The True Prophet of God
The world is seeking scientists. The Church is seeking scholars. But God is seeking
true prophets.
While
much in this day is made out toward God’s people fully entering
in the priesthood of all believers, and entering into becoming
the sons of God – God yearns, God hungers, and God seeks out
such that would become truly a prophetic people.
By this I do not mean a people upon which His Divine
Spirit would come from time to time to rest His foot and abide
for a few minutes, or perhaps for a few days if the wind is
blowing right, but a people in whom, He can take up permanent
residence.
Numbers 11:29 And Moses said
unto him, Enviest thou (Them;
Eldad and Medad ) for my sake? Would God (God’s
heart’s desire is) that all the LORD'S people were
prophets, and that the LORD would
(Could, with permanence) put His spirit upon them!
Even as there is a difference
between being kings and priests unto God and being one upon
whom the Divine Spirit of God can take up permanent residence
in, so there is a vast difference in being a prophet of God
and being the friend of God. This may seem to be a contradiction of terms,
but in scripture, among many of the prophets, few were called
the friend of God. Abraham
was one, Moses was one, David was one and Daniel was one.
Numbers
12:6-8 And
he said, Hear now my words: If there
be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto
him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
My servant Moses is not so, who is
faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth,
even apparently, and NOT in
dark speeches; (Dark
sayings or parables as I will speak to a prophet) and the similitude (Visage) of the LORD shall he (Moses) behold.(Which I will not show to a prophet)
And here we see here two
prophets of the Lord both are true prophets of God in whom His
Divine Spirit dwells, but the Lord does not speak to these two
prophets in the same manner, and neither does He choose to manifest
Himself to these two prophets in the same way. What is the difference
here? To one He speaks
in dreams and visions that are parables that contain dark or
hidden meaning and to another, He speaks mouth to mouth. – in
another place we are told that God spoke to Moses “Face
to face as a man speaketh to his Friend.”
Exodus 33:11 And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh
unto his friend. And (When) he
turned again into (His tent in)
the camp : His servant Joshua, the
son of Nun (Did not, For though he was) a young man,
(He) departed not out of the tabernacle. (But He laid before the Lord
even as the child Samuel did.)
And here we see also that
to these two prophets, true prophets of the Lord both of whom
God has placed His Divine Spirit thatHhe does not manifest,
show Himself, or reveal Himself in the same manner.
To one it is limited to God’s voice through various means
and to the other, God is pleased to manifest or reveal Himself
physically to them as he did to Abraham, Moses, David and Isaiah.
Genesis
18:1-3 And the LORD appeared (Bodily manifested Himself) unto him (Abraham) in the plains of Mamre:
as he (Abraham) sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; (In the garden, God bodily manifested
Himself to Adam and his wife in the cool of the day) And he (Abraham) lifted up his eyes and
looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them,
(Abraham visibly saw them without
dream or vision.) And
he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself
toward the ground, And said, My LORD,
if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray
thee, from thy servant: (The difference between Abraham
here and the rich young ruler, was that the rich young ruler
while running, bowing, and calling Christ master from a academic
standpoint –was one thing, one thing was different between the
two and this was on the issue of servant-hood.
Despite the young man’s outward actions and lip service,
the rich young ruler had heart trouble. He did not have the inward desire to become
Christ’s servant, but like all to many today, he only had a
desire to rule with Him. And
so when Christ spoke, His words were not a commandment and the
rich young ruler was simply able to walk away, and he probably
then went like many today to find themselves a preacher that
will tell him what he wanted to hear.)
Numbers 12:8 And the similitude (Bodily
Presence or Visage) of the LORD shall he (Moses) behold.
Exodus
33:19 And
He said, I will make all My goodness
(Bodily Presence) pass before thee, (Moses) and I will proclaim the name
of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
Psalm
27:13-14 I
had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the
LORD (Bodily Presence) in the land of the living. (And David continues here exhorting others as to how, in part,
they might also be able to see the Goodness of the Lord manifested
before them.) Wait on the LORD:
be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait,
I say, on the LORD.
