As we have covered, prophecy is never given to establish doctrine. The Bible is the only source of doctrine. Prophecy may be given to reveal the strategic or tactical will of the Lord but never for establishing doctrine. Therefore, our basic understanding of things such as God’s judgments must come from the Scriptures, not prophecies, and certainly not from our own opinions, desires, or prejudices. 

     As we continue our study of the prophetic church at Thyatira (538-1798 AD), understanding Jezebel is a key to understanding what happened to the church in this time. There has been much teaching in the church about the “spirit of Jezebel,” which is derived from the biblical character who was King Ahab’s wife. Ahab was one of the wickedest kings in Israel’s history. It seems that Jezebel influenced many of his evil ways.

I was told that this coming year was going to be a year of miracles for us, and that we were going to see

Smith Wigglesworth

1859 – 1947

     British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth had one of the most extraordinary ministries of the 20^th century. He continues to be a great inspiration to evangelists and believers around the world who believe the Lord still heals and delivers.

The Lord created the man and woman to procreate, but childbirth was not intended to be painful. Because of the Fall, pain was "greatly" multiplied, resulting from the disharmony that had entered the world through sin. Before sin, all creatures lived in harmony.

        This week we will dig down a bit more on how important it is for every believer to have a vision of how far they can go in Christ, know where they are now, and see the next step. There are basically five levels of maturity in Christ that are revealed in the Scriptures:

One of my favorite quotes is from Peter Lord, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Many people get distracted from the River of Life by little tributaries that feed it. This leads to the overemphasis of teachings, which leads to extremes, as well as the worst deception of all—the pursuit of a doctrine over the Lord Himself.

This week’s verse, Ephesians 3:13, has proven hard to understand for many modern, Western Christians. Paul writes, “Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.” It is understandable that he would ask them not to lose heart when they saw their apostle suffering tribulations, but how are they suffering on behalf of the Ephesian Christians, or for their glory? In Acts 14: 21-22 we read concerning Paul’s missionary journey:

One of the ultimate problems facing Western civilization at this time is the entitlements that are pushing governments to the brink of insolvency. If they cut the entitlements, the people will riot. If they don’t cut them, virtually every Western government will eventually have to default on its debt, which will likely bring about a worldwide economic collapse. With almost every new crisis, we come closer to the point where there is not any remedy that can even buy us more time to find a solution.