Bible Prophecy by Rick Lange

ON BECOMING A PROPHET                 “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” 1 Cor. 14:1                 All of us, who love the Lord, share a desire to hear His voice. How often do we wish that God would just tell us what to do next? It would seem an easy thing to follow Him if He would just tell us what to do. Unfortunately, or at least it seems so to us, God usually deals in principle rather than giving us a straight answer and so we feel that we are left to guess His will.                 I asked the Lord why it must be this way and He shared with me these five things: 1.        We must live by faith and not by sight.(Abraham, the father of faith went out not knowing where He was going) 2.        We have been given the right of choices in which He will be with us in whatever choice we make as long as we walk with Him. 3.        He then told me that once we have matured enough to hear a “Yes” or “No” answer fr

PRACTICAL ADVICE                 The way to live in freedom is by the Spirit. Paul’s whole instruction is that the Law leads us to Christ where we enter by faith into His death and resurrection and thus forever to live by His Spirit. IN Galatians 5: 16 and onward, He gives a summation of his teaching to the Galatians, saying:                 “Here is my advice. Live your whole life in the Spirit and you will not satisfy the desires of your lower nature. For the whole energy of the lower nature is set against the Spirit, while the whole power of the Spirit is contrary to the lower nature.   Here is the conflict, and that is why you are not free to do what you want to do. But if you follow the leading of the Spirit, you stand clear of the Law.”                 “The activities of the lower nature are obvious. Here is a list: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, worship of false gods, witchcraft, hatred, quarreling, Jealousy, bad temper, rivalry, factions, party spirit, en

PARADOXES AND CONTRADICTIONS                 “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain- if indeed it was in vain? Does He then who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the Law or by hearing with faith?                 Using the Bible, I could make a very strong case for why we should keep the Law and likewise I could make a very strong case for why we should not keep the Law. And as fate would have it, we see the Christian world divided over this issue as some choose one side of the issue while others choose the other side.                 But if we believe that the Bible is divinely inspired and infallibl

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT                 “It is only when we obey God’s laws that we can be quite sure that we really know Him. The man who claims to know God but does not obey his laws is not only a liar but lives in self-delusion. In practice the more a man learns to obey God’s laws, the more truly and fully does he express his love for him. Obedience is the test of whether we really live “in God” or not. The life of a man who professes to be living in God must bear the stamp of Christ.” 1 John 2:3-6.                 Life in the Spirit is not lawlessness… in fact we can’t even keep the Laws of God unless His Spirit dwells in us. In Him the Law is fulfilled as we walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.                 We need to get this right. Much of what the church calls grace today is not grace at all, but license to do our own thing. But our own thing needs to die with our flesh so that we can be led by the Spirit and not by the flesh. This: contrary

THE GREAT TRANSITION                 And the Lord spoke to Moses that very same day saying, “Go up to this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab opposite Jericho and look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the sons of Israel for a possession. Then die on the mountain where you ascend and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel. For you shall see the land at a distance, but you shall not go there into the land which I am giving to the sons of Israel.” Deut. 32:48-52.                 We have to ask ourselves why God was so harsh with Moses. He had turned from the palaces of Egypt to suffer with God’s people. He had led them faithfully for 40 years. He had done everything that God had given

GOOD AND BAD MARRIAGES                 Bonnie and I really enjoy being together. We don’t need our own space, simply because at any given moment we would rather be together than apart. We delight in each other’s company. We sleep together like a nest full of newborn puppies. We work together and have fun doing it. We pray together until the presence of God comes down. We laugh at each other and with each other. We face all of our challenges with meaningful discussion and prayer. We have a good marriage.                 So it is within this context that I say, that if someone came to us with a book of the laws of marriage and a written recording of our vows and told us that we had better toe the line, we would find the idea absurd. If we managed to read the book and the vows, chances are we would have to admit that we do all of those things and much more, not because they are written somewhere, but because we genuinely love each other. We don’t need a check list. We just do wh