The Prophet’s Cosmic View
By Bryan Purtle
The prophets of Israel were remarkable men who had been seized by the hand of the Lord and brought into a cosmic view of time and eternity, righteousness and rebellion, mercy and judgment, Kings and nations, and the stunning responsibility of speaking on behalf of the One on the Throne.
In 1962, Abraham Heschel’s classic two-volume set “The Prophets” hit the printing presses. It was a work which started out as his Ph.D. thesis in German, and eventually grew into book form, becoming a widely heralded masterpiece on the subject of prophetism. One of the questions he asked in the first volume is looming large in my spirit at this writing, and in an age where there are many boasts and testimonies of prophetic activity in the Church of the West, I think it behooves us to consider it.
Heschel’s question, inspired by long and laborious perusals of the oracles of the Hebrew Bible, was this:
“What manner of man is the prophet?”
Many have asked this question in recent decades, and some have sought to give answers. Indeed, movements and ministries have been raised up with men bearing the title of “prophet”. You can find movements which place the bulk of their emphasis on supernatural activity, in terms of visions, dreams, interpretations and personal words of prophecy. You can find others who say that a prophet is basically one who preaches a message of repentance. Both views have valuable aspects, and should not be thrown out as a whole. There are many variations of these two emphases, and the opinions are often shared with great feeling and concern.
While Eph. 2.20 refers primarily to the apostles and prophets of the Scriptures, it’s clear that without these kinds of foundational servants the Church is going to be severely hindered from coming into the fullness of God. It is most likely to go through unfortunate cycles of backsliding, leaning on the arm of the flesh, and functioning in a mode of life that is far removed from the reality that the Lord has intended and desired. Unless we see the formation and emergence of the kinds of servants that Paul saw as crucial for the Church’s maturity, we run the risk of celebrating all kinds of external ministry successes that will crumble in the day of trial, having been built on faulty foundations.
It is vital, therefore, that we revive the question, “What manner of man is the prophet?”
I am suspicious of the great chasm that has been fixed between the role of the OT prophet and the role of the NT prophet. The idea that a NT prophet has an entirely different ministry, one of edification and encouragement, is a distortion of the overarching testimony of the Scriptures. It is my contention that we have done with the prophet what we have done with the Lord Himself. We have interpreted the prophet’s role and nature based on our experience, or based on what best meets our present satisfaction. The fact that we have fashioned our own ideas of prophetic ministry is evidenced by the fact that so many believers who are boasting prophetic activity are virtually non-literate, uninterested and unfamiliar with the words of the Prophets of Scripture.
Many have seen Israel’s prophets as the old order of prophetic ministry, but some elements of the “new order” that have been presented seem to me to run contrary with the Spirit and stature of everything prophetic in both testaments. We have so little written in the NT of prophetic ministry that it is difficult to be as specific as many have sought to be in recent times. Even so, the overall view of the Spirit and nature of prophetic work has not changed in the NT, as I see it. The prophet’s ministry is one of recovery and restoration, calling his hearers away from self-absorption, deception and apostasy, and back to God Himself, back to righteous living, back to love and humility, back to reality.
Little is said of Agabus and Silas in terms of prophetic function, but we see the greatest Prophet, Jesus Himself, in remarkable breadth in the Gospels. We see John the prophet’s experience, and the message he is called to convey over the course of 22 chapters in Revelation. These are New Covenant prophets in the highest sense, and the thrust of their ministry and message is the same as that of the OT prophets. The revelation of God and the message of His Kingdom has only deepened and become more pronounced. Their message is not contrary to the that of the OT prophets, it is the fulfillment and fuller proclamation of the same vision and view. Why should it be? Jesus is the Eternal One who has never changed, and John was encountering the same God that the OT prophets encountered! NT prophetic ministry flows in a continuum with the OT prophets, but it presents more clearly and more fully the heart and Kingdom of God.
I am therefore dubious about an idea or expression of prophetic ministry that runs against the grain of the revelation of God already given in the Scriptures. If we have thousands of believers acquainted with prophetic ministry who consider the words of Israel’s prophets to be somehow “old-hat” or irrelevant to us, then what are we tending towards? If Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, then could it be that the idea of NT prophets replacing OT prophetical stature and function is erroneous and even a gateway to eventual deception? If our idea of any ministry removes or lessens the sense of God that the early prophets and apostles conveyed, should we not raise a cry?
The prophets of Israel had a cosmic view, which means that they had been lifted above the wisdom and counsel of their contemporaries and brought into a revelation of the government and Kingdom of God. They saw beyond the tangible, past the immediate, and through the veneer that most of their friends and neighbors were content to hide behind. They could no longer “go with the flow” of material pursuits, religious pomp, or any other idea of life which robbed them of the presence and heart of the Holy One of Israel. This marked them out as different.
They were distinguished from the religious functionaries of their day because they communicated a word and vision of God as He is, and not as men had fancied Him to be.
The great issue of history is that men have not been willing to receive God as He has revealed Himself. They have been offended at Him, unwilling to surrender their lives to His leadership. They have loved pride when He delights in humility. They have loved hate when He delights in compassion. They have loved sin when He delights in righteousness. They have loved unequal weights and measures when He desires truth in the inmost parts.
The world and its systems is perpetuated and carried along by a pursuit of freedom, pleasure, and self-gratification that is the antithesis of the Lord’s intention for creation. The world is content to live in a pipe-dream. It is happy with the fantasy. “Ignorance is bliss,” they say. The prophet comes to yank the wool from our eyes. He is a holy remembrancer, calling us back to reality and truth, dashing our self-centric dreams to holy desert grounds, where we are compelled by fear and awe to remove our sandals. We see with wide eyes and dropped jaws that our opinions and rights are the expression of the most despicable kind of presumption. Our feet are bared, and we fall prostrate. We can not proceed to walk in the same way any longer.
Here are some of Heschel’s thoughts on the manner of the prophet:
“While others are intoxicated with the here and now, the prophet has a vision of an end. The prophet is human, yet he employs notes one octave too high for our ears. He experiences moments that defy our understanding. He is …an assaulter of the mind. Often his words begin to burn where conscience ends. The prophet is an iconoclast, challenging the apparently holy, revered, and awesome. Beliefs cherished as certainties, institutions endowed with supreme sanctity, he exposes as scandalous pretensions.
The prophets must have been shattered by some cataclysmic experience in order to be able to shatter others. The words of the prophet are stern, sour, stinging. But behind his austerity is love and compassion for mankind.
Others may suffer from the terror of cosmic aloneness, the prophet is overwhelmed by the grandeur of the divine presence. He is incapable of isolating the world. There is an interaction between man and God which to disregard is an act of insolence. Isolation is a fairy tale.
…The prophet’s word is a scream in the night. While the world is at ease and asleep, the prophet feels the blast from heaven.
…the purpose of prophecy is to conquer callousness, to change the inner man as well as to revolutionize history.
