Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones, on this blustery Wednesday morning.

We have a motion sensor light that is remaining on. I need to trim away some of the grape vine leaves because the motion sensor sees them shaking in the wind and just stays on in response to all the motion.

It’s another mixture of sawmill and sign work to pursue for the day…with the order being determined by urgency. At least it’s not raining at present. And because our fire district has just opened the burn season again, I’ll probably light some fires today. There’s a lot of scrap wood that accumulates during the summer months that needs to disappear.

Have a blessed day. Love, Dad/Ray.

You want a prophecy over you?—a special message from God for you personally? OK, I’ll deliver one to you right now. So listen carefully. “The Lord would have you know that He wants to bless you and keep you unto Eternal Life. He would have you know that He calls you and enables you to do your part in achieving that glorious objective. So do your utmost to avoid contamination with the counsel and thinking of the world, because such thinking only makes it natural for you to join in the ungodly practices of the world. Know that failure to listen decisively to this warning and instruction will lead you to sit down in the seat of those who mock and establish themselves as self-sufficient enemies of God. Instead, be filled with God’s thoughts—His Word. Don’t let it depart out of your mind or mouth. Memorize it and think about it day and night. It will cause you to be like one putting on the very armor of God, empowering you with strength far beyond your own. So come out from among those who are made dull by conformity, those who lean heavily on their own limited understanding and strength. Serve and love your Creator God from the heart. Make it your highest goal to please Him. Understand that this really is the purpose of your very existence. All this will add up to making you more than a conqueror because much greater is His Life and Spirit working in you than any other power in the world. It will make you to be like a strong fruitful tree planted beside a continual river that no storm can bring down. Whatever you do will ultimately prosper because whatever you do is aimed at pleasing Him. This is what your God would have you know.”

Whew! Did you catch all that? Are you taking notes? If you would like it to sound more inspired and convincing, I suppose I could edit this message and put it into King James-style English. I could even write it in the first person and lace it with expressions like, “Yea, I say unto thee, my child…”

Now don’t take me wrong. It is not my intention to mock the genuine exercise of Spirit-inspired utterances, which I believe Paul is referring to in verse 18. But some of the personal prophecy stuff I’ve been around impresses me as being more dangerous than edifying—involving people playing games and posing as anointed oracles of God when, in fact, they are only trying to bring attention to themselves as mediums of spiritual power to reckon with. In some cases it seems to be a form of Christian magic and/or fortune-telling. May I suggest that you don’t really need someone to make some questionable prophecy over you. And if someone does, make sure you scrutinize the message against the Word. You mainly need to receive and digest that resource for yourself. I will make no claim to being particularly inspired. But since my “prophesying” over you above is simply a synopsis of essential every-believer-should-know scriptural principles, I believe it really is an authentic articulation of PROPHECIES ONCE MADE ABOUT YOU.

It comes with an absolute GUARANTEE: Heeding this “prophecy” will prevent “shipwreck” of faith (1:19).