When is a Prophet NO Profit?

By Philip L. Powell

Is Cindy Jacobs Really A Prophet to the Nations?
Where do the School of the Prophets and men like Stephen Penny Fit In?

CINDY JACOBS - is introduced to Brisbane in the official CITY HARVEST INTERNATIONAL advertising brochure put out by Ben Gray and John Lewis in the up-coming Burning Heart 2001 Conference, the published aim of which is the "Raising up a generation in the style of Jesus" in the following terms and I again quote: "Rev Cindy Jacobs is widely recognised as a prophet to the nations. She is author of three best selling books and editor of the Women of Destiny Bible."

So not only does she take to herself a totally unbiblical authority but also NOW Cindy Jacobs tampers with the Word of God, which is unequivocally forbidden to both men and women. These things in themselves make what City Harvest International is projecting an entirely false thing. How can anyone edit the Bible? Nowhere in the bible is a woman called a prophet let alone a prophet to the nations. There are in the Old Testament one or two women who are called prophetesses and who served in a minor capacity, on one occasion simply because men failed, but no where is a woman called a prophet.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" - 1 John 4:1.

Biblically there are three categories of PROPHETS:

1. Firstly FALSE PROPHETS - this is the most numerous grouping biblically and historically;
2. Secondly EUPHORIC PROPHETS - This is a sub-division within the False Prophets category; and
3. Thirdly True PROPHETS OF THE LORD.

We will say more about this later. For the present let's stick with Cindy Jacobs and then say something about Steve Penny and the so-called School of the Prophets.

In a video tape aired in USA on SKY ANGEL TV on 29 May 1999 Joy Strang, related to Stephen Strang publisher of CHARISMA magazine introduced Cindy Jacobs as "the president of Generals of Intercession" and as someone who "has been used around the world in stirring revival, raising up a spirit of intercession across the world." In one of the subsequent video clips Cindy refers to Peter Wagner as her spiritual father. These are her words:

"Peter Wagner is really-my spiritual dad - ...he is very much like a dad. I call him my dad . . . "

Cindy is married to Mike Jacobs. They hail from Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. She wrote the book, Possessing The Gate of The Enemy.

I guess the question is, "What do you do with the Gate of the Enemy if he lets you possess it?" In my opinion we are looking at some dangerous stuff here, which is very well critiqued by Jackie Alnor a free-lance investigative Christian Journalist who researches these sorts of things. Jackie is married to Bill Alnor who until recently was a pastor of a Calvary Chapel Fellowship in Pennsylvania. They were both closely associated with the Christian Research Institute when it was under the directorship of the late Walter Martin. I am indebted to the Alnors for the transcript of the clips from the SKY CHANNEL video, which I am about to quote in order to provide you with some idea of the sort of person this so called "prophet to the Nations" really is. (1)

Cindy is very much like another woman called Jan Painter who comes from Kentucky and who preached a message to the effect that money is intended to be for God's Children to advance His Kingdom. She instructed everyone to raise their finger in the air and say," Money come here I have something for you to do!"

I am informed that local AoG pastor Jim Williams is known to have instructed his congregation along a similar line when they take up the offering. This is nothing more nor less than WITCHCRAFT! It has nothing to do with Biblical Christianity. It is all part of the con, which is contributing to the falling away from the faith and the ultimate discrediting of the Church in the eyes of the world.

Jackie Alnor reports of the video, which was aired on Sky Angel TV, USA - "Cindy Jacobs starts out with an odd look on her face and silent/dead air. (She looks possessed) She begins as others talking about 'God's fire' wave after wave of fire, etc." Reference is made to a city called Daytona Beach.

Cindy: "We're here because there's a changing of the guard in the heavenlies."

Cindy: "Why Daytona Beach? You see God is very particular about places. He chooses places as he chooses people. There are places that there are redemptive deposits of anointing, visitation and what we have found and what we discussed in the speakers' meeting, caused us to realize we're here for such a time as this."