It is embarrassing to be a prophet. There are so many pretenders, predicting peace and prosperity, offering cheerful words, adding strength to self-reliance, while the prophet predicts disaster, pestilence, agony, and destruction.” (The Prophets Vol. I, A. Heschel; Harper Colophon Books, 1962)
The prophet of God is a broken man; one who has been devastated at the plight of the nations. He has a “fierce loyalty” to the Lord, and his heart is shattered from the realization that the God of holiness and beauty is being neglected while men and their often petty systems are being exalted and celebrated. When the Name of God is denigrated, disrespected, or misappropriated, the prophet’s heart burns with a jealousy for the restoration of true worship.
The prophet has a cosmic view, a heavenly vision, for He has encountered the God who transcends our prepackaged categories and preferences. He has come to know the Lord as He is, and His heart cannot be satisfied until the ones to whom he has been called have come into that intimate knowledge themselves. This is why the prophet is foundational.
The prophet is the bearer of the thoughts and words of God Himself. He is an earthen vessel, radically connected to the society that surrounds him, yet conveying and communicating a wisdom and reality that the common man and the frivolous religionist have not been willing to see and hear. He is among the people, identifying with them in mercy. He is not an aloof, self-righteous pietist. He is an awakener, using words and tears to remind us how God really feels and thinks. He lives in the world of God. He has been converted from carnality, broken from his arrogance, severed from self-sufficiency. He introduces us to God’s world, the heavenly Kingdom, and everything depends upon whether we casually receive his word, reject it, or take it into the deepest parts of our hearts and lives.
The prophet is not a self-consciously dramatic character, doing what he thinks prophets do in attempts at filling a role or office. A prophet is a God-fashioned, God-intoxicated, God-inspired man with a cosmic view of time and eternity. He sees beyond the mundaneness of everyday affairs, the buzz of modern politicking, the pull of fashion and entertainment, and any man-centered attempts at ministry. He is not inflated by flattery, and he has learned to rejoice when opposed. He realizes that he is bearing a Kingdom view which is of utmost value to his hearers. Indeed, life and death hang on the words that he proclaims.
He is not a showman, boasting of a title or inwardly aching for religious fame. Nor is he a grouchy man, putting on some kind of an archaic garb and spiritual aura with hopes that he might remind us of Moses. He does not have to try at being “prophetic.” There is nothing self-conscious about a foundational servant of the Lord. They are not speaking on behalf of their opinions or the lifting up of their reputations. They have been stricken with a vision of the majestic One, and they speak out of that reality.
I wonder why we have heard so much about prophets, why people will flock by the thousands to conferences and events in hopes of receiving a “personal prophetic word”, when so few have been willing to crack open the Scriptures to hear from the men whom the Lord Jesus valued as prophets. I’m not discounting the genuine works of the Spirit that we see in many circles. I’m asking some serious questions here. Could it be that we have in many ways made our own God, and have not been willing to receive Him as He is? If we are willing to chase men who call themselves prophets, and who have the latest insights and revelations which bring us a positive lift without dealing with the issue of sin, then who are we really hearing from? What manner of man is the prophet, and what manner of a God is he presenting and proclaiming?
I will likely be accused of discouraging the prophetic gifts by asking questions like this, but that is not my intention. We need to “eagerly desire” the gifts, and I have pursued the Lord for their increase in the church for over a decade. But I believe these questions are crucial for our future witness and maturity. If what we have known as prophetic has not brought us into the same consciousness, the same trembling, the same holiness, the same cosmic view that the prophets of Israel and the apostles of the New Testament came into, what can we say of its veracity? Is it the same prophetic reality?
Perhaps a measure of blessing comes as a result of many of these meetings and expressions. I am certain that the Lord is working in many ways through various expressions in the Body, and that healing and blessing have come to many in every setting where Jesus is being lifted up. Perhaps a facet of the Lord’s heart is received, and I don’t want to discount or disregard that. But where is the sense of the fear of the Lord? How can the Church go on with hundreds of pastors stepping down from ministry a month due to sexual sin? How can we blend in so successfully with a world that is moving at breakneck speed toward eternal judgment?
I am convinced that the stature and call of a prophet has not changed with the New Covenant, it has only deepened. Christ has become the center and fulfillment. The Gift of Prophecy has become available to all saints, not just to a select few.
Moses’ cry that all God’s people would were prophets has become a brighter possibility, but we will not come into that prophetic reality if we are unwilling to receive Him as King, Father, and Judge. We will not come into that prophetic reality as long as we are chasing after faddish teachings or personality-exalting, successful ministries. If the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then the Church has a responsibility to be sure that the God we are worshiping and proclaiming is the same as the God that the prophets and apostles of the Scriptures heralded. The cosmic view of the prophets revolved around God Himself, and if He is not being proclaimed as He has revealed Himself, we are in grave danger of falling into a pit with the other blind guides of our generation.
Could it be that with all of our teachings on the prophetic, all of our conferences on the prophetic, all of our insights of prophetic ministry, that most of us have yet to come into the kind of union with the Lord that produced the men who became foundational for our faith? I am thankful for every genuine furtherance of the work of the Spirit in recent years, but my heart is crying out for the fullness of Christ. I know there is a greater love, a greater sense of the fear of the Lord, a higher place of abandonment to His heart. O, for a greater vision of God Himself! The world is perishing for want of true servants who have come out from the holy place, proclaiming the truth of God with incandescent hearts!
“I would choose to see the brightness of the heavenly things, although their lightning-glory leave me blind henceforth to any earthly glow; and I would hear but once the voice of God Almighty sweep in thunder from His Throne, although from hence mine ear be deaf to the sweet trembling chime of this world’s music. I had rather stand a prophet of my God, with all the thrills of trembling, which must shake the heart of one who in earth’s garments, in the vesture frail of flesh and blood, is called to minister as seraphs do with fire- than bear the palm of any other triumph.” -Unknown author, quoted by Oswald Chambers
The Lord is jealous to mold and fashion a prophetic people, walking in the joy of the Lord and the brightness of His holiness. We need to be staggered and awakened from our fairy-tale paradigms, and brought into the revelation of God, and His coming Kingdom. Prophets will bring this necessary jolt.
The prophets of old foresaw a coming King, a Judgment approaching, and a glory covering the earth as a result. They wept in compassion over their own people, who could usually be found straying from the primacy of worship and the hope of His calling. They cried out in warning, with a merciful identification and an intercessory burden. They were glowing witnesses during days of unrighteousness. What will we be in our generation, friends?
If the Lord is jealous to raise up a prophetic Church that loves with His love, is holy as He is holy, and extends His Kingdom to Israel and the nations, how can we give ourselves to any other pursuit, whether secular or religious?
