Righteousness that avails

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Was Abel so naive as not to suspect that that this invitation to take a walk in the field was an invitation to death? Did he not suspect or intuit, knowing his brother, that this invitation was not some innocent chat but a prelude to his own death.

Was his willingness to take that walk something of the righteousness of God in Abel, sensing that his death had something to do with the possible redemption of his brother and not, therefore, unwilling to give it?

That is itself the very definition of righteousness.

 

Abel prefigures Jesus Christ himself in this episode, our Lord and savior who gave his life in just that way to just that purpose. Why his offering was acceptable – the firstlings of his flock with their fat – was because it was a symbol and a statement of himself as offering. The animal sacrifice is a statement of our own willingness to be laid upon the altar, and the Lord accepts it as that statement. It is a statement of uttermost sacrifice – the best of the flock.

 

Where a man himself would be that sacrifice, should God want it – and in fact, by making that sacrifice – it is reiterating that statement to God. “This is a substitute, but what it represents is my own willingness to be on the altar of God for your purpose at any moment that is required.” That is what validates the offering. That is what makes that offering acceptable in God’s sight.

 

The man himself is the offering. And, as the episode unfolds he becomes that willingly and not by artifice. It was not that he was tricked to go out in the field. I think that a man who has this kind of relationship with God could only too readily intuit and sense what that walk into the field would mean. But he did not withhold himself from making it, because he had already made it in giving the best of the flock – which is to say, the giving of himself.

 

What made it valid was that it symbolised and represented the sacrifice of himself which is now being called for. When you make that offering, you are saying to the Lord “whenever it is called for, it is made, it is done, it is settled in my heart.” My life is not my own. I am only breathing and walking because now it pleases you as it serves your purposes. The whole end of my life and its purpose in being is your glorification whether by my life or by my death. The issue is settled. And when I put up my sacrifice before you, my offering, it is the reiteration of that statement.

 

This is exactly the opposite of what Cain’s offering meant. Cain was buying something. He was seeking to transact. He was in a commercial venture, wanting to receive some kind of blessing in exchange for something that did not cost him greatly. It was despicable, because the man’s life is lived unto himself and for himself – as is seen in his willingness to ventilate his hatred in the murder of his own brother. When God penalizes him for that murder, his cry is like a stung animal: “This is too much, isn’t this too sever for me?”

 

How is it that God does not require your life, but just makes you to be a wanderer? And you think that that is too severe? And you are afraid that someone is going to take your life? God assures that it will not be taken by giving you a mark. And you are complaining? Where was your sensitivity for Abel’s life? How is it that you are bemoaning your fate now and sucking your lower lip at the severity of this penalty? You did not hesitate a moment to take your brother’s life.

 

If our offerings are given as an exchange for reward. . . That is what Cain’s offering was, an unspoken transaction. I will do this, if God will give me this. Or, even and especially, to obtain a protection from harm or loss of life. . .

 

I am not talking about a commercial transaction that God is going to help me in the field because I have made this cheap sacrifice, but the mater is whether God is going to preserve me from suffering. God is going to protect me because I am righteous and have made an offering that is acceptable in his sight. Even there, though it has moved from a commercial motivation to a spiritual is still transactional. It is still not the celebration of God as God in and for himself. Now there is a spiritual end – my protection.

 

You may ask, is it not the theme which is to be found through all the psalms? The psalmist is crying out, where are you, Lord, and how long must I suffer this oppression and persecution because I stand for you and am righteous? Is not the psalmist asking God to act exactly in this way? In a sense yes, but in a greater sense not because the psalmist who is suffering for righteousness’ sake wants to be alleviated from that suffering but he wants God vindicated through that suffering. He wants God to show himself faithful to his own covenant promises and his identification with his own people. That is the greater motive. Not the alleviation of the distress and pain, but the vindication of God’s name. That is the cry of the heart of the psalms.

 

Who is putting up an offering before the Lord free from any subtle, unspoken transactional thing that puts God at obligation to give an answer to our benefit? The only answer is, the one who has put his life on the altar is free from the necessity of any kind of transaction. There is nothing that redounds to him for benefit, because his whole life is an offering. What he is putting on as a spotless animal with the fat is a statement of his life, reiterating again to God: “It is not my own. So much as I give up this animal, so much is my life given up and it is yours to be required at any moment of your choosing – even now when my brother wants to take me out into the field for a walk.”

