As far as I can tell none of the prophets or apostles from Scripture ever participated in or practiced any such tradition where they prophesied the word of the Lord at the beginning or ending of any calendar year. This is an interesting point, because tradition has a tendency to blindly lock us into a certain practice or behavior without any thought or consideration as to whether or not there is any biblical precedent for such, or whether or not it has been sanctioned by God. This is not to say a tradition is automatically wrong, worthless or unprofitable when there is no biblical example to confirm its validity, but it should at least cause us to constructively question and examine it against God’s standards.

I have always looked forward, for years, to hearing credible prophetic voices declare what they have sensed God is doing as they help to prepare and accurately position God’s chosen people for what is to come. Prophecy is real and should be encouraged and embraced, but it should also be judged (1 Thess 5:20-21).

Blind prophets

After reading or listening to several prophetic proclamations for the new year, given by some very well-known and not so well-known prophetic voices in our nation, I was left in a state of bewilderment and concern over what passes for prophecy or is regarded as prophetic these days. Much of what is coming out of some of these prophets’ mouths is indicative of a lack of true spiritual sight and understanding, and reveals a very shallow depth of true prophetic unction. As ironical as this may appear, the concept of blind prophets can be seen clearly in Scripture.

18 “Hear, you deaf;

And look, you blind, that you may see.

19 Who is blind but My servant,

Or deaf as My messenger whom I send?

Who is blind as he who is perfect,

And blind as the Lord’s servant?

20 Seeing many things, but you do not observe;

Opening the ears, but he does not hear” (Isa 42:18-20 NKJV)

Even though the immediate context of the passage of scripture quoted above was relating to the entire nation of Israel as a whole, it is clear that God is specifically alluding to the prophets in this passage by His use of the phrase “messenger whom I send” – a term that is clearly associated with prophets in Scripture (Is 44:26; Hag 1:13; Mal 3:1).

“His watchmen are blind,

They are all ignorant;

They are all dumb dogs,

They cannot bark;

Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” (Isa 56:10 NKJV).

Here again we see a powerful prophetic indictment against the watchmen – the prophetic leaders of the nation – who God refers to as not only blind, but ignorant and dumb. They were still actively involved in ministry and the declaration of the word of God as they occupied their spiritual positions, but they lacked any true accuracy, spiritual depth, or significant prophetic insight to give any substance, credibility or validity to their ministry as prophetic watchmen.

What we have here is a prophetic company that has become so intoxicated by their own self-indulgence that it has rendered them unfit to discharge their prophetic duties. Blinded by their own greed and desire to obtain, they cater to a generation of self-absorbed people whose only expectation for the future is what they hope to receive from God – bigger ministries, better economies, greater transfer of wealth, and more needs or desires being met.

They operate on the lowest spiritual frequency or bandwidth, in a state of perpetual slumber where their spiritual senses are in a mode of latency, inactivity and spiritual disconnect (they’re basically offline). They relegate themselves to the most carnal means of hearing from God, depending upon dreams or earthly signs and symbols in a system that is not much different from what the pagans practiced.

Prophecy through numerology

The blindness of these prophets today is made evident not only by their carnal prophetic proclamations which cater to the selfishness and personal gratification of a perverse generation, but also by their means of extracting their so-called revelation. Instead of diligently seeking God and waiting in His presence to receive a genuine word of direction for God’s people, they have resorted to the practice of numerology – the occult study of numbers and their influence on human life – in order to ascertain what God is saying for the new year.

Let me interject here by saying that there is undeniable evidence in Scripture that certain numbers carried both a literal as well as symbolic significance when used. Depending on the context, various numbers can convey more than exact totals, but can represent either literary (rhetorical) or symbolic usage. This study of the use of numbers in Scripture has become so complex, that many have begun to place an overemphasis on their significance, even seeking out a “mathematical key” of some sort to unlock hidden secrets and cryptic messages that they purport to have been placed there by God. It is this type of overemphasis where we try to take the numbers and their symbolism beyond their intended context that has led us down the path to embracing a pagan and occult tradition today.

Baker’s Theological Dictionary of the Bible gives us some valuable insight into this pagan practice:

The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians had a developed numerology based on astrological divination, which is forbidden in the Hebrew Scriptures. The ancient Chaldeans sectioned the stars into twelve regions. Numerology is also consequential in Hinduism, Buddhism, Magic texts, and other occultic, pagan religions.[i]

As you can see from the description above, numerology is a very ancient practice that is very closely associated with both astrology and divination. It is considered by some to be a type of pseudo-mathematics that is normally expressed through an ungodly belief system that places undue emphasis on numerical patterns and how the symbolism of these numbers should help to shape or determine the course of our lives and future.

