God Is Not the Author of Confusion

We're going to continue the discussion, key things God is saying to the church today, things we must sort out before him. Let's do it together. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. So what does the Bible mean? What does God mean when Scripture says that God is not the author of confusion? We have lots of different beliefs within the body, lots of different perspectives, lots of different claims. Does that mean that only one is right, all the others are wrong, therefore of the devil?

Does it mean that we need to be part of one united church, the Catholic church, or join the Mormons because they have one group? Or can there be diversity and through different voices God is speaking? But what does it mean that he's not the author of confusion? And if in fact he did speak that Donald Trump would be re-elected and it didn't happen, that would be confusing. If he didn't speak it and people are saying he did, that would be confusing.

So what does it mean that God is not the author of confusion? We're going to sort that out today. Phone lines are open. 866-34-TRUTH, 866-34-87, 884. We actually had a special guest that was going to be joining us today, had to reschedule at the last minute, which works out fine on our end. We'll do the interview, God willing, in a couple of weeks. But it works out fine because we only got to a fraction of the calls yesterday as we were talking about prophecy, false prophecy, what's a false prophet.

We only got to a fraction of those calls yesterday. So phone lines are open, 866-34-TRUTH, and I want to give a personal invitation to all those who say, Mike Brown, you're discouraging believers now that are holding on in faith, or you've caved in, or why aren't you standing. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love for you to tell me why you have that perspective. Again, I'm not here to bite your head off.

I'm not here to be nasty or to embarrass you. I want to understand from your perspective how I've done that so we can have an honest conversation. And again, to say it for the thousandth, millionth time, I'm here to help. I'm here to help. If I point out something that's wrong, it's because love corrects and love rebukes.

But I'm here to help. And even when everyone sees in the days ahead that the re-election prophecies were not accurate, were not true, at least as spoken, I'm not going to be throwing stones. If someone digs their heels in and is going to blame the whole church that things didn't come to pass, that what I said is true, or if they're going to get into fantasy that, well, he is re-elected, we just don't see the manifestation yet, we'll call that out more strongly. But my goal is not to throw people under the bus or embarrass fellow believers. Now some would say, that's where I have a problem.

Dr. Brown, this is where I struggle with your position. You're saying that people can prophesy falsely. They can say the Lord showed me this or the Lord spoke this to me. And they're still believers and they're good people, even if they prophesy falsely. I saw someone posted a comment saying, how could you prophesy lies and be a good person? Well, let's turn that around and ask, how could you teach lies and be a good person?

You say, what do you mean? Well, what if I can show you clear error in your doctrine? Something you hold to I can clearly show you is wrong by the word. But in all sincerity, you really thought the word said that. You were doing your best to interpret it and understand it, but you were in error. Maybe when you learned Hebrew or Greek, you discovered that. Maybe when you got exposed to arguments that countered your position, you understood it.

It's like, wow, I used to believe that. I don't teach that anymore. Do we call you a false teacher? Do we say that you weren't sincere?

No, you may have been sincere, but you were sincerely wrong. So we address that doctrine. You say, no, no, it's different with prophecy. Listen, it's not necessarily different.

Let me explain why. One person is misunderstanding the written word, which is God's authoritative revelation, the clearest he's ever spoken. Someone else is misinterpreting a dream or an internal voice or a sense that they had. All right, so they're guilty of being sincere, trying to honor the Lord and really feel the Lord was speaking something. They obviously misinterpreted it.

They gave it as a definite this will happen. They misinterpreted it. So I'm not going to crucify someone that realizes, wow, I was wrong on that point.

I mean, I hear from people all the time. Dr. Brown, I dug into this more, and I see that your teaching on this was correct. And look, there are things I held to when I was first saved that I realized were wrong.

The pre-trib rapture being one of them, all right, and having held to it for over, what, 45 years thereabouts. But that doesn't mean there aren't sincere pre-trib teachers around the world. And pre-tribers can look at me. You're not going to call me a false teacher over that. You'll say, Dr. Brown, you're wrong on that. Mike, you're not accurate on that. So the same way with prophets, you say, no, no, no, but there's a difference, because the prophet claims to be speaking for God, whereas the teacher is just teaching.

Well, now, hang on. When your pastor gets up, they say, we're going to open up the scriptures, and we're doing an expository series of messages through the book of Ephesians. They're going to say the Word is saying this. Paul says, here and there, they may say that there's controversy over this verse.