 

Art Katz

Katz Prophecy 03

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The Spirit of Prophecy: An Examination of the Prophetic Call

Art Katz

 

 

03 – The Prophetic Function

 

The quintessential function of the prophetic call is given to Jeremiah at the inception of his ministry:

Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, ”Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer. 1:9-10).

 

In this statement, the first expression of the prophetic calling is judgment. Unless we have a stomach for that, we will not be allowed the privilege of the word that builds and plants. Note the order of the words: the hardest thing first. Everything that is painful to the flesh and that will earn for us the displeasure of men must first be addressed. The prophet is called to pluck up and break down the things that are dear to men. This includes their religious traditions, the false things that they have celebrated for generations and the things that they want to cling to because it has to do with their identity, their dignity and the way in which they even see themselves. Men will kill for this, and yet the prophet has got to tear down and destroy. And the things that are false will be contended for fiercely! His word then is destructive before it is benevolent. Unless we are willing to speak the destructive word, we will never be used for benevolence. The prophets who were faithful to speak the word of exile and judgment were also the ones likewise who were given the privilege of speaking the creative word of restoration and return.

 

A prophet identifies falsity and ruthlessly destroys it. There is something about his word that is like a fire. It is plucking up, rooting out and destroying before it is planting and rebuilding. Who wants to hear men like that? Prophets not only bring things into question; they absolutely reduce it to rubble before your eyes. For you to pick it up after that is to touch the unclean thing. They have identified it, and now you are stuck with that word. It is little wonder that such men are not welcome in places where people want to continue their mode of lifestyle unchallenged.

 

A prophet critiques and unsparingly lays bare, without fear or regard of man, the lie or even ‘conventional’ truth, that is to say, the assumed, mindless, uncontested premises that constitute death in the life of the hearer. He reveals the lie and blows the whistle. That lie may well be the lies of the false prophets. The whole world is predicated on lies, but how shall it know unless a word of truth comes. If that word is to come, then it is to come from one who is totally without fear of man. We all know that the fear of man is the most powerful and crippling factor that works in the lives of God’s ministers. To be free of that and to speak without regard to the fear of man is an ultimate statement that implies such a history of God’s dealing with that servant. We are all born with the fear of man. We live for the regard of man, for their acknowledgment and for their applause. Men love the acknowledgments of men, particularly prestigious men, but we have got to be weaned away from that necessity. It is a process; it does not take place in a day. Every time that God brings us to that place of weaning, we have got to submit to it. We need to come to the place where we are not only indifferent to the applause of men, but also to their biting criticisms and reproaches. A prophet requires, therefore, an extraordinary discernment to critique and an analytical ability that has been honed by the Spirit.

 

The prophet’s own lifestyle must itself, therefore, be a repudiation of the lie. We cannot expose false values if we ourselves are subscribing to them. There is something about apostolic and prophetic poverty that is more than an accident or happenstance. It is appropriate to the authenticity of our union with God. Camel’s hair garments and the eating of locusts are symbolically intrinsic to the prophetic life. There is a reason why John the Baptist was in the wilderness and not in Jerusalem, though he was the son of a priest. He could not be where the Establishment was. He could not enjoy its benefits and at the same time expose the falsity of it. We cannot in our own lifestyle indulge in the very thing that we are condemning before others. Lifestyle is, therefore, remarkably important with regard to the word that is to be proclaimed, and probably nothing more betrays whether you are a true or false prophet than this. The false prophets ate from Jezebel’s table. Elijah had to be fed by ravens and live by the side of a brook. It is not that one seeks to wear a camel’s hair garment because it is romantic or that you have to dress in such a way that marks you as being distinctive and different. Rather, the values that are false cannot have a place in us. A prophet is called to reveal the lie, the underlying premises that need to be examined in the light of God about values, about life and its purposes. Our own lifestyle must therefore be a repudiation of that lie, even though society and a carnal church sanctions it. A prophet’s speaking not only reveals the lie but also condemns and judges it. His word, as his life itself, is a divine destruct.

 

When Elijah said, ”There shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word (1 Kings 17:1b),” he was not intimating that there would be a slight difference in Israel’s weather pattern. It meant that they were not going to have crops. They were not going to eat. They were going to experience a famine. It was going to be a judgment from God, and it was to come through the speaking of Elijah’s word. His word was not just a piece of information or an opinion, however much it may be that, but rather it was the event of judgment. It would actually affect the whole nation. It is this kind of word that needs to be revived and restored.