OK - let's pause and examine what Cindy Jacob's has just said. All of this is totally unbiblical. What guard is being changed in the heavenlies? What in the name of common sense can such a statement signify? Contrary to the claim the Bible shows that within the New Covenant God is not particular about any place. There are no "redemptive deposits of anointing", whatever that expression signifies, upon certain places today. Christ told the woman of Samaria that is was no longer a question of where or when - not even Jerusalem or Mt Gerazim - but simply a matter of "spirit and truth."3

Let's proceed:

Cindy: "Churches like in Denver, Colorado, where Kathryn Kuhlman preached and places that seemingly at this moment are not experiencing what even they want to experience, there are visitations by such people as Smith Wigglesworth and Aimee Semple-McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman. I feel like the Holy Spirit is saying, 'where are the Aimee Semple-McPhersons?' I believe God is raising up a nation, a company of Aimee Semple-McPhersons, Kathryn Khulman." "Through years the fire goes out. And God will bring people to a place to light the fire."

Wow - Now isn't that something? These visitations from Smith Wigglesworth and the two women named, all of whom are dead and buried many years ago - is Cindy Jacobs talking about their ghosts coming back or what? How can men like Ben Gray and John Lewis support a person like this and call her a "prophet to the nations"? She calls Peter Wagner her dad but my Bible says that the devil is the father of lies - and these are lies about God, about the nature of God and the ways of God and about the state of those who hopefully died in Christ.

Cindy Jacobs: "I know and the visitations that I've had from the Lord even recently, when that glory of God has come, I thought I would die! I thought I physically could not stand the glory. I just simply felt . . . unclean. . . But we don't need to be afraid of the fire. We need to welcome it cause God wants to have a holy bride."

Joy Strang: "On the church was a huge sign that said, 'pillar of fire.' . . . The awesome thing, Daytona had visitations, people came through, a lot of powerful revivals. . . Churches were spawned, many of them out of that very church that was started by a woman."

Joy Strang's old mother goes berserk and lies on floor while Cindy screams and Steve Strang dances.

More gooiness - Cindy screams under the 'anointing', "Oh, oh, are you feeling this?"

Then Joy Strang says:

"And we unleash the spirit of God and the spirit of unity to come. The flowing of the river, that the fire of revival would come back to this city." Then Cindy lays hands on locals saying, "Receive the fire of God."

Cindy screams, "Fire" over and over again. Then she speaks in a changed voice that sounds very sinister: "Yes, for the Lord says there is a new wave yet of the spirit coming and the Lord is showing me that Daytona Beach is the gateway for the fire of God."

OK - enough of that. I have laboured the point on Cindy Jacobs in order to let you know what you can expect at this BURNING HEART Conference to be held in Brisbane during the week of August 13 -18 if it goes ahead.

We trust it will be cancelled through lack of interest or because the organisers wake up to what they are into. Incidentally Cindy Jacobs prophesied that New Zealand would discover huge mineral reserves and the economy would boom and as a result funds would be provided for the church and that many missionaries would be sent out. The week she gave this prophecy the NZ dollar fell faster than the Fiji dollar even while the coup was in progress in Fiji. Since then there has been no indication that Cindy Jacob's prophecy was accurate in any way - quite the reverse. New Zealand's economy is still in the doldrums and there is no sign of the mineral reserves. Need I say more? She is a false prophet.

So what about the other two areas we have mentioned?

The School of the Prophets emanates from an American so called Apostle or Prophet named Bill Hamon. Bill's son visited Queensland not so long ago and conducted meetings under the auspices the SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS, which was headed up by Chris and Debbie Gaborit, then leaders of the COC Church at Radcliff. Some sort of scandal later surfaced and now I understand the organisation has moved to Newcastle in NSW.

Sadly scandals seem to be the order of the day within Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. The biggest and latest caught the media's attention in Brisbane with a headline relating to Clark Taylor "DISGRACED PASTOR SETS UP CHURCH". The Church is being discredited in the eyes of the world.