There's a lot of controversy. Some say this. Some say this. My view is this, but I'm not dogmatic. But otherwise, they'll be saying, no, it teaches this, and the Word says this. They'll be telling you what the Word says, right? That's why Jacob, James, the third chapter, says not many of you should be teachers, because there's more accountability, all right? So obviously, any good teacher is going to say, hey, you keep studying. Test what I'm saying based on the Word.

Let's keep growing in God together. They're gifted as teachers, but they're still not saying, dost sayeth me. They're saying, here's what the Word says.

Here's what I understand the Word to be saying, and I'm encouraging you to study it for yourself. But for the most part, your pastor, teacher, leader's getting up just teaching, teaching, and they're giving their interpretation of the written Word. So a prophet, yeah, they should couch things a certain way so that they're not speaking in a way that if you dare differ with them, that you're going to be considered evil or you can't touch the anointing. That we've been talking about a lot, but I'll give you an example.

I'll give you an example. A brother from all accounts had a good reputation as being a Jesus-loving guy and someone who really wanted to see the Lord glorified and who had some amazing prophetic words over people that came to pass. You know, maybe the Lord showed me, you're going to write a song, and this song is going to be sung around the world. It's like, I've never written a song, and sure enough, God gifted them, and they wrote the song.

I mean, things like that. He spoke at a ministry school where I was teaching decades ago. It was in the 80s, mid-80s. I wasn't there that particular day, but he had just finished teaching, and to be candid, a lot of his teaching took real liberty with Scripture. He listened to Hebrew and the Greek and all that, and I sat with him privately and said, you're using bad sources, man. You're using bad sources. So he misinterpreted the written word.

Maybe you shouldn't have been teaching. But then he had prophecies over some of the students that were right on, amazing. And then he called out one young lady, and he said to her, the Lord wants you to know that when you were crying Thursday morning in prayer, the Lord saw that.

He's going to answer that prayer. He also wants you to know he's going to take care of that family situation where there was all that tension, and he's going to heal your back. And he says, it doesn't mean anything to you. So, good, he's asking for accountability, verification. There were three things. I may not have gotten them exactly right, but those were basically three. And she said, well, I wasn't praying or crying Thursday morning.

There's no family tension, and I don't need healing in my back. The guy, rather than being corrected by it, turned to the leader of the meeting, my colleague that ran the school then, and said, oh, they don't really understand this. Well, that's unaccountability and is bound to lead to further error. But it doesn't mean that the guy is now an evil guy. It means he needs to humble himself. Because when I met with him one-on-one, he was not some charlatan. He was really trying to honor the Lord and get into the Word, and I just said, you're using bad sources.

You're misleading people. Who am I? I'm this young guy teaching.

He's this famous guy, but I had permission from the school to meet with him privately. I don't know if he took my counsel or not. But, look, people can make mistakes. He made mistakes interpreting the written word, so he had a sense, he had a thought, he had a feeling, and he misinterpreted it. Look, I've stepped out on a limb. I mean, way out on a limb at times in my life, feeling that the Lord was speaking to me to do something in faith. You've had that, right? Where you really felt God wanted you to do a particular thing, maybe a businessman, go into a new venture, or a family, make a faith decision to relocate, or you step out and go on the mission field, but you just know it. In your heart, you kind of feel something deeply. You have that sense. You feel it. So you step out in faith, and then God comes through amazingly. But another time, you have kind of a similar feeling, and you step out and it wasn't the Lord.

It's like, okay, what was the difference? Why did I make this one mistake? I remember just in terms of hearing from the Lord, I would have a checklist. Okay, am I under stress right now? I feel the Lord saying something to me about finances for our ministry. Am I under stress? Am I under financial stress?

Have I been sleeping adequately? In other words, all the human factors that could cloud my thinking at that moment. So there are people who are false prophets. They are wolves in sheep's clothing. They are divisive.

They are destructive. They are of the devil. They have infiltrated our ranks, and they are charlatans. There are other people who are believers, who believe they are prophets. Maybe they have a gift of prophecy, a word of knowledge. They're called prophets, but they are not prophets, and they are falsely called prophets. And then there are others who bring a word, and the word's not true, and they falsely prophesy. So I make those distinctions based on my understanding of Scripture, but I stand with you. I stand with you in calling out false prophecy and calling out those that claim to be prophets and are not. I just don't brand them false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing, like those in some of the critical camps do. All right, let's take a look in 1 Corinthians 14, and I want to open this up, get into the Scripture, and take your calls.