Isaiah
6:1,5 In the year that king Uzziah
died I saw also the LORD (Bodily) sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
When speaking to the function of a true
prophet of God, it can be best described as the Lord seeking
scribes that will faithfully record His words alone, as opposed
to fiction writers that will add their own opinions, comments
and correct His words as they see fit. The first duty of the true prophet of God is
to see or hear clearly and to accurately record what they see
and hear, so that they might then be able to go forth to the
hedges and highways and speak with exactness that which the
Lord has spoken.
Jeremiah
24:1-3
And the LORD shewed (Unto) me, and, behold, (I
looked and there were) two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, -- One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are
first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty (Rotten) figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then said the LORD
unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very
good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are
so evil.
Here we see the Lord giving Jeremiah a spiritual
eye examination. As
part of the requirements of this test, Jeremiah had to concisely
speak back to Him that which he had seen. And because Jeremiah
did not novelize that which he had seen, the Lord then was pleased
to give the prophet the interpretation of this dream, vision,
or parable that contained a dark or hidden meaning.
Jeremiah 24:4 And again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
In Jeremiah 24:1-3 we have the prophet of the Lord receiving a vision from God and the
Lord testing the prophet to faithfully declare that which he has seen back to the Lord.
For a moment we will speak to the pause between
Jeremiah
24:3 and Jeremiah 24:4. And for purposes of our writing we shall cause
this the Divine Pause of God.
Lamentations
3:24 (NIV)
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore
I will wait for him.
Isaiah
30:18 (Re-Translated) And therefore will the LORD
wait, (To test, examine,
and prove that which is in the heart of a vessel) that He may be gracious (Seeking out faithful vessels upon which He can pour forth
His Charis)
unto you. And therefore (He
so waits and so seeks faithful vessels in which ) He will be exalted; those He will have mercy upon.
For the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that
wait (Until they are approved) for His purposes.
In this divine pause between
the dream and or vision, we see here by the spirit and quite
plainly in other passages – The true prophet of God pausing
and holding the dream or vision before the Lord.
To be the true prophet of God requires patience and discipline
and being beholden to the Lord. So Jeremiah, knowing these things, does not
attempt to interpret these things himself, he does not seek
the counsel of men as to the interpretation, he does not consult
books on interpreting dreams and visions.
Rather, Jeremiah and all true prophets of God recorded
in scripture, separate themselves unto the Lord until the Lord
Himself declares the meaning.
And not surprising in this
passage, when the Lord began to speak the interpretation of
what Jeremiah had seen the interpretation was something that:
Eye hath not seen nor ear has heard and neither
has entered into the heart of the natural man.
Psalm 106:13 They soon forgat
His works; (That they were His, and belonged to Him alone. And instead they claimed
them as their own)
(And when the Lord gave them a dream or a vision) they
waited not for His counsel:
(Here we see by contrast the false prophet.
The false prophet is marked by impatience and anxiousness.
Here in this passage we see the false prophet causing
the congregation of the people to Forgat
His works, so that the congregation might remember the
name of the false prophet and call out and call upon the name
of the false prophet and ministry and thereby exalt them in
the place of God.)
Romans 12:7 (Re-Translated) He that seeketh to minister,
let him wait (for the counsel of the Lord) that he might minister (rightly) or he that seeketh to teach, let him
wait
(For the counsel of God) that he might teach (rightly); Or he that seeketh to (Prophetically) exhort, let him wait (For the counsel of God) that he
might
exhort (rightly):
Jeremiah
23:28-30 The
prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that
hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.(Not
adding to or altering it) What is (Rightly dividing) the chaff to the wheat?
saith the LORD. Is not my word like as a (An unquenchable) fire? (That burns up all the wood, hay and stubble in the church around it) saith the LORD;
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? (Here, the hammer of the Lord is breaking the other foundations
that can be laid of men. The
rock or foundation of men’s personalities. The rock or foundation of men’s ministries. The rock or foundation of the doctrines and
traditions of men and the rock or idol of historic revivals
that men would found themselves on.