 

The prophet’s task is to establish an apostolic and heavenly alternative that is powerful and valid enough to utterly displace the lie. He presents a view of reality not yet existent, contrary in every point and particular to that which is thought to be ‘real’ and for which there is no precedent or model in the experience of the hearer. He brings a reality that obliterates the kind of validation and endorsement that the world’s values have had upon his hearers up to that time. If he had not come, they would have thought that what they were celebrating was real. When the prophet comes, however, he is not only blowing the whistle on what is false, he brings a compelling sense of what is true and what is eternally true. He brings the sense of eternity itself and inducts the hearer into it. By his speaking, he sets in motion and brings his audience to a place where what was superficially dismissed as ‘false’ becomes true. The word becomes creative and establishes the resonance of something not understood before—something that is ultimate and eternal. To pierce through the false and raise another kind of a standard and make that the foundation of life is an extraordinary kind of proclamation.

 

To add to that, those who embrace the perspective, which the prophet is setting forth as the alternative to the lie, condemn themselves to being pilgrims and sojourners in the earth. If they are going to receive a prophetic word like this that calls them to the same heavenly vision in which Abraham walked, then there will be real, if not radical, consequence for their lives. The word, therefore, that comes to the hearers has got to come with such a power, authority and credibility that those who embrace it know that they are in effect signing their death warrants. No one is going to sign that lightly who has not been persuaded by a word that invites that kind of consecration. Only a prophet, a foundational man, can bring the word of that kind. He calls for something of ultimate consecration on the part of the hearer—unto death. That is why false prophets are more invited and listened to than the true. The false prophet affirms the hearers in their present condition and assures them that they are ‘well-pleasing’ in the sight of God.

 

The prophet’s purpose is singly and jealously the Father’s will. He restores lost vision of a kind that energizes the people of God, especially in crisis times, when despair needs to be turned to hope—having initially been stripped of false hopes by the prophet himself. He does not balk at having to be cruel before he can be kind. In a word, the prophet brings the ‘moment of truth.’ Standing in the council of the Lord, he is able to perceive error and state boldly and unequivocally the requisite truth though it be utterly at variance with the consensus being demonstrated.

 

The prophetic task is to restore to men who have lost it or have never had it, the biblical mindset and the biblical view of things that are unchanging in God’s sight. He conveys the radical view of God, particularly to a people who are unwilling to hear it. If the prophetic word is critical to bringing an alignment of God’s people with God’s own view, then the kind of word that is brought by the prophets is the ultimate issue. Where there are authentic prophets who are willing to bring the unwelcome word, so will there also be a plenitude of popular false prophets who bring the false word of comfort and who say, ”Peace, peace” when there is no peace.

 

Out of a consummate jealousy for the glory of God, the prophet sets forth the ultimate purposes of God in such a way as to obtain the sacrifices of his hearers to fulfill it. It is not enough just to set forth what God’s program is, but to set it forth in such a way that he has won the willingness of the hearers to be participant in obtaining the ultimate and eternal purposes of God—at sacrifice! The prophetic word communicates the eternal purposes of God in such a way as to win the commitment of his hearers to that sacrifice necessary to fulfill them. That takes more than mere explanation. The prophet himself epitomizes the suffering that such an adherence evokes. In other words, those who are going to embrace the view that he is presenting are opening themselves to suffering. The prophet, therefore, who is inviting them to that suffering has himself in some unaware sense to exhibit it and give the evidence that this is God’s way, and that this Cross is central to the faith. He makes clear to his hearers that persecution, if not martyrdom, is intrinsic to a faith of this kind—and wins their willingness. To win the hearer’s consecration to that call is an extraordinary stroke that requires the authority and anointing of those who bear His word. It is a call to ultimate and sacrificial things, and that is why that kind of a word will always be resisted.

 

The prophet announces and projects the impending end of this world in apocalyptic fury and judgment, sufficient to birth the longing for “a new heaven and a new earth in which there is righteousness.” He not only brings to the awareness of the hearer that the world, which they have celebrated and where their own hearts are, is under judgment and is intended for destruction, but he also births a longing for the thing that comes down from above and which will replace this present age.