Phone lines are wide open, 866-348-7884. In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul is talking about divine order. Now, check this out. What is it then, brothers and sisters, whenever you come together, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

This is a normal house meeting. This one speaks, this one speaks. If someone speaks in a tongue, let it be by two or at most three. Each in turn, let one interpret. But if there's no interpreter, let him keep silent in the community but speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others evaluate.

Not stone the one that may be wrong, evaluate. But if something is revealed to another sitting nearby, let the first one become silent, for you can all prophesy one by one, so all may learn and be encouraged. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is not a god of confusion, but shalom, peace. So, what's the point here? God is not going to inspire me to say, it's going to rain tomorrow and inspire you to stand up afterwards and say, it's not going to rain tomorrow and then inspire a third person to come up with a contradictory message. That would be God as the author of confusion.

However, when the Holy Spirit moves, he brings to light what's in people's hearts, and that often brings division, a different category. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us today on the Line of Fire. Phone lines are open.

866-348-7884. Remember, the word of God is always true. Jesus never fails. Human prophecies can be incorrect.

Human leaders can fall. The word of God is true. Jesus never fails.

Keep that focus, and you'll make it through thick and thin. So, number one, God is not the author of confusion, meaning, he will not inspire prophet A to prophesy one thing and prophet B to prophesy the opposite or move on everyone in such a way that they have no control over that they all start yelling at the same time. You can't understand anything. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, meaning, you can hold back, you can wait to speak, you can honor others, let them speak, and it's not all at the same time, it's not going to be contradictory messages. Now, you could have two sides of the same coin, right? If you don't repent, God will judge you.

If you do repent, God will bless you, right? And one's bringing one message, the other bringing another message. I remember a student at our ministry school met with the director of the school who said to him, you're cocky, you're arrogant. He's got his accent. He said, you're cocky and you're arrogant.

You need to grow up. Something like that. And then the young man who I was close to came up to my office and I said, you know, the Lord just wanted me to tell you how much he loves you and how special you are in his sight. And he knew both were true. He knew that the Lord wanted to reaffirm his love for him and that he was cocky and arrogant.

Those were two sides of the same coin and he needed to hear them within a matter of minutes. But look, there's no question that there's massive confusion in the body today and much of it is coming from our charismatic camp. We just have to accept that and acknowledge it. And even though I've never prophesied Trump's election or reelection and even though I've been doing my best to help prepare people when these prophecies don't come to pass, I plan to publicly apologize to the church as a whole as a charismatic leader for the confusion that we charismatics have caused. I feel responsibility is part of this to reach out. So for all of you that are watching and listening that are non-charismatic and you have a bad name now because of mistakes that some of our leaders have made, I feel sorry for that.

I apologize on behalf of the movement as a whole. But look, in Corinth God was moving mightily. Paul commended the Corinthians for not falling behind in any spiritual gift but there is a mess in their midst in so many ways. It can happen in the church today. And then there are plenty of non-charismatic leaders that have messed up and fallen and false teaching and moral scandals and it's just a time for us to be on our face and Lord, we get low, Lord. We look to you.

We look to you for grace. All right, so number one, God's not the author of confusion. However, there's a flip side which is when God moves many times, the secrets of people's hearts will be laid bare and that will bring division. So let's look at Acts chapter 2.

Wait only to count Acts chapter 2. The believers are all together in one place. It's Shavuot.

It's Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit falls. They begin to speak in new languages, right?

And it says in verse 5, Acts 2, 5, Now Jewish people were staying in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound came, the crowd gathered. They were bewildered, because each was hearing them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying, All these who were speaking, aren't they Galileans? How is it that we hear our own birth language?

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those living in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cephasia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya, towards Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jewish people in proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them declaring in our own tongues the mighty deeds of God. And they were all amazed and perplexed saying to each other, What does this mean? So they're hearing these Galilean believers, these simple people, praising God in all their native languages. They're hearing them praising God. Others, poking fun, were saying they're full of sweet wine, sweet new wine.

That's where Peter has to start. None of these men are not drunk. It's just nine in the morning. It's just the third hour of the day.

It's nine in the morning. Okay, so let's think about that for a minute. The Holy Spirit is poured out legitimately, legitimately. And as a result, you have a division among the people, those who hear the praises of God, those who think the people are drunk. Isn't that being the author of confusion? No, that is God bringing to light what's in people's hearts. God being the author of confusion is allegedly inspiring a hundred people to prophesy something that doesn't happen and was not a true prophecy. Well, no, he doesn't do that.

