when they go through evil events, because they believe it is god's will, and they just resign to it.

   In contrast, most Christians see life as a spiritual battle between good and evil, so life is a challenge to understand what God is doing and be part of it, and to see what the spiritual powers of evil are doing and stand against them in faith. If we make the wrong choice, then we can be harmed by the enemy. So troubles often come from him, rather than God. This makes life challenge.

   Christians who have blind faith that God is in control of everything and just accept it as God's will are behaving more like Moslems. Fatalism more common amongst Christians than it should, given our world view.

   I presume that it was the fatalistic stoicism of the victims and their relatives that appealed to the news media after the Mosque attacks in Christchurch. They saw these terrible events as God's will, so they just had too submitted to him and kept going. Their god is not always rational, so what happens does not always make sense, but just accept it anyway.

   The problem with this fatalistic stoicism is that it makes people passive. This is an enormous obstacle to economic and social development, because people just accept what happens, and don't try to change their situation, because that would be fighting against Allah.

When Christians encounter Islam, they should seek to understand which type of Islam they are dealing with.

Waitangi Day

Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, the day when the founding of our nation is celebrated. New Zealand is different from most countries that were colonised by European countries in the nineteenth century, because a treaty was agreed between the British government and the leaders of the indigenous Maori people. This treaty, or covenant, was signed on 6 January 1840.

This was a great start for a nation, but unfortunately the treaty was ignored for the next 100 years, because it was never put into legislation by the new parliament.. The Maori people were ripped off left, right and centre, and towards the end of the nineteenth century, some experts thought they might die out.

In the last forty years, efforts have been made to recognise the treaty and to put right some of the injustices that were done. I cannot say that there has been strong support for this change, as most New Zealanders do not care. The changes were really pushed through by middle-aged, European politicians from different parties, who were not leaders, but who gained sufficient influence to push through the changes they wanted. Geoffrey Palmer got Treaty of Waitangi clauses introduced to some important pieces of legislation. Doug Graham got the Treaty settlement process working effectively, and Michael Cullen, Chris Finlayson and Andrew Little have completed a number of important settlements.

Most Christians do not understand the importance of these changes, but settling some of the injustices was really important for the spiritual status of New Zealand. I explain the spiritual consequences of covenants between nations in and article called the Treaty of Waitangi, that was first published in 1883, All Christians need to understand the importance of honouring covenants, regardless of the circumstances in which they were made.

Reset Opportunity

Would you like to join others who are learning to “be the Church” seven days a week, exploring forming Christian community in 21st century regional Australia.

Focused around a dairy farm in northern Tasmania this opportunity is available. Team members who join will have a desire to participate in the daily rhythms of the farm which seek to integrate faith, work and play in authentic, Christ centred ways.

Paid positions available include:

• assistant dairy manager (full/part-time)
• milking assistant (part-time)
• traineeship/apprenticeship in dairy farming (full-time)

Previous experience is a bonus but not essential, a minimum commitment of six months is required. Could suit single, couple or gap year students. International applications welcome.

The successful applicants will have the desire to involve themselves in building an interdependent faith community that seeks to establish the “Kingdom of God” at a personal, family and district level.

If this opportunity stirs something in you please email: positive.change@bigpond.com to initiate further discussion.

Restoring Prophets (7) Refusal

Sometimes a prophet will refuse to admit that they were wrong. They will make excuses or blame other people for the failure of their prophecy. The most common excuse will be that the prophecy was not fulfilled because people did not pray enough. Another common excuse is to say that a prophecy was not fulfilled because God’s people did not obey the prophecy.

Some prophets will avoid admitting the failure of their words by spiritualising their prophecies. For example, in America some are saying that Trump is still the president with God's anointing, and that Biden is not a real president, because he does not have God's backing. But they did not say this would be the situation when they prophesied prior to the election, so it sounds like special pleading.

A prophet that refuses to acknowledge that they have made a mistake over an important issue is a serious problem for the elders of his/her church. The elders cannot force the prophet to acknowledge a mistake if they refuse to do it. They may have to agree to disagree, but this will undermine their trust of the prophet.

If the prophetic error had serious ongoing consequences, they might need to distance themselves from the prophet. If the consequences are dangerous, they might choose to tell the church that they no longer trust the recalcitrant prophet. However, this should be the last resort in only the most serious situations. One incorrect prophecy does not justify the breaking of relationships. A series of mistakes on important issues with serious consequences is a different issue.

