The heat of a furnace

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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 Zion 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 attempts to promote injustice, regarding any and every evil practice? 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 an 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

A plumb line

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A plumb line over people and prophet

Reading: Amos 7:8-15

Listen to the word of the Lord sent from the throne in Heaven:
“Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword. Amos 7:8-9

Listen to the utterly severe and irrevocable words sent forth from the throne of God against His own people, a nation chosen to gather as one, a solemn assembly set apart for His praise. Listen to the man standing before the Lord, before the king, the nation and the political and religious establishment, uttering pregnant sentences, devastating words, words of no return.

Listen to the words. The initial reaction must have been one of utter disbelief. The Northern Kingdom had followed a path of independence and had gathered a general political and economical momentum which could not possibly point in any other direction than upwards. A nation blessed to be a blessing. Man elevated and his pursuits and exploits benevolently looked upon by God as something perfectly in line with heavenly plans and prospects. And here is a man declaring every component of this brave social experiment to be a radical opposite to godliness and proper worship.

This man marked himself for controversy. This man set himself apart as an anti-social element. This man triggered anger and resentment. He destabilised the whole social climate within the religious and political community – those who feared him the most was the ones at the front line in the restructuring and transformation of the religious world of that day. The altars and golden calves of Bethel drew greater crowds than ever. Jerusalem and the hills of Zion were long forgotten. This man became a prophetic offence. The role and ultimate work were hidden in his name – Amos, the burden, the burdened man.

Something utterly other must have happened to this man to be able to engage in the Lord’s work in the way he did. Something had upset his sphere of existence and intervened in his regular occupation and routines which changed his outlook and stance to the point of fundamental sacrificial efforts. The herdsman turned priest, he was given a priestly mind to be able to see the suffering people and the source of the ailment of the nation. Prophets stand on their ability to suffer with the people. Prophetic ministry without priestliness is useless and without any value. Something happens and is wrought in the innermost being of a man to be able to live and work as a prophet, something which surpasses mere charismata, something carrying the nature of priestliness, something intrinsically other.

Amos declared himself to be a herdsman, one “who followed the flock”. His authority as a man of God did not come out of his own, it was not for him to handle in any way he might find appropriate. The authority of vocation, of “office”, was fully and wholly with the Lord. This man, and the great prophets along with him, claimed no natural gifting for the work at hand. No personal ambition was ever tied to it – the prophetic assignment would turn completely false and useless the very moment anything from the man himself, or for himself, became a moderating parameter. Self-appointment was, and is, out of question. Statements of endorsement issued by the established order hold no value, it stymies the prophetic dynamics. Prophets form no crafts guild for mutual support. They never allow themselves to become defiled by any tie or connection to fraternities, guilds, orders, leagues or lodges.

Amos declared, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit”. He did not come out of any school of prophets, he was a well informed man. He was no political or ecclesiastical commentator, but he knew the root of the national predicament. He was not for a moment bent to criticism, his words was therefore sharp and penetrating as a razors edge.

According to Amos personal narrative:
But the Lord took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel’.
This man, as any true prophet, was arrested and set apart for heavenly purposes. He was apprehended and laid hold of for things far beyond his personal disposition and ability. He was conscripted for royal service. This man became what he was not before. The dear herdsman found himself to be occupied with things he would never have chosen for himself. He was taken away from following the flock. God intervened, demanded, brought out from and into. No resistance possible, no negotiation, no way to get away from it – absoluteness, totality, genuineness, veracity.

The absoluteness guaranteed a work and words of highest quality possible. The non-compromised belonging laid the foundation for pure, undefiled reality. This absoluteness constituted purity and veracity. The man was taken away from, cut off from his own. The prophet was isolated and fully insulated from whatever would spring forth from his own sphere of experience and cravings. He was no longer his own, he did no longer belong to himself – 1 Cor 6:19. There was no “my ministry”, “my work”, “my role, my office, my position”.

This absoluteness as to belonging, as to order and to authority, this totality in regards to the cutting off from what belongs to ones own was the very guarantee for prophetic quality and functionality. Therefore the prophet feared no man, neither king nor priest. Therefore every man feared the prophet.

The absoluteness brought in into a man’s constitution and living by God’s intervention, by the apprehension and arresting of a man’s life and thinking will cause a confrontative mode, a prophetic setting. The totality, the sacrificial status reached by a heavenly declaration over a man’s life according to the pattern of sanctification – You are no longer your own – will generate reactions of offence, prophetic offence. The prophet chosen cannot resist the plumb line laid over his own life. No man exposed to such ministry will be able to escape and avoid the confrontative offence thrown into his conscience.

