Prayers without substance is as useless as  Jack-O-Lanterns warding of evil spirits

 

The Celtic pagan practice of hollowing out a pumpkin, carving a grotesque face and illuminating it  on October 31  was believed to ward off the evil spirits of dead people would come back that night and wreak havoc on those who did them bad during their lifetime.  Obviously, it's based on a faulty theory that dead spirits can actually return to earth, when we know from the parable Jesus told of Lazarus and the rich man in that they most certainly cannot return to earth.

If you know me, I always use metaphors to describe the life of a believer.  I find pumpkin carving a good metaphor for the prayer life of a believer not rooted firmly in the Whole Counsel of GOD.    In its natural state it is attached to the vine which is firmly rooted in the fertile soil and full of what GOD put in it, i.e., seeds and  the leafy veins that feed the pulp of the pumpkin that cause it to grow. When you carve a pumpkin, pull out all the seeds and that slimy stringy substance all you have is an empty shell. You don't really have a thriving vegetable anymore, you just have a mess that will rot away in a very short time.  By the way, if you've ever gutted a pumpkin, all that slimy stuff in the middle can be kind of gross.  Well, the historicity of GOD's people is likewise unpleasant, as well as some of the commands He gave them.  For example, 1 Samuel 15:3.  Look it up. It's not something we can stomach, but it did have purpose. 

There seems to be this growing trend of prayer teams popping up with a party line of prayer calls on a weekly basis.  Likewise struggling believers seeking prayer support from strangers has flooded social media.  I really wonder how many of those who respond actually stop and pray for that person.  How do they pray, what do they pray?  How does that person know that those prayers are doctrinally or Scripturally sound? Some cancers and sickness are send by GOD to refine a person.  I know, it happened to me.  Some diseases are GOD's way of taking someone home. We all have to die someday. 

Everyone is seeking the mystical more these days without seeking Scripture or the historical context of those Scriptures.  The answers that some responders give are usually some worn out verses  that  carry no weight.  How can Scripture carry no weight?  They can simply by being used in the wrong context with the wrong historical context.  Not all Scriptures are meant for every believer, however, the principle behind the Scripture usually can be.  A perfect example is the one Scripture I hate the most.  How does one hate a Bible verse?  One can hate how it’s over-used and used incorrectly.  Jeremiah 29:11, is that one Scripture that irritates the heck out of me.  Jeremiah gave that Scripture in context to the Jews and the 70 year exile that He had ordained for them to bear for their disobedience in idolatry. What exactly is idolatry?  It is mixing GOD’s formula for worship with man’s own ideas and made-up traditions for worship.  In my one of my previous posts, I used Christmas as a perfect example of that practice of idolatry.  The church loves Christmas, because they have their own man-made traditions regarding its practice, but it was never ordained by the LORD as a spiritual act of worship.  (Romans 12:1.) 

In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet was letting GOD’s people know that after their exile, He had a plan to use them, again.  The principle behind that Scripture is true, for the most part, however, it is not for everyone.  Who is it not for? It is not for the person who has turned his back on GOD and walked away to the point of being of no use to Him, anymore.  It is not for the believer who is Christian in name only, doing his own thing, worshiping GOD in his own way, whether it is agreeable to GOD or not, because he feels good about what he’s doing.  Folks, it isn’t about us feeling good about worship or service to GOD.  Usually, the church goer is  not interested in learning anything new.  What his pastor has told him is good enough for him, and seeking out the historical context to Scripture is unimportant to him because he already knows as much as he wants to know about the Lord that he is allegedly worshiping.  Many times, it’s isn’t even YHVH GOD, but an imagined one, one who thinks like he does.

There are some real whacko's out there, self-proclaimed prophets who have decided in their own minds that YHVH has appointed them prophet to the nation.  All you have to do is go to YouTube and in the search box type, "Rapture dream," and every self-proclaimed Joe-apostle/prophet has a video describing some kind of cataclysmic tidal wave or atomic/nuclear war.  It's chicken-little times a million or more. Listening to most of these people, you know that they are not Biblically grounded, but they are mystically assured of their calling.  In other words, they do not realize that what they are saying is not supported by the Bible, as a whole, but the select verses that they choose to support their mystical experience.  Many of them are listening to deceiving spirits that boost them up to prophet status when it was never GOD who called them as prophets, but their own inflated sense of importance in the Kingdom of GOD. 

Now, I'm not saying that GOD doesn't speak to us in dreams, we have Biblical examples that He did, but really, people, do you suppose He is really visiting as many "self-proclaimed" prophets as is on YouTube and other social media sites?  The Bible covers a span of approximately 4,000 years give or take a millennium, and how many times did and Angel of the LORD actually appear in the dreams of His servants?  A handful of times, I would say, and look who He appeared to, what they accomplished, and for what purpose?  I mean there must have been at least a couple of million  of GOD’s people on the earth during those years, and he only appeared to a handful over a 4,000 year span. So what's the chance that He is popping in and out of dreams, sending telepathic cryptic messages to every Joe-YouTube-Prophet? 

