hey it's Jennifer LeClaire you probably know me from charisma magazine or one of
my many books on the prophetic the newest being the making of a prophet
I've also written the prophets heart a prophets heart and the heart of the
prophetic and did the Spirit of God say that which is all about judging prophecy
but I want to talk to you today about something I touched on last week and a
broader sense and with with regard to spiritual warfare I talked about how
presumption and spiritual warfare can certainly lead us to defeat in battle
and it's the mistake that you don't want to make but I want to talk to you now
about the presumptuous prophet yeah nobody likes this topic and it's
unfortunately something that is more often seen in the body of Christ and
certain prophetic camps we see this presumption and so let's dive into that
a little bit you know I wrote about this originally in my book the heart of the
prophetic and so I pulled this back out and and really thought on it and prayed
on it as I was looking at the presumption angle and the spiritual
warfare article last week and I decided that it was a good time to pull this
back out most of you haven't had this teaching from me anyway unless you've
read my book so anyway let me dive right in here about the presumptuous prophet
you know you've heard that phrase you know dr. Livingstone I presume you know
you probably heard the story of Henry Stanley he was an ambitious American
reporter who went down to the dark continent in search of dr. David
Livingstone he was a 19th century missionary who explored sub-saharan
Africa so when Stanley when this young reporter
finally tracked down this famous evangelist his first words upon
approaching the only other white man in uggg Africa were as the story goes dr.
Livingstone I presume now the white man's identity may have seemed like a
no-brainer I mean especially way back then that you necessarily see a lot of
missions groups down there so when he saw this white guy he presumed that it
was dr. Livingstone it was a no-brainer but if doctor if Stanley if young
Stanley had been a prophet his presumption
I've gotten him into a heap of trouble and that's because presumption is on
God's blacklist God does not like presumption he doesn't like it when we
presume he just doesn't like it and I'll get to more of that in a minute but
first let's define what it means to presume it's always helpful to
understand you know what am I talking about here what do you mean Jennifer
about presumption what exactly is presumption well let's go to the
Webster's dictionary and I'll read you the definition here presume means to
form an opinion from little or no evidence and to take us true or as fact
without actual proof on em presumptuous is defined as to overstep due bounds and
to take liberties and those definitions really they outline some very critical
do's and don'ts for prophets and prophetic voices so first off you know
there's no room for personal opinion in the prophetic you know our proof must
come from the Holy Spirit not our own spirits and God forbid from some other
spirit I mean as mouthpieces for God people take our insights very seriously
and we can't abuse the grace that people perceive on our lives we can't move in
presumption and if we've done so we need to repent
you know if God's not speaking if God's not speaking I am NOT going to open my
mouth and say thus says the Lord or I believe the Lord is sharing with me
whatever I'm not opening my mouth if I'm not sure God said it forget about it
alright not in his name I'm not gonna say he said something that he didn't say
I'm not sure he said all right I'm not gonna presume so we can't fall into this
trap of of presuming we can't also fall into the trap of filtering prophetic
utterances through our own biases and in doing so actually speaking forth
deception I mean we all have you know certain ways we look at things
perspectives past experiences some people call them filters you know we
have the set of glasses that we look through that can sometimes be filtered
based on or hurt or a wound or you know or even good things you know or a lack
of the full counsel of God and understand
knowledge of Scripture you know we prophesy according to our faith we also
I believe can be expanded by our knowledge of of the word of the
prophetic we need to have a root in the word in other words we need to be rooted
and grounded in the word even in the prophetic okay the Word of God the
written word of God prophecy does not displace the written word of God so we
don't want to filter our prophetic utterances through our own biases and
and here's the deal listen what would make you profit
what would make you profit is think that anybody really wants your opinion anyway
I don't really think people want my opinion I share what I think the Lord is
showing me but I don't share it from God this is my you know and then I'm talking
about when teaching about prophecy and when sharing the Word of God alright
there's a time and a place for our opinions yes I would value your opinion
on many things I'm sure but I'm talking about in the prophetic we're not moving
in our opinion we're moving in the spirit and the gifts of the Spirit
not in the gifts of our opinions all right so we'll get to that more in a
minute but you know the function of the Prophet is to reveal the mind and the