God Himself is coming, saints, and we are not prepared for His coming. Israel is not yet ready. The nations are drastically ill-prepared. When He comes, He will come as Judge and Saviour. There will be terrible judgment and devastation, nations rising up against nations as never before. To the degree that the Lord has a Church of this quality in the earth, to that degree will salvation, revival, and mercy break forth in the midst of the upheaval.
We have a prophetic call to weep and pray, to give ourselves to time in worship and in the Scriptures. We have a call to purify our hands and cleanse our hearts from the sin and pride of this age. We have a responsibility to speak the truth to one another in love. We have a mandate to proclaim His Gospel in every dark place.
What kind of view are you walking in? Does your vision for life consist of a hollow 60 to 70 years of pursuing your own pleasures and wants? Is your vision for ministry a mere hope for success in the worldy sense, accolades from family, friends and colleagues? Or have you been stricken with the majesty of God and brought into the heavenly vision?
We need something more than a Christian T-Shirt and a tract, friends. We need something more than an impeccable model for Church structure. We need something more than impressive buildings and state-of- the-art equipment. We need a cosmic view. We need to see what the prophets of old saw. They saw the beauty and holiness of God. They had glimpses of His coming Kingdom, and they came into the realization that the earth was tottering under the weight of sin, pride and rebellion. Out of the revelation of God and His coming, they cried out for mercy. If we are not crying out as they did, it’s because we are not seeing as they saw.
JUDGMENT IS NOT THE FINAL WORD
As we come into prophetic reality, we will see mercy and salvation released in our day. And at the end of this age, we will see the ultimate release of righteousness and mercy when “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2. Thess. 1.7-8)
The cosmic view of the prophets did not end in the Judgment. They were possessed by a Divine hope. Judgment, trouble, and turbulence do mark the end of the age, but tribulation is not the final word. The prophetical visions in Scripture end in great glory, the permanent destruction of death, the removal of all sin and sickness, and the indestructible reality of a New Heaven and New Earth inhabited by God Himself!
The prophets panted for this day, the apostles yearned for His return, and they all labored for an expression of that future Kingdom in their present experiences. What a view to abide in. What a hope! What a worship-inducing vision. The hour is later than we know, and the King of Glory is coming. Are you content to live outside of this cosmic view? Are you treating life with a holy sobriety? Do you have a cry for the fullness of Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom in the nations, or are you content with something less?
“The Bible stirs up an intense and unquenchable hope that an age of time is coming on this earth, inconceivably wonderful, when all that we have ever dreamed will fade into silly fancies beside the reality.” -Oswald Chambers
O God, restore the reality of the prophetic vision. We want to more actively join the company of these foundational servants. Let our lives burn with the same passion, brim with the same hope, tremble with the same awe, and love with the same heart. Bring about the recovery of prophetic reality, and let your Name be glorified in Jerusalem, and in the cities of the earth.
Full Version: The Prophet’s Cosmic View
Excellent work
All true to the last small detail
All true to the last small detail
QUOTE (Adam Weishaupt @ Nov 16 2008, 08:21 PM) 
The Prophet’s Cosmic View
By Bryan Purtle
The prophets of Israel were remarkable men who had been seized by the hand of the Lord and brought into a cosmic view of time and eternity, righteousness and rebellion, mercy and judgment, Kings and nations, and the stunning responsibility of speaking on behalf of the One on the Throne.
In 1962, Abraham Heschel’s classic two-volume set “The Prophets” hit the printing presses. It was a work which started out as his Ph.D. thesis in German, and eventually grew into book form, becoming a widely heralded masterpiece on the subject of prophetism. One of the questions he asked in the first volume is looming large in my spirit at this writing, and in an age where there are many boasts and testimonies of prophetic activity in the Church of the West, I think it behooves us to consider it.
Heschel’s question, inspired by long and laborious perusals of the oracles of the Hebrew Bible, was this:
“What manner of man is the prophet?”
Many have asked this question in recent decades, and some have sought to give answers. Indeed, movements and ministries have been raised up with men bearing the title of “prophet”. You can find movements which place the bulk of their emphasis on supernatural activity, in terms of visions, dreams, interpretations and personal words of prophecy. You can find others who say that a prophet is basically one who preaches a message of repentance. Both views have valuable aspects, and should not be thrown out as a whole. There are many variations of these two emphases, and the opinions are often shared with great feeling and concern.
While Eph. 2.20 refers primarily to the apostles and prophets of the Scriptures, it’s clear that without these kinds of foundational servants the Church is going to be severely hindered from coming into the fullness of God. It is most likely to go through unfortunate cycles of backsliding, leaning on the arm of the flesh, and functioning in a mode of life that is far removed from the reality that the Lord has intended and desired. Unless we see the formation and emergence of the kinds of servants that Paul saw as crucial for the Church’s maturity, we run the risk of celebrating all kinds of external ministry successes that will crumble in the day of trial, having been built on faulty foundations.
It is vital, therefore, that we revive the question, “What manner of man is the prophet?”
I am suspicious of the great chasm that has been fixed between the role of the OT prophet and the role of the NT prophet. The idea that a NT prophet has an entirely different ministry, one of edification and encouragement, is a distortion of the overarching testimony of the Scriptures. It is my contention that we have done with the prophet what we have done with the Lord Himself. We have interpreted the prophet’s role and nature based on our experience, or based on what best meets our present satisfaction. The fact that we have fashioned our own ideas of prophetic ministry is evidenced by the fact that so many believers who are boasting prophetic activity are virtually non-literate, uninterested and unfamiliar with the words of the Prophets of Scripture.
Many have seen Israel’s prophets as the old order of prophetic ministry, but some elements of the “new order” that have been presented seem to me to run contrary with the Spirit and stature of everything prophetic in both testaments. We have so little written in the NT of prophetic ministry that it is difficult to be as specific as many have sought to be in recent times. Even so, the overall view of the Spirit and nature of prophetic work has not changed in the NT, as I see it. The prophet’s ministry is one of recovery and restoration, calling his hearers away from self-absorption, deception and apostasy, and back to God Himself, back to righteous living, back to love and humility, back to reality.
Little is said of Agabus and Silas in terms of prophetic function, but we see the greatest Prophet, Jesus Himself, in remarkable breadth in the Gospels. We see John the prophet’s experience, and the message he is called to convey over the course of 22 chapters in Revelation. These are New Covenant prophets in the highest sense, and the thrust of their ministry and message is the same as that of the OT prophets. The revelation of God and the message of His Kingdom has only deepened and become more pronounced. Their message is not contrary to the that of the OT prophets, it is the fulfillment and fuller proclamation of the same vision and view. Why should it be? Jesus is the Eternal One who has never changed, and John was encountering the same God that the OT prophets encountered! NT prophetic ministry flows in a continuum with the OT prophets, but it presents more clearly and more fully the heart and Kingdom of God.
