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Finding God’s Will Is No Deep Dark Secret! Part 1
http://standupforthetruth.com/2015/02/finding-gods-will-no-deep-dark-secret-part-1/
By Marsha West
Is it possible for a Christian to know God’s will and not have to agonize over it? Should a believer make a decision without first spending hours in prayer, asking God to reveal His will? Must a Christian avoid making a decision until he or she has a “peace about it”? What about waiting for a “sign” from God? Is it okay for a Christian to consult a psychic or a Ouija board to seek God’s guidance?
A married couple, John and Tina, is faced with a dilemma. They would like to move to Colorado to be closer to John’s family. They’ve been praying about it, asking God to show them His will. Their decision must be made before the end of the week, yet they’re still not sure what God wants them to do — should they stay or should they go?
Naturally John and Tina are confused and frustrated. John is leaning toward moving because he knows it will be good for the kids to live close to their grandparents. He’s even getting excited about it. Not Tina! She wants to wait for a “confirmation,” from God before they pull up stakes and move half way across the country.
John and Tina are in the proverbial pickle.
Many Christians talk about finding God’s will as though it were some deep dark secret, hidden away in the pages of Scripture. Maybe God doesn’t want us to find it.
Where does the Bible teach that God tries to hide His will from us?
Tina and John believe their heavenly Father loves them, yet they’ve decided that He’s hiding His will from them. Maybe God likes playing hide and seek.
Most good parents want what’s best for their children, right? So does it make sense that God would want to hide His will from those He loves? If Tina and John really believe He’s a loving Father, why are they clinging to the ridiculous notion that He wants to keep them in the dark?
Finish HERE
Claiming to Know the Mind of God – Rick Wiles and Trunews
“I do not believe the USA will be a free nation beyond November 2012.” ……..Rick Wiles
“Last 3 months of 2010 will be brutal for America. The storm that will hit in the last 3 months of the year will not destroy America but it will stagger and stun the nation. There will be a great disruption in the nations commerce, communications, transportations and supply lines that will impact America for years. Tell my people to use the first 6 months of 2010 to prepare for the last 3 months. A year of bloodshed , violence, terror and fear..”
Posted on June 2, 2012 by endtimedelusion
Rick Wiles Continues To Lead His Flock Down the Pathway of Dreams
“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? Jer. 23 26-27 NASB
The amount of fraud, deception, and manipulation which takes place in the church today under the pretence that it is the work of the Holy Spirit, is truly staggering. The gifts of the spirit are being counterfeited. Outright lies are peddled from internet ministries in their broadcasts and dressed up as special revelation from God. The gift of prophecy, a thing of excellence in its uncorrupted state, is being degraded into a morass of dream interpretation. The gospel and the risen Christ take a back seat to showmanship in this circus of vanity and puffery, as the ministers responsible seek the prophetic glory for themselves and their ministries.
The Bible is quite clear in stating that we cannot ever know the mind of God. God’s ways are not our ways. Scripture is also clear that human dream interpretation, when used by us as an attempt to discover what the future holds, is an occultic practice akin to divination, and thus is an abomination to the Lord. Why then is there such a large movement thriving in Christian ministries today, especially on the internet, telling us that we can use our dreams and visions to accurately determine what God’s plan is for a city or a country or a people? And further than this, that we can use the dreams and visions of others who we do not know and will never meet, to come to this determination, and complete the abomination by putting God’s name on all of it? Why are dreams being given out to the body of believers in churches and ministries as spiritual direction and advice?
Full Article HERE
The Dangers of Divination
by Bob DeWaay
“When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead” (Deuteronomy 18:9-11).
One of the claims I often hear from those who use techniques to gain spiritual information is this: “Methods are neutral.” Another statement often made by the purveyors of new techniques for “hearing from God” is: “God cannot be limited, He can use anything.” My intent is to show from Scripture that the first of these statements is false and the second is misleading.
The Bible forbids certain methods for contacting the spirit world. The passage cited above lists several. This is not an exhaustive list because methods for contacting the spirit world are limitless. The term “divination” is a general term that covers any such method. Old Testament scholar Eugene H. Meff ill comments on this: “The phrase ‘practicers of divination’ refers generally to the whole complex of means of gaining insight from the gods regardless of any particular technique.”‘
The reason for the existence of divination is the fact that the spirit world is hidden from our eyes and information about it cannot be gained by normal means of learning. The various cultures that the ancient Israelites contacted all had means of divination. They believed that their fate and well being was in the hands of gods whose intentions were mysterious. A good diviner, like Balaam (see Numbers 23), was adept at interpreting signs and omens. His desire was not only to learn the future, but to influence the present. Thus Balaam was hired to curse Israel. Diviners hope to break curses and forestall bad fate.
