November 16, 2016

The smoke is still clearing out from the inferno of last week’s American presidential election. The body of Christ yet reels over the implications of the Trump electoral victory. Much remains to be revealed in all this. In the moment, various prophetic quarters are either rejoicing, hurting or just quietly circumspect with an unreconciled sense of suspense and even apprehension. “What did we really get with this election and this man?” is the question.

A prophetic ministry has to speak to things in the moment, knowing not whether the moment truly reflects what is to be lastingly believed about a situation. What we pen here today will be read for years to come. Therefore a duty is upon this pen to write what will be lastingly valid, regardless of what develops in the future. By God’s grace, we will write that way today.

Let’s begin with a brief survey of some of the outstanding prophetic prognostications that have been made. (These two words are of course opposed. True prophecy is not prognostication, and prognostication is not prophecy. Yet much of what has been projected as prophecy has only been prognostication—that is, a human foretelling or projecting of things to come that might or might not be true.)

All of the following was or has been asserted in the name of prophecy:

·        Some have asserted Clinton would win the presidency toward completing Obama’s mandate of bringing America down. (At this moment, the official December electoral college voting that actually elects the president has not occurred.)

·        Some have said Clinton would win by extension of several prophecies dating back to the 1930’s that an evil woman would become president in keeping with the Jezebel portrayal of the Book of Revelation.

·        Some have said Donald Trump had a Cyrus mandate to expose hidden evil at least until the election.

·        Some have said that Trump would win under a Cyrus mandate because Trump is ordained to fully restore America to its constitutional roots.

·        Some have said Trump has a hidden good side planted by the Lord in agreement with the original limited Cyrus prophecy.

·        Some have said that Trump is God’s “trump card” for beating satan’s plans for America and that the constitution is “safe” with Trump.

·        Some have said that Trump would win because he was chosen by the secret powers of darkness to bring about the chaos necessary to institute martial law leading America into captivity to the New World Order.

·        In similar vein, some have said that Trump, like Obama, is a chameleon and/or antichrist whose nationalist greatness platform parallels Hitler’s.

·        Some have said that God has given Trump to the church as “quail” in answer to their rebellious prayer for “meat.” The church will get sick on Trump.

·        Some said the election would never occur because Obama would create a pretext for instituting martial law so as to stay in power.

·        Some have said Trump would be elected, but will not serve.

·        Some have said Trump will serve but shortly afterward his presidency will be brought down.

·        Some have said that Obama is the antichrist, that he has already fulfilled the abomination in the Holy Place when he visited the church of the nativity in Israel, and/or that he will go on from the US Presidency to become the Secretary General of the United Nations as eventual ruler of the world.

·        Some have said Trump’s life is in imminent danger such that he may be taken out before inaugurated.

·        Some have said missiles are in imminent position of being launched as a pretext for martial law that will prevent Trump from serving.

 

I’m quite sure there are more than the ones I’ve listed, but these are all the ones I have seen. Some of these have come forth as dreams and visions, not just as prophetic declarations. Within a few short years we will know which of these actually fully came to pass.

It is possible that some of these that might appear to fail will actually come to pass but on terms quite different than have been understood in the original perception. This is common to prophecy. It’s also possible some of these are just plain wrong. They are just prognostications destined to fail. (The prophecy that the election would not happen by one Glenda Jackson was given with the caveat “unless the church prays.”)

What is most possible is that some of these have come forth on the wings of both prophecy and prognostication. This is something we have to reckon with. Prognosticators and prophets may actually agree at times.

In other words, it is quite possible for the Holy Spirit to prophesy something and for the devil to prognosticate the same thing. This is because the Holy Spirit and satan may both have different objectives to achieve by bringing about the same event.

 

The Double Helix

This is a spiritual phenomenon we have written to in the past.  In the 1991 article On Whose Side Is God? we made these observations:

The parable of the wheat and tares establishes for us that there are not two parallel strands of human events, one empowered by God and the other by satan. Rather, human events operate as a single strand through which are intertwined the operations of God and satan in a double helix. The works of God and satan are superimposed on each other over the single perceivable course of human events.

 

Behind every single perceivable course of events, there is a divine plan and a satanic plan. These plans are hidden to the naked eye and indistinguishable by moral discernment, though the events may present an image associated more with one or the other. Nevertheless, it is as impossible for moral discernment to verify which force is behind a visible event as it is for the naked eye to discern the blue molecules from the red ones in a purple glass of water.

 

Because of this, it is a mistake to make absolute statements about the cause of world events or spiritual phenomena in the Church based on the image associations of moral discernment. It is a mistake to say "God is behind this..." or "satan is behind that..."  In truth, there is a dimension in which both God and satan are operating in, through, and around all events, each with his own purpose at war with the other.