Or contradictory messages, he doesn't do that. But often when the Holy Spirit comes, this happens in revival all the time. The Holy Spirit's poured out, and before you know it, the church is completely divided. Half of the people say, my life's been changed, this is the Lord, this is awesome, and that's the flesh, that's the devil, that's dangerous. Always happens with revival.

It's a constant pattern. In fact, Arthur Wallace said it, Duncan Campbell seconded it, that if something claims to be a revival and it's not spoken against, check again to see that it's really a revival. As I said, for years, you can have controversy without revival, but you can't have revival without controversy because when God comes and visits in power, it brings to the surface what's in people's hearts, and you find out who's really with the Lord and who's not, who's not so wholehearted. Here, look at this, Luke, the second chapter. Luke chapter two, baby Jesus, Yeshua, is being dedicated in the temple by his parents, all right? And prophetic words are being spoken. Simeon has just prophesied that this is the promised Messiah. Verse 33, and his father and mother were marveling at the things that were said about him, and Simeon offered a bracha, a blessing over them, and said to Miriam, his mother, behold, this one is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that is opposed so the thoughts of many hearts may be uncovered, and even for you, a sword will pierce through your soul.

So notice this. He is gonna be a sign that is opposed so the thoughts of many hearts may be uncovered. All right, so let's step back from that and understand what the text is saying, that when Jesus comes on the scene and begins his ministry, it suddenly reveals what's in people's hearts. It brings great division. He said, I didn't come to bring peace but a sword, meaning a sword of division. So suddenly you find out, boy, these very religious, devout people, they're hypocrites, and these prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors, they're running in repentance.

So there's a difference between God being the author of confusion and the Holy Spirit bringing to light what's in people's hearts, which then brings division. Does that make sense? All right, with that, we are gonna go to the phones, and we'll start in Fremont, Nebraska. Tesla, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, hello, Dr. Michael Brown. Hello. I just, hello? Yeah, go ahead. Hello? You're on the air. Okay.

All right. I just wanted to say thank you for the video that you posted on Facebook and then on YouTube about Donald Trump prophecies, because it has really helped me personally, because I think it wasn't just prophets that felt that Donald Trump was gonna win. I think we all kind of got into this political spirit and just supporting Donald Trump without seeing the fault. And I knew God warned me about this at the beginning of 2020, and I just felt disgusted by how Christians would just, their support for Donald Trump, I guess, was too much. And God did stoke that to me, but I think I lost sight of it and got into it too. And I think that's where deception came in, to all of us, you know, to the church as a whole, I think, at least to the majority of people, because I'm seeing a lot of people on the right regarding the church that has gotten into this self-righteous spirit, and it's really disgusting and it's bad for the church, and I don't think there's many people saying that out there, so thank you very much.

Well, Tessa, thanks so much for the kind words and for the ability to examine your own heart and life. You know, from our perspective, everybody else is wrong and we're right in our positions, and many times, either because of insecurity or because the issues are so important to us, we're unable to really step back and self-reflect. And look, I wrote in Evangelicals at the Crossroads 10 things that we had to do, the last chapter of the book, 10 things we had to do if we were to pass the Trump test, part of which was can we vote for him without tarnishing our witness? And one of the things in the list of 10 was don't get caught up in election fever.

Well, that's easier said than done, right? Because suddenly the whole world is swirling and this is the only thing on our news feeds and Trump is being falsely accused and we're concerned to where the left would go and so on, and, you know, what about the babies and pro-life and what about religious freedoms for our children and what about China? And before you know it, we're so caught up with this. There's a saying that the problem with deception is that it's very deceiving. And people who've been deceived are normally the last ones to realize it. So as January 20th comes and Joe Biden is inaugurated, there's going to be a lot of self-examination, reckoning, wondering how were we so wrong, why were we so convinced about all the political theories that some last-minute thing is going to happen, that God's actually still speaking is going to do this, and that's where we just have to go back to our foundations, our relationship with God as his children, intimacy with him through the word and prayer, focusing on Jesus, and then figure out how so many did get seduced by a partisan political spirit.

It's no question to me it happened and it's a great stronghold to be addressed. So thanks for calling. And trust me, I'm looking at my own life. I know as a radio talk host and as an op-ed writer, you know, I know only five articles a week, I'm always commenting on culture and politics, but I'm constantly saying, okay, Lord, am I doing it in the right way or in the right spirit or have I gotten too far this way or that, going before the Lord? So let's pray one for another. Not nasty prayers, but Lord, help your people come to maturity and see the light. Whatever lessons we need to learn, let's learn. Thank you so much for calling.

