The exchange with the French 'ex-gay' started me thinking about this issue of visions, prophetic dreams, and God speaking directly to people like he believed in what happened to him. Now as a Pentecostal, these are very real and very much from God as a person coming from this background. The Bible backs me on this (Acts 2:17).
But all these spiritual manifestations have to jive with the Word of God or they are
n o t h i n g.
There is also a real danger when interacting with the spiritual realm because there is the possibility you may not be dealing with God or his messengers, but the other guy and his ilk. Even Paul said if an angelic being appears to you while you're taking a shower (the first red flag is someone coming to you while you're in the shower) and tells you something that seems to be contrary to the Word, the visitor is from the other guy who NEVER has your best interest in mind. The fact Paul gives this warning says it can happen, Paul didn't DO hypotheticals.
My Pentecostal side of the denomination isle is a perfect example of those who like to believe they have their toes dipped into the spiritual pool over other types of Christians, but somehow embrace more spiritual heresies at the same time (Latter Rain, Manifest Sons of God, Oneness, Shepherdship Movement, and different incarnations of the prosperity doctrine are all heresies that stemmed from the Pentecostal church, not to mention the scary "revival" meetings like the ones in Brownsville and Toronto). My poor Pentecostal brethren, always stretching to hear the voices of Angels while ignoring the cries of men, is another danger of having a foot in the spiritual realm than the one of flesh and bone dealing with other beings of flesh and bone.
False dreams and prophesies can do real damage. The assistant Pastor of my church felt like he had a prophetic calling to start his own church. He did and it failed, miserably. It left him questioning everything. God was not behind this, but from him, it was an honest mistake with thinking it was from God and it's an example of how you can really convince yourself God is talking to you. This can go from the greater to the lesser of us. You have some like a YouTube "Prophetess" who had a vision from God of California having a major Earthquake because of all the homosexuals being busy with homosexuality in the state. Well, guess what? Seismologists who don't get visions from God have been predicting a major Earthquake for years because we haven't had smaller Earthquakes and now it's built into one big one coming to me soon. Of course when it happens this "seer" will see it as her prophesy coming true and people in the Bible Belt will be in awe of her while running away from the tornadoes they'll say God didn't send them. From the looks of it, all you have to do is have a YouTube account and you are ripe for all kinds of visions from the Lord. The problem is the visions don't match up or directly contradict visions others have had and that makes many people liars, delusional, or both. The Bible says if a prophet of God is wrong even once, they aren't of God and they are to be killed. There is no wiggle room with this and it shows how lightly so many believers take this subject when God doesn't.
"And the LORD said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds."
Jeremiah 14:14.
Maybe we should step away from the dreams and prophesies till we're grounded in the Word of God FIRST. I'm talking about really being solid in it to where we can tell these multitudes of self-professed prophets who dream dreams to shut up and sit down with what isn't from God because this has turned into a jumbled mess.
"The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Her visions gave her an Excedrin migraine.
4 comments:
I know this is totally off topic, but I'm suddenly wondering if that thing about Paul and the shower is where my Church (LDS) got the whole "missionaries stay out of the water." Weird. I don't even remember that. Too much BOM and not enough BIBLE.
lol
I went to a High School with a big Mormon presence (Burbank, Ca) and I got to know a lot about the church.
I'm from NorCal, San Jose and in Oregon for the last twenty years. Anyway, I'm in a messed in my head about this crap. I really like my Church but seeing what's happening to my son right now just frankly pisses me off. His bf of seven years has suddenly decided to date a woman. I don't want to sound dramatic but it makes me sick. He lives with us right when he came home from his mission (that went over well😉) but there was so much pressure from his family he went back, now this. I'm not expecting the Church to change doctrine without God, etc. but how can you do that to your kid? These are grown men, on their later 20s...hell, who cares what age they are? Now I'm reading your blog and kind of flipping out on this stuff. Now I haven't had my youngest two kids baptized, don't go to Church because it makes me feel like I'm evil. I don't know. Just a tough time right now. Anyway, thank you for your blog. It's helping me more than you could ever know.
No, I understand, trust me.
I think the 'affirmation' site will be a big help and if nothing else be a great talking board. They have a Facebook group in the Portland area. They seem to have Facebook accounts all over the place for every aspect of the Mormon/LGBTQ experience. Pentecostals I think have one support group in the back table of a Denny's.
I did mission work (Mexico) myself. I was fortunate enough to have a supportive immediate family, your gay son is lucky to have a mom like you and tell him I said so.
If you have anything to ask, please ask away.
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