May this absoluteness apprehend men in this very late hour for the sake of genuineness.
May this totality be established among men in our day for the sake of life restored.
We ask and pray for men to be taken out and away from their own in this very hour for the sake of the restoration of freedom and dignity according to the measures of Heaven.

Lars Widerberg

A prophet’s passion # 02

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I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; and I will keep watch to see what he will speak to me, and how I will reply when I am reproved.

Then the Lord answered me and said “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets that the one who reads it may run.” Habakkuk 2:1-2.

 

Holiness will allow itself to be apprehended and known as it pleases the One who Himself is holy to be known. Majesty and greatness, missing gems in the attire of the Church, will manifest as common revelation to men of pure heart, even to national bodies when days approaches which the Lord has set aside for his glory to shine forth. Righteousness will be served at tables, rich tables in Zion, to each and every man who carries a hunger and a thirst for such. There is something there to see. The gates of Heaven are open to show forth the splendour and beauty of the Holy One.

 

There is something there to see and to lay hold of, something which is different from ours, something which arouses passion, something which changes a man’s heart and brings in prophetic quality. There is something there, something costly. It is hidden, at the same time revealed in glory. It cannot be captured or grabbed as spoils, yet it is there within reach for the meek and lowly. It cannot be described, no words will ever be enough, but the prophetic mind cannot but try to tell about the things seen, write a text and re-write it and write again There is something there to see, to reach out for, something of incomprehensible value.

 

There is something there to see, diligence and integrity are natural results of true seeing. Watchfulness and waiting are components accompanying true hearing. God is eternally present and He is not silent, but He will not give things glorious to a frivolous man. The prophetic mind is set for quality and integrity. The prophetic mind will never set for less than heavenly standards – as in Heaven so on earth. Does it look like Heaven? Does it stir passion as Heaven generates passion and ardour? Does it induce fervour according the crystal clear motives of Heaven? Can one find intensity and integrity of the kind which reflects Heavenly standards?

 

Passion reveals a prophets heart. The fervour of the prophetic mind reveals the prophet’s heaven. The integrity and intensity of a prophet reveals the prophet’s God. Heaven confronts what is earthly and unholy and it is done through a man apprehended and sent. Man is God’s method, a man apprehended, imbued and sent. This man, the prophetic person, is the herald of the New City. This heavenly person is drastically jealous for the Word of God. Veracity is his passion. Fidelity motivates his thinking and activity. His striving for correspondence, as in Heaven so on earth, is the only possible way for him to live and move. He has seen. He has heard. This kind of hearing, this kind of seeing makes him a man of passion as well as a man of confrontation. He becomes a statement, a declaration of otherness among the many who choose not to see.

 

The prophetic mind is a mind apprehended and shown things pertaining to Heaven, its absoluteness, its fundamental oneness and integrity, its veracity, its holiness, its glory – and therefore this prophetic mind is burning as an altar contains fire.

 

The prophetic mind is a mind apprehended for the sake of seeing, a seeing which produces a knowledge of the Holy and a knowing of Him who alone provides Life which is holy.

The prophetic personality has been brought to a state of trembling, a profound respect for the Word of God as the only solid and impeccable testimony among men set up as markers unto glory.

The prophetic man has encountered the fundamentally other which carries no stain of the earthly, the worldly. This drives him away from common settings of man, and produces a heavenly offensiveness for him to carry as a confrontational tool to be used by the Holy Spirit to bring conviction.

 

The prophetic mind and heart has made a transition from that which can and shall be shaken to a realm in which everything is eternally stable and reliable. This mind can be trusted, it reflects Him who for ever sits on the throne to rule justly and with righteousness in Zion.

The prophetic mind undergoes constant formation to be able to carry the fullness of Christ. The prophetic heart is continually dressed and redressed in the beauty of holiness for the sake of the glory of God.

 

There is something there to see which is fundamentally other, attractive beyond limits of comprehension, worthy passion and fervour which sets any other aspiration to the side – counting it as loss, capturing man’s heart and mind with a burning desire which cannot be quenched.

 

There is something there to see. . .

There is something there waiting to be said and stated, expressed and declared. . .

Prophetic passion finds its way to lay hold of such things for the sake of the glory of God.

 

Lars Widerberg

A prophet’s passion # 01

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And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven.
Rev 21:2

A man of God, the prophet stands as a mouthpiece of the Lord among men because he has been brought by the Lord to a point of seeing. A man of God, the prophet is what he is based on a heavenly purpose and on Heavens acting in his life to bring him to a place of seeing.

A prophet is what he is because the Lord has allowed him to become a seer, called him to seeing and made him able to look into Heaven. The prophet is what and where he is because he has found the ultimate grace to see God and to have been apprehended by the Father.