In the case of the big name prophets who made prophecies about the US presidential elections and are refusing to acknowledge that they are wrong, but are persisting with their claims, church leaders might need to stand apart from them and declare publicly that they perceive them to be failed prophets.

A prophet who refuses to acknowledge mistakes and accept correction is on a path to becoming a false prophet. I suspect that some of the big-name prophets in America are so committed to nationalism and political power, that they will not be able to admit they were wrong. This a dangerous place to be, because there can be no restoration without repentance. Those who have made an idol of political power, zionism or nationalism are actually leading their people into idolatry and have become false prophets. Sadly, unless they renounce their idolotry, they probably cannot be restored.

Restoring Prophets (6) Big Man Problem

A big problem in the current situation is that many of the prophets who go the election wrong are pastor-leaders of big churches. They are at the top of a hierarchy, so there is often no one close enough to challenge them. The people in their church will be committed to their message and style. These sheep who look up to them as their pastor will quickly forgive them.

If the pastor-leader does change direction, or admits that they were wrong, they will get a very negative reaction from the people who have followed them. They don't want the person that they have trusted with their lives to admit they are wrong, because that would undermine the foundation of their life. Not surprisingly, when a few of the big name prophets have admitted they were wrong, they have received a very hostile reaction. In this context, a restoration will be impossible to manage.

The church needs these leaders to keep on leading and preaching so that programs will keep going, and the money will keep on flowing. Asking one of them to step down for a season would be hugely disruptive. It is hard to see how an effective restoration process could take place. For example, three days after I received an email with a link to Kris Vallotton’s video of his apology, I received another email promoting his latest book called “Spiritual Intelligence”. I was struck by the huge disconnect, and wondered if a chapter about being wrong was missing from the book, but I also understand that his publisher would be putting on pressure to ensure that sales of the book do not flag.

I have always been uneasy about prophets becoming the pastor-leader of a church, or a pastor leader relying on his wife to be the main prophet to his church. In these situations, it is almost for the prophet to take time out to participate in a process of restoration if they make serious mistakes.

Prophetic ministries working in isolation are dangerous. If these prophetic leaders are restored, they should be restored in a safer leadership structure. The New Testament model is elders who are pastors, evangelists and prophets submitting to each other and leading together in unity. There is safety in the prophetic elder submitting to the others. The same applies to pastors and evangelists.

When prophets who have made a mistake, they should be restored to a leadership model that is based on balanced ministries submitting to each other. We need a radical change in the leadership model adopted by the church. That is a much bigger problem for the church, and is outside the scope of this article. However, I have described a leadership model that can better support the prophetic ministry in Being Church Where Live.

Restoring Prophets (5) Dazzled by Power

The biggest danger for a prophet to a nation is being dazzled by political power. The prophet can easily fall into pride because they enjoy having an influence on the powerful people in their nation. They begin to enjoy being in the room when big decisions are being made.

Being dazzled by power seems to be the main reason that many prophets failed during the latest episode during the American presidential election. Too many were dazzled by political power and came to believe that they could influence it to advance the Kingdom of God. They were dead wrong.

Moses and Paul are great examples. They are the two people with the greatest achievements in the scriptures, yet they remained humble and ambivalent about political power.

• Moses probably had more political power than anyone who has ever lived, yet he remained the most humble (not seeking advancement) person on earth. God had made called him to be the leader of a new nation and reinforced his support with many signs and wonders. Moses had no interest in retaining political power for himself.

  Early in his ministry, Moses pushed his power down and spread it around to the head of families and tribes. He said they should only come to him for problems that he could not handle (Deut 1:9-15). He did not create a political or administrative role for his sons. He exercised the power that he held very begrudgingly. He would only do this job as long as God promised to go with him. Moses knew that political power is impossible to exercise without God, and almost impossible with God, so he did not seek after it.

• Paul is another example of ambivalence towards political power. Paul was trained up to be part of the Jewish establishment and had the additional advantage of being a Roman citizen. He used this privilege to get out of trouble a couple of times, but he never attempted to use political power to support the preaching of the gospel or to advance the Kingdom of God. When the people of Iconium thought that Paul and Barnabas had been sent by the gods, Paul did not try to get himself established as the ruler of the city so he could bring in the Kingdom. Rather he challenged the people with the gospel and then fled the city (Acts 14:1-20).

Being dazzled by prophetic power is a big problem for the prophetic movement.