All of this, God is at war against, all of this God shall
utterly destroy. But in any meeting the world over, you will
not hear any of this. And
God has something to say about that here too.) Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, (And for these very reasons I am against those that call themselves
and show themselves to be prophets in this day. I am against them because they do not speak
my word uncompromisingly. I
am against them because they appeal to their hearers, editing
polishing and rewriting My word, until My word has become unrecognizable.
I am against them because their words divide and separate
nothing. Instead they call wheat chaff and call chaff
wheat. I am against
them because the words that they speak, has no fire and consumes
nothing except your tithes and offerings, which they greedily
consume. And I am against
them because the words they speak break nothing, rather their
words leave those that are captive bound in darkness, and leave
all their idols they worship to stand.
Thus saith the
LORD, (I am against them) that steal my
words (That have been edited,
polished, and rewritten) every one from his neighbour.(And
these then commit two evils; first they lie declaring they have
received their words / teachings of the Lord, and then they
multiply that evil by declaring that their words have been confirmed
by multiple witnesses, making out what they say to be incontrovertible
before my sheep. Therefore I am against them, and in my fury, I shall become a sword
against them and shall war against them and pursue them until
none is left. I shall
be unto them as a roaring inferno, and shall consume them utterly.
And I shall be to them a hammer breaking them in pieces,
shattering their evil and perverse doctrines and teachings,
tearing down their churches, their temples, their retreat centers,
their Bible schools and cathedrals. And breaking all the idols they have lifted
up before the congregation into shivers and grinding it all
into dust under my feet.
Jeremiah 23:28-30 The
prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that
hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully.
For all too many, if they hear or see something, they simply
go crazy running out and telling everyone that they have seem
something. They do so because they yearn for and desire
recognition from those around them.
They yearn for and desire praise from those around them
for their great spirituality, great discernment.
But in so doing, they seek after and take unto themselves
the Glory of the Lord which is a grave sin against God.
Most self-styled prophets
willfully do not understand: For Thine is the Kingdom, for they seek instead to teach that the kingdom and all things
pertaining to the Kingdom belong to them.
Most self-styled prophets
willfully do not understand: And Thine is the Power, For here again these false prophets seek their own,
teaching that the Power of God is their own, and that God and
His holy Angels have been made subject unto them to come at
their beck and call whether it be in prophesy or the gifts and
operations of the Spirit, or in their self-declared rule in
governments.
Most self-styled prophets
willfully do not understand: And Thine is the Glory. In this area the false prophet
makes himself greatly manifest.
Loving to be greeted by men, sitting in the chief seats
of prominence in the church, making long prayers before men,
and preaching about themselves, their ministries and all to
typically, their conversations with God, Christ, and or the
devil with them as the center of attention. Likewise with any healing, deliverance, or answers to prayer, it
is their spiritual prowess and their ministry that is on parade.
Isaiah 42:8 (Re-Translated) I am the LORD: that is my name: and
I will not give My Glory to another, neither (will I give) My Praise to (men or the) works of their hands. (God does not share His glory with another
and all these false preachers false prophets and false ministries
take the praise and glory that is due to God and Christ alone
to their peril and to their disciples’ absolute peril as well.)
Isaiah
48:11 For
Mine own sake, even for Mine own sake, will I do it: For how should (Can I allow) My name (to) be polluted (Before the nations by
evil and perverse men and by the evil and perverse works of
their hands [Their churches, ministries, and denominations)? And I will not give My Glory unto another. (God will now allow it – This is equivalent partaking of the
fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden. This is putting one’s hand to Ark of the Covenant.)
In scripture, we find common
men and the leaders of nations being troubled in spirit, and
being vexed by dreams and visions.