Why God forbids Divination
God spoke authoritatively to his chosen people through Moses. What Moses wrote was God’s revealed will. It was the only access they had to true information about their relationship to things hidden from normal means of learning (general revelation). Moses wrote: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). The word “occult” means secret or hidden knowledge. Divination is any practice not specifically ordained in scripture that seeks to gain secret knowledge (i.e. spiritual knowledge God has not revealed). God purposely limits His people’s access to such spiritual knowledge for their own good. That which is outside of “the things revealed” is not for us. Why? Because there are spirit beings out there who have been practicing the art of deception for many thousands of years. They are good at what they do. If we dabble in their world we will be deceived.
In the same section of Scripture that forbids divination, we find this promise: “For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among yot4 from your countrymen you shall listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:14,15). The “prophet’ who God was to raise up was none other than Jesus Christ (see Luke 9:35; John 5:45-47; Hebrews 1:1,2).The true prophets that came after Moses were not law-givers. They exhorted Israel to be faithful to the Law and they predicted the future. They did not add to the Law of Moses. As further protection against deception, Moses declared that the prophets had to be one hundred percent accurate or they were to be dismissed as false (Deuteronomy 18-22). Also, if they made true predictions but led the people away from God they were false (Deuteronomy 13:1-3). The next authoritative law-giver was Jesus Christ.
By limiting both the methods and the persons that were available to Ms people, God was protecting them from deceiving spirits. Every pagan culture has had its methods of divination. Balak would not have been willing to pay Balaam richly if Balaam had not been good at what he did. The evil spirits that Satan uses to deceive people make these practices work. The reason that divination is so prevalent is that it works.
Divination in the Church Today
The teachings of Jesus Christ are contained in the New Testament and constitute the further divine revelation that Moses promised when that new “Prophet” came. These writings are authoritative and combined with the Old Testament constitute “the revealed things” (Deuteronomy 29:29) that belong to us. This is the limit of authoritative, divine revelation. Prophecy in the New Testament is not adding to authoritative revelation, but exhorting from it and applying it. Just as the Old Testament prophets (except Moses) were not lawgivers but law-appliers, so are the “prophesying ones’ in the New Testament. The other function of Old Testament prophets was to inerrantly predict the future of Israel and her Messiah. Since the One to whom the prophets pointed has come and spoken in full and final revelation, that role no longer exists. All the prophecies about the future that we are allowed are already contained in the Bible.
Using prophetic techniques to learn secret information or the future is divination. Today it is like it was in Jeremiah’s day: “Then the Lord said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divinations, futility and the deception of their own minds” (Jeremiah 14:14).
For example, the “prophet” Rick Joyner went into a trance, visited heaven, and talked to the apostle Paul. Here is what the departed “Paul” told Joyner: “If what I have written is used as a foundation, it will not be able to hold the weight of that which needs to be built on it … You must see my teachings through the Lord’s teachings, not try to understand Him from my perspective.” (Joyner, The Final Quest, 133). Necromancy (communicating with the dead) is a technique for gaining secret information that is forbidden. When forbidden techniques are used, deception is gained.
The information from Joyner’s “Paul” is contradictory to the New Testament where Paul claims that his writings are foundational and authoritative. I do not deny that various practices from guided imagery, to EMDR (a technique used by some practitioners of “Theophostic Ministry” to help people find hidden memories and gain personal revelations from God), to contemplative prayer (which uses techniques to silence the mind in the hope of hearing God’s voice), and many others “work.” They do. I deny that they are from God. God has chosen the valid means by which we can hear from Him. Those means are revealed in the Bible. Going outside of God’s ordained means is rebellion which constitutes divination. Samuel told Saul: “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is an iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord He has also rejected you from being king” (I Samuel 15:23)
Using divination puts one in the realm of deceptive spirits. Paul predicted: “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons ” (I Timothy 4: 1).
Conclusion
I said at the beginning of this article that methods are not neutral. That much has been proved by the fact that the Bible forbids divination, a practice which involves innumerable possible methods. The other claim that “God can use anything,” is misleading. That God could use something if He chose to does not mean that He will. It also does not mean that if He does use something it is a good thing. For example, God used Balaam to prophesy of Messiah, yet Balaam is condemned through Scriptures as a wicked person who led Israel astray (see Numbers 24:17 for Messianic prophesy; Balaam is condemned – 2 Peter 2:15; Jude I 1; Revelation 2:14). Balaam was a practitioner of divination, hired to curse Israel yet God chose to sovereignly use him to bless Israel instead. God may indeed use things He condemns, but that does not exonerate those who are thus used.