Bill Hamon's son during his preaching tour in Australia preached a message based on 2 Kings 4: 8-37 which is the story of the Shunammite woman who was rewarded for providing hospitality for Elisha. This man had the audacity to pervert the text of the Bible to the extent that he claimed God had shown him from this passage that if parents who had wayward children would give to the School of the Prophets a gift of $1000 for each child, then God would restore them to the Kingdom. This is the most blatant form of spiritual abuse I have ever heard.

One person was reported as giving $7,000 as payment for the spiritual restoration of his seven children. This is worse than the doctrines of penance and indulgences taught by the Roman Catholic Church.

Here's a brief Summary regarding the School of the Prophets published in Vol 11 CETF December 1996. (3)

Only days before going to print we received in the mail a most disturbing audiotape recorded at a School of the Prophets Conference held in Auckland, NZ in Feb 1996. Deb Gaborit co-director of Cutting Edge International (Qld, Australia) told a spooky story of an 18 year girl who followed an "angel" out through her bedroom window (just like "Batman in BATMAN FOREVER") and ended up in a room with God the Father sitting on a piano stool.

While some of the detail was garbled & very difficult to follow, the basic message trivialised God Almighty to the extent that He was reduced to human level. These spiritistic type visions and dreams are becoming more frequent among so called Christian people.

An even worse feature of the tape was the talk given by a Terry Hunter, based on Eph 3:2 & 3 in which he somehow saw a justification for extra-Biblical revelation. He ignored the context, openly scorned Church Councils and the doctrine of "SOLA Scriptura" and applauded Nostradamus as one of his favourite prophets. That medieval monk's practice of seeing the future mirrored in a bowl of water was a thing that should be emulated, according to the speaker.

{Eph 3: 1-4 reads: "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote before in few words, Whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)."

ASIDE - Obviously Terry Hunter knows nothing about the true exposition of the Word of God. Like so many preachers today he simply quoted a text and then ignored it as if it contained some contaminating disease.

Terry Hunter confessed that he got most of his "inspiration" from TV programs e.g. "Star Track", which he found more interesting than the Bible and encouraged the people to seek "astral travel" with God. The end of that pursuit will be a form of "astral travel" with the "god of this age" not with the God of Scripture.

With the type of testimony & sort of teaching given by Deb Gaborit and Terry Hunter it's no wonder the Church is going deeper & deeper into mysticism and the occult. Terry Hunter denigrated the godly men of the Historic Church Councils, who agreed the Canon of Scripture as being "arrogant" & "intellectually proud", while apparently failing to detect the arrogance of his own ignorance.

Tragically so many good people are falling for Satan's ploy. Our strong warning is, "Keep away from the School of the Prophets!" Their deception will rub off onto others. It's part of the drift into mysticism & will eventually crumble just like the Kansas City Prophets began to crumble after the Vineyard rift in December 95. Paul Cain is no longer associated, nor Bob Jones, who was exposed for immorality. We believe Rick Joyner may still be connected"

The School of the Prophets has impacted countries like Malaysia where Chris Gaborit - Debbie's husband - conducted a seminar in which he taught people how to minister the so-called slaying in the spirit phenomenon. It was frightening stuff when put in the context of gullible new Christians in an essentially pagan society.

When I was National General Secretary I became aware of a book written by Steve Penny entitled "Here Come the Prophets". I recall commenting to my colleagues, "There Go The Prophets Again."

It really is not a new phenomenon and generally throughout history the movement has caused problems with some strange and at times humorous incidents. For example the apostolic movement in Wales early last century spawned some unusual characters who were named "prophets". One is reputed to have stood and said, "Lo oh my people you are before me as cabbages. Some of you have soft hearts; some of you have hard hearts; and some of you have no hearts at all." Another who came into a meeting rather late, during prayer inquired of his neighbour what had been happening. The person explained that the meeting had been quite exiting with some even dancing. The "prophet" waited his time and then at an opportune moment stood and said, "Lo oh my people I hear you have been dancing in my presence. If I had been with you I would have danced too."

The problem today is that these so called "prophets" have a message about change of culture and such things, which is really nothing less than an attack on the Gospel.