 

A prophet is a man of the Word. He abhors lightness while deeply respecting and guarding the sanctity of language and its meaning from abuse and cheapening. He is not, therefore, always your enjoyable household guest and is not good for easy conversation and small talk. He guards his mouth because he knows the sanctity of words and will not, therefore, give himself to frequent speaking as it debases the currency of words. There is with him a history of waiting and silences.

 

A prophet shuns the distinctions and honors that men confer. These things bring a certain aura of prestige and eminence and weight, but the prophetic man, in order to be true to God, is often the ‘wilderness’ prophet. Wilderness does not mean a necessarily physical isolation, but a conscious and willful separation from the kinds of things that are calculated to compromise. He does not effect any kind of prophetic outward ‘appearance’ to indicate his office. He is unprepossessing in appearance and demeanor and despises what is showy, sensational or bizarre. A prophet is intent on turning men to God and not to himself.

 

This calling is given and is not something that we ourselves summon or take for ourselves. But if we have it, then we need to know that God is going to work us over, again and again, in order to ensure that it is His word that comes forth and not our own.

 

A word to hide behind?

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Reading: Ps 105:15, Ps 51:6, 1 Tim 1:5, Prov 10:17, 2 Tim 3:16-17, 1 Tim 5:19-20, Jer 23

 

The prophet is a man brought forth under the hand of God to reprove and correct a straying Church. A prophet is a man who by nature and calling is jealous for truth, intensely jealous for eternal values. A prophet studies, he seeks diligently and carefully searches the ways of grace and truth for the sake of a full measure of salvation revealed among the people of God. He is a man of conflict, he is a man of controversy – he continuously contends against the spirit of error with the aim of securing and guarding the testimony of the Holy One among his people. Therefore the prophet is eager indeed to receive correction. His ambition above all else is truth in the inward parts – therefore he welcomes every opportunity to learn truth.

 

But, some prophets have found themselves a word to hide behind. The men who, per definition, were sent to bring words of exhortation have arranged for themselves a hiding place from being reprimanded, from receiving proper and healthy correction. Rebuking has, for many and various reasons, in their view become harmful. The challenge of truth has turned into something destructive, something which calls for effective defence mechanisms. And, they have found it in the Word of the Lord: “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” Their major rebuke is to be heard everywhere: “Do not oppose the prophet. You may not come against the anointing.” Some of them even dare to throw in a death threat with their defending of their position as the man of God for this very hour. The only thing killed among the people of God in this process is the right to use the enablement of the Holy Spirit in the discerning of spirits.

 

The peculiar twist appears when darkness is turned into light, and light into darkness; when that which is bitter takes the place of that which is sweet, and sweet things are reduced into bitterness – Isa 5:20. The peculiar twist occurs when one says: “Do not bring correction, it is harmful; do not question what we are doing, it is of the evil one to do so. Do not harm the prophets.” A prophet, a prophet of God, knows that cultured correction brings that which is eternally good. “The end sought to be secured by exhortation is the love which springs from a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith.” “He who heeds instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses reproof is going astray.” To be able to rebuke and reprove, to stand as a prophet of God, one must open oneself to the receiving of rebuke. The cross produces testimony by a dying daily, by rebuking daily – and the man to take in and to take on is the prophet. Prophets are not harmed by rebuke, but helped. Prophets are not attacked by rebuke, they are defended and helped to stand. Rebuking is not bad – on the contrary, it is good, it is truly prophetic.

 

This particular word regarding God’s ever present protecting hand has become prominent men’s hideout, it has become conceited men’s defence. By an improper use of this rebuke proper dissent is silenced, proper discernment is discouraged. The warning is sounded loud and clear, but it contains grave dissonances which distorts the beauty of holiness in which we all are called to take part and present in our worship as well as in our testimony. The parallels to modern composing are, by the way, appalling – dissonance used as a tool to describe man’s liberty in regards to moral content and the unruliness and upheaval following from such a position, or the use of a pumping, throbbing beat engaging fleshliness and base desires.

 

The anointing itself is looked upon by the vessels, the men chosen to carry it and to channel it, as an impersonal flow of power let loose for the benefit of any receptive mind, a flow which is hindered only by a grey and critical attitude. The Holy Spirit cannot be channelled, he is the custodian of the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ. His power, even his power unto healing, cannot be handled by morally improper vessels – where he is present, order is practiced, even amidst jubilation; where he is present humility and holiness are prevalent, certainly amidst a company of prophets. The anointing does not shortcut moral conduct, the anointing does not excuse the absence of adherence and fidelity to the Word of the Lord. An anointed man is a man under the control of the Holy Spirit, under the hand of God. His heavy hand stifles unruliness and misconduct. The anointing of God is an anointing unto holiness, unto testimony, and therefore, unto responsibility and correction.