Without an understanding of the futility of political power, prophetic involvement in the political system will be on shaky ground. Fascination with political power can prevent Christians from seeing what God is trying to do. They will tend to get obsessed with getting the right people into power because they fall for the deception that the next election is the most important in their nation’s history. This is a political lie designed to enhance political power.

Political power has become an idol for far too many prophets. God will not use an idol to advance his purposes. Faith in political power leads them to focus on changing the political leaders of the nation in the false hope that this will bring the Kingdom of God closer. Unfortunately, most efforts to bring political change usually lead to disappointment.

God does not work through political power. His Kingdom cannot be established by political power. Jesus never suggested that his Kingdom could be advanced if the centurion who demonstrated faith when his servant was sick was appointed governor in Pilate’s place. He focussed on advancing his own Kingdom.

The accumulation of political power amplifies the authority of government-spirits in the spiritual realm. This means that political power is actually an obstacle to God achieving his purposes. He prefers to work through thousands and thousands of small kingdom communities in local neighbourhoods because that stretches the resources of the spiritual powers of evil so thin that they become ineffective.

Prophets who have been dazzled by political power will need to humble themselves and develop a clearer understanding of how God works in the world. Unless they change their way of thinking about political power, they will continue to be vulnerable to deception. This will be a huge challenge for the prophetic movement, which will be difficult to overcome. I suspect that many prophets will struggle to do it.

Restoring Prophets (4) Prophet to their Nation

Only a few of the prophets who fail will have been called to operate as a prophet to their nation. The role of prophet to a nation is a challenging one on many levels, so few are called to it. I have described it more fully in Prophet to a Nation. The prophet with this calling should be settled in a church where the other elders understand the calling and free them to move into it. The calling is not a full-time job, because often there will be nothing for them to speak. While they are waiting for the season when God wants to speak to the nation, they should continue to work in the church or business world.

Speaking to the nations, or the rulers of their nation, is a tough task, so the prophet needs strong prayer support and encouragement from the other elders in the church. They will need other prophetic people around them who they can bounce ideas off and trust to test their words when this is needed. They might need to be challenged about a direction they are taking. In the age of the Spirit, a prophet to the nation should not be operating in isolation as in the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit will usually only lift prophets up to speak to their nation if they have achieved a high level of maturity, so mistakes should be relatively rare. However, because the political and spiritual pressures are much greater when operating at this level, mistakes will occur from time to time. The government-spirits that control nations will be vicious in their attacks on those who challenge their power, so even with strong spiritual support, prophets to their nation will occasionally make mistakes.

Too many people have stepped up into a role as prophet to their nation before God has finished his preparation. Many made mistakes because they were not prepared for the role they were taking. Some of those will need to review their calling.

God only needs a few prophets speaking to each nation. Hundreds or more speaking become a cacophony of confusion that can easily be ignored. Three or four, speaking a consistent message from different perspectives, will be more effective.

When a prophet makes a mistake when speaking to the people of the nation or to the leaders of the nation, the consequences are more serious than for other prophets. These mistakes give people of the world a wedge to condemn the church, and to complain about God. This is why prophets to their nation who fail have an even greater need to stand down and pass through a process of restoration (this will be similar to the process described in the previous section)

When the prophet to the nation makes a mistake, their sense of failure will be greater and their pain more intense. If the consequences are bad, the spirit of the prophet could be broken, and they might feel like giving up. The shame of the failure might prevent them from prophesying again, but we do not want these failed prophets becoming too cautious and careful, as it could hamper God’s work on earth.

The people helping to restore the prophet should be sensitive and compassionate, so they don’t add to the condemnation that they are already carrying. They will need wisdom and insight to understand why the prophet misheard what God was saying and got his message wrong. A person is unlikely to have been called to be a prophet to their nation without God having done some serious work in their life, so it is less likely that the problem will be sin or emotion hurts, although pride could be a problem that leaves a prophet open to deception.

I suggest that the flaw that is most likely to cause a prophetic failure at the national level will a false understanding of the way that God works in the world and how his plans are being accomplished through nations. In prophetic blind spots, I have described some of the common blind spots that can cause a prophet to the nation to make mistakes when speaking God’s word.

I am fairly certain that with the US presidential election, a false understanding of the role of political power was the primary reason that the prophets got it wrong. If they understood that God does not bring in his Kingdom by using human political power, they would not even have bothered predicting the outcome of the presidential election, because they would understand that it does not matter for God’s purposes.