will of God not the mind and the will of the Prophet and that's what I'm getting
at we're moving in prophetic ministry it's not about what we think you know
it's not about what we know apart from him and what he has shown us and what he
has told us to say all right second of all prophets need to recognize that
there's boundaries and and not take the liberty of overstepping our prophetic
authority yes where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty but to speak
outside our god-given authority that realm that God has set us in is
presumptuous it's presumptuous I'll say it again it's presumptuous all right and
so our jurisdiction really begins in the local church and you know as you're
called in to the prophetic typically your authority will begin there in that
local body and then as you mature God will expand your territory you know I
mean look at look even the President of the United States I mean with all his
authority the most powerful man in the world you know even he would be
presumptuous to issue a decree over another nation I mean you know his words
would fall just completely to the ground because he's overstepping his bounds he
doesn't have authority over there okay and so we need to be careful not to
presume step outside our prophetic authority
that the the me Tron the the the area the territory that God has given us to
operate in all right now doubtless God hates presumption all right he has a
good reason you know there's several variations of
the Greek word presume but typically it portrays an insolence which is insulting
and contemptuous contemptuous speech or conduct it portrays insolence pride
arrogance audacity which is a bold or arrogant disregard for normal
constraints you just self-will just do you want stiff-necked considering that
the Lord includes a proud look and a false witness among his seven
abominations presumption is not something to take lightly
in fact I mentioned this last week in my spiritual warfare video in my article
that went along with it and charisma magazine that the Bible only mentions
the words presume presumed presumptuous and presumptuously eleven times but
almost every time it led to death it was almost always connected to some deathly
incident some deadly incident indeed there's only a few things worse than a
presumptuous prophet I'm gonna say that again there's only a few things worse
than a presumptuous prophet Deuteronomy 18 and 20 says this the prophet who
presumes to speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him to speak
or who speaks in the name of other gods that same prophet shall die lord have
mercy of course we know we're at a time of
grace we're in a dispensation of grace you know so even the most presumptuous
prophet is not likely to be struck dead for his sin ii and talked about that a
little bit last week and a presumption we're in a time of grace God is is
long-suffering it Jesus paid the price for our sin so if we see ourselves
moving in presumption we just need to repent as quickly as possible just like
with any other sin that we might commit but think about it have you moved
presumptuously if you have please repent stop it God doesn't like that alright
there's grace just to stop doing it alright now if you think God likes
presumption any better than the new in the new testament then he did in the old
i want to read this to you i that's just a little Testament thing
yeah okay you know what I just told you yeah I agree we are at a time of grace
but that doesn't mean that God likes it any better now than he did that I mean
he didn't really change his mind about it he just changed the way he responds
to it because Jesus is there thank God as our mediator so in second Peter at
2:9 through 19 and the Apostle Peter was writing under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit right he said that those who those who walk after the flesh in lust
in the lust of uncleanness and despise government authority are presumptuous
self-willed and slanderous you don't to be considered those things right I know
I don't so after pointing out that these
presumptuous ones love to indulge in in evil pleasures and and we revel in
deceitfulness and and possess an insatiable lust and lure people into sin
and train themselves to be greedy among other sinful qualities I mean you can
read it there in Scripture Peter finally connects them with who Balaam the
presumptuous prophet let's check this out you remember Balaam right up and
telling you I've been reading the Old Testament this year and I've been
reading I just finished numbers a few weeks ago a couple weeks ago but King
bet King Balak sent messengers to Balaam with this sinister request and he had
will rewards of divination in his hand he offered to pay Balaam to curse the
Israelites and and I'll make this story short it's a wicked store but Balaam
initially you know as the story goes he refused to pronounce a curse he said you
know I can't say anything other than what the Lord has told me to say so he
would speak blessings instead and the king would just go nuts he's like my dad
you know I told you to curse him and your blessing him and he's like well I
can't help but I can't see anything other than what the Lord tells me to say
so he didn't presume to say something different from what the Lord told him