 

The common view of the anointing as empowerment, as an impersonal flow of power to be handled and directed by any individual, disregards its mark as representing God’s choice. The anointing places the chosen vessel under specific moral obligations. The anointing signifies a sending, a sending of a man who has been standing in the council of God. An anointed man is, by the rulings and choice of Heaven, placed under continuous scrutiny for the sake of a fulfilling of his commission as a sent one. The prophet is a message, he is a message by way of his chosenness and the formation of the godly character which follows his calling. The prophet may not bring words, but his chosenness speaks. Conduct, heavenly manners communicates in a far richer manner than words. A solemn, a respectful touching of the vessel is called for, for the revelation of what the vessel contains. If God’s mouthpiece hurls words of contempt and pride when approached, we will know who really sent the man. . .

 

God delivered charges against the false prophets for Jeremiah to speak. They were all confronted with the fact that not one of their words or their lofty dreams had been gathered from fellowshipping with the Lord. “If they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.”

 

Their thinking and speaking was permeated by endless speculations regarding what God was about to do in the near future. They were driven by an unquenchable desire for novelty. They were moved by arrogance rather than by humility. They were guilty of dogmatism without knowledge – absolutely sure about the perfect quality of their predictions but without any insight into the ways and purposes of the Lord.

 

Theirs were minds conceited to the brim – more concerned to gain a following for themselves than for Christ, more concerned to press their own views than to bring men to the Word of God. These men were highly suspicious of any man who dared to differ from them. All of them worked hard on career, not at all looking at their undertaking as a heavenly vocation and by doing so strictly commercializing the fellowship of the saints. All of them were copying each other, not sent but still running. . .

 

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Tim 3:16-17.

Do not accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. As for those who keep on sinning, rebuke them in front of everyone so that the others will also be afraid. 1 Tim 5:19-20

 

The Word of God is given for rebuking and correction so that the man of God may be complete. . .

A prophet is chosen and trained by God to appear before the people as a pattern of godliness. His mandate lies with the measure of Christ to be seen in his life and conduct. His usefulness as a tool in the hands of God is his availability in the matter of presenting practical holiness. His walk keeps him tightly related to that which expresses the cross.

The man who errs, errs repeatedly in this public realm must be rebuked and corrected publicly.

 

This is the reason why we engage, must engage, in carrying a burden in prayer for men to rise up, fit and able to perform a rebuking of the straying prophets of this hour.

Who is to be chosen to take on such a delicate task?

Who dares to rise to rebuke and charge these men who were meant for a mandate in the Kingdom to carry out proper correction?

Who is ready to begin to stand before the Lord as a true prophet in the face of all these who strut and who lay hold of offices and positions not intended for them?

Where are the brave men who have such mild and humble dispositions which the Lord can use in the battle for the weak and oppressed?

 

We cannot hide behind any word of the Lord, believing that we can continue and go on any longer in error. The Spirit of Truth sets forth his demand. . .

 

Lars Widerberg

Katz Prophecy 02

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The Spirit of Prophecy: An Examination of the Prophetic Call

Art Katz

 

 

02 – The Office of Prophet and the Gift of Prophecy

 

An important distinction, as we have said, is to differentiate between the gift of prophecy as opposed to the office of prophet. In fact, our failure to distinguish between the two may be the gravest mistake now being made. We tend toward calling a man or woman a ‘prophet’ who are only moving in the gift of prophecy, but are not called to the office. The fault lies with us in thinking that this is a New Testament dispensation that therefore requires another definition. If there is only one definition, however, and has been in existence for all time, though we have not seen it much in recent times, then there is no reason to look for a new kind. The Spirit of God divides severally His gifts, which He can give in a moment as He wills. That should not, however, be a permanent and abiding distinction or designation. The Spirit of God can fall on any one of us and we can prophesy. We are operating by the Spirit in the gift of prophecy. The gift is something that the Spirit exercises at His will, and it can come through either a man or a woman. It has nothing to do with their calling, their training, their preparation or their qualification. It may be informational, directive or a word of encouragement, but the office of the prophet is altogether something else and other.

