How to Interpret Dreams and Visions Perry Stone

of Christ got out while the getting was good ! The message they heard was not, “Yea, I say I am going to bring thee out and prosper thy business with great money for the kingdom.” It was, “Not one stone shall be left upon another.…When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies…flee to the mountains.… Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house” (Matt. 24:2; Luke 21:20–21; Matt. 24:17). A real prophet would not just pronounce a prosperity blessing on the unsanctified, but he would chastise the ungodly and rebuke the believer who was living contrary to the Word of God. I feel about this issue the way the great minister named Lester Sumrall did. I once heard him teach and say that he believed that under the new covenant, if you prayed and lived close to the Lord in the way you should, the Lord would speak directly to you, and you would not need a second party to bring the message to you! Any word from a second party would only confirm what you already knew in your heart. This is the reason why anyone giving a prophecy is required to be judged by others (1 Cor. 14:29). Some believers remind me, “But Paul talked about the gift of prophecy and said all could prophesy.” We must understand that the word prophesy does not hold just one meaning—to reveal the future. Paul said that “you can all prophesy…that all may learn and all may be encouraged” (v. 31). A prophetic word in the church comes from a person who speaks under divine inspiration to edify, exhort, and comfort believers through the revelation of the Word and the Spirit (v. 3). A prophetic word may contain a warning of coming danger.