but what he ended up doing was he presumed to go around what he knew was
God's will because he wanted his real blessed he want to know it and he didn't
want the enemy to take them over so Balaam this presumptuous prophet went
around the will of God got sneaky so I just you know you know give the King a
strategy to lure the Israelites into sexual sin so that God will have no
choice but to deal with them so BAE ended up committing treason fighting
against the Israelites and his end was death but you can't fool God you can't
just say ok well God told me not to do this but he didn't specifically say you
know that's what little kids do isn't it you tell them you know Johnny don't play
ball in the house and he's like I'm not playing ball
throwing frisbee well your intention was you don't want any activity that's gonna
break the dining room you know what you don't want all this little going on in
the house but kids get so specific and almost legalistic you might say about
you know what you tell them to do and they'll find a way around it well that's
what Balaam did he presumed not to speak forth a curse but he presumed to
essentially bring a curse upon them by tempting them into sexual sin to the
strategy that he gave to to the king so you see how that works it's wicked
presumption is just wicked no matter how you look at it especially with regard to
the prophetic and it's never good to assume anything about anybody I'm not
gonna repeat it but there's a saying about people who assume well what it
makes out a you a me all right so here let me read this to you in 2nd
Peter to 15 through 17 Apostle Peter referred to Balaam's presumption in the
scripture and I'm reading from the message Bible and it says they have
wandered off the right road and followed the way of Balaam son of a whore who
loved to earn money by doing wrong but Balaam was stopped from his mad course
when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice these people which people
presumptuous people these people are a useful as useless as dried-up Springs of
water or as clouds blown away by the wind promising much and delivering
nothing they are doomed to blackest darkness this is a New Testament all
right so much for the feel-good gospel this is New Testament it's it's it's
serious so if you've been presuming come on let's let's get with it and repent
all right so now let me circle back around and close the story about Stanley
and in the dr. Livingstone dr. Livingstone his books sold in huge
numbers they were fascinating books of his chronicling his times in Africa they
paved the way for other mission Nerys to go and africa preach the gospel
he was a real pioneer Stanley on the other hand this young journalist who
presumed he was notorious for changing the facts and his stories and he was
even making stories up in his books and Stanley he even lied about his heritage
I mean he fought for the south and the American Civil War and then he committed
treason by Balaam and then he served in the north when he was captured I mean he
how he helped the king of Balaam fulfill greedy purposes like Balaam in Africa
and like Balaam Stanley daily his greed and pride caused him to compromise his
professional ethics and actually he ended up becoming a murderer this is the
legacy what a horrible legacy so it seems the
fit of the presumptuous is ultimately the same throughout history
thank God though we have a savior we have Jesus he died for our sins he died
for our presumption we need to repent if we've been moving in presumption
especially in the prophetic because it's deceiving people potentially all right
we can't repent we've we've got to repent we can't move in presumption I
urge you listen to me seriously this is a big deal you don't want that
reputation in heaven you don't want their reputation on the earth don't
speak if God has not spoken if you have done that then please repent you know we
need to pray like David in Psalm 19 13 he said a key back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins let him not have dominion over me not let not them these
presumption have dominion over me then I shall be upright and I shall be innocent
from the great transgression I don't want to be guilty of the great
transgression so father right now in the name of Jesus
father we repent for moving in presumption in any way we ask you Lord
to keep us from presumptuous sins keep us from the great transgression help us
Lord to speak only what you would have us to speak to go where you go to say
what you say to move how you move to walk how you walk help us God to do your
will not our own will help us God to to move in a pure prophetic flow and not
one that's adulterated with our own opinions and our own filters and our own
perspective in our own whatever help us God I bless all those who are listening
and I know that you bless them God with every spiritual blessing in Christ
Jesus they are blessed I thank you Lord for your forgiveness for your kindness
for your long-suffering for your mercy for your prophetic giftings God I thank
you for who you are in Jesus name Amen and amen well thanks a lot for watching
I appreciate it I hope you got something out of it if so share this with your
friend make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel check me out at Jennifer
LeClaire.org or charisma magazine and I will talk to you next week
bless you