A Conspiracy Against the Holy Spirit
When the criminal justice system has difficulty convicting an individual of a specific crime, they may turn to the criminal conspiracy code. The rules for conviction of conspiracy to commit a crime are less stringent than to convict a person of the actual crime. These rules were devised to discourage people from encouraging criminal behavior and planning crimes with others.
Most conspiracies in the Old Testament were against local rulers. I find it significant that God has also accused people of conspiracy against Himself and against His people.
I was stunned when God told me to confront a church leader with the message that he was a leader of a conspiracy against the Holy Spirit. This was a difficult and most unpleasant message to give and it was not well received. Jeremiah and Ezekiel both had to deliver such messages from God. Their messages were not well received either.
JEREMIAH
9 And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
11 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. (Jer 11:9-12 KJV)
EZEKIEL
24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. (Eze 22:24-26 KJV)
Whenever God accuses someone of a conspiracy, there is no trial as we know it. God has already condemned the conspirators’ actions and is pronouncing condemnation/judgment on the conspirators. His charges cannot be escaped. However, God has frequently sent prophets with charges in the hope of stimulating repentance.
“For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said, “In repentance and rest you shall be saved, In quietness and trust is your strength.” But you were not willing” (Isa 30:15 NAS)
Repentance consists of two things; 1) a change of thinking and 2) a reversal of actions. This idea is repeated in the NT with two separate words, epistrephow which means to ‘turn around’ , and metanoeow which means to ‘change your mind’.
It is impossible for only one person to conspire. The very word requires more than one person to be involved. An individual can be against God, but when a group agrees to do what God condemns and are still professing allegiance to God they form a conspiracy.
Jesus faced conspiracies regularly. He directly addressed one of them without using the word conspiracy. He said that they were making the Word of no effect by their use of false tradition to disobey the Word. This is by far the most common form of conspiracy in the professed Christian world. Half-hearted “christians” chose to reject the direct teaching of the Bible and follow some other “authority” for their rebellion against God and His Word.
This kind of rebellion has its greatest strength in the most “conservative” groups of religionists. They will never call themselves “religionists” because that would be an admission of their guilt before God. Isaiah was right in saying the people were not willing to be saved. (Isa. 30:15)
Rebellious conspiracies are still present as they were in the days of Paul.
7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2Th 2:7-12 KJV)
Paul had to repeatedly deal with conspiracies against himself and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Prior to Paul, Peter had to confront a small conspiracy. In Acts 5 we read about how the Holy Spirit confronted the agreement of two people to lie to the Holy Spirit. Ananias and his wife died resulting in a great fear of God. I will say that the fear of God is a good thing. It keeps us unwilling to do wrong.
The way in which Paul dealt with repeated conspiracies informs me on appropriate ways to deal with those who oppose the open honest study of the Bible.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, … ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, (Act 13:46 KJV)
6 And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. (Act 18:6 KJV)
When confronted, Paul did not mince words. He spoke like Peter to Ananias. The responsibility for conspiracies rests directly on the conspirators. It was not the responsibility of the one presenting the Bible to the people.
Obviously, the prophet who speaks against this great evil must be wrong. After all, Satan is the “accuser of the brethren”. Every church group believes it has “the whole truth”. Maybe, just maybe, we need to reconsider our own positions before God Himself. ”I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.” (Isa 42:8 NAS)
He has made His Word the final authority. “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (Psa 138:2 KJV)
To all who prefer another authority as equal or above the Bible, please reread Psalm 138:2. But you say, “I don’t do that.” OK, do you use some “authority” as your guide to understanding and interpreting the Bible? If you do, get honest and realize that you are actually putting that source above the Bible. I have met many people who become quite nervous when I approach this subject. They believe I am saying that their favorite prophet is a liar. No, I am not saying that. I only point out that if you find a statement in which your authority disagrees in any way with the Scripture, what are you going to do? Will you twist the Scripture to agree with your favorite author? Some call this process “harmonization” of the two sources. In reality it is usually rejection of the Bible that results. After doing this “harmonization” people then go on completely hardened to the real authority of Scripture to their own destruction.
Ask this question. WHAT IS THE STANDARD OF YOUR JUDGMENT BEFORE GOD? Is it a modern prophet? Is it a creed? Is it a statement of church doctrines? If you suggest any other authority than the Bible, your mind is confused. You are not obeying God.
Jesus spoke of the last judgment in the Sermon on the Mount.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Mat 7:22-23 KJV)
I came to a congregation which appeared very friendly and kind to each other. They worshipped on the Bible Sabbath. They spoke highly of the Bible, yet only a handful came to the midweek Bible Study class. I discovered what I believe to be the reason for the low attendance. The class was dominated by the reading of comments by other writers about the Bible texts they read at the classes. There seemed to be no interest in the power of God directly working in their lives from the “great and precious promises” of the Word. Prayer requests were dominated with carnal reports of how bad the situations were. They seldom had a specific request for God to fulfill His promises in their behalf.
For example, “This person has an eye surgery on Monday.” What should we pray for?
They were strong on ritual and formal prayers. I seldom heard a heartfelt prayer claiming promises in the Word of God. It was as if they believed the physicians’ evil reports more than the promises of Jesus.
Jesus is our creator and redeemer. He is the source of all our life and health. Why do we allow ourselves to be deceived into accepting the opinions of sinful human beings as more authoritative than the words of GOD?
God’s word is replaced with focus on self and what others think. We develop a fear of men which gives us nothing but perversion. I am sure that those who view prophetic warnings as “accusing the brethren”, also view the Bible from the same carnal reasoning. Until we know the Bible as God speaking directly to ourselves, we will be in the Babylonian System. Confusion is not God’s way. Neither is a raging anger at God’s warnings. I pray that those who profess to be God’s children will wake up and listen to God and receive His power to trust and obey Him wholeheartedly.
© Copyright 2009 Richard Noel