 

The office of prophet differs from the gift of prophecy in that it is permanent. It is given with the man. It is a calling, and it may well be that men, who have the office of prophet, can go an entire lifetime in their service and never once speak out of the gift of prophecy. The church today is suffering from the ignorance of blurring these two categories. We are calling men prophets who have not the office, but who are operating in the gift of prophecy, and in many instances, not even the gift of prophecy, but rather even a deceitful clairvoyance.

 

The office of prophet is an ultimate thing and carries an enormous responsibility. Such a one brings the oracles of God. He is standing for very God and speaking from God with the authority of God. His statements are the intent of God’s heart to His people and have to do with His purposes in an understanding of the present time in view of the things that are future and eternal. It is the prophet who is alerted and alerts.

 

The man who calls himself prophet and talks statistically (for example, seventy or eighty percent predictive accuracy) is not in keeping with the timbre, the character and the knit of a truly prophetic man. To determine whether a prophet is true or false should not immediately depend on whether their predictions are accurate. The real issue is not the accuracy of prediction in assessing the validity of prophets. Even to think statistically is to put us on a false basis in determining true and false among prophets. False prophets can bring a biblically correct message, but it is the kind of message that is a routine commonplace, that is to say, which virtually anyone can bring. There is nothing in it that can be faulted in terms of doctrine, but it is not oracular. It is not a message that bears prophetic weight, intensity, seriousness or requirement. Oracular speaking can be distinguished by the way it brings with it a perception of reality and of the purposes of God that were not there before that word came. It opens up things as God Himself sees them, which is altogether not as we see them!

 

If we allow the word ‘prophet’ to be given to anyone who is giving predictive prophecy or even the gift of knowledge or what may be more likely, clairvoyance, and call that oracular prophecy, then we are well on the way to deception! These men speak messages of a predictable kind, but they are usually only a preliminary that one has to wait through in order to get to the ‘action’ for which we have really come, namely, for their predictive and personal prophecies that so excite and titillate us as an audience. The greater issue is not whether these prophets are accurate most of the time so much as whether they are prophets at all! To confirm the church in its present lightness by their own example is analogous to the false prophets of Old Testament time who confirmed Israel in its sin. All in all, one must ask, ”What is their revelation? How oracular is it? What is it more or other than the general preaching of others who make no profession of being prophetic? Is their distinctive not much more than the sensationalism or excitement of their gifts or the anticipation derived from the elevated status generated largely by their mutual affirmation of each other?”

Overcomers

 

You see, the Remnant and Overcomers have as their function to be God’s vantage ground in a day of widespread spiritual declension and failure, to be vantage points, that upon which God can act and say. Here is my thought positively expressed; here is the thing that I am after! ‘That is the function of Overcomers to be to God like that. ‘Here is the thing ’(God is saying); ‘look at this….. look at Christ and His own as God wills them to be and you have what I am after, what My mind is!’ The Remnant is for that: God’s vantage ground in a day of declension to show the thing to others.

 

God’s thought concerning His Church is that it should be gathered out of the nations, slowly but surely formed into a bride worthy of giving to His Son as a gift, without spot or blemish or any such thing – given to Christ as His bride to be for Him the instrument, the agency, of filling and fulfilling the coming Kingdom throughout the ages. That is God’s thought about the Church.

 

Can we say that that is being realized in any commensurate way? No, but God holds to His thought and He seeks an inner company whom we are calling a Remnant or an Overcomer Company to stand for Him in this service, to be a link between Him and His full thought in His people, and to be that instrument for the realization of His full thought, to serve Him, to see His face. What is that? To be to His Son the agency of filling the Kingdom and fulfilling the Kingdom in the days to come. That is tremendous service. It is unto that that the Overcomers are called.

 

If you want to be in the work of the Lord, if you want to be the Lord’s servants, it is not given to a special class called ministers and missionaries. It is to a whole company, to every one who overcomes. “He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne” (Rev. 3:21); “…will I give to eat of the tree of life” (Rev. 2:7). These are all things symbolic of that full thought of God concerning His Church, gathered up and expressed firstly in Overcomers.