I am therefore dubious about an idea or expression of prophetic ministry that runs against the grain of the revelation of God already given in the Scriptures. If we have thousands of believers acquainted with prophetic ministry who consider the words of Israel’s prophets to be somehow “old-hat” or irrelevant to us, then what are we tending towards? If Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, then could it be that the idea of NT prophets replacing OT prophetical stature and function is erroneous and even a gateway to eventual deception? If our idea of any ministry removes or lessens the sense of God that the early prophets and apostles conveyed, should we not raise a cry?
The prophets of Israel had a cosmic view, which means that they had been lifted above the wisdom and counsel of their contemporaries and brought into a revelation of the government and Kingdom of God. They saw beyond the tangible, past the immediate, and through the veneer that most of their friends and neighbors were content to hide behind. They could no longer “go with the flow” of material pursuits, religious pomp, or any other idea of life which robbed them of the presence and heart of the Holy One of Israel. This marked them out as different.
They were distinguished from the religious functionaries of their day because they communicated a word and vision of God as He is, and not as men had fancied Him to be.
The great issue of history is that men have not been willing to receive God as He has revealed Himself. They have been offended at Him, unwilling to surrender their lives to His leadership. They have loved pride when He delights in humility. They have loved hate when He delights in compassion. They have loved sin when He delights in righteousness. They have loved unequal weights and measures when He desires truth in the inmost parts.
The world and its systems is perpetuated and carried along by a pursuit of freedom, pleasure, and self-gratification that is the antithesis of the Lord’s intention for creation. The world is content to live in a pipe-dream. It is happy with the fantasy. “Ignorance is bliss,” they say. The prophet comes to yank the wool from our eyes. He is a holy remembrancer, calling us back to reality and truth, dashing our self-centric dreams to holy desert grounds, where we are compelled by fear and awe to remove our sandals. We see with wide eyes and dropped jaws that our opinions and rights are the expression of the most despicable kind of presumption. Our feet are bared, and we fall prostrate. We can not proceed to walk in the same way any longer.
Here are some of Heschel’s thoughts on the manner of the prophet:
“While others are intoxicated with the here and now, the prophet has a vision of an end. The prophet is human, yet he employs notes one octave too high for our ears. He experiences moments that defy our understanding. He is …an assaulter of the mind. Often his words begin to burn where conscience ends. The prophet is an iconoclast, challenging the apparently holy, revered, and awesome. Beliefs cherished as certainties, institutions endowed with supreme sanctity, he exposes as scandalous pretensions.
The prophets must have been shattered by some cataclysmic experience in order to be able to shatter others. The words of the prophet are stern, sour, stinging. But behind his austerity is love and compassion for mankind.
Others may suffer from the terror of cosmic aloneness, the prophet is overwhelmed by the grandeur of the divine presence. He is incapable of isolating the world. There is an interaction between man and God which to disregard is an act of insolence. Isolation is a fairy tale.
…The prophet’s word is a scream in the night. While the world is at ease and asleep, the prophet feels the blast from heaven.
…the purpose of prophecy is to conquer callousness, to change the inner man as well as to revolutionize history.
It is embarrassing to be a prophet. There are so many pretenders, predicting peace and prosperity, offering cheerful words, adding strength to self-reliance, while the prophet predicts disaster, pestilence, agony, and destruction.” (The Prophets Vol. I, A. Heschel; Harper Colophon Books, 1962)
The prophet of God is a broken man; one who has been devastated at the plight of the nations. He has a “fierce loyalty” to the Lord, and his heart is shattered from the realization that the God of holiness and beauty is being neglected while men and their often petty systems are being exalted and celebrated. When the Name of God is denigrated, disrespected, or misappropriated, the prophet’s heart burns with a jealousy for the restoration of true worship.
The prophet has a cosmic view, a heavenly vision, for He has encountered the God who transcends our prepackaged categories and preferences. He has come to know the Lord as He is, and His heart cannot be satisfied until the ones to whom he has been called have come into that intimate knowledge themselves. This is why the prophet is foundational.
The prophet is the bearer of the thoughts and words of God Himself. He is an earthen vessel, radically connected to the society that surrounds him, yet conveying and communicating a wisdom and reality that the common man and the frivolous religionist have not been willing to see and hear. He is among the people, identifying with them in mercy. He is not an aloof, self-righteous pietist. He is an awakener, using words and tears to remind us how God really feels and thinks. He lives in the world of God. He has been converted from carnality, broken from his arrogance, severed from self-sufficiency. He introduces us to God’s world, the heavenly Kingdom, and everything depends upon whether we casually receive his word, reject it, or take it into the deepest parts of our hearts and lives.
The prophet is not a self-consciously dramatic character, doing what he thinks prophets do in attempts at filling a role or office. A prophet is a God-fashioned, God-intoxicated, God-inspired man with a cosmic view of time and eternity. He sees beyond the mundaneness of everyday affairs, the buzz of modern politicking, the pull of fashion and entertainment, and any man-centered attempts at ministry. He is not inflated by flattery, and he has learned to rejoice when opposed. He realizes that he is bearing a Kingdom view which is of utmost value to his hearers. Indeed, life and death hang on the words that he proclaims.
He is not a showman, boasting of a title or inwardly aching for religious fame. Nor is he a grouchy man, putting on some kind of an archaic garb and spiritual aura with hopes that he might remind us of Moses. He does not have to try at being “prophetic.” There is nothing self-conscious about a foundational servant of the Lord. They are not speaking on behalf of their opinions or the lifting up of their reputations. They have been stricken with a vision of the majestic One, and they speak out of that reality.
I wonder why we have heard so much about prophets, why people will flock by the thousands to conferences and events in hopes of receiving a “personal prophetic word”, when so few have been willing to crack open the Scriptures to hear from the men whom the Lord Jesus valued as prophets. I’m not discounting the genuine works of the Spirit that we see in many circles. I’m asking some serious questions here. Could it be that we have in many ways made our own God, and have not been willing to receive Him as He is? If we are willing to chase men who call themselves prophets, and who have the latest insights and revelations which bring us a positive lift without dealing with the issue of sin, then who are we really hearing from? What manner of man is the prophet, and what manner of a God is he presenting and proclaiming?
I will likely be accused of discouraging the prophetic gifts by asking questions like this, but that is not my intention. We need to “eagerly desire” the gifts, and I have pursued the Lord for their increase in the church for over a decade. But I believe these questions are crucial for our future witness and maturity. If what we have known as prophetic has not brought us into the same consciousness, the same trembling, the same holiness, the same cosmic view that the prophets of Israel and the apostles of the New Testament came into, what can we say of its veracity? Is it the same prophetic reality?
Perhaps a measure of blessing comes as a result of many of these meetings and expressions. I am certain that the Lord is working in many ways through various expressions in the Body, and that healing and blessing have come to many in every setting where Jesus is being lifted up. Perhaps a facet of the Lord’s heart is received, and I don’t want to discount or disregard that. But where is the sense of the fear of the Lord? How can the Church go on with hundreds of pastors stepping down from ministry a month due to sexual sin? How can we blend in so successfully with a world that is moving at breakneck speed toward eternal judgment?