Back to your calls on the other side of the break. God of light, hear our cry, send the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Are you familiar with 1 Chronicles 12, 32? In the passage there, beginning in verse 23, it mentions the mighty men that came around King David to establish his kingdom in Hebron, where he was for seven years before he went to Jerusalem, where he reigned for 33 years. And it lists the members of his army from each tribe, you know, 27,000 from this tribe, and all warriors are battle-tested or skilled with this weaponry, and it goes through the numbers. And you get to verse 32. It's 200 men, chieftains, from the tribe of Issachar.

So the lowest number mentioned, it doesn't mention their battle skills or anything, but it says that they understood the times and knew what Israel should do. And that's something that we've sought to be over the years for the body is to operate in the spirit of one of the sons of Issachar, understanding the times and understanding what the church should do. There's so many gifts I don't have. There's so many things I don't know. There's so many aspects of the body and ministry that others are so much more qualified to do and do a much better job than me. And then there's some things that I've been tasked with, and this is one of them. So we're doing our best to ask, Lord, what are you saying to us? And I do believe that in a very real way that God has multitasked, as he always does, but in a very real, significant way with the presidency of Donald Trump, that there's certain good that he did through him, that there's much that was revealed through him, how radical the left is, how biased the media is, how oppressive big tech can be, the existence of these long-term Washington insiders that are deeply entrenched, the people called Deep State, but whatever you call it, the whole entrenchment of the political system, and also a lot of compromise has been revealed in the church and a lot of confusion in the charismatic movement. So I want to seize this moment and say, Lord, what are you teaching us through this?

How can we grow? And then a lot of us are going to have to get on our faces because I want you to consider this. When the prophecies are seen to have failed, the 20th will be the date for most. Others will keep pushing it forward for a while and then come to realization of what's happened. People, some are actually going to lose their faith entirely. It's a very, very grievous thing. I mean, some of us have been carrying this burden with tears before the Lord, that people would be so sure, so sure this was God that they'll question everything else in their relationship with God and actually fall away, and others will just scorn the things of the Spirit.

So that's a real shame. We want to be here to help and say, okay, look, first and foremost, God didn't fail. His word is the Bible, all right? The Bible is the, the only thing that is the word of God is the Bible. Prophecies at best are words from the Lord, a word from the Lord to be tested and not universally applicable to the whole body. And for the most part, New Testament prophecy is not about foretelling all the things that are going to happen, so you have the newspaper events ahead of time. In fact, prophecy can all be very obscure. You know, I'm writing a commentary on the book of Isaiah now. There's some chapters in that where it's like, hmm, what does that mean? Well, okay, the vision of the night, it's like, what is it, some of the visions of the book of Zechariah, the book of Revelation, hmm, what does that mean?

And there could be multilevel meanings and applications and things like that. And another prophecy is much more straightforward, but for the most part, there's a practical reason for it. It's not just given to give us information in advance, but I am not attacking sincere people who genuinely believe they heard from the Lord. Again, there are many among them that are sincere and Jesus-loving and God-fearing, and you'll see it by their responses when the prophecies prove false. And others will show a wrong side, but either way, those that spoke need to now take responsibility and say, okay, I have now damaged the faith of God's people.

I've hurt the sheep. People may be falling away because of me. That's something they really need to go to God and intercession with and say, Lord, how can I help?

How can I pray these people back into faith? 866-3-4, truth. By all means, give us a call. I posted a personal invitation on Facebook for those who say, you know, you've caved and compromised, et cetera.

Calls, tell me how, tell me where. You didn't fight enough for electoral fraud. Please tell me your thoughts, honestly. And many that are dropping me and probably unsubscribing and unfollowing, hey, I'll be here. I'll be here on the other side, all right? And again, I won't say I told you so. Okay, let us go back to the phones, and we go to Gretchen in Selma, North Carolina. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Brown.

Hey. Something that struck me the other day, I, like a lot of folks, was distraught with the outcome of the election and, of course, very distraught with the activities last Wednesday. But I pulled out Mark Taylor's book again and was reading it real carefully because I really climbed to his prophecy leading up to the election, but like many, he directed us towards 2 Chronicles 7.14, if my people, right there, if my people humble themselves, pray and seek my faith, blah, blah, blah, I will heal their land. I was talking to my sister, and if we, if the election had, well, I think God wants us all to dig deeper.

