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-- © GodSpeak International 2001 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES
Author: Teresa Seputis ts@godspeak.net
http://www.godspeak.net

The Practicalities Of The Prophetic

By Teresa Seputis

Lesson 4
Revelation Does Not Necessarily Yield Good Theology

A person can hear God clearly and still have bad or incorrect theology. An individual can be given a keen supernatural revelation and still have a misunderstanding of God's plans and purposes. Let's look at an example of this from scripture.

Matthew 16:13-23

13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" 14 So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

20 Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. 22 Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"

23 But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

We see that Peter was given a supernatural revelation of who Jesus is in verse 15-16, and Jesus commended him on this revelation (verses 17-19). Jesus confirmed that Peter had been given supernatural revelation about who He was. This revelation did not come from man, it did not come from Peter's own wisdom ... it came directly from God. And with that revelation, Peter was also given an increase in spiritual authority (verse 18).

And immediately afterwards, we see Peter demonstrate bad theology arising from that supernatural revelation. In the very next verse, Jesus began to build on the revelation that had been given to Peter. He agreed that He was the Christ, the Messiah. Then Jesus expanded on what that role meant, of how He must suffer and die. That all sounded pretty horrible to Peter.

Looking back, we have an understanding of "why" Jesus had to die. He Who knew no sin must become sin for us, to die as a perfect substitution on the Christ for us, to raise from the dead and conquer death. Peter did not have this full understanding of the Christ's role. He understood that Jesus was the Christ because that had been given to him by divine revelation. But Peter did not understand that the Messiah was destined to die as the passover lamb, a substitute for our sins. Peter did not understand that death could not hold Jesus, that He would rise on the third day and break the power of sin and death over God's people.

We know that Peter had been given a divine revelation of Who Jesus was, because Jesus identified it (verse 17) as a prophetic insight directly from God the Father. Yet Peter only had a partial revelation. He did not understand God's purpose and destiny for the Messiah. So as Jesus began to explain it to him, Peter rejected what Jesus had to say.

In verse 22, Peter went so far as to rebuke (correct) Jesus! Peter's theology said that the Christ established a victorious kingdom in the here and now, to break the Roman empire's rule and set God's people free from captivity. There was no room in Peter's theology for the substitutional sacrifice for mankind's sin. There was no room in Peter's theology for Jesus to conquer death from the inside and Peter could not conceive of the resurrection of the dead. Peter had divine revelation, but he tried to fit it into his own theological grid. The result is that Peter ended up with bad theology! In fact, Jesus had to correct him strongly for this in verse 23.

We have just demonstrated that accurate supernatural revelation yielded bad theology. And today we can have prophets who hear clearly from God, who are given a divine revelation of Who He is. And yet, their own theological grid may be incorrect or incomplete, so it is possible for them to come up with a with a bad theology to hold their supernatural revelation. That is why it is important to carefully consider any theology or doctrine and measure it up against the whole of scripture. Do not accept something from someone simply because you respect their ability to hear God. You can be led astray that way.

Peter heard God clearly, and yet he jumped to an incorrect conclusion about Jesus' role here on earth. Likewise a highly respected prophet can hear God clearly and jump to wrong conclusions. Do not assume that someone is a theologian just because they are a prophet. Do not assume that just because someone hears God clearly in one area, they are qualified to set doctrine down for us to follow. Rather examine each doctrine, judge and evaluate it, pray about it, measure it up against scripture.

Fortunately, there is more to Peter's story. Peter was given additional revelation from God and PETER'S THEOLOGY CHANGED OVER TIME. God corrected Peter's misconceptions and God continued to give revelation to Peter. Over time Peter gained a more complete understanding of God's plans and purpose for the Messiah. Peter saw Jesus after the resurrection. He waited in Jerusalem until he was baptized (in-filled) with the Holy Spirit in that upper room. Shortly after that, we see Peter preach a spontaneous sermon, where he expounded on his "revised" theology about the Messiah. In Acts 2:23-24, Peter said, "23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it." And in verse 36, Peter declared, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." The people were pierced to the heart and asked him what they should do. Then Peter said, in verses 38, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Peter's theology changed from "the Messiah must not die, he must set up His kingdom here and now physically on the earth" to "Jesus died for our sins, raised from the dead to conquer death and through Him we may obtain remission of our sins."

In fact, it should be normal for our personal theology (our understanding of God) to change over time. It should refine or fine tune as we come to know God better. The more time we spend with Him, the more He reveals His plans and purposes to us. Then we begin to have a better understanding of Who He is and what His purposes are. [Please note: I am talking about fine points of our understanding with God.. The basics of the Gospel never change, they are non-negotiable: that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, and only thorugh Him is remission of sins, we cannot approach God except through Jesus Christ. That never changes and if a prophet thinks that we don't need to believe/receive Jesus as our Lord an Savior, they are in error and should not be listened to at all, because they are not speaking for God!]

I am very encouraged that God did not disqualify Peter or "throw him away" because of his bad theology in Matthew 16:22. Instead, God continued to work with Peter until Peter came to a correct understanding of Who God was and what His purposes were. Then God ended up giving Peter the strategy of the hour, Peter was the one who God used to lead and grow the church in it's earliest days.

So, let's try to wrap this up or to "bring it home." First, we must be aware that a person can walk in great depths of prophetic revelation and still end up with an incorrect or incomplete theology. So we must not let the prophets set our doctrine for us. We must prayerfully evaluate what they have to say, and to bounce it against scripture. We also see that over time, a prophet's theology is bound to change. This happens because they spend more time with God and gain a greater revelation of Who God is and what His plans and purposes are. It should be normal for a prophet's theology to be "fine tuned" over time. Finally, if we run into someone who's theology is off base at the moment, realize that God may not have disqualified the person. They may simply be on an early phase of a divine learning curve. God may have a call and destiny on their lives and He may be in the process of grooming them for it. They may not have fully arrived at the understanding God plans to give them, they may be "en route." Personally, I don't think a prophet should be evaluated solely by where s/he is in the Lord at present, but also by their historical demonstrated record of growth and yieldedness.

We are expected to keep growing in the Lord. We are not to reach some point and stop growing. A truly successful prophet is one who continues to grow in Christ, who continues to press into God and one to whom God continues to reveal Himself.


-- © GodSpeak International 2001 --
-- Do not republish without written permission from <copyright@godspeak.org> --

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