 

TAS

Katz Prophecy 01

 

 

The Spirit of Prophecy: An Examination of the Prophetic Call

Art Katz

 

 

The Prophet Historically and Presently

 

What rises in your own thought and in your own heart when the word ‘prophet’ is evoked? What image, what sense of things comes to your own understanding? We need to remember that the false prophets were those who wore rough garments to deceive, and that the only reason they could succeed was because the people whom they deceived had an anticipation or a stereotyped view of prophet that their false depiction represented. Does a prophet have to be some longhaired wilderness man in a rough garment, who acts strange and peculiar, and who peers with great intensity in his eyes? How would you define what a prophet is? How is he different from an apostle, or a teacher, or an evangelist? Do prophets still exist, or are they strictly an Old Testament phenomenon? Is there such a thing as a New Testament prophet, as being something very different from the Old?

 

There is a tremendous amount of difference and controversy that broods over this subject. The church has really suffered from a kind of dichotomy between the Old and the New, as if the New has displaced or rendered the Old null and void. That is not the way God sees it. That is the terminology that men have employed, but it is not the terminology God Himself has given, and we have suffered loss for just that. Jews have also suffered for that because it leaves them secure within the framework of their own human understanding: “You have your Book; we have our Book.” It is implying that: “You have your God, and we have our God”. It is an impression that God never intended. We have allowed our Jewish kinsmen to luxuriate in this false understanding and to find safety in it. We need, therefore, to contend for the one faith, the one unbroken, continuous faith, given from the beginning, and that is climaxed, concluded and consummated at the end by the same God who gave it in the beginning.

 

We seem to be fascinated by the contemporary ‘prophets’ despite their shallowness, who themselves have completely bypassed interest in the great Hebrew prophets of old through whom God spoke, not only in addressing the Israel of their own generation, but the Israel that is yet future. It borders on a kind of biblical schizophrenia. We need to be constantly reminded that the prophets are the prophets of Israel. They are the spokesmen of God to that nation. Nothing more reveals God as God as is seen in His dealings and judgments with Israel. To separate ourselves, therefore, from Israel and the prophets of Israel, is to totally put us away from the hearing of God’s prophets. This will, therefore, affect our whole consideration of what we mean by prophetic. It will condemn us to a kind of shallowness about the very things of which we are already victim.

 

In a word, we need to probe what the classic, timeless elements are that have constituted prophets in every generation, whether it is Elijah, Isaiah, or Jeremiah. Are there any essential differences in their message? If we can come to some understanding there, then we are cutting right into the truth of what the prophetic call is. Is it the soothing and benign comforting of a false kind, which is generally what people want? Our souls cry out for it, particularly in time of distress and consternation. The true prophet, however, frequently rubs salt into the wounds of his hearers. He deepens the dilemma and brings it into yet a sharper focus by saying, “You are not going to find peace until there is a judgment for this.” He brings an unwelcome message that controverts all that is religiously understood and from which the flesh shrinks; and the most common way to nullify such a message is to ‘kill’ the man who brings it by rendering him null and void.

 

However diverse prophets are, is there anything central that runs through them all, that is intrinsic to being prophetic? What is the heart, the quintessence of that which is prophetic? The differentiating quality of the man comes through in his speaking or writing, yet they all share the same title ‘prophet.’ We are trying to get at the heart of what that prophetic definition is, because if we have not as yet seen it in New Testament times, then how will we know and anticipate it when it comes? Certainly, we are heading for great tumult and controversy in Last Days’ collisions between kingdoms of darkness and Light in that final warfare that eventuates in the victory of the one and defeat of the other. We cannot imagine, therefore, that the age is going to close without employing again men of the biblically prophetic kind.

 

If we were to examine the callings of all of the prophets and their responses, we would see how often these men cry out, “But I am a child and cannot speak.” After all of our examining we would have a portrait, and it would be a composite portrait of the prophetic character. This is what we want to identify, because certainly the cry for that particular thing is with us in these Last Days. All of a sudden this subject has broken upon the consciousness of the church, and now there is a sudden flush of excitement. We seem to be running everywhere to hear ‘prophets.’ They have come to an instantaneous popularity and are being heralded in very lavish ways, not just as prophets, but even as ‘the oracles of the hour.’ This is, therefore, a phenomenon that we need to examine to see how legitimate it is, and whether indeed it is of the Lord or some kind of counterfeit. We should be well along enough in the Lord to know that whenever the authentic thing is about to come, it is often preceded by something fictitious or counterfeit. We are watching this present prophetic (and apostolic) phenomenon very carefully and have an extreme sense of caution in our own spirits—if for nothing more than the suddenness and the popularity—both of which have not been our own experience. The true prophet experiences quite the opposite, namely, a slow growth and much reproach.