If we had just been handed the election and had four more years of Trump, we would have trusted in the political system in Trump as our president. I have had to dig very deep, and my one sister said, well, there goes, you know, such-and-so's prophecy, and I said, well, not completely. Profits are, we test them, and like I heard earlier in your program, sometimes they do get it wrong, and while I was waiting to speak, I did hear you say those that spoke boldly prophesied this or that do, you know, need to own it, and I hope not many people fall away. If anything, we need the Lord more than ever, and we need to be extremely supportive of each other at this time.

Right, not attacking. So, Gretchen, just a few things to weigh in on. I appreciate what you're saying and the spirit of it. Number one, I'm gravely concerned about what the fallout will be because this is very widespread. The level of reaction that I got last week, January 7th, when I just said, look, it's not, this is January 6th, and I said, look, as the Capitol's being stormed, face the facts.

Donald Trump will not be inaugurated on January 20th. Face the facts. Of course, I'd known that for weeks. It was self-evident in many ways, but I was waiting for the right moment.

I was going to even wait till the 20th, but I thought there may be a moment before then. When all that happened, I said it. Now, I've been getting people thanking me, leaders locally, internationally, thanking me for speaking those words, and it needed to be said, but in point of fact, we got tremendous backlash. I mean, being called the servant of Satan, spawn of Baal kind of stuff for daring to say that.

Oh, and worse, and worse. This is from believers. Now, here's the thing. That doesn't bother me in the least. As I've said repeatedly, I'm concerned for the condition of that person's soul, for someone that could be that wrong or could be furious with me, or I'm concerned with what's happening in their life. You know, like, for example, if I just said, hey, good to see you, and patted you on the shoulder, and you screamed and tried to choke me, it's like, okay, what happened to your shoulder? This must be sensitive. That's my concern. Like, wow, what happened there? You're very sensitive. Not the fact you're choking me, that's not the concern. It's like, whoa, there's something wrong with your shoulder.

I didn't know that. So this is very deep, and I'm gravely concerned that many really are gonna lose their faith. I mean, this is to them. It has to happen. They know what's gonna happen.

They're holding on. I'm like one of those unbelievers that the Red Sea wanted to go back to each other. That's how deeply they're deceived on this. The other thing, though, with all respect to the Mark Taylor prophecies, he acknowledges he thought Trump would come in in 2012 and said it was 2016, so he's publicly said, you got the timing wrong. That happens all the time with prophecy. That's why you can't, unless there's a specific timeframe with it that you know from the Lord, and I've had that, you know, a word where there was a timeframe with it, and it had to happen that time, and I knew that, I knew it would, and the D-Day's coming, it's looking really bad, but God had promised it, and he did it.

But otherwise, timing, you get wrong all the time. The Old Testament prophets did. 1 Peter 1 talks about it, that they thought, they were prophesying about their day, and then it's like, okay, well, what is this? We're prophesying about Messiah's sufferings and the glory to follow, and Lord, it's not for you, it's for these future generations. So that commonly happens with prophecy. The standard analogy is you're standing on top of one mountain looking at the top of the other mountain.

They seem very close, but you don't notice the 300-mile valley in between them because the perspective often seems very close. Prophets would speak things, looks like they're gonna happen imminently, and they were a few years down the line, and there's all the more reason that even people say, well, maybe it's 2024. Well, then what's the use of hammering the 2020 date if, well, prophecy could be this or that? So if you're gonna say something specific, it has to be. But Mark Taylor did say Trump would be elected into 0.3 justices, which he did, the third one being immediately, come on, think of that, immediately before the elections.

But I don't know Mark at all. Reading his book, though, some months back, I was struck by just how much they felt about the revelation and digging into the revelation in pages and pages and pages. I don't believe in that. I don't believe in that. I don't believe God is speaking new Bibles all the time. I don't mean equal to the Bible, but that level of information.

Now, here's the last thing. 2 Chronicles 7.14 is always the truth, right? But the major prophetic voices that were speaking Trump's reelection were not constantly saying this will only happen if the church repents. I do believe the word Jeremiah Johnson had in January 2018 where he saw Trump as a Nebuchadnezzar type figure, that Trump had to repent of his pride and the church had to repent of their looking to him in an idolatrous way, otherwise he would be removed after four years.

