One of the great questions is how people can read the same Scriptures and derive different conclusions, or even doctrines, from them. We have likely all said things that someone would interpret the exact opposite of what we meant, and this happens to the Lord and His Words as well. One question many have is: Why would the Lord allow biblical prophecies to sometimes be so ambiguous or seemingly conflict the way that they do?

     One reason is that the Lord obviously has a purpose in separating the real seekers of truth from the pretenders....

     In Psalm 97, we have one of the most illuminating prophecies of what we are now seeing unfolding in the earth:

            The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; yet the many islands be glad.

        Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

        Fire goes before Him, and burns up His adversaries round about.

        His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled.

        The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the...

          We know from Scripture that with unity there is a multiplication of spiritual authority. There is the biblical testimony that one can put a thousand to flight, but two can put ten thousand to flight. The Lord also taught that if any two could agree, then it would be done for them. Of course, this agreement is more than just an intellectual assent to a matter; rather it implies an actual and deep union between the two. This takes an investment in both the matter that we are uniting about and the people we are uniting with, but it...

          In Scripture, healing and prophetic ministries are often linked. As we’ve discussed, one way that the prophetically gifted can discern problems in others is to feel in their own body what those whom they are praying for feel. If your kidneys start hurting while you’re praying for someone, it is probably not your kidneys, but the person you are praying for. Usually, as soon as you get the message, the pain will go away.

          Why does the Lord have us discern problems like this? Often people do not know what is wrong with them and cannot tell us...

     We discussed in a previous Word for the Week how discernment may operate through impressions, which is where we start to feel in ourselves what someone else is dealing with. One reason many prophetic people suffer depression is because they pick up on so much spiritually around them that they think it is their problem and fail to distinguish this as the gift working. Just because we feel depression does not mean that we have depression, but we may be feeling what someone close to us is dealing with. If we inquire of the Lord about these feelings, He...