Even the early Church fathers had to deal with this issue of numerology as it had crept into the practices of the early Church. Even though they unanimously recognized the significance of numbers in Scripture as carrying more than just a literal meaning, they repeatedly denounced and condemned the “magical” use of numbers as well as any system of philosophy which rested upon an exclusively numerical basis. In other words, while they willingly accepted an exegesis that recognized the broader use or meaning of numbers in Scripture, they unequivocally rejected the application of these numbers beyond the parameters of the scriptural context in which they were given. Any attempt to emphasize or apply these numbers beyond this context leads us down the path to divination.

We have prophets today who openly engage in this practice by taking the numbers of the year from our Gregorian calendar – which bears no similarity whatsoever to the Jewish calendar, which is more in line with God’s timetable – and seek to apply significance to the year by applying the symbolism used for these numbers in Scripture. If they can’t find any significant symbolism from the number as it stands, they use either a number it is divisible by or the sum of two other numbers. For example, if it was 2020 and they could find no significant symbolism for the number 20 in Scripture, they would use 10X2 or 12+8 for each of the 20’s. Sometimes they totally ignore the preceding numbers and focus only on the last number of the year. Therefore, since 8 in Scripture is generally recognized to be the number of new beginnings, most of the New Year prophecies in 2008 were declaring a year of change and new beginnings.

Some have even gone so far as to search out scriptures with the chapter and verse corresponding to the number of the new year as part of their prophetic message concerning what God is doing, or getting ready to do, in that season. For example, when the year 2011 rolls around you can expect to hear many of these prophets directing you to Jeremiah 20:11 or some other similarly numbered scripture as part of their propheticmessage for that particular year. This is nothing more than scriptural bingo and is no better than the practice of randomly opening or “cutting” your bible and taking the scripture your eyes first land on as God’s rhema word to you for that season.

These kinds of New Year prophecies or prophetic proclamations may or may not be relevant or come to pass, but that is beside the point. It is a poor and immoral practice for those who proclaim themselves to be prophets and who are called to operate upon a much higher frequency. This type of behavior should never be encouraged or embraced among those of us who are Kingdom Citizens. Even though the Magi from the East were able to successfully use astrology as a means of recognizing that it was the season of Christ’s birth does not mean that God condones the practice (Matt 2:1-2 with Is 47:13-14). According to Jesus, only an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, because they lack the ability and the discipline to accurately connect to the source of all wisdom (Matt 12:39).

Beware of the false

It is time to upgrade our understanding of the prophetic and learn to accurately judge those words that are being boldly proclaimed as God’s during the start of every new year. Accuracy is not necessarily found in the majority so we should not just blindly accept something that is questionable simply because everyone else is doing it.

Many prophets are relying on the pagan practice of numerology as the source of their revelation.  It has become widely popular, but it must be rejected as false. Many have attempted to devise clever clichés and poetic one-liners as they seek to communicate the heart of God for the new year, but we must look beyond the nice sounding words to determine whether or not the message accurately conveys what God is desiring to communicate in that season.

After some careful review of some of the words that have been given as the word of the Lord in the past years, I have found many to be either completely or partially false. At the very least most of them did not take place within the one-year timetable given, simply because God has never limited Himself to our earthly calendars and seasons. Whereas most of us on planet earth may think in terms of days, weeks, months or years, God thinks in terms much different from ours. Seasons for God consist of a period in eternity not limited to our earthly measurements of time, but wherein God has determined to fulfill a particular purpose. When we limit God to our present earthly timetables, we either totally miss God or fail to accurately position ourselves for Him.

Entering into a new calendar year does not necessarily mean that you have entered into a new spiritual season. Understanding this truth will deliver you from the false sense of responsibility that you need to produce some new prophetic proclamation for the upcoming year. Don’t allow your religious traditions to blind you to the true purposes of God. God may have nothing new to say at the beginning of a brand new year because He has not yet received the required obedience to His previous pronouncements necessary for transition into a new season. There is no recorded prophetic utterance after the book of Malachi for more than 400 years, because despite the fact that the nation of Israel may have physically celebrated over 400 times the beginning of a new year, they had still not entered into a new season.

In a day of mass and unbridled deception, we need to be vigilant as God’s people. We must learn to judge the prophetic according to biblical standards, rejecting that which is evil (false) and holding fast to that which is good {1 Thess 5:21}.

Hebrew Kabbalah

Unfortunately, numerology is not the only issue that presently plagues this present prophetic movement, but also other dangerous, mystical and occultic practices such as the Hebrew Kabbalah which follows along the same vein as numerology, and is closely linked with astrology and the signs of the zodiac. From what I can gather concerning this practice, it is rooted in a strong mysticism regarding Judaism and the belief there is a much deeper meaning, realization and understanding to be attained to by studying their unique practices, festivals, tribes, calendar, Hebraic letters and writings as they form a universal pattern regarding God’s dealings with man and His creation.