I am convinced that the stature and call of a prophet has not changed with the New Covenant, it has only deepened. Christ has become the center and fulfillment. The Gift of Prophecy has become available to all saints, not just to a select few.
Moses’ cry that all God’s people would were prophets has become a brighter possibility, but we will not come into that prophetic reality if we are unwilling to receive Him as King, Father, and Judge. We will not come into that prophetic reality as long as we are chasing after faddish teachings or personality-exalting, successful ministries. If the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then the Church has a responsibility to be sure that the God we are worshiping and proclaiming is the same as the God that the prophets and apostles of the Scriptures heralded. The cosmic view of the prophets revolved around God Himself, and if He is not being proclaimed as He has revealed Himself, we are in grave danger of falling into a pit with the other blind guides of our generation.
Could it be that with all of our teachings on the prophetic, all of our conferences on the prophetic, all of our insights of prophetic ministry, that most of us have yet to come into the kind of union with the Lord that produced the men who became foundational for our faith? I am thankful for every genuine furtherance of the work of the Spirit in recent years, but my heart is crying out for the fullness of Christ. I know there is a greater love, a greater sense of the fear of the Lord, a higher place of abandonment to His heart. O, for a greater vision of God Himself! The world is perishing for want of true servants who have come out from the holy place, proclaiming the truth of God with incandescent hearts!
“I would choose to see the brightness of the heavenly things, although their lightning-glory leave me blind henceforth to any earthly glow; and I would hear but once the voice of God Almighty sweep in thunder from His Throne, although from hence mine ear be deaf to the sweet trembling chime of this world’s music. I had rather stand a prophet of my God, with all the thrills of trembling, which must shake the heart of one who in earth’s garments, in the vesture frail of flesh and blood, is called to minister as seraphs do with fire- than bear the palm of any other triumph.” -Unknown author, quoted by Oswald Chambers
The Lord is jealous to mold and fashion a prophetic people, walking in the joy of the Lord and the brightness of His holiness. We need to be staggered and awakened from our fairy-tale paradigms, and brought into the revelation of God, and His coming Kingdom. Prophets will bring this necessary jolt.
The prophets of old foresaw a coming King, a Judgment approaching, and a glory covering the earth as a result. They wept in compassion over their own people, who could usually be found straying from the primacy of worship and the hope of His calling. They cried out in warning, with a merciful identification and an intercessory burden. They were glowing witnesses during days of unrighteousness. What will we be in our generation, friends?
If the Lord is jealous to raise up a prophetic Church that loves with His love, is holy as He is holy, and extends His Kingdom to Israel and the nations, how can we give ourselves to any other pursuit, whether secular or religious?
God Himself is coming, saints, and we are not prepared for His coming. Israel is not yet ready. The nations are drastically ill-prepared. When He comes, He will come as Judge and Saviour. There will be terrible judgment and devastation, nations rising up against nations as never before. To the degree that the Lord has a Church of this quality in the earth, to that degree will salvation, revival, and mercy break forth in the midst of the upheaval.
We have a prophetic call to weep and pray, to give ourselves to time in worship and in the Scriptures. We have a call to purify our hands and cleanse our hearts from the sin and pride of this age. We have a responsibility to speak the truth to one another in love. We have a mandate to proclaim His Gospel in every dark place.
What kind of view are you walking in? Does your vision for life consist of a hollow 60 to 70 years of pursuing your own pleasures and wants? Is your vision for ministry a mere hope for success in the worldy sense, accolades from family, friends and colleagues? Or have you been stricken with the majesty of God and brought into the heavenly vision?
We need something more than a Christian T-Shirt and a tract, friends. We need something more than an impeccable model for Church structure. We need something more than impressive buildings and state-of- the-art equipment. We need a cosmic view. We need to see what the prophets of old saw. They saw the beauty and holiness of God. They had glimpses of His coming Kingdom, and they came into the realization that the earth was tottering under the weight of sin, pride and rebellion. Out of the revelation of God and His coming, they cried out for mercy. If we are not crying out as they did, it’s because we are not seeing as they saw.
JUDGMENT IS NOT THE FINAL WORD
As we come into prophetic reality, we will see mercy and salvation released in our day. And at the end of this age, we will see the ultimate release of righteousness and mercy when “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2. Thess. 1.7-8)
The cosmic view of the prophets did not end in the Judgment. They were possessed by a Divine hope. Judgment, trouble, and turbulence do mark the end of the age, but tribulation is not the final word. The prophetical visions in Scripture end in great glory, the permanent destruction of death, the removal of all sin and sickness, and the indestructible reality of a New Heaven and New Earth inhabited by God Himself!
The prophets panted for this day, the apostles yearned for His return, and they all labored for an expression of that future Kingdom in their present experiences. What a view to abide in. What a hope! What a worship-inducing vision. The hour is later than we know, and the King of Glory is coming. Are you content to live outside of this cosmic view? Are you treating life with a holy sobriety? Do you have a cry for the fullness of Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom in the nations, or are you content with something less?
“The Bible stirs up an intense and unquenchable hope that an age of time is coming on this earth, inconceivably wonderful, when all that we have ever dreamed will fade into silly fancies beside the reality.” -Oswald Chambers
O God, restore the reality of the prophetic vision. We want to more actively join the company of these foundational servants. Let our lives burn with the same passion, brim with the same hope, tremble with the same awe, and love with the same heart. Bring about the recovery of prophetic reality, and let your Name be glorified in Jerusalem, and in the cities of the earth.
By Bryan Purtle
The prophets of Israel were remarkable men who had been seized by the hand of the Lord and brought into a cosmic view of time and eternity, righteousness and rebellion, mercy and judgment, Kings and nations, and the stunning responsibility of speaking on behalf of the One on the Throne.
In 1962, Abraham Heschel’s classic two-volume set “The Prophets” hit the printing presses. It was a work which started out as his Ph.D. thesis in German, and eventually grew into book form, becoming a widely heralded masterpiece on the subject of prophetism. One of the questions he asked in the first volume is looming large in my spirit at this writing, and in an age where there are many boasts and testimonies of prophetic activity in the Church of the West, I think it behooves us to consider it.
Heschel’s question, inspired by long and laborious perusals of the oracles of the Hebrew Bible, was this:
“What manner of man is the prophet?”
Many have asked this question in recent decades, and some have sought to give answers. Indeed, movements and ministries have been raised up with men bearing the title of “prophet”. You can find movements which place the bulk of their emphasis on supernatural activity, in terms of visions, dreams, interpretations and personal words of prophecy. You can find others who say that a prophet is basically one who preaches a message of repentance. Both views have valuable aspects, and should not be thrown out as a whole. There are many variations of these two emphases, and the opinions are often shared with great feeling and concern.