The restoration process for the prophet to their nation will have two aspects. The first will be the correction of their incorrect understanding of the way that God works in the world. Dealing with the problem will require study and discussion about God’s purposes. They might need to take advantage of people outside their circle, or at least read their writings, to get a different perspective and change how they think. Some study of political theology might be helpful.

At the same time, the elders will be praying that the Holy Spirit will release insight and encouragement to the prophet who failed. They urge him/her to keep prophesying and encourage him/her to persist in their calling. If the prophet is sensitive, dealing with the discouragement and lack of confidence might be the hardest part of their task. Correcting the prophet’s understanding is pointless if they give up on their calling.

Delivering a prophecy to a nation will be a challenging experience for any prophet. Getting it wrong publicly will shake their confidence in their ability to hear God. The prophet will have received the word that later proved to be incorrect in the same way as they have received all the other words they have shared, so being wrong will make them doubt their ability to hear accurately. If the elders respect the prophets calling, they will want him/her to continue in it with confidence, but greater discernment.

The restoration process will usually depend on the type and seriousness of the failure. The purpose of the stand-down and probation period must be the restoration of the prophet to their calling, so it must not be set in a punitive way. The elders do not necessarily need to publicise the scope and the scale of their probation period, but the prophet might choose to explain to people why they are having a pause from prophesying to their nation.

Many Christians in the US are really upset that the people of the world assume that the big-name media prophets who have behaved badly in the current season represent them because they have claimed to speak on behalf of God in Jesus name. I can understand their frustration at the way Jesus has been misrepresented and they feel like they have been tarred with a very ugly brush. The prophets who admit their mistakes will probably need to apologise to other Christians for the embarrassment they have caused.

Restoring Prophets (3) Prophet to a Church

Some prophets who fail will have been operating formally as a prophet to their church, and perhaps an associated group of churches, casting vision for the church and challenging the elders to press on to achieve all God’s purposes. A more formal role will usually need a more formal process of restoration.

Regardless of the seriousness of their prophetic failure, the prophet acting in this role will probably need to step down from their role in the church. They might possibly continue operating as an elder but halt their prophetic role. They should talk and pray with the other elders to discover why things went wrong. If sin is at the heart of the problem, they will have to repent and seek forgiveness. If the problem is emotional hurt, they will require prayer for healing. If the cause of the problem is false beliefs, these should be challenged and replaced with a clear understanding of God’s will and purposes.

The prophets and the elders should come to a detailed agreement about both the problem and the pathway to restoration. The prophet will have to agree that they made a mistake. This will sometimes be difficult for the prophet to accept. They will also need to agree with the elders about the cause of their mistake. A situation is not helped if the elders discern a vulnerability, but the prophet does not acknowledge it.

The prophet and the elders must agree on what needs to be done to resolve the identified problems, and the steps on the pathway to restoration. If there are multiple causes, multiple solutions will be needed. The prophet and the elders should agree on the steps or signs that show that a particular problem is resolved and the person restored.

The restoration process might include an apology to the people affected for the harm done to them.

The steps in the pathway to restoration should usually be written down, so both the elders and the prophet understand what has been agreed. However, to protect the confidentiality of personal stuff, it probably should not be made available to the rest of the church, although they might talk attempt to talk to everyone who has been affected by the failed prophecies, unless their number is too great (due to television or internet exposure).

It might be legitimate for the elders to publicise the agreement if the prophet fails to follow through on the restoration plan, or later goes back on their confession of a mistake, or returns to an approach that was wrong, (however all relevant employment laws should be complied with). The elders should agree that after the prophet has proved themselves thoroughly, the agreement will be destroyed. It should not be kept around forever to bludgeon them for mistakes later in their ministry.

When the elders of the church are assured that the prophet has completed the restoration process, they might inform the church that this has been done. This would be particularly important if the prophet has a big media profile.

A prophet to their church will always work closely with the other elders. Most decisions will be made by consensus. When it is agreed that sufficient restoration has occurred, the prophet will be able to take up their role again. The elders will continue watching over the prophet and provide prayer support and encouragement. They will work together to ensure that the prophet grows to their full potential.

Restoring Prophets (2) Prophetic People

Restoration of a failed prophetic ministry will require radical transformation, but I believe that God can do that if hearts are willing. I presume that some of the prophets that failed will not be able to be restored to a true spirit led ministry, and some will not want to be restored because the want to continue pursuing nationalistic political power. However, some will have regretted the path that they have taken, and they will need help to be restored. I assume that some of these will have begun with a genuine gifting and love for Jesus, but got distracted by political power. The elders in their church might be struggling to restore them right path and be uncertain about what the process should be. I hope that these notes will help them.

