…The Young & the Old Prophet
I teach you to overcome your
fear of man, your tendencies to deny your own convictions of what you
believe is right, or things that I have shown you to be right. Remember
the old and the young prophet. I'm teaching you to stand up for the
convictions for the things I'm showing you personally, for your link
with Me, because, ultimately, when it comes down to it, what is the
most important thing every child of God must learn, and every
generation has to learn it individually? To hear from Me, find out My
personal will and act on it, because, sooner or later, that's all you
will be able to rely on.
Remember what I told you about
the old and the young prophet... you cannot toss aside everything I
have told you. This is the acid test for you to show how much you
really trust the link & channel you've got with Me. You will need
that security very soon, the assurance that I will not lead you astray,
that indeed I talk to you, and I use you. And though you have battles
& weaknesses, like everybody else does, you can rely on this
channel for safe and secure instructions, and you must follow those,
according to your own faith and amount of grace given you, and not
anyone else's.
Wherein lies the old prophet
test? It lies in not hearkening to the words of man, but unto My Words.
Not to esteem the words of man higher than Mine, but to always turn to
Me, to ask Me to help you discern, to be your touchstone. "What is it
they have said now? Lord, is this Your saying or is this their own
saying?"
The young prophet sometimes is
better off not listening to the old prophet, but just to listen to Me
and keep My counsel in mind and My voice and guidance in focus.
Because if they manage to get
you to fall or compromise or trip or stumble, then it won't necessarily
be their responsibility, but your own, since you could have just stuck
to My instructions. All they'll do is bemoan your fate and say, "too
bad they didn't make it." You could have kept your eyes on Me. For
God's sake, follow God!
You've got to see Me in it all. Otherwise you're sunk.
What could have possibly
motivated the older prophet to lie to the younger prophet… Was it
really My Spirit and all My doing in order to test the younger one? Or
was there a bit of competition involved? Some of that religious spirit
that always resents some new upstart coming along, threatening to take
away their job?
Maybe the younger prophet felt
a little bit of hostility coming across from the older prophet, maybe
some of the "godly jealousy" and fear of losing his job, so when the
older prophet told him it was alright to eat again, he wanted to make
sure that he didn't hurt his feelings even more, and that he would keep
his friendship and favor, so, he wasn't going to say, "Wait a minute,
maybe I should check back with the Lord on that one!"
You must realize that physical
encounters are always spiritual ones as well. Everybody you meet
carries a spirit around with them, one that will either lift you up or
knock you down, and you have to discern which is the case with each
one. Some may seem to want to lift you up, but because they caused you
to lower your guard and take your focus off of Me, it turns out to be a
trap from the Enemy, which may not have been their intention, but it's
just a sobering lesson for you to stay tuned to Me.
You cannot let people affect
you to an extent greater than My effect on you! It's a matter of
putting the creation above the Creator, which is idolatry. If you show
that anyone's opinion of you matters more to you than My opinion, it
shows and proves that I am not Who or what matters most to you, but
that you have other gods before Me, which, as you know, I simply cannot
tolerate.
It's all a test of your loyalty to Me. "Will he keep his heart set on Me? Will he remain loyal in spite of the temptation?"
More often than not throughout
history, as you know, the sad answer to that question has been "no."
What I'm looking for especially, is people who will reverse that
often-observed course of destiny, and who will make a yes out of that. -
A reversal of that generally
observed pattern of destiny that so many have followed before but one
chosen and special one chooses to break out of that pattern to set new
standards, a new standard of greater faith, greater obedience, greater
loyalty and greater love for Me than his predecessors.