BE CAREFUL WITH MONEY

In my ministry as a prophet, God has sometimes used me to foretell certain future events through the word of wisdom — many times privately and occasionally publicly. However, my main ministry as a prophet is to preach and teach the Word of God. As the Spirit wills, these other manifestations occur. But I never seek a vision or seek to hear anything from the Lord; these supernatural manifestations occur spontaneously as the Holy Spirit wills. There are times God will reveal to a prophet something that is going to happen so the prophet can warn the people involved.

For example, in the days of The Voice of Healing, I went to see a minister who had a large tent that seated thousands. A large crowd like that was almost unheard of in those days.

The minister showed me his tent, and when we finished talking, I went to get into my car. As I did, the Spirit of God said to me, "Go tell him he's not going to live much longer unless he judges himself in three areas. Number one, on MONEY."

This man had used the manifestation of spiritual gifts in his ministry to raise MONEY. That's not only not scriptural; it's not ethical. Those who are called to the ministry, including prophets, need to be very careful about MONEY. Ministers shouldn't be out for MONEY. Folks can't use the ministry to raise MONEY for themselves. Some folks in our day are flirting with disaster in this area and are right on the edge of it.

Then the Lord said to me, "Number two, tell him that he needs to judge himself on love. He's not walking in love toward his fellow ministers." This man would cut down fellow ministers without hesitation if they happened to cross him.

Then Jesus said, "Number three, tell him to judge himself on his diet." This minister didn't seem to exercise any self-control in his eating habits. Here again, this was a private manifestation of gifts of the Spirit operating in the office of the prophet. Probably ninety percent of the time, the prophet's ministry is in demonstration privately. Sometimes the Lord will instruct a prophet to go tell the person what the Lord has shown him, and sometimes He won't.

This time the Lord told me to go tell the man what the Lord had said. I started to get out of my car to go talk to the man, but just then someone else began talking to him. I sat back down in my car, and then my human reasoning took over.

I began to think, He's not going to listen to me anyway. As I sat there reasoning to myself, the minister I was supposed to talk to got in his car and drove away. I never had another opportunity to tell him what the Lord had shown me.

About three and a half years later, I was at a Voice of Healing convention. Word came that this minister was dying. Brother Lindsay invited all the ministers who were present to come up on the platform and agree together in prayer for this man's healing. I started to walk up to the platform, but the Spirit of God said to me, "Don't go up there." I stopped dead still, and asked, "Why not?" He said, "Because he's going to die." I asked, "Why is he going to die?" The Holy Spirit said, "Because he wouldn't judge himself and walk in love towards his fellow ministers. I judged him, and turned him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. 5:5). So I just turned around and went to the back of the auditorium. Later that minister died just as the Lord had said he would. (Kenneth Hagin)