I believe that's exactly what happened. Unfortunately, those words, conditions, were not heard much. I know of almost no other prophets who were bringing strong conditional words, and there was massive prayer. There was massive prayer leading up to the election. I was part of the return event September 26th in D.C., a total nonpolitical event with tens of thousands there, praying, crying out to God, repenting of our sins, and then just, what, a few miles away, the Franklin Graham prayer march, even more tens of thousands there, and although Mike Pence and others were there, that was a time of prayer and seeking the face of God. I never saw that much prayer before an election, so we did that, and yet perhaps we didn't repent where we really needed to, which was looking to a man too much or praying for that man's repentance.

Perhaps those things were missed. Hey, thank you for the call. We come back. I'm going straight to your calls. As soon as we come back, stay right here. It's The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Friends, make sure that you get our emails. We send out a few e-blasts a week, one with links and short descriptions of every article we've written in the week, another with links and short descriptions of every new video that we've put out during the week, and then special resource offers or announcements or things like that. So if you're not getting my emails, take a minute. Go to AskDrBrownASKDRBrown.org and sign up for the emails. Just put your email first, last name down if you want your address too, et cetera, but whatever. Just fill that out.

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I think you'll really like the information that you get. All right, we are going back to the phones, and we go to Tom in Bethalto, Illinois. Welcome to the line of fire.

Thank you, Doug. My premise comes from distinguishing between the gift of prophecy and the office of a prophecy, the office of a prophet, because in 1 Corinthians 12, that's a gift, and that gift is subject to the maturity of the fruit in the believer. And there's a tendency in the church to believe that if somebody operates in the gift of prophecy, they're a prophet, and they're not.

That's a gift. And then there's the office of a prophet, which is part of the fivefold ministry, and I think the body lacks, because there's no real teachings, distinguishing between a gift of and an office of, and I'd like for you to address that. Yeah, Tom, you're 100% right. There are two different things, and we often confuse them. I've taught about it.

Others have written, taught some about it, but for sure it needs to be taught on a whole lot more. So one thing is that potentially in the New Testament, anyone can prophesize. Any believer potentially in the New Testament can hear the Lord say something and share it. But then there are those that have the gift of prophecy, so those words are gonna be more frequent, more accurate, more anointed in that regard, and we often think that someone with the gift of prophecy is a prophet, whereas a New Testament prophet is, as you say, part of fivefold ministry. So just like someone called to be a pastor, someone called to be an evangelist, someone called to be a teacher, someone called to be a prophet.

Here, I'll give you a couple of silly little illustrations that I use. I'm preaching one Sunday at a service, and I clear my throat. Somebody realizes why I need some water. So one of the guys comes, you know, it's a leadership conference, right? Somebody just runs, gets me a bottle of water. As they're walking, they trip and fall, and the water hits the ground.

The whole thing spills. So one of the leaders there is a real pastor. You know, he's anointed to be a pastor, and he said, oh, brother, are you okay? That was so thoughtful of you.

Really appreciate you doing that. Another one is a gifted teacher. The teacher gets up and says, you know, I noticed as you were walking that you looked your eyes, and if you keep your eyes straight ahead, then you won't trip next time. The other guy there is a real evangelist, and he jumps up. He says, we are all like spilled water on the ground. Who here needs to be saved?

Who here needs Jesus? And then another guy is a real anointed prophet, and he gets up and says, brother, you need to be careful. You just dishonored the speaker. You distracted from the meeting. And then another guy, really apostolic anointing, he jumps up and says, you know, we need a method, a system now for all the churches in our entire network that there's a bottle of water that's there set apart. So each one operating through their particular gift, or another illustration, pastor says to his leadership team, you know, we need to get to know each other better in this body, because we just, we're like strangers. We come and go on Sundays.

We never see each other. So the first Sunday of every month, we're gonna clear out the chairs from the sanctuary after the service. Everyone's gonna bring food. We're gonna have big potluck dinner.

And every month, you sit with people you haven't sat with, and we're just gonna get to know each other better. One of the guys, you know, one of the leadership team, really anointed evangelist, he says, pastor, that's immoral. We have people dying without Jesus on these very streets where our congregation is. They've never heard the gospel once. We need to go out after Sunday service and go knock on doors and share the gospel with the lost. Then we can come and have our meal. Another guy, real anointed prophet, he says, pastor, there is so much sin in this church.

There is so much sexual immorality, people on porn and gossip and junk. We need to, God's not gonna bless our time together. We need to repent. And then another guy, real anointed teacher, he says, pastor, would I be able to do a series on the meaning of the word koinonia, fellowship, so everybody has their angle, but the thing with someone that's called to be a five-fold prophet, it's their life, it's their mind, and I'm exaggerating in these pictures, you know, but it's who they are. I look at David Wilkerson as a modern-day prophetic leader.