 

If we want the truth about events, we have to come into the Knowledge of God where we can perceive this dual strand behind all events. And until we gain that Knowledge, we need to keep our mouths shut and issue evaluations guardedly.

 

The article goes on to look at the numerous biblical examples of this. I highly encourage everyone to read that article.

 

Divine Strategic Intentionality Behind Prophecy

So then what does this mean for all these prophecies and their parallel prognostications?

What I would suggest to the body of Christ is that we are looking at dual strategic intentions in the prophecies / prognostications we have been hearing. These even include the intention of the Lord to deceive the church because of its self-deceived hardheartedness. (Remember that the Holy Spirit can issue forth as a lying spirit of prophecy as well as a true spirit of prophecy, and we have belabored that before as well.)

This means that when we are hearing and evaluating prophecy, we need to really be listening for something more than fulfillments of events. We need to be listening for divine strategic intentionality.

Over the course of the heavenly war, it is not clear to us mortals what is happening on the other side of the veil over the events we witness. We don’t plainly see how God or satan is working to use the same event. We don’t see it when for whatever reasons a satanic intention is achieved or a divine one or vice versa.

So for instance, if a prophecy issues forth that Clinton will win the presidency, and a prognostication issues forth that Trump will win, or even a lying prophecy from the Lord that Trump will win, and in the hidden contest behind the veil, satan happens to win a particular prognostication battle, then the prophecy that was from the Lord will appear to have failed even though it was a true prophecy. The prognostication will have won, and yet the Lord’s purpose will still have been accomplished as a lying prophecy.

So what I am saying here is that when it comes to this matter of local event prophesying inside the time continuum, we have to recognize that we are dealing to some degree with a matter of strategic intentionality, not necessarily a certainty of outcome. 

 

Intention versus Commitment

One of the greatest points of frustration in human communication is the issue of intent versus commitment. When we use the words “I will,” we may either be speaking from a platform of intent, or we may be speaking from one of commitment.

The words “I will do” can either mean “I intend to do, but what I intend can be pre-empted by something unforeseen,” or else it can mean “I am absolutely committed to do and nothing will get in the way of that commitment.”

And so just how many human relationships have been foiled because of miscommunication between intent and commitment? One communicates an intention, the other hears a commitment. The intention fails to perform, and the other is let down saying, “You didn’t keep your word.” (Sometimes because of the deceitfulness of the heart, one may even have communicated a commitment to do, but shifted it to an intention later because of expediency.)

Something of this nature is what is happening with prophecy. When God is prophesying “I will do this,” or “such and such is going to happen,” He is not necessarily communicating a commitment to effect it. He is not making a “promise.” He is more likely communicating an intent that can be altered depending on final determinative issues on the heavenly battle front. That is the significance of the words divine strategic intent relative to prophecy.   

And so I would submit to you that is what we are dealing with in all the seemingly conflicting prophecy we are hearing. We are dealing with an overlay between divine strategic intent, carnal prognostication and divine strategic miscommunication.

 

The Gifts of Prophecy and Corporate Discernment

It is because this is so, we must hold our prophesying very guardedly while we allow God to hone our equally critical discernment perception. All prophecy is to be judged. This means the gift of discernment is required in the presence of the gift of prophecy. And the gift of discernment has been ordained to function corporately:

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. I Cor. 14:29

God is wanting to teach the church something here. Prophecy is not to be believed just because a notable prophet says something. Rather He expects the church to corporately weigh what the prophet is saying. The church is expected to discern whether what is being uttered is a prophecy governed by divine intent, a prophecy governed by divine commitment, a carnal prognostication influenced by the flesh, and possibly a divine word of deception to the body.

It’s time for the church to stop ooh-ing and aah-ing over words from Kim Clement, and Chuck Pierce and Terry Bennett and Dutch Sheets and Rick Joyner and you-name-it! These people are just mouthpieces for some spirit!

And we want to know what that spirit is!

The church is shirking its duty when it accepts as the word of God ipso facto a prophecy from any of these people. The church is supposed to complete the prophetic circuit by testing everything they hear for its spirit. (Yes, please read that article.) All prophecy is about spirit discernment, not reputation. It is about hearing and testing. It is not just about hearing.

I don’t care who said it. It has to be tested. I don’t care if I said it. I have to be tested. Is God speaking through me or am I prognosticating? If God is speaking is He speaking from strategic intent or absolute commitment? Or is He even speaking a strategic lie? (I can tell you this, if you are not testing anything you hear and you are believing it anyway, it’s almost sure God is prophesying lies to you because the only thing you will believe without testing is what you want to believe.)

 

An Arsenal of Intents

Think again about that list above with all the things that have been prophesied about Trump, Clinton and Obama. Can any of them be true? Can all of them be or have been true in some way?

Some years ago I wrote an article called the Prophetic Arsenal. The article details the numerous kinds of words God uses as tools, instruments and even weapons to speak to people depending on the situation and kind of people He is speaking to.