The form of the restoration will depend on the level at which the prophetic person is operating. Whatever level the prophet is operating in, the restoration process should be sufficient to satisfy God, so that the Holy Spirit will be willing to speak through them again.

1. Prophetic People
Most prophetic people will be operating in a church giving personal prophecies to the people they encounter. If they make a mistake, they should try to learn from it. If they make persistent errors, either in the content, or the delivery, of their message, the elders of the church should challenge them and establish a process for their restoration and development. They might need to stop prophesying for a time to get their approach to their gifting sorted. They might need to stop posting on social media for a time.

Stepping down will be humiliating for a person who gets their identity and sense of worth from their ministry. A growing prophet should always be walking the grace of Jesus, so the people overseeing their development must be careful to be restorative, not punitive.

The failing prophet might need to spend time with a pastor identifying the sins, hurts or false beliefs that have caused their prophetic efforts to go wrong. They might need to pause from prophesying until their pastors or prophetic mentors agree that they have resolved the issue and healed their hurts.

God has given elders of the church responsibility for watching over the body of Jesus and gently restoring those who lose their way (Act 20:28; Gal 6:1-2). We cannot leave problems in the church to God and assume that he will sort them out. The Church cannot just ignore prophets that fail and hope they will sort themselves out. That is a task that elders should be doing in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

When they begin to prophesy again, the restored prophet might need to have another prophet or pastor accompanying them at first to check that they are not slipping back into the same mistakes. The prophet might need to keep away from the particular type of message that has tripped them up until they have grown in their giftings.

After they have completed a probation period, the prophet should be freed to prophesy freely again, as the Holy Spirit leads. The Holy Spirit delivering clear and effective words through them again is the best sign that the prophet is restored.

Restoration does not require perfection. We are all human and growing towards maturity. We often will not reach that goal until towards the end of our lives, because there are always new things to learn and sins to cast aside. So, when a prophet makes a serious mistake, it would be wrong to expect them to achieve perfection before they can operate as a prophet again. Rather, the goal should be to deal with the immediate cause of their prophetic failure, whatever it was. It is not necessary to deal with every imperfection the prophet’s life, because that would take a lifetime.

The goal is to deal with any obstacle to the prophet moving forward in their calling.

Restoring Prophets (1) Reasons

Leading up to the US presidential election, many Christians prophesied that Donald Trump would win a second term as president. Some suggested that he would bring in a red wave if support. Now that Joe Biden has been inaugurated, some of these prophets are admitting that they were wrong and offering their apologies (although some are persisting with their claims).

This raises an important and interesting question. How can a prophet who has made a serious mistake that led many people astray be restored to their calling? No one seems to be discussing this issue, so I thought I would have a go. Here are my first thoughts. I will include some comments on the current situation with the US presidential election, but the principles and processes that I describe will be more general, and relevant regardless of the nature of the prophetic failure.

• The only example in the scriptures of a prophet being restored after a serious mistake was Jonah. He had to go through serious trauma and wrestling with God before he was ready to take up his role as a prophet again. Most prophets who made serious mistakes were not restored at all, eg Hananiah (Jer 28) and the 400 prophets exposed by Miciah (1 Kings 22). I presume that we can do better than that under the new covenant in the age of the Spirit.

• Peter, the apostle, made a serious mistake when he betrayed his messiah. Jesus led him through a compassionate but confronting process of restoration (John 21).

There are several reasons why the restoration of prophets who fail is really important.

• There seems to have been two main responses to prophets confessing their error. Some people want to do a proverbial stoning and pull these prophets down. The other response is to say that the mistake does not matter, and that their humility in admitting the mistake confirms that they are true prophets. The first response is unchristian, and the second is inadequate because it does not deal with the underlying problem. The restoration of a failed prophet is not as simple as is often assumed.

• Incorrectly predicting the outcome of the US election has shaken the faith of many Christians. They trusted their prophets, and now they are disappointed. Some may have lost their faith altogether, so this was a serious failure that can’t be passed off as a trivial mistake.

• When a pastor makes a serious mistake, such as committing adultery or cheating on taxes, they usually cannot just apologise and get back into their work (although that has happened in too many cases). They usually have to go through a probationary period under close supervision, and may never be allowed to so some tasks again, eg counselling widows or managing the finances of the church (respectively).