He would not call him, he'd call himself a watchman on the wall. And just, look, I had, I preached from 40 or 50 times. I spent a good amount of time with him. There was an edge that he had. There was a certain spiritual insight.

There was something he would get up, and it would cut to the core, and when he would preach repentance, he'd kind of shake. And not everyone has to be like that. But yes, we confuse people with gift of prophecy or whom God speaks to in dreams or word of, they get a lot of word of knowledge, and we think that's, quote, a prophet. Now, here's the last thing, and I'm so glad you started this conversation, Tom. The last thing is this. We should not have this whole separate stream of the prophets any more than we should have a stream just of the teachers or of the evangelists. This is something where everything needs to be incorporated within the whole life of the body, and it's part of having this stream, the prophet stream, the websites of just the prophetic words that get us off balance.

Follow? This must be incorporated into the life of the body, those of us who believe in five-fold ministry today. Hey, thank you, sir, for the call. Let's see.

Let us go to Mary in Michigan. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi. Am I on? You are on the air.

Oh, boy. This is just the two of us just having a friendly conversation, two people. How you doing today? I'm doing good. How about yourself?

I'm blessed. Thank you. Okay, so I'm not actually speaking similar to what others were talking about, but it has to do with words and what God has shared with me throughout my process throughout all of this election deal. Is that okay?

Yeah, please, please. I wrote it down so I could get straight to the point. So basically, back in October, I had been praying and fasting regarding the unborn children. I had to get a Daniel fast for 30 days, I and some others, because we're really torn about this event and the events about ACB Amy Coney Barrett, and we were hoping that she would be elected, which she was, of course. And after that, November came, and the day before the election, I was sitting on my couch, and I was reading my Bible, and I came across Psalms 146, and that's the psalm where it talks about stop trusting in princes. And God spoke to me at that time and was highlighting that word stop trusting in princes, basically, or what are they but breasts and their nostrils or so. So that came, and then after that, I felt the Lord was speaking to me too.

That was the day after that. The Lord was speaking to me to fast media and news. So I remember then going into media and news fast, and then as I was in my media news fast, the day after that, the Lord, at night when I was asleep, I was woken up, and I felt this great peace over me, and I felt the Lord speaking to me saying, He said to me, speak about me. And so basically what I got from all of that is there was even more stuff, but I won't go into it, but as I reflect, basically what I felt God was speaking to me throughout all of that, because I was really hard into the whole political thing I was talking about and talking against abortion, all these different things, but I felt ultimately the Lord was pointing out to me idolatry in my heart. He was basically saying to me that you lost your first love.

Here's the thing. I can't overturn abortion, but Jesus can, and I started going to a man, to a king, wanting him to do something that only Jesus can do, and that's how I got into the area of idolatry. So since then I've been in this fast of realigning my heart and laying my heart before the Lord and having Him check it, I just want to encourage different viewers who are like me. Maybe some of you are great and doing wonderful in the Lord. Well, hats off to you, but for me, it's like if you're not and you've fallen, I just encourage, just go back to the Lord, ultimately realign our heart with Him and get His perspective, because ultimately only Jesus can save, and I also think of that verse where it says, the Lamb who was slain to receive all honor, power. I'm paraphrasing.

He was the only one worthy. Right, and God is jealous for His glory. I'd love to let you keep going, but we're done in a minute with the show, but God is jealous for the glory that only goes to His Son, and ultimately that's what He's going to draw attention to, and Mary, I really appreciate the call. What's of such interest to me is I was concerned, as were others, that many of us were looking to Trump in an idolatrous way, and I'd say those words, and people would get furious with me, and what are you talking about? We don't believe He's God. We don't look to Him as our Savior, and I said, You're not getting the point. So Nancy and I were talking. I was praying, Lord, how can I say this in a better way?

How can I communicate this in a way that more people will get the point I'm making? Okay, we looked to Him as a political deliverer. We put all our eggs in His basket, but those who are in a frenzied state or really concerned, if He doesn't get in, that's looking to Him in an idolatrous way.

That's the very thing we're talking about. So Mary, thank you. Thank you for all these calls today. Much appreciated. Tomorrow is Early Jewish Thursday. Barring something earth-shattering happening, we're going to shift our focus a little tomorrow. God bless.