For example Steve Penny speaks of the importance of culture and lines this up with wealth and prosperity and then has the audacity to call it "Kingdom" culture and by that he means the Kingdom of God. He claims that Jesus during His life on earth ate at the best restaurants and, presumably, stayed in the best hotels.

Steve Penny insisted on a local Church paying Business Class travel for him not because he needed it, but because he had to maintain this so called "culture." He says this is why AoG and the Australian Christian Churches need Brian Houston as their President - because Brian brings this sort of prosperity culture.

One of their rank is reported as teaching younger pastors to "Use people, then when they've served their usefulness - SPIT THEM OUT and move on." One of these men cleverly named his boat - The Office - so that he could honestly tell his parishioners that he was in "The OFFICE" when they called him by phone. What he said and what they understood were two different things. This is what the Bible calls "MAKING A LIE."

OK - So Biblically there are:

1) FALSE PROPHETS: These are usually in a majority as witness a number of passages in the Old Testament e.g. 1 Kings 18 (ELIJAH and the prophets of Baal) and 1 Kings 22 (King Ahab and Micaiah);

Things have not changed. Those who claim to be apostles or prophets are generally the false not the true. Only one person, Agabus, is actually named as a true "prophet" in the New Testament. There were others but they are not named and they are not prominent.

2) EUPHORIC PROPHETS: These too are false but not openly and directly. They are illustrated by what happened to King Saul as told in the book of 1st Kings. Saul was a murderer at heart still planning to get rid of David but when he came into the presence of Samuel and David he prophesied. Nobody was deceived. Saul prophesied simply out of the euphoria of the atmosphere. The incident gave rise to a proverb in ISRAEL

1 Samuel 10:11-12: "And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, 'What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?' (12) And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?"
1 Samuel 19:24 "And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?"

Euphoric Prophets prophesy only hype and tripe. They ALWAYS fail the test of the true Prophet, who will stand his ground before anyone and everyone - kings, congregations and false prophets alike.

The most prominent among the present day euphoric prophets that I know of is David Cartledge. He always prophesies full and over-flowing stadiums into existence, but has yet to become a reality.

The lingering recollection of the last AoG Conference that I attended is that of Andrew Evans, a pragmatic pastor and David Cartledge a euphoric prophet standing at the front of the hall waiting for the music to stop. Mr Cartledge then stepped to the podium and did his usual. He could see packed foot ball stadiums and the largest halls in Australia would not be big enough to accommodate the prophesied move of God. When he finished Mr Evans stepped forward and applied the "prophecy" so the Conference could end on a high note. But something didn't ring true and the prophecy has never been fulfilled. Where are the packed stadiums? Where is the revival that was prophesied?

3) TRUE PROHETS OF THE LORD: They do not need to be named or otherwise identified. They carry out their work often undetected and sometimes unknown. Biblically they ALWAYS issue warnings.

You cannot find a named prophet in the Old or New Testaments who does not issue warnings. This is the hallmark of his ministry. It has always been and it will always remain so. Our advice to you and to everyone is KEEP AWAY from Cindy Jacobs and the BURNING HEART CONFERENCE promoted by Ben Gray and John Lewis. You'll get your fingers as well as your wallets burned - $65 a unit or $175 for the weekly package with a slight discount for couples - $310 instead of $350.

Like one of my farmer friends once remarked: "They charge like a wounded bull."

1. This material is documented on Alnor's Web Site at www.cultlink.com.
2 John 4: 21 to 24
3. Refer http://www.christian-witness.org/archives/cetf1996/noah.html

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© 2003 Banner Ministries. All rights reserved. This is a transcript of a talk given by in BRISBANE, Australia on Friday July 20, 2001.

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© 1995-2013 Tricia Tillin of Banner Ministries. All rights reserved. Cross+Word Website: http://www.banner.org.uk/  This document is the property of its author and is not to be displayed on other websites, redistributed, sold, reprinted, or reproduced in printed in any other format without permission. Websites may link to this article, if they provide proper title and author information. One copy may be downloaded, stored and/or printed for personal research. All spelling and phraseology is UK English.

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