The prophet's dictionary guide to the supernatural

from divine beings through augury. C) The process whereby official priests and mantics sought and divulged information about the rights, powers, and privileges of others according to divine will. D) What was used to supposedly reveal the inclinations and potential of a proposed ruler or priest was chief among their revelations. With augury, this was the official means whereby the Roman government foretold the potential of one entering divine duty, military service, or priestly ministry on its behalf. 134. Authority—A) The lawful right and power to enforce obedience on a person or group to regulate or modify its behavior. B) The right to impose a specific code of conduct, to initiate correction, assess penalties, or censure improper behavior. Proverb 29:2; Matthew 20:25; Luke 4:36; 1 Corinthians 15:24; 2 Corinthians 10:8. 135. Autocrat—A) One who governs by self-rule; a tyrant. B) A negative term that can apply to ruthless apostles. C) Rehoboam is a biblical example of the Bible’s many autocrats. 136. Auto-Prophetics—A practice of the New Testament church based on the mistaken belief that anyone with the Holy Spirit can self-prophesy and is never in need of a prophet. (The one who stands in the official [restricted] office of the prophet is what is meant.) The Lord’s problem with this belief is explained by the prophet Jeremiah who says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is…desperately wicked” and is thus unable to be known by its owner. Jeremiah 10:23 enlarges upon this reality by informing us that it is not in people to direct their own steps. The Lord designed the body of Christ to ultimately function like His own; that is, to be interdependent upon each member to assure the fullest complement of service, support, and sustenance is available to all concerned. What people hear directly and accurately from the Holy Spirit as the word of the Lord concerns their private lives. This is not surprising since those succumbing to self-prophetics are strictly interested in hearing the word of the Lord for purely personal and often selfish reasons. Under these circumstances 1 Thessalonians 5:21 admonishes us to “prove all things.” This requirement is next to impossible to heed with auto-prophetics. Second Corinthians 13:5 agrees with this requirement, to prove all things admonished by God, by saying we must also prove ourselves to see whether we are in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible clearly states that there are many voices in the world—a world that is also full of many false prophets with new ones rising up daily. Therefore, it is a dangerous thing to only rely solely upon one’s own spirit to hear from the Lord