I once calculated how many false self-proclaimed prophets might be out there, based on 450 to 1 in 1 Kings chapters 19 and  22. Now, today, if there are 4 billion Christians, using those statistics,  then less than ten thousand or so would-be bonafide authentic people holding the true office of a prophet, called specifically of GOD.  (See To Be or Not to Be a Prophet )

How does this relate to empty pumpkins?  Let me explain. The pulp, the vein and the seeds could symbolize the Whole Counsel of GOD.  The veins and pulp are the people, events, and theme of sin and redemption that interconnect all people, typology, doctrine, and history, in the Bible, and the seeds are the actual Scriptures.  You have to have a perfect balance of pulp, veins, seeds to outer shell and stem rooted firmly into the vine which is nourished in the fertile soil to have a perfectly balanced pumpkin. Once you cut the pumpkin from the vine, you still have a whole pumpkin, which is a useful fruit, but when you hollow it out, taking out the most important parts, then all you have is empty shell. That is the prayer life of a believer not rooted firmly to the Vine with all its parts intact, working properly to balance out the believers knowledge of GOD.

If we don't know the Word of GOD, backward and forward, then our prayers do not carry the power that they are meant to carry.  Do not get me wrong, I’m not saying that I do not believe in prayer, but what I’m saying is that prayer NOT based on the truth in the WHOLE counsel of GOD does not carry the same power. 

Far be it from me to tell anyone something so unScriptural as to stop praying, or that our prayers are not heard by GOD. What I am saying is that if one's prayers aren't bathed in the full knowledge of Scripture, based on solid doctrine in Scripture, with historical context in the content of those prayers, then one might as well be praying to the tooth fairy. Yes, GOD hears our prayers, but is that always GOD answering?  The Spiritual Realm is a very real and very dangerous place if the wrong people enter it through their prayers. (see So You Want to GO Swimming) May I suggest that the devil’s minions assigned to us hear our prayers said out loud?  Do you think it may be possible that they know who is Scripturally inept and who can be deceived? 

Satan is so crafty that even those who are well-endowed with the knowledge of Scripture can find it difficult to discern what is from GOD, what is our own concoction, and what is the enemy feeding our egos and flesh with some kind of nonsense that does not agree with Scripture?   A true prophet of GOD is going to know Scripture like the back of his/her hand, because surely GOD would NOT send out any prophet to preach or be a voice for Him if they were not fully bathed in the full comprehensive knowledge of Scripture and the historicity of GOD’s dealings with His people. .

I've heard some nutty "famous prophets" capitalizing on their 15-minutes of fame, spewing off the craziest stuff, claiming that GOD gave them these prophesies to write down.   They even speak in first person proclaiming to be representing GOD Himself, as did the true Prophets in the Bible.  To be truthful, this man's  prophecies, sound more like Dr. Seuss  on religious psychedelic drugs. I can assure you that  GOD will not give anyone any new prophesies that are not already written in the canon of Scripture.  Whenever you hear anyone prophesy saying that they operate in the prophetic, that should raise a red flag, as that concept is a man-made doctrine, not straight from the Word of GOD.  If he says, “The Spirit of the LORD says,” you can be sure he is not quoting exactly from the Word of GOD, it did not come from GOD. Likely, it came from some snake oil salesman who did a seminar on dreams and made a cool million before GOD took him out of this world because of the damage he has done. I won't mention any names, but you can do some research and find him yourself.  Unless what a prophet  says is and exact quote from the Bible, it’s not from GOD in the context that he is using it. 

Back in the days before Christ, the Holy Spirit fell upon GOD’s ordained prophets, and they became a prophet to the nation, however, we are living in the last days where the Holy Spirit dwells within each believer, so national prophets proclaiming that they have a message, (outside of Scripture) for the nation are not of GOD.  If there is a national prophet, he/she will speak ONLY the Words straight from Scripture that applies to the spiritual condition of the church. If a stranger comes to you and tell  you he has a message from GOD for you, thank him and let him know that you also have the Holy Spirit, and he doesn’t need an interpreter to give you a message.  He will speak directly to you through your study of Scripture.  In other words, if you aren’t studying Scripture, then more than likely you are not hearing from GOD.  Does GOD give personal revelation? Yes, He does, but for the individual  believer only, one on one, not for the believer to send a message to a nation or an individual.  Sometimes, I will come across a person in whom I sense the Spirit of GOD working, and I let that believer know that I believe GOD is going to use in the future.  I never give details, because I do not claim to know that person’s personal walk with the LORD or the detail of his life.  I just let them know that I have a feeling, and that’s all it is, a feeling, not necessarily fact. I direct them to the Whole Counsel of GOD and I advise them to seek out GOD for their own revelation from Him.

What I am trying to say to you is that the easiest way to tell a hollowed out pumpkin and a fully intact one is the by the weight and mass of the pumpkin when examined.  Careful analysis of what is being said compared to Scripture and the history of GOD's dealings with His people is how one can correctly scrutinize another's "prophetic ponderings."   The only way to be able to weigh the pumpkin and prayers is to know all that there is about what's inside both the pumpkin and the Bible. Therefore, if one is not fully equipped in their knowledge of the historicity of the Whole Counsel of GOD, one can easily be manipulated to believe any deceiving spirit that comes along, and let me tell you, those deceiving spirits are quite cunning and crafty sounding very Scriptural.  Remember, the devil knows way more Scripture than you and I do, and he know just how to use them to trip us up.  He even tried to use them on Jesus to trip him up. 

 I’ve spent over a decade in the fiery furnace of affliction and my only means of survival hasn’t been prayer only, but prayer combined is careful study of GOD’s people, especially those who have spent some serious time in the furnace of affliction, where GOD refines the dross out of the sinner and his flesh.  I study every aspect of their walk with GOD and how GOD directed them and the fruit that they bore.  I also study their mistakes because our Gracious and wonderful GOD left those in the story to show us that being human means if there is a way to mess something up, we'll find  it.