At first glance this may sound very truthful and harmless to those of us who understand that there are many very powerful types and shadows that apply both to God’s Church as well as all creation today that can be found in many aspects of Judaism. But the problem with this practice is three-fold: 1) It is not Scriptural, but is based on an oral tradition that developed somewhere among the Jews and is predicated upon searching for signs and mystical meanings above that which God intended, thus distracting us from God and His Word (the way that God intended for it to be read). 2) It has evolved into a completely occult practice that is used by witches, new-agers and various other occult practitioners as a means of extracting divine insight. And 3) There is absolutely no evidence that either Jesus or the prophets of old ever relied, or taught others to rely, on such a low frequency of revelation.

When those who are widely known or recognized as prophets begin to teach or promote such practices as being “prophetic” or of an “Issachar” dimension, it is time for the other prophets to judge and expose it as false (1 Cor. 14:29). When your means of extracting divine insight follows closely along the same path as those who worship demons, something is terribly wrong. Now we have many self-proclaimed “Christians” dabbling in the occult, astrology, horoscopes, numerology and Kabbalah because of the poor example that has been set by their leaders. Do these practices really exalt God or promote divination in the Church? Again, these practices may give very “accurate” insight or results, but the issue is not just the accuracy of the revelation but the accuracy of practice.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was created by God and placed in the middle of the garden where Adam and Eve could access it (Gen 2:8-9). The knowledge it produced by eating of the fruit was also true and “accurate”, yet God forbade man to eat of it (Gen 2:16-17). The issue was never the “accuracy” of the knowledge gained through these means, but the fact that it violated the command of God and created an impenetrable barrier that kept man from experiencing the fullness of God in the way he had before. You may be able to gain true insight by eating of the “forbidden fruit”, but it perpetuates a system of death and separation.

There is one particular ministry that I know of that has been often accused of practicing Kabbalah by many of the “heresy hunters” and apologetic watchdog groups on the internet, with some even providing documented evidence of their claim, yet they continue to defend their practice as being “prophetic” with no care or concern about the frequency that we are teaching the people to live and operate by, thus leading them closer and closer into the full-blown occult. Never mind the fact that it so closely resembles everything the occultists practice that it warrants alarm. As far as they are concerned, they are justified in their practices because they are approaching it from a vatic perspective instead of a mantic one. Who can tell the difference?

The issue isn’t whether or not there is some cryptic message or understanding hidden within the Hebrew months, festivals, calendar, letters, etc., but whether or not we are justified in promoting such inductive or mystical practices as a means of hearing from God. Whenever you tune or focus in on one particular frequency, every other frequency is silenced or tuned out. Therefore the frequency we choose to focus on will determine the frequency our lives are built on and that we will inevitably learn to respond to.

When the children of Israel were in the wilderness after having been liberated from Egypt, they were led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex 13:21). This was by God’s design during their migration because it was necessary for that time. After spending over four centuries in Egypt, they had no ability to discern the pathways of God or be activated into his timing and purposes except through supernatural signs. But once they had crossed the Jordan after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, having been purged of all the residue and blindness of Egypt, God required them to live and operate according to a much higher standard. To have continued to pursue and seek after the signs which God had previously used to lead them would have been to perpetuate the blind and rebellious nature that had caused them to have to wander in the wilderness in the first place.

Signs are necessary for the blind, rebellious and immature, but we must now migrate from that former position until we come into a place of open sight, where we no longer depend upon numerology, Kabbalah or any such practice to hear and proclaim the word of the Lord.

As we come to the close of this article I would like to encourage you to take a few minutes to research these issues yourself by doing a search on Google and you will be surprised at what you find. In fact, I dare say that after researching these practices your findings will shock you. We have been taught to use numbers and esteem certain days or months in the exact same way that the occult does, yet there are some who would seek to defend these practices as being something “spiritual”.

When our theology and practices look similar to the world’s, something is wrong; but when they are identical to those who worship and serve false gods, we are in a state of emergency and utter depravity. If they, in their state of darkness and utter blindness, have to resort to such means in order to “discern” the times and direct the affairs of their lives, what does that say about us? Should it not at least alert us to the fact that we have been operating at the lowest possible frequency? Doesn’t it seem ludicrous to believe that God’s anointed prophets have to resort to the same tactics as they who are without God and completely separated from Him?

The whole purpose of this article is to alert the Church to these false practices and call us to a higher place in God. It is not targeted towards any particular ministry or minister, but towards the entire prophetic movement as a whole. We must allow God to reform us first before we can be instruments of reformation in the world. As a wise man once said: There can be no reformation without personal transformation. We must raise our current standards.

Please be sure to check out the three-part series of articles that follow up on this one entitledExposing False Prophetic Frequencies as we seek to identify other corrupt practices and forbidden frequencie