While Eph. 2.20 refers primarily to the apostles and prophets of the Scriptures, it’s clear that without these kinds of foundational servants the Church is going to be severely hindered from coming into the fullness of God. It is most likely to go through unfortunate cycles of backsliding, leaning on the arm of the flesh, and functioning in a mode of life that is far removed from the reality that the Lord has intended and desired. Unless we see the formation and emergence of the kinds of servants that Paul saw as crucial for the Church’s maturity, we run the risk of celebrating all kinds of external ministry successes that will crumble in the day of trial, having been built on faulty foundations.
It is vital, therefore, that we revive the question, “What manner of man is the prophet?”
I am suspicious of the great chasm that has been fixed between the role of the OT prophet and the role of the NT prophet. The idea that a NT prophet has an entirely different ministry, one of edification and encouragement, is a distortion of the overarching testimony of the Scriptures. It is my contention that we have done with the prophet what we have done with the Lord Himself. We have interpreted the prophet’s role and nature based on our experience, or based on what best meets our present satisfaction. The fact that we have fashioned our own ideas of prophetic ministry is evidenced by the fact that so many believers who are boasting prophetic activity are virtually non-literate, uninterested and unfamiliar with the words of the Prophets of Scripture.
Many have seen Israel’s prophets as the old order of prophetic ministry, but some elements of the “new order” that have been presented seem to me to run contrary with the Spirit and stature of everything prophetic in both testaments. We have so little written in the NT of prophetic ministry that it is difficult to be as specific as many have sought to be in recent times. Even so, the overall view of the Spirit and nature of prophetic work has not changed in the NT, as I see it. The prophet’s ministry is one of recovery and restoration, calling his hearers away from self-absorption, deception and apostasy, and back to God Himself, back to righteous living, back to love and humility, back to reality.
Little is said of Agabus and Silas in terms of prophetic function, but we see the greatest Prophet, Jesus Himself, in remarkable breadth in the Gospels. We see John the prophet’s experience, and the message he is called to convey over the course of 22 chapters in Revelation. These are New Covenant prophets in the highest sense, and the thrust of their ministry and message is the same as that of the OT prophets. The revelation of God and the message of His Kingdom has only deepened and become more pronounced. Their message is not contrary to the that of the OT prophets, it is the fulfillment and fuller proclamation of the same vision and view. Why should it be? Jesus is the Eternal One who has never changed, and John was encountering the same God that the OT prophets encountered! NT prophetic ministry flows in a continuum with the OT prophets, but it presents more clearly and more fully the heart and Kingdom of God.
I am therefore dubious about an idea or expression of prophetic ministry that runs against the grain of the revelation of God already given in the Scriptures. If we have thousands of believers acquainted with prophetic ministry who consider the words of Israel’s prophets to be somehow “old-hat” or irrelevant to us, then what are we tending towards? If Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, then could it be that the idea of NT prophets replacing OT prophetical stature and function is erroneous and even a gateway to eventual deception? If our idea of any ministry removes or lessens the sense of God that the early prophets and apostles conveyed, should we not raise a cry?
The prophets of Israel had a cosmic view, which means that they had been lifted above the wisdom and counsel of their contemporaries and brought into a revelation of the government and Kingdom of God. They saw beyond the tangible, past the immediate, and through the veneer that most of their friends and neighbors were content to hide behind. They could no longer “go with the flow” of material pursuits, religious pomp, or any other idea of life which robbed them of the presence and heart of the Holy One of Israel. This marked them out as different.
They were distinguished from the religious functionaries of their day because they communicated a word and vision of God as He is, and not as men had fancied Him to be.
The great issue of history is that men have not been willing to receive God as He has revealed Himself. They have been offended at Him, unwilling to surrender their lives to His leadership. They have loved pride when He delights in humility. They have loved hate when He delights in compassion. They have loved sin when He delights in righteousness. They have loved unequal weights and measures when He desires truth in the inmost parts.
The world and its systems is perpetuated and carried along by a pursuit of freedom, pleasure, and self-gratification that is the antithesis of the Lord’s intention for creation. The world is content to live in a pipe-dream. It is happy with the fantasy. “Ignorance is bliss,” they say. The prophet comes to yank the wool from our eyes. He is a holy remembrancer, calling us back to reality and truth, dashing our self-centric dreams to holy desert grounds, where we are compelled by fear and awe to remove our sandals. We see with wide eyes and dropped jaws that our opinions and rights are the expression of the most despicable kind of presumption. Our feet are bared, and we fall prostrate. We can not proceed to walk in the same way any longer.
Here are some of Heschel’s thoughts on the manner of the prophet:
“While others are intoxicated with the here and now, the prophet has a vision of an end. The prophet is human, yet he employs notes one octave too high for our ears. He experiences moments that defy our understanding. He is …an assaulter of the mind. Often his words begin to burn where conscience ends. The prophet is an iconoclast, challenging the apparently holy, revered, and awesome. Beliefs cherished as certainties, institutions endowed with supreme sanctity, he exposes as scandalous pretensions.
The prophets must have been shattered by some cataclysmic experience in order to be able to shatter others. The words of the prophet are stern, sour, stinging. But behind his austerity is love and compassion for mankind.
Others may suffer from the terror of cosmic aloneness, the prophet is overwhelmed by the grandeur of the divine presence. He is incapable of isolating the world. There is an interaction between man and God which to disregard is an act of insolence. Isolation is a fairy tale.
…The prophet’s word is a scream in the night. While the world is at ease and asleep, the prophet feels the blast from heaven.
…the purpose of prophecy is to conquer callousness, to change the inner man as well as to revolutionize history.
It is embarrassing to be a prophet. There are so many pretenders, predicting peace and prosperity, offering cheerful words, adding strength to self-reliance, while the prophet predicts disaster, pestilence, agony, and destruction.” (The Prophets Vol. I, A. Heschel; Harper Colophon Books, 1962)
The prophet of God is a broken man; one who has been devastated at the plight of the nations. He has a “fierce loyalty” to the Lord, and his heart is shattered from the realization that the God of holiness and beauty is being neglected while men and their often petty systems are being exalted and celebrated. When the Name of God is denigrated, disrespected, or misappropriated, the prophet’s heart burns with a jealousy for the restoration of true worship.
The prophet has a cosmic view, a heavenly vision, for He has encountered the God who transcends our prepackaged categories and preferences. He has come to know the Lord as He is, and His heart cannot be satisfied until the ones to whom he has been called have come into that intimate knowledge themselves. This is why the prophet is foundational.
The prophet is the bearer of the thoughts and words of God Himself. He is an earthen vessel, radically connected to the society that surrounds him, yet conveying and communicating a wisdom and reality that the common man and the frivolous religionist have not been willing to see and hear. He is among the people, identifying with them in mercy. He is not an aloof, self-righteous pietist. He is an awakener, using words and tears to remind us how God really feels and thinks. He lives in the world of God. He has been converted from carnality, broken from his arrogance, severed from self-sufficiency. He introduces us to God’s world, the heavenly Kingdom, and everything depends upon whether we casually receive his word, reject it, or take it into the deepest parts of our hearts and lives.
