There are many different prophetic words about the upcoming Presidential election. Some say Obama will stay in office as our final President. Still others see Obama staying in, but eventually handing it over to Hillary Clinton. Still others say Donald Trump will win. The only outcome I have yet to hear prophesied is Hillary Clinton winning the election outright. So we can at least rule out one outcome and be thankful for that!

How can different people hear from the same God and see different visions of the future? This perplexity already has some Christians ready to throw stones at anyone who called it wrong, but by saying this they are showing their own ignorance of the scriptures.

If fulfillment was the measure of whether or not a word came from God, then Jonah was a false prophet because he warned the people of Ninevah their city would be destroyed in forty days, but it never happened.

1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,

2 “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”

3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days’ walk.

4 Then Jonah began to go through the city one day’s walk; and he cried out and said, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” (Jonah 3:1-4)

Jonah’s prophecy never came to pass because the people repented from their sins, so God relented and did not allow them to be destroyed.

When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. (Jonah 3:10)

Another example comes from the prophet Isaiah. He prophesied the word of the Lord to King Hezekiah telling him he would not recover from his illness, but would die. Then the Lord changed his mind and healed the king and added fifteen years to his life.

1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. ’”

2 Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,

3 “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

5 “Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “ I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord.

6 I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.”

7 Then Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.” And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. (2 Kings 20:1-7)

Isaiah’s prophecy of Hezekiah’s death did not come to pass, so does that make him a false prophet? No, of course not. He is one of the greatest prophets who ever lived. He delivered the word God gave him. It was God who changed His mind after the king repented.

So we have two witnesses, Jonah and Isaiah, who both heard words from God that did not come to pass, yet neither of them were false prophets. In addition, we have many other examples of God changing His mind based on the words or actions of His people, including these passages: Exodus 32:9-10, Deuteronomy 9:25-29, Numbers 14:11-23, Numbers 16:20-35, and Amos 7:1-6.

These things are written for our instruction, so we could understand the true nature of prophecy. It cannot be judged solely on whether or not the events came to pass because God has given us a vital role to play in determining what happens in our future.

People don’t like to hear this because they really don’t want Biblical prophecies, they want predictions, but true prophecies are not predictions. What they really want are psychics rather than prophets. They should call the psychic hotline and stop claiming to be Christians.

Psychics are very popular today, just like they were in the days of ancient Israel, because people want insights into the future without having to submit themselves to God or obey His commands. Christians are doing the same thing today with the gift of prophecy, using it only to gain insights into the future without any intention of re-aligning themselves with the will of God through personal repentance or intercession. God calls this practice an abomination.

9 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations.

10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,

11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.

14 For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)

Verse 13 reveals what pleases God. He wants His people to be blameless before Him. He is pleased when we seek first to be right with Him, to walk uprightly before Him, because this means He is at the center of our lives, truly reigning as God.

31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’

32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)

True prophecy is a tool to help us get re-aligned with God, to get right with Him, so the scheme of the enemy cannot prosper against us and the will of God can prevail in our lives. Righteousness is the ultimate goal of every true prophecy.

Every word spoken by God is always for the advancement of His kingdom, for the establishment of His will in heaven and earth. His power and dominion are released through His words, including the written word and the prophetic word. This is how His kingdom operates, which He demonstrated when He spoke the world into existence in six days. His words are released to His prophets for the same purpose of advancing His kingdom, but the fulfillment is not automatic because God has given us a free will to choose whether or not to obey Him or align with Him. The prophetic word gives us an opportunity to advance His kingdom if we choose to take action, but if we refuse to cooperate His kingdom will not be advanced and the scheme of the enemy will prosper. He has given us the power to choose life or death, blessings or curses, so we must choose wisely.

If prophetic words were just predictions, the only benefit would be the advancement of our own kingdom, not God’s kingdom, because we would be empowered with greater knowledge without greater dependence on God. That would be counterproductive to God’s plans and purposes for us because without Him we can do nothing. So when we hear a prophetic word, we should be seeking God to understand His ultimate purpose, how He wants us to align more closely with Him through this new information.

Some words are given as warnings of what will happen IF we remain on our current path while others are given to inspire hope in the better plans God has for us, which we can have IF we align ourselves with Him, but whether or not these words come to pass depends on how we react because God has chosen to put the future in our hands. He created us in His image and gave us dominion over the earth.

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28).

Our choices, our prayers, our words, our actions, and even our thoughts will determine what happens in our future.

So when we hear prophecies of terrible destruction, they are not given to torment us or to entertain us, but to call us to action, to cause our faith to rise up so we turn to God and cry out for His mercy, and so we sound the alarm to warn others. If enough people respond properly, disaster can be avoided and the will of God can be done. He does not even require repentance from the whole nation. He only requires His people to repent from their hypocrisy of calling Him Lord without obeying His commands. If enough of His people will repent and cry out to Him, He has promised to heal our land.

If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

This is not an attempt to diminish the dangers of false prophecies because they are a very real danger, which Jesus warned us about. We must guard against them because they are surely among us. They are the ones saying all is well, peace and prosperity are here to stay! Their messages require no re-alignments, no repentance, and no changes of any kind, just let the good times roll! They refuse to speak unpleasant, unpopular warnings because they are hirelings who love their power and position more than they love God. Yet their messages are embraced wholeheartedly because they say what we all want to hear. For more on judging false prophecies, please see my previous post, Eight Rules for Radicals.

The people of ancient Israel rejected the true prophets and flocked to the false prophets. We see the same things happening today. Christians are slandering the true prophets by calling them “fear mongers” and “messengers of gloom and doom,” not realizing they are slandering God who sent them with instructions to deliver His words. Then if the warnings are heeded because a remnant repents and judgment is postponed, these same Christians are the first to slander the prophets again by branding them as false prophets. This is the condition of the church today in America.

So who will win the Presidential election? I believe all of the prophetic messages I have heard are from God, even though they are seeing different outcomes. In the one case, God is exposing the scheme of the devil, which is for Obama to usurp America’s Constitutional process by remaining in office and eventually handing power over to Hillary Clinton. I would not be surprised to see Obama attempting something like that, but those schemes will only succeed if we allow them to. On the other hand, I believe God has offered us Donald Trump as an alternative, which would postpone judgment (at least the worst parts of it) giving us another opportunity to get it right and a window of time to bring in the great end-time harvest. God has left it up to us to decide.

Author: James Bailey James Bailey is a blogger, business owner, husband and father of two grown children. In 1982, he surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2012, he founded Z3news.com to broadcast the message of salvation by reporting end time news before it happens.

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