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After 16 years of reading the Old Testament prophets in conjunction with the book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, you would think that I had a good hold of what was to come upon the earth and what we as Christians need to do about it. What I didn’t know was that Jesus, through His life, death, and resurrection, has changed the way God looks at Christians and the world now; with this change comes a change in the office of prophet.

You don’t have to look far these days to hear prophetic declarations about the increases in earthquakes, natural disasters, disease, and wars. You need only do a search on YouTube to see the varied prophetic declarations made by any person with a camera. Many of these people think that they are prophets or watchmen, and many of them are, but the spirit in which they are prophesying under and the theological position from which they are coming from taints the messages that they deliver.

When these prophets/watchmen prophesy disaster for the USA and the West, I am sure that it is done with good intentions, to make the people of God wake up. I am sure that they do this to bring the people of God to repentance. But does that repentance last when people feel threatened by the message?

Would it not be better to prophesy the truth? The men and women of God are going to dress themselves up in white garments and prepare for a wedding. Could they not explain in their prophetic utterances that the way to get dressed is to leave the lusts and the sins of the world behind and put on their robes of righteousness that Jesus bought for us with His death on the cross?

You see, the true key to prophesying in the right spirit is to know that Jesus did all the work on the cross for sin once and for all. All we need to do is believe that we are righteous and walk in that newness of life. We need to know that we are pure and holy and that the old man was crucified on the cross. When we really believe that we are righteous, our outward behaviours will come into alignment with that.

The world needs to know the good news that Jesus has paid fully for all our sins. People don’t need to be scared into changing their behaviour; they only need to know Jesus and fall in love with Him. Then all they will want to do is please Him. When a prophet knows this and lives this, they will make sure that, with every prophecy, people are pointed to the victory found in the cross of Jesus. Instead of doom and gloom prophecies, they will be able to warn people of the coming bad times but also encourage them in the glory that can be found in them by obeying Christ in these dark times.

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Source by Matthew Robert Payne