The prophet is not a self-consciously dramatic character, doing what he thinks prophets do in attempts at filling a role or office. A prophet is a God-fashioned, God-intoxicated, God-inspired man with a cosmic view of time and eternity. He sees beyond the mundaneness of everyday affairs, the buzz of modern politicking, the pull of fashion and entertainment, and any man-centered attempts at ministry. He is not inflated by flattery, and he has learned to rejoice when opposed. He realizes that he is bearing a Kingdom view which is of utmost value to his hearers. Indeed, life and death hang on the words that he proclaims.
He is not a showman, boasting of a title or inwardly aching for religious fame. Nor is he a grouchy man, putting on some kind of an archaic garb and spiritual aura with hopes that he might remind us of Moses. He does not have to try at being “prophetic.” There is nothing self-conscious about a foundational servant of the Lord. They are not speaking on behalf of their opinions or the lifting up of their reputations. They have been stricken with a vision of the majestic One, and they speak out of that reality.
I wonder why we have heard so much about prophets, why people will flock by the thousands to conferences and events in hopes of receiving a “personal prophetic word”, when so few have been willing to crack open the Scriptures to hear from the men whom the Lord Jesus valued as prophets. I’m not discounting the genuine works of the Spirit that we see in many circles. I’m asking some serious questions here. Could it be that we have in many ways made our own God, and have not been willing to receive Him as He is? If we are willing to chase men who call themselves prophets, and who have the latest insights and revelations which bring us a positive lift without dealing with the issue of sin, then who are we really hearing from? What manner of man is the prophet, and what manner of a God is he presenting and proclaiming?
I will likely be accused of discouraging the prophetic gifts by asking questions like this, but that is not my intention. We need to “eagerly desire” the gifts, and I have pursued the Lord for their increase in the church for over a decade. But I believe these questions are crucial for our future witness and maturity. If what we have known as prophetic has not brought us into the same consciousness, the same trembling, the same holiness, the same cosmic view that the prophets of Israel and the apostles of the New Testament came into, what can we say of its veracity? Is it the same prophetic reality?
Perhaps a measure of blessing comes as a result of many of these meetings and expressions. I am certain that the Lord is working in many ways through various expressions in the Body, and that healing and blessing have come to many in every setting where Jesus is being lifted up. Perhaps a facet of the Lord’s heart is received, and I don’t want to discount or disregard that. But where is the sense of the fear of the Lord? How can the Church go on with hundreds of pastors stepping down from ministry a month due to sexual sin? How can we blend in so successfully with a world that is moving at breakneck speed toward eternal judgment?
I am convinced that the stature and call of a prophet has not changed with the New Covenant, it has only deepened. Christ has become the center and fulfillment. The Gift of Prophecy has become available to all saints, not just to a select few.
Moses’ cry that all God’s people would were prophets has become a brighter possibility, but we will not come into that prophetic reality if we are unwilling to receive Him as King, Father, and Judge. We will not come into that prophetic reality as long as we are chasing after faddish teachings or personality-exalting, successful ministries. If the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then the Church has a responsibility to be sure that the God we are worshiping and proclaiming is the same as the God that the prophets and apostles of the Scriptures heralded. The cosmic view of the prophets revolved around God Himself, and if He is not being proclaimed as He has revealed Himself, we are in grave danger of falling into a pit with the other blind guides of our generation.
Could it be that with all of our teachings on the prophetic, all of our conferences on the prophetic, all of our insights of prophetic ministry, that most of us have yet to come into the kind of union with the Lord that produced the men who became foundational for our faith? I am thankful for every genuine furtherance of the work of the Spirit in recent years, but my heart is crying out for the fullness of Christ. I know there is a greater love, a greater sense of the fear of the Lord, a higher place of abandonment to His heart. O, for a greater vision of God Himself! The world is perishing for want of true servants who have come out from the holy place, proclaiming the truth of God with incandescent hearts!
“I would choose to see the brightness of the heavenly things, although their lightning-glory leave me blind henceforth to any earthly glow; and I would hear but once the voice of God Almighty sweep in thunder from His Throne, although from hence mine ear be deaf to the sweet trembling chime of this world’s music. I had rather stand a prophet of my God, with all the thrills of trembling, which must shake the heart of one who in earth’s garments, in the vesture frail of flesh and blood, is called to minister as seraphs do with fire- than bear the palm of any other triumph.” -Unknown author, quoted by Oswald Chambers
The Lord is jealous to mold and fashion a prophetic people, walking in the joy of the Lord and the brightness of His holiness. We need to be staggered and awakened from our fairy-tale paradigms, and brought into the revelation of God, and His coming Kingdom. Prophets will bring this necessary jolt.
The prophets of old foresaw a coming King, a Judgment approaching, and a glory covering the earth as a result. They wept in compassion over their own people, who could usually be found straying from the primacy of worship and the hope of His calling. They cried out in warning, with a merciful identification and an intercessory burden. They were glowing witnesses during days of unrighteousness. What will we be in our generation, friends?
If the Lord is jealous to raise up a prophetic Church that loves with His love, is holy as He is holy, and extends His Kingdom to Israel and the nations, how can we give ourselves to any other pursuit, whether secular or religious?
God Himself is coming, saints, and we are not prepared for His coming. Israel is not yet ready. The nations are drastically ill-prepared. When He comes, He will come as Judge and Saviour. There will be terrible judgment and devastation, nations rising up against nations as never before. To the degree that the Lord has a Church of this quality in the earth, to that degree will salvation, revival, and mercy break forth in the midst of the upheaval.
We have a prophetic call to weep and pray, to give ourselves to time in worship and in the Scriptures. We have a call to purify our hands and cleanse our hearts from the sin and pride of this age. We have a responsibility to speak the truth to one another in love. We have a mandate to proclaim His Gospel in every dark place.
What kind of view are you walking in? Does your vision for life consist of a hollow 60 to 70 years of pursuing your own pleasures and wants? Is your vision for ministry a mere hope for success in the worldy sense, accolades from family, friends and colleagues? Or have you been stricken with the majesty of God and brought into the heavenly vision?
We need something more than a Christian T-Shirt and a tract, friends. We need something more than an impeccable model for Church structure. We need something more than impressive buildings and state-of- the-art equipment. We need a cosmic view. We need to see what the prophets of old saw. They saw the beauty and holiness of God. They had glimpses of His coming Kingdom, and they came into the realization that the earth was tottering under the weight of sin, pride and rebellion. Out of the revelation of God and His coming, they cried out for mercy. If we are not crying out as they did, it’s because we are not seeing as they saw.