 

A Fire Burning

 

 

Prophecy finds its birth in fire. The prophetic dimension is sustained by fire. The prophet brings fire. A prophetic utterance demands a listener to give himself to the fire on the altar. Prophecy brings separation – eternal values are one with the fire, earthly desires cannot share this communion.

“The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” Ps 12:6. Apprehending a word from a furnace requires a heart willing to adjust to intense temperatures and pressure. The first requirement of the prophetic realm is a heart which is willing to bear the ferocity of the aliveness of heavenly realities. The fire of the furnace produces a mind perplexed and shattered by the complexity and otherness of the thoughts of God; a mind ready to violate common codes of the self-sustaining structures which defines and defends manageable religion.

 

Micah, a “minor prophet”, had taken the necessary steps into the fire, and he knew the reality of heavenly heat and pursuit, and wrote: “ But I am full of strength and skill and courage, inspired by the Eternal, to let Jacob know its crimes, and Israel its sins. Leaders of Jacob, listen to this, you judges over the house of Israel, who spurn at justice and twist equity, who build your Sion up with bloodshed and Jerusalem on crime, judges passing verdicts for a bribe, priests pattering oracles for pay prophets divining for money, and all the while relying on the Eternal.” Micah 3:8-11 – Moffatt.

 

What kind of man dares to go; what kind of inner constitution will carry a man into the presence of men of authority of this world as well as before the revelling, raging mob bringing words with fire? What kind of burden, what kind of inner pressure produces enough bravery to allow a man to reduce himself to mere sacrifice, a burnt offering, an offering by fire? What happens in the secret place, what is wrought in the inner parts of man to for the sake of bringing forth moral stamina corresponding with the words from the furnace of Heaven?

 

Too many among us dismiss the burning bush as yet another thorn bush devoured by spontaneous combustion. The prophetic mind is occupied with the maintenance of and the operations of the fire of God. A prophet’s heart is set on fire, it burns because God speaks. A word purged seven times will bring fire. A word from the Lord reveals what His fire is like.

 

The main concern of the prophet is the fire itself. Fire is the driving force in his life. The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, it may under no circumstances be quenched – and the prophet is there, brought into office, to keep it burning. This fundamental necessity has taken him into the priestly realm, into the business and ministry of priesthood. A mind set on fire, occupied with the fire, is a mind given to priestliness. A priest cannot allow the fire to fade, to be quenched, to go out. A priest cannot allow the realities of Heaven to fade; the testimony may never fade.

 

A testimony of the heavenly realities carries the fire of the altar at its core. The fire ignites words – a testimony is not words, a prophecy does not consist of words primarily but is an outburst of heavenly fire. Baptized with fire. Baptized with passion for reality. A prophetic word brings purging. A word from the furnace brings separation. It never leaves the people slumbering with an “All is well”. It reveals necessary pursuits of holiness to be made by a righteous people. The fire provokes positively where righteousness is already rooted. The very same fire disqualifies and destroys where unrighteousness has established inroads.

 

The disposition of the prophetic man is to be defined by the fire itself. It is not generated by sternness – holiness is not harsh, not stirred by lively imagination or a bright intellect, not produced by strange moodiness or altered states of perception. Coming out from the presence, having been at the furnace, having had an opportunity to look into His face – all this, and nothing but this makes a heart burn and sets a mind on fire.

 

Why is the prophet of the Old Testament times so alive to, so direct and immediate in his approach as to moral issues? Why is he dramatically on target in relation to dealing with malicious practices among his people, even among foreign nations? Why do we suffer from charismatic shallowness regarding sin, regarding evil in general? Why do we suffer from a common charismatic shallowness regarding prophetic negligence in this realm? Baptized with Spirit, but not with fire. Baptized into spiritual pragmatism and religious conformity, but not with the Holy Spirit and His fire.

 

The fire is gone from the altar. The priest and the prophet are not present and in proper position for its maintenance. There is no passion for heavenly realities. The state of affairs is worse, much worse than when a minor prophet stood up to speak to a nation gone astray. How did he dare to speak? How long do we have to wait for a prophet carrying a burden of that kind again? Is there anybody ready to give himself to the altar? Is there anybody out there ready for that fire?

 

Lars Widerberg