Similarly, I submit to you that God does not just have “one” strategic intent in the course of conducting His entire war behind the veil with satan. He can have a whole slew of strategic intents depending on the changing shape of the battlefield over time. These intents can shift. Depending on what happens, He can have a plan A, B, C, D or more.

Some might believe the devil can never win a battle so as to thwart God’s intention. In perspective of the ultimate war that is true. But in the contained reference of specific battles, God’s forces can be forced to alter tactics, just as the angel was obstructed from reaching Daniel according to an original timing or purpose:

Dan. 10:12 Then he said to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. 13 "But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one  days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.   

And this stuff still happens now.  There are “kings” at war over these elections and other huge events. There is a “democratic king” and a “republican king” and all kinds of other “kings” all warring behind the peoples.

This means that when we “prophesy in part” as Paul says, we may be being fed but a single strategic intent of the Lord from a much wider arsenal in connection with specific angelic battles nobody can see. Meanwhile, He feeds different intents to others from that same arsenal. So each is holding a different piece of intent. But in the end, only one or perhaps a combination of some of those intents will see the light of day on earth! 

This will in turn mean that whatever intents we did not see come to light will automatically be judged to have been false prophecies and carnal prognostications. Not necessarily so! Maybe so, but not necessarily.

Larger discernment is required. Sometimes that discernment only comes with hindsight. But it doesn’t have to. God wants to train our gift of discernment for relevance to the now, not the hereafter.  We need to know now what the real character of the prophecy is, not after the election, not after the assassination, not after the martial law is declared, not after Trump or Clinton does or does not get elected, not after Trump goes on to serve—or not, not after Obama does or doesn’t move out of the White House.

So this is where we are as a prophetic people at this hour. Today is November 16, 2016. When you read this, it could be 2026 or 2116, or…?

But right at this hour of writing, the body of Christ desperately needs to revamp its relationship to prophecy. But as I also said in a more recent article, that is going to involve moving out of the present inadequate prophetic-intercessory (P-I) era we find ourselves in toward the next revelation of Christ. We're going to have to be able to see more things behind the veil than we can see now to make more sense of all this.

 

The Unbreakable Script

The last thing I want to say in this particular response to the Trump election concerns the overarching unbreakability of scripture. The fact is, despite the spiritual battles over divine intentions, everything fought out in the temporal now has already been scripted from before the beginning—before there were even angels. We must remember the whole plan of salvation was instituted from before the creation. The Lamb was slain “from before the foundation of the world.”

Jesus was extremely cognizant of this in the outworking of His own ministry. He repeatedly said that what He was doing or what was happening was so that “the scripture might be fulfilled.” Whatever the Father had for Him to do, it was all going to be done within the framework of this overarching script which He said was “unbreakable.”

This also means therefore that what we call the “end times” was also planned out from before earth’s foundation. And the mega scripting for these end times has already been given to us through Daniel, through Jesus, through Paul and most of all through John’s Revelation. John especially notes that “nobody better tamper with this script!” (Rev. 22:18-19)

Nevertheless, many of today’s prophetic people think that because we now have the gift of prophecy and because temporal divine intentions can change, the script that has been laid down no longer applies. Some believe it is up to the church to write the script going forward. These declare that the script for the end times was somehow “already fulfilled” thousands of years ago, so there basically is no script now, so we must write the script for the future and for the kingdom.

I’m here to tell you that such thinking is deceived. No. We are still subject to the script, just as Jesus was. Nothing anywhere was ever prophesied that we would be released from the script to write our own.

This means that no prophets today can prevent the coming of the foretold cataclysms, the man of sin, the tribulation period, the translation and resurrection from the dead, the decimation of all the nations and the 1000 year reign of the Lord, etc. This includes the end of America as we know it.  Such script denial is perilously close to the forbidden attempting to “change the times and the seasons.” We discern seasons. We don’t change them!

So just be warned. We are all subject to the script. But the main point for this article is that we must be able to know and to prove how our prophesying about events now is indeed subjected to the script.

We must know that what we are eschatologically declaring, visioning and dreaming comports with the script. And if we can’t do that, we need to shut our mouths. And no one should be listening to anybody who is declaring that it is up to the church now to prophesy into being the script for God’s plans on earth. All of what we hear must be tested against the unbreakable prophetic paradigm of the eschatologic scriptures.

 

Conclusion

The events surrounding the stunning Trump election are not over. Much more is to come, to be revealed and to be sifted from among all that which has already been prophesied. It will be up to the body of Christ to weigh all through discernment. Remember that prophecy and corporate discernment are mandatory tandem gifts.

In this context, let us go forward recognizing the reality of the invisible double helix of prophecy and prognostication, and of the limits and changeabilities of divine strategic intent with its multifaceted arsenal in the course of heavenly battle. 

 

Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island​

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org
11/16

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