JUDGMENT IS NOT THE FINAL WORD
As we come into prophetic reality, we will see mercy and salvation released in our day. And at the end of this age, we will see the ultimate release of righteousness and mercy when “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2. Thess. 1.7-8)
The cosmic view of the prophets did not end in the Judgment. They were possessed by a Divine hope. Judgment, trouble, and turbulence do mark the end of the age, but tribulation is not the final word. The prophetical visions in Scripture end in great glory, the permanent destruction of death, the removal of all sin and sickness, and the indestructible reality of a New Heaven and New Earth inhabited by God Himself!
The prophets panted for this day, the apostles yearned for His return, and they all labored for an expression of that future Kingdom in their present experiences. What a view to abide in. What a hope! What a worship-inducing vision. The hour is later than we know, and the King of Glory is coming. Are you content to live outside of this cosmic view? Are you treating life with a holy sobriety? Do you have a cry for the fullness of Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom in the nations, or are you content with something less?
“The Bible stirs up an intense and unquenchable hope that an age of time is coming on this earth, inconceivably wonderful, when all that we have ever dreamed will fade into silly fancies beside the reality.” -Oswald Chambers
O God, restore the reality of the prophetic vision. We want to more actively join the company of these foundational servants. Let our lives burn with the same passion, brim with the same hope, tremble with the same awe, and love with the same heart. Bring about the recovery of prophetic reality, and let your Name be glorified in Jerusalem, and in the cities of the earth.
Thanks for posting this.
The feeling I get from this is my own longing and yearning, not necessarily for prophetic gifting, but a longing for relationship with the God who made me...personal and intimate relationship with my creator that far exceeds anything that I could possibly want or desire in this lifetime. More than this... a desire to be in His glorious presence and knowing Him and being known by Him.
Repentance from all sin and walking in holiness is a first and necessary step to this, and is my motto. I find that if I remain in that state of mind, (and I choose to remain in this state of mind) that I shall always be humble, and contrite and broken in my spirit before Him; I don't want to know anything else. This is not to say that I do not rejoice and worship and praise God in the Joy and fellowship in the Holy Spirit...I find that when I worship and love God in my spirit that I am transformed into His image.
I choose to remain close to Him and to seek Him out. He has visited me a number of times now, and has given me of His Holy Spirit, the communion and revelation of which is the greatest gift and reward in this life; I know there are others out there that are of the same mind as I myself. Communion and fellowship with God is the gift of eternal life.
It is not a lonely walk that we walk...we have the joy of our salvation as the Lord has promised...the communion and comfort and joy of the Holy Spirit of God. What is it that I have given up in this life that I have not been recompensed a thousand fold! ...and in the end I shall be transformed... Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. I confess the name of Jesus that He is the King of glory...my King...the lover of my soul.
QUOTE
It is embarrassing to be a prophet. There are so many pretenders, predicting peace and prosperity, offering cheerful words, adding strength to self-reliance, while the prophet predicts disaster, pestilence, agony, and destruction.” (The Prophets Vol. I, A. Heschel; Harper Colophon Books, 1962)
Personally, I find it most comforting when a true prophet sees beyond what is thought fashionable and speaks to unpopular issues that are considered to be "negative" and therefore "off-limits". It proves that God is still moving to guide by His Spirit and provide giftings that supply His churches with genuine correction and direction.This I see Him doing not harshly, but as a loving, caring Chief-Shepherd working through His trusted watchmen.
1Corinthians 14:3 "But he that prophesies, speaks to men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort."
True prophets find themselves speaking with an anointing that can annoy others who rely on human logic and academically acceptable forms of edification, exhortation, and comfort in their well-ordered regimes. Oftentimes an established denomination expects a predetermined formula to be followed within its meetings, and if the Holy Spirit shows up outside of this it is seen as a disruptive and disrespectful aberration, for which the offending party must be suitably berated, in some cases publicly, excessively, and without any private discussion.
Matthew 13:57 "And they were offended in Him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house."
True prophets know their messages will stir up opposition but do not allow fear of this to control them or dissuade them from acting in obedience when given a "green light" from the Holy Spirit.
1Corinthians 14:32 "And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets."
As shepherds watch over flocks, prophets watch out for foes and sound timely warnings which may not always be well received.
James 5:10 "Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience."
Here is one of my favorite prophecies:
Isaiah 51:3-8 "For the LORD will comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. (4) Hearken to me, my people; and give ear to me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. (5) My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on my arm shall they trust. (6) Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall become old like a garment, and its inhabitants shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. (7) Hearken to me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings. (8) For the moth shall eat them like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation."
Thanks for starting this thread, Adam.
truly, i appreciate these words too..
wanted to share with you, the picture and verse I have on my desktop.. it, too, is one of the promises I cling to! It is verse 5 of the scripture posted in the previous quote..
Only our God could promise such a glorious end...
“The Bible stirs up an intense and unquenchable hope that an age of time is coming on this earth, inconceivably wonderful, when all that we have ever dreamed will fade into silly fancies beside the reality.” -Oswald Chambers ... amen.. and AMEN!
wanted to share with you, the picture and verse I have on my desktop.. it, too, is one of the promises I cling to! It is verse 5 of the scripture posted in the previous quote..
Only our God could promise such a glorious end...
“The Bible stirs up an intense and unquenchable hope that an age of time is coming on this earth, inconceivably wonderful, when all that we have ever dreamed will fade into silly fancies beside the reality.” -Oswald Chambers ... amen.. and AMEN!
Thanks for reading this and replying, friends.
My pastor wrote it. I will forward your replys to him. He is a prophetic man in many ways.
There are so many self proclaimed "prophets" who proclaim so much judgement but do not unveil the reality of God and his true heart to us. This is false prophecy. This is powerless. God's sent prophets will always understand and proclaim God's end goal in mind, which is a glorious one.
My pastor wrote it. I will forward your replys to him. He is a prophetic man in many ways.
There are so many self proclaimed "prophets" who proclaim so much judgement but do not unveil the reality of God and his true heart to us. This is false prophecy. This is powerless. God's sent prophets will always understand and proclaim God's end goal in mind, which is a glorious one.
And I too give this a big AMEN! Thank you so much
zeetz
QUOTE (Adam Weishaupt @ Nov 17 2008, 05:34 PM)
Thanks for reading this and replying, friends.
My pastor wrote it. I will forward your replys to him. He is a prophetic man in many ways.
There are so many self proclaimed "prophets" who proclaim so much judgement but do not unveil the reality of God and his true heart to us. This is false prophecy. This is powerless. God's sent prophets will always understand and proclaim God's end goal in mind, which is a glorious one.
My pastor wrote it. I will forward your replys to him. He is a prophetic man in many ways.
There are so many self proclaimed "prophets" who proclaim so much judgement but do not unveil the reality of God and his true heart to us. This is false prophecy. This is powerless. God's sent prophets will always understand and proclaim God's end goal in mind, which is a glorious one.
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