This week we will briefly cover an issue that has many Christians in confusion and has been a major stumbling block to keep them from fulfilling the purpose of God in their lives. In Luke 6:37 the Lord said, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.” From this text, believers and non-believers have assumed that Jesus told us not to judge others, but that is not what He said or meant.   

On July 20, when Tammy Faye Messener passed away at age sixty-five, it was on international news because she was considered one of the interesting and extraordinary people of these times. As the wife of Jim Bakker, she was a co-founder of Heritage USA, and one of the pioneers of Christian television. After the failure of the PTL ministry, Tammy Faye continued to surface in the news, and drew continual interest from millions because she was such an interesting person.

         You do not need to be a prophet to see that we are in the times that the apostles and prophets spoke of when the kingdoms of this world would be collapsing and the kingdom of God growing. However, even many Christians who see how shaky the governments of this world are becoming do not yet see the signs of the coming kingdom. To understand the times, we must become increasingly discerning of these two kingdoms. Now there is one more factor we must consider as a basis for this study, which is declared in Revelation 11:15:

Last November I began a series of bulletins on "The Worst That Can Happen," which I intended to follow by "The Best That Can Happen." I postponed doing these for one main reason—I felt that events were about to take place, and decisions made, that were going to give us a clearer indication of the course to which we are headed. I think that this has been true.

      In Luke 6:46, the Lord asks the ultimate question of a disciple:        

         “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

     We have begun to discuss the levels of prophetic revelation from impressions to being caught up into heaven such as Paul and John did in the New Testament. Generally, it makes sense that the more dramatic, or high level the revelation, the more important it is. Others seem to think that the more high level the revelation, the greater the ministry of the prophet, but neither of these may be the case.

         Many Christians get confused by the distinction of the Old and New Covenants when we use the Old Testament to teach New Covenant truth. However, Jesus said “the Scriptures cannot be broken” (see John 10:35). In fact, what we call the Old Testament is the only Bible that the first century church had, and every place in the New Testament that it refers to in the Scriptures is what we call the Old Testament.

Over the last twelve years, the world has experienced the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in history. During the time of this great spiritual advance, the church in the West seems to have been going in the opposite direction, suffering one setback after another. This is about to change.

     The last two weeks I emphasized two crucial disciplines for those who would walk in the prophetic: study and the willingness to do the things you don’t enjoy doing and turning them into worship. We are told to “study to show ourselves approved by God” (see II Timothy 2:15). I know few people have had the lifestyle that enabled them to study as much as I’ve been able to do, but the amount of study is not as important as the quality of study.