4.What statement can be made only by the person who is speaking by the Holy Spirit? .

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"Jesus is Lord."

Those of us who hear from the Lord in words, through prophecy or some other form of communication, are accustomed to testing the spirits. One method of testing spirits that claim to speak in the name of the Lord is to ask them if Jesus is Lord. Another method is to ask if Christ has come in the flesh (I John 4:2).

These two methods of identifying spirits do not appear to work any longer. The princes of darkness, in order to deceive us, appear to be confessing that Jesus is Lord and that Christ has come in the flesh.

The explanation may be found in the fact that greatly increased authority will be given to Antichrist in the last days.

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months (Revelation 13:5).

Notice in the following passage that Antichrist, or one like him, will be given access to the heavenlies. And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them (Daniel 8:10).

We see in the above astonishing verse that Antichrist will be able to reach even to the host of the heaven, interfering with the normal conduct of affairs in the spirit realm.

We suspect that the ability of Antichrist to reach to the host of the heaven is the reason why the lords of darkness now are able to give the appearance of stating that Jesus is Lord and that Christ has come in the flesh, thus deceiving those who are accustomed to testing the spirits.

Our opinion is that the Father is ready to transfer the Throne of God from Heaven to the hearts of the victorious saints, in fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles. As the transfer takes place, in preparation for the day when Jerusalem is the throne of the Lord, and men no longer look to Heaven but to Jerusalem for communication with the Lord, the ability of people (who are not part of those who are entering the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles) to pray to God in Heaven will become increasingly weakened.

The prophets of today are speaking clearly that enormous spiritual oppression soon will cover the earth making our environment a chamber of horrors. People no longer will be able to pray and will have to read prayers that have been printed in advance in preparation for the spiritual darkness.

The ability to accept the salvation of Christ will be cut off along with the opportunity to receive the Spirit of God.

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate (Daniel 9:27).

God’s provision for this most horrible of hours is not to remove His Church to the spirit realm but to enter the holy remnant. The remnant then will be the place of God’s feet and will be made glorious. All who come to them, calling on the name of the Lord, will be delivered from Satan.

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee (Isaiah 60:2).

It will be in the hour of greatest spiritual oppression that the Glory of God will arise on the elect.

We may call to mind that in the beginning, Adam and Eve did not pray to God in Heaven. God was on the earth. God withdrew to the spirit realm, becoming invisible to mankind because of sin, not because God desires to remain invisible to His children.

God returned to earth in the Presence of Jesus of Nazareth. God will return to earth again in Christ—Head and Body. This time He will remain forever. God intends to dwell on the earth in the midst of His children. He will do so by dwelling in the Church, the new Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb—in the people whom He has chosen for His eternal dwelling place. This is the Kingdom of God and the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

God is moving His Presence to the remnant whom God has chosen. Those who wish to find God, to be blessed and delivered by him, will be required to come to the remnant of victorious saints. There will be spiritual safety in the remnant; but access to God in Heaven may no longer be readily and safely available, being hindered by the spiritual darkness that has been permitted to occupy that area.

The transfer has not taken place yet. We are not to pray to Christ in us, or to God in us, but to God in Heaven. This is what Jesus did even though the fullness of God dwelled in Him, and this is what we are to do in the present hour.

In the day when the Father and the Son come to dwell in us in Their fullness we shall then be the living Temple of God. How we will pray then, whether we still will pray to God as we do now, or whether we will have such a complete inner Presence that prayer is more of an inner fellowship and communication than prayer to the invisible Father in Heaven, we cannot say at this time.

And there shall be a tabernacle [the remnant?] for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain (Isaiah 4:6).

And a man [other translations—the King and His princes] shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isaiah 32:2).

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart (Jeremiah 3:17 ).

And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call (Joel 2:32).

Because of the ascent of the "little horn" to the host of the heaven, the disciple must be exceedingly wary of all voices that speak to him, whether or not they confess that Jesus is Lord. Before listening to any voice in the spirit realm we should pray to God in Jesus’ name that all voices that are not of God be removed from us. Then we should hold in abeyance whatever is said until there is solid confirmation in the material realm.

Even these safeguards are not sufficient. We must remain watching very carefully and observe the fruit, the results of our thoughts, words, and actions.

Notice how Jeremiah waited for confirmation.

So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord (Jeremiah 32:8).

"Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord."

When a believer states he always knows the voice of the Lord, that he could never be deceived by a voice that was not the Lord, then be assured that believer is in deception.

The Spirit of God will never become impatient when we take the time to ask God to remove false voices from us. The wisdom that comes from above is always patient and peaceable, not accompanied by fear or strife.

In our day there is far too much reliance on spiritual experiences. We must look constantly to Jesus for there is much deception in the land. We must pray without ceasing and meditate constantly in the Scriptures.

One of the recent erroneous emphases is that we should pray to the Holy Spirit, to talk frequently with the Holy Spirit. Yet there is not one verse, to our knowledge, in the entire Scriptures that provides a basis for praying to the Spirit instead of to the Father or Jesus.

Until the Lord shows us differently, we believe the emphasis on talking to the Holy Spirit is not from the Lord. It is teaching people to be led by voices rather than by presenting their body a living sacrifice and proving God’s will by patient, cross-carrying obedience.

Because people are looking for excitement, because they are looking for an easy path, because they are willing to listen to human reasoning without searching the Scriptures carefully, they are readily led into error. Error in doctrine and practice is springing up all over the world as Christians seek for new experiences rather than being willing to walk in the old paths of humility and patience.

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