“But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.” — Genesis 20:3

The first time dream is mentioned in the King James Version of the Bible, it was when King Abimelech took Abram’s wife for his own. The Lord gave him a dream to warn him of his precarious situation.

Abimelech was not part of the Abrahamic covenant. So does that mean God can give prophetic dreams to sinners? What does the Bible say about this topic? What is the pattern? There are other instances of God giving so-called ’sinners’ prophetic dreams. We’ll take a look at some of those in upcoming posts.

Senator Barack Obama is accepting the Democratic party’s nomination for president on Thursday. He bills himself as the candidate of change, the candidate of unity. Yet Senator Hillary Clinton’s supporters are up in arms about Obama’s choice for vice president: Joe Biden. They wanted Obama to choose Hillary for veep. Even top analysts suggested she might be the best choice of Obama wants to take up residence in the White House in January 2009. Keep Reading »

We’ve been looking at Genesis 20:6-8. Abimelech took Sarai to be his wife because Abram told the king she was his sister. Let’s listen in to the New Century translation:

Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know you did not realize what you were doing. So I did not allow you to sin against me and touch her. Give Abraham his wife back. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will not die. But if you do not give Sarah back, you and all your family will surely die.”

So early the next morning, Abimelech called all his officers and told them everything that had happened in the dream. They were very afraid.

Notice here that God spoke to Abimelech in a dream. Abimelech was not part of the covenant, because at that point the covenant was only with Abram. God demonstrated His mercy and spoke to him in dream to prevent him from sinning.

Did God give other people outside of the covenant prophetic dreams? We’ll take a look in upcoming posts.

I’ve said it many times, you can’t separate a prophet from prayer any more than you can separate an evangelist from preaching the Gospel. It’s just part of the prophet’s DNA. Not all intercessors are prophets but all prophets are intercessors.

Let’s look at the Message Bible translation of Abimelech’s revelation and God’s instruction in Genesis 20:6-8. Keep Reading »

“Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.”

You remember the story. Abram had told King Abimelech that Sarai, so he took her to be his wife and it the Lord intervened. Notice that this is the first time the word “prophet” is used in the Bible — and it’s connected to prayer. We’ll expound on this later as we look at another translation…

I recently received a question from a prophet in a local church in America. The question went something like this:

What do you do when there you are discontent in your local church? Although I am in an apostolic/prophetic church, I still see so much that makes me want to run. In fact, I believe in being a part of a strong local assembly, but have been so badly wounded by people who know better but are themselves struggling to come into that new place. I just feel “STUCK” in this “PLACE” that I now feel I am “man-pleasing” and going through ritualism just to STAY IN CHURCH!!”

While we don’t understand the total situation of this prophet, there are some guidelines for safety that might help us avoid making the wrong decision about leaving a church God intends for us to stay in. Keep Reading »

The pressure was on. Jesus had been arrested and the disciples scattered. Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard of the high priest and time after time people tried to connect him to Jesus. You know the story. Peter denied knowing Him. Keep Reading »

There’s a great blog post and excerpt over at Kingdom People. It offers up some wisdom from Charles Spurgeon: “Brethren, what is true of pastors is true of all our people - you need to read!”

That is very true. I might extend that to our times and say this: Brethren, what is true of pastors is true of all our people - we need to get into the presence of God! In His presence there is fullness of joy. In His presence there is everything we need. Keep Reading »

Heart faith is the creative force behind our confession.

The Lord shared this with me this morning while I was studying faith. As I pondered this, I thought of one translation of Hebrews 11:1 that says: “Faith is giving substance to things hoped for.”

Think about it for a minute. Your faith is giving substance to what you are hoping for. In other words, your faith is making it real. Your faith is bringing your hope out of the spiritual realm and into the physical realm.

That’s biblical because Jesus told some, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.”

Faith makes. Faith gives substance. Faith is evidence, assurance, the title deed. But remember, it’s heart faith, not mental ascent.

Heart faith is the creative force behind our confession.