  The prophets in the church are usually those who are most strident about not letting a fallen pastor off too lightly, so now that it is prophets who have fallen, they should be careful about giving their colleagues and easy pass.

• The big-name prophets have not advocated violence, but they have spoken about “taking back what was stolen” and “fight for democracy”, so we don’t know how much influence they have had on the fringe groups that engaged in violence at the Capitol. These people might have been fortified in their fervour by the affirmations of the prophets. They might have been encouraged by a belief that God was on their side. We don’t know who was influenced by whom, so the damage that the failed prophets are responsible for might be far greater than they realise. We can’t just assume that these prophetic errors did no harm, then apologise, and move on as if nothing has happened.

• The prophets who failed will need their soul and spirit restored. Only a narcissist could go through the public humiliation of an incorrect prediction about an election with being emotionally and spiritually scarred. Delivering a public prophecy about a contentious election is a scary experience for any prophet. Getting it wrong so publicly will shake their confidence in their ability to hear God. The prophet will have received the word that later proved to be incorrect in the same way as they have received all the other words they have shared, and those they will receive in the future.

  Prophets always struggle with discerning between the voice of the Holy Spirit and their own thoughts. Being wrong will make them doubt their ability to hear accurately.

  In addition to feeling embarrassed by their mistake, a sensitive prophet will be hugely disappointed at letting God down. They might feel guilty for being deceived by the enemy. This disappointment, shame and lack of confidence could hinder their ability to prophesy in the future. They might need a pastor or someone they trust to pray through the issues with them, so God can restore them to their calling.

• The modern church does not have so many effective prophets that it can afford to lose a whole lot of competent ones that God has invested considerable time in training and developing. One prophet who make this mistake said that he would not get publicly involved in political issues again, but that is not the solution. It would be better for him to find out what caused him to make a mistake and deal with it, because the same fault could cause him to make mistakes in other spheres of activity.

  I am presuming that the people whose prophecies about Donald Trump failed are not evil people. I presume that they love Jesus and want to serve him. I assume that many of them have encouraged people by prophesying accurately in the past. Therefore, I don’t want them to be mocked and pilloried. I want them to be restored, not to what they were, but to a position where they can exercise their calling in a way that honours Jesus.

• We should not label prophets who make mistakes as false prophets. The scriptures teach that false prophets are rebels who try to lead God’s people astray to worship other gods. I presume that those who have made serious mistakes still have a heart to serve God, “so I call them “failed prophets. My main concern is to see them restored.

• Human prophets will not be infallible. They will occasionally make mistakes, but when they do, they should not just shrug it off. Instead, they should seek to understand the reason why they were deceived, and put it right. If the problem that allowed the prophets to be deceived is not resolved, they could make the same again in the future when the stakes are higher. The church cannot afford to have similar mistakes occurring again and again, so the prophets need to identify the problem and deal with it.

• Prophets often quote 1 Corinthians 13:12 (we know in part) as if that were an excuse for being wrong 10 percent of the time, but this is wrong. The reality that we “see in part” means that no prophet receives the full picture from God. To get the big picture, several prophets will need to share what they have received and put it together. Hundreds of prophets repeating the same message does not validate it.

  In the New Testament age, the Holy Spirit prefers to speak through different people, giving each one a part of the whole. The truth emerges when these prophets submit to each other and merge what they have received to get the full message from God. 1 Corinthians 13:12 is not an excuse for prophetic mistakes, but an imperative for prophets submitting to each other and finding the truth through sharing in the unity of the Spirit.

• The prophetic error about Trump was a serious public mistake by some of the big-name prophets, but many other prophetic people who are not well-known also declared the result of the election on social media and to their church and friends. What follows will apply to them as well.

• A problem that will be difficult to deal with is a loss of confidence in the words of the failed prophets. Listeners will take a wait and see approach to their words, which will make it harder for the Holy Spirit to work through them. For example, if Kris Vallotton speaks prophetically about the outcome of a future contentious event, it will be difficult to take his words seriously. The natural response will be to wonder if he is mistaken again.

  This is a burden that prophets who were wrong will have to carry for the next few years, and perhaps for the rest of their lives. It is tough being remembered as the prophet that was wrong. People tend to hold onto mistakes and forget the good stuff that people have done. Hopefully, time will lighten the burden and anointed words will begin to outweigh the mistake as the Holy Spirit continues to use the prophet.

Being sorry is not enough. A process of restoring those who made a serious mistake is seriously needed.

I will explain the processes for restoring prophets in the next few posts