And in Scripture we see these troubled men and leaders
of nations seeking out MEN and WOMEN of God, men and women who
are prophets, prophets who wait upon the Lord and do not speak
until He has spoken to them.
In Scripture we see that the true prophet of God is rare. There are not on every street corner in the
highways and byways hawking their ministries and their goods,
and in churches by the dozens – In scripture we find these things
only spoken of the false prophets.
As we continue to move
closer to the coming darkness; churches, unsaved men and women,
and the leaders of nations will increasingly seek out the true
prophets of God. As they are increasingly troubled and perplexed
in these troubled times, the call will go forth for the man
or woman of God that know how to wait and hear the voice of
the Lord.
But the reality is that
in the church of this hour, whether Bible believing or spirit-filled,
there simply are not the people that there should be that know
how to wait upon the Lord, and take the time to cultivate a
deep abiding relationship with the Lord.
So we have come to a day that is unthinkable, a day where
Pentecostals and Charismatics are taking over the church world
by storm, but at the same time the true word of the Lord is
rare and there is no open vision.
We live in the day that the elucidation of those dreams
and visions that God give unto men are closed.
Men and women that have lifted themselves up into the
ministry to teach and feed the flock of God, cannot, for these
know not the Lord. They hear not the word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of the Father, nor the voice of the trumpets as
they sound – and thus they can not break bread for the hungry
masses – that have come and will come seeking the man or woman
of God – to hear from on high and speak to their troubled hearts
and souls.
Numbers
12:6-8 And
he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you,
I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and
will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not
in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold:
wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant
Moses?
The true prophet of the Lord has a continual
seeking of God, a continual waiting and a continual open ear
unto the Lord. The false prophet is a part-timer. One might say here that the false prophet has
another day job. Many
of these part-timers are opportunists – that seek in some way
to “cash in” on the hunger and need of others for a word in
due season.
But Moses
my servant (Moses had no question who was serving who and had
no issue with God declaring that he had been bought with a price.)
– The only compensation Moses sought was the face of the Lord.
For Moses, God’s presence was his reward (If thy presence
go not with us, carry us not up thence.)
Moses delighted and gloried in every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the Father – And simply put, those qualities
are simply not found in any part-time prophet or opportunistic
prophet – so the Lord speaks to these in a manner that seeking,
they see not and hearing, they hear not lest at any time
. . .
When one
has a mediocre obedience in seeking the Lord and serving the
Lord, God will give to them only a mediocre ministry.
Give and it shall be given unto you – for with the same
measure you mete it out it shall again be measured unto you.
Unusual ministry – that is a ministry that has open vision
and the word that proceedeth, calls for unusual obedience.
One
might say here that the greater importance that the prophet
places in investing time in the Lord, the greater importance
the Lord will place on investing time with that prophet.
God is seeking out true prophets that His
voice may once more be heard in the earth – by those that know
Him not, and by those who obey Him not.
Moses spent 40 years in the desert. Most people and preachers today would scoff
at such and idea as an utter waste of time.
Only when we are willing to separate ourselves wholly
unto Him, can God get done what needs to be done in our lives
that we might become a vessel fit for His use.
A true prophet of God must be emptied. – As Isaiah when
he cried woe is me I am completely undone. – This was a step
of realization. But
this realization in and of itself does not change us within. For only when Isaiah was touched with a hot
coal from the altar was he transformed from a part-timer into
a servant of the Lord like Moses.
In order for the voice of God to trumpet forth from us – Our voice,
in regards to speaking the word of the Lord must go first.
Proverbs
1:5-7 A
wise man (The true prophet
of God) will hear, and will increase
learning; and a man of understanding shall attain (Seek) unto (The) wise counsels (Of the Lord)
To
understand a proverb (a dream,
or a riddle from the Lord) and the interpretation (thereof;
or) the words of the wise (in the
spirit), and their dark sayings. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
knowledge (It is the key
of knowledge) but fools (False prophets) despise (Any such) wisdom and (To spend any such time seeking such) instruction.(Of Him)