Sitting in a Council of Spirits: Prophets and False Prophets

Is sitting in councils of nature spirits appropriate behavior for Christians?

This is the continuing series responding to a teaching by another ministry that claims trees and other aspects of nature have spirits, that Christians should interact with these spirits, and encourages Christians (and especially seers) to go on spirit trips to commune with councils of nature spirits.

• Part 1 Concerning Stoicheion, Elementals and Nature Spirits is here.
• Part 2, Are Stoicheion really "Earth Spirits" is here,
• Part 3, Do Talking Rivers, Mountains and Stones in the Bible Represent Nature Spirits? is here.
• Part 4: Trees in the Bible: Tree Spirits? is here

A representative from the ministry describes participating in an emissary team that makes regular spirit trips to visit a council of nature spirits. During their visits, the emissary team would give and receive messages of reconciliation between humans and the nature spirits, all while declaring loyalty to the Lord Jesus and to further God's rule.

This post will shed some light on what this minister is actually describing. But first, let's explore the difference between prophets and false prophets.

Prophets

In the biblical sense, a prophet is a spokesperson for God, offering God's course corrections within the relational covenant with God.

Accurately forecasting the future isn't the mark of a true prophet. Speaking God's words is.

• In 1 Kings 21:20, the prophet Elijah spoke God's words against King Ahab that God would bring disaster in Ahab's days on Ahab's family. But this did not happen. In verse 29, God changed his mind (based on Ahab's repentance). Elijah's prophecy did not come true. But no one thought Elijah was a false prophet because his prophecy didn't come true. He truly spoke God's words.
• In Jonah 3:4, God sent a message through his prophet Jonah that the city of Ninevah would be overthrown in 40 days. But God changed his mind (based on the city's repentance) and the city was not overthrown in 40 days. But no one thought Jonah was a false prophet just because the prophecy did not come true.

If accuracy is not the mark of a true prophet of God, what is? Being commissioned by God as a prophet involves walking with God and standing in God's council.

Standing in God's Council

God has a council, sometimes called by scholars the divine council, through which he administers the cosmos. This council is made up of spiritual beings, sometimes referred to in the Bible as the heavenly host, the Watchers, the sons of God, or the holy ones. God delegates decision making and actions to his council. (God doesn't need a council to rule or administrate the cosmos; but he wants one, and being God, he can have one).

Walking with God and standing with God in the the divine council is an act of commission for a true prophet of God. Here are some examples.

Adam

Adam lived in Eden and walked with God. Eden was God's dwelling place from which God ruled with his council. Humanity was designed to be a part of God's family and the council, and Adam was the human representative in the council.

As Eliphaz notes in Job 15:7-8, Adam listened in on council meetings because he was the human member of the divine council: he walked with God. Genesis 3:8 alludes to this, suggesting that Adam and Eve had walked with God and were familiar with being in God's presence.

Enoch

Enoch "walked with God", according to Genesis 5:22, and God took him in the council. The book of Enoch picks up on this thread, and has Enoch as God's spokesperson to the spirits in prison. Jude 14-15 also reports one of Enoch's prophesies.

Abraham

Abraham met with and walked with God many times. He also met God at the Oak of Moreh and the Oaks of Mamre. These became known as sacred trees because they marked a spot where divine beings appeared. Oak of Moreh means "Oak of the Teacher", because a divine being taught humans there. According to Dr. Michael Heiser, "The dispensing of divine knowledge and divine decrees is of course something the biblical writers associated with the divine council (Job 15:7-8, 1 Kings 22:13-23)." [ref]Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, First Edition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 235.[/ref]

The pattern emerges in the Old Testament that God brought certain people into his presence for commissioning as prophets. Dramatic descriptions of God bringing someone up to the divine council for commissioning include Isaiah 6:1-8, Ezekiel 1:1-28, and Jeremiah 1:7-9.

New Testament examples include 2 Corinthians 5, Revelation 4, and John 1:19-23, 29-31. This last example is Jesus' baptism scene, where John the Baptist quotes from a divine council scene in Isaiah 40. Yahweh God is echoing his call from Isaiah 6:8, "Who will go for us (the divine council)?" The answer is Jesus, who is Yahweh God, the head of the council, who comes to earth, to reclaim lost humanity, and fulfill God's many promises to Israel.

For more sources on how prophets relate to the divine council, see this page.

If a true prophet of God has sat in God's council of spirits, what do you suppose someone who sits in the council of other spirits would be?

False Prophets

A false prophet is not someone who gets a prophecy wrong. It's not a prophet who is loyal to Jesus, but mis-hears a prophetic word or mis-communicates it. (Human error happens, and God grants grace to humans who make mistakes, and sometimes God changes his mind after issuing a word).

What makes a prophet false is sitting in a divine council that isn't God's.

False prophets walk with other spirits. False prophets receive a mission and message from a council of other spirits: spirits in the earth; spirits in the air. Not spirits in God's council.

As God's prophets walk with God, false prophets walk with other spirits.

As God's prophets talk with God (and sometimes angels who have messages from God), false prophets talk with other spirits.

The Holy Spirit is the source of the loyal prophet's message; other spirits are the source of the false prophet's message. The false prophet might speak something that is true and might foretell accurately, but if their source is not the Holy Spirit, then the prophet is false.

Prophets of Baal sat in a council of spirits loyal to Baal. Prophets (and prophetesses) of Apollos walked in the council of spirits loyal to Apollos.

Prophets of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh, died on the cross, and rose again, do not walk in councils of other spirits.

But What About 1 Enoch?

A defense argument against this biblical witness is Enoch: if Enoch met with a council of spirits in the earth, then why can't we?

For a more detailed consideration of the Book of Enoch, see this page. But in brief, before the Flood, spirits from heaven committed a grave sin with humans and were locked up in the underworld.

Enoch was a prophet of God, and the divine council commissioned Enoch to proclaim God's judgement to the spirits in prison.

These spirits asked Enoch to intercede for them, so Enoch approached God with their petition. God rejected their petition and Enoch had the unenviable responsibility to descend back to the underworld with God's message of doom: he preached to the spirits in prison their doom, that God's will would not be defeated by their wickedness.

The Book of Enoch had other visions of the underworld, but he did not routinely seek out to meet with councils of spirits in the earth or anywhere else. He was invited to the divine council: he did not attempt to force his way there. (Tower of Babel, anyone?)

While the Book of Enoch is useful and was widely read in Jesus' time and formed the backdrop for some of the New Testament's imagery, it's not a prescription to willfully meet with councils of spirits.

The Holy Ones of God

God's council members are sometimes called "holy ones" (Psalms 89:5). The New Testament word "saint" is translated from the Greek word hagios, which actually means, "holy ones."

Christians are the new holy ones who will make up God's divine council. In a real sense, we are all God's representatives on the earth, and we all sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

A few Christians still do get called up into the council to receive a commission as God's spokesperson.

None of them, however, should accept a commission from another council of spirits, nor should they speak on behalf of another council of spirits. By definition, this makes them false prophets, and that's a dangerous position to be in for anybody, especially a Christian.