Today divination is rampant in the church. It is just as poisonous to the faith today as divination was to Israel’s faith in the Old Testament. It is rebellion in that it involves refusing to stay within the boundaries God has set for our own good. Those who are thus deceived have put themselves into that horrible state because they did not receive the love of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12). The truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to purge divination from the church and replace it with Gospel preaching and Bible teaching.
Bob De Waay is the pastor of: Twin City Fellowship P.O. Box 8060 Minneapolis, MN 55408 Phone: 612-874-7484 http://www.twincityfellowship.com pastorbob@twincityfellowship.com Pastor DeWaay produces a newsletter called: “Critical Issues Commentary.” You can subscribe to this newsletter by contacting Twin City Fellowship; previous issues are archived on the Twin City Fellowship website listed above.

And from Strong’s Concordance
Strong’s H7081
1) divination, withcraft
a) of the nations, Balaam
b) of false prophets
c) in a good sense (king’s lips as oracles)
Balaam’s words are interesting to the messengers when they arrived. Listen to the phrases he used.
Numbers 22:8 “and I will bring you back the answer the Lord gives me.”
Numbers 22:13 “Go back to your own country, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.”
Numbers 22:19 “I will find out what else the Lord will tell me.”
If you heard someone speak these phrases, would you think him a follower of the true God?
It seems that when Balaam set out on his journey, something was wrong. God had said to go and only tell the men “the word which I shall say unto thee.” But when he left, God opposed him because the angel obstructed his path three times, but this did not stop him. He even acknowledged he had sinned, but he did not turn back.
So now we get to ask, was Balaam doing God’s will or his own? His words sounded so mighty earlier. What do his actions say about him? Do you follow leaders who are obstructed in their ministries? Do you follow them because of their righteous sounding words and because they say they hear from the Lord?
Have you ever gone ahead with your own plans even though God opposes them? Have you taken your own pathway only to find continuous obstacles? It was as though God said, “Okay… you go Balaam and I will let you make a fool of yourself.” Have you ever asked God over and over again for the same thing? He may allow you to have this thing you so desire but there will be consequences to pay later.
An interesting verse is Numbers 22:28-29 Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these times?” Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”
Balaam could not see the sword in the angels hand, when the donkey could, and God spared the donkey. Balaam himself died by the sword but could not “see” this part of his future.
We do learn that God would not let Balaam curse the Israelites and would let the diviner speak the words that He, the Lord, gave him, much to Balak’s distress.
Because the diviner would not curse Israel as he was hired to do, Balak took him to three different locations. Different oracles were offered by Balaam but none of them were curses against the people of Israel. God would not allow His people to be cursed. Israel is His chosen and He had a covenant with them. God keeps His promises. Do you keep all of your promises?
Interestingly, Balak was hoping that the three different perspectives or locations would influence Balaam into changing his mind, so he would curse the people. Do you go to different people to find the answer you are looking for? If you do not like one answer, do you go to another, and another, and another person till you find an answer that suits you?
Now Balaam blessed Israel in his oracles, so God amazingly used this diviner, but the story does not end here. This is why we are to read the entire Bible. If one stops here, one may think that indeed Balaam turned out to be a pretty good guy. But this was not the case.
In Numbers 25 we find out that “the men began to indulge in sexually immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.”
So what does this have to do with Balaam? We find out in Numbers 31:15-16. Moses asked why the women were not killed in the war on the Midianites as the Lord commanded.
“Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.”
It was Balaam that enticed and led the people away from God. If he could not curse them, he would find a way to go against God’s will. In verse 8 Balaam is killed by the sword.
What lessons can we pull for us today from this story of the diviner. For one thing it is evident that the people were eventually deceived by him. He introduced heresies which led the people astray.
I hear many leaders in the church say today, “The Lord told me.” But we have to examine all teachings today. And the teachers. God has sent us many good preachers and teachers who prophesy God’s Word, and I praise Him mightily for this, but also there are those who are not really followers of Christ. Like Balaam. He was actually used by the Lord but truly, he was not a true believer.
In the end, those who listened to Balaam bowed down to other gods and worshiped Baal.
Soon…
A study of divination and how it has infiltrated the church.
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