A seer of the heavenly category is a man who has come out from a confrontation with Heaven, still alive but for ever changed. A seer of this kind has been brought before God to be taken in by and to be given over to a seeing as God sees, abandoning himself to the things of Heaven and to come out from such an encounter as a man made alive, made to live, live what he has been apprehended for. This kind of man is set aside to live what he has seen. He speaks by what he is rather than by the words he is able to engage, and his words are weak representations of the life he is sent to bring to men as he returns from his seeing. But his words holds prophetic substance, a driving force which confronts like he himself has been confronted during his seeing.

The prophet has been made alive to the realities beyond. The seeing of the things beyond is the sole raison d’être of the prophetic man. Prophetic work deepens and intensifies, the prophetic burden becomes the more intense as the heavenly realm and the things beyond are lost to the main lot of men in the haze of contemporary pursuits and enterprises.

The seer has eyed the true city, true city life, and its service. John saw the city, he had been apprehended by its inherent relevance. In it he had found life, abundant life gathered up in service pleasing to the Lord expressed in a kind of worship which held no vain self-interest.  He had seen life, abundant living detailed in extravagant service in truth before men marked by willingness to sacrifice.

An abundant life does not show itself in abundant dreaming, but in sacrificial, priestly living among real and tangible objects and to actual and practical purposes.

The seer looses his true seeing at the point where he looses his focus: “As in Heaven, so on earth”. The prophetic realm is to be defined as the realm of relevant and true seeing.

The passion of a prophet springs forth from a seeing of the things beyond.
The passion of a prophet springs forth from a seeing mastered by Heaven.
The passion of a prophet springs forth from a seeing which brings heavenly confrontation.
The passion of a prophet springs forth from a seeing of a service suitable to God and men.
The passion of a prophet springs forth from a seeing which demands radical adherence.

Lars Widerberg

Man – continually diminishing

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Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?

Can you set up their rulership on the earth?

Job 38:33

 

This is the mystery of Zion. This is the prophet’s revelation. This is a maturing man’s view of the central part of reality. This view of true rulership shapes man into what he ought to be.

 

Man maturing diminishes, he vanishes from the stages arranged by those who invest ambition and hope in what is mere man. A man on his way to prophetic maturity will come to a point where the matter of the throne and of rulership will be provokingly and devastatingly addressed.

 

God does confront man at the focal point of his ambition; God confronts the prophetic man at the very central point of ambition – and He does so by an overwhelming display of the throne. God, the Father has set His king upon His holy hill of Zion – His Son permanently, irrevocably positioned in authority.

 

And the proper, mature, prophetic reaction: “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.”

 

Isaiah, the friend of the Royal Household, the practicing prophet, finds himself confronted by the issue of rulership, by the mystery of Zion, and finds himself utterly devastated.

 

He solemnly declares that he will never be able to address the nation and the royal household on behalf of the One who sits on the throne of the Universe. He solemnly declares that he knows nothing worth knowing regarding rulership. In the year of mourning for king Ussiah, the king whose strength is the Lord; in that dreadful time when the last flickering light of hope in the nation was quenched by the king’s death, the prophet was confronted by the issue of the throne.

 

Yet, this prophet was by this radical new outlook restored to bear forth words, the many words from the Refiner’s fire, regarding Zion, its position, its role, its throne and its Redeemer. The prophet – and his people – ought to come to nought in relation to power and hope for the sake of submitting to, joyful submission to the throne of Zion.

 

The prophetic man is, after being called and handed over to the Refiners fire, no longer on his own. He is no longer his own, his body as well as his personality, is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in him, he is not his own. There is no room for a second throne, no room even for the tiniest, most insignificant marker of position and pre-eminence.

 

A man living on the edge of the revelation of Zion, how can such a man even consider the possibility of a second throne? A man living on the edge of reality of Zion, in which God holds authority – every fragment of it – is at any given moment confronted by these questions: “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set up their rulership on the earth?”

 

The prophetic man living in the realisation of Zion worships; such a man is silenced by the reality of the throne.

 

But the heathen rage, kings set themselves in opposition, men zealously aspiring for position are angrily embittered when the matter of the throne of Zion is brought forth. The prophetic man has come to, the believer has come to, the Church has arrived at Zion. This is our place of gathering, of security and of glory. “A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.” Jer 17:12.

 

The prophet is a man of marvellous worship. The Church is brought into existence for the sake of worship. The master key to worship, to the bowing down on bended knees, with silent minds and hearts bleeding in superbly honest self-sacrifice is a revelation of God in all His all-encompassing majesty, His utterly refined holiness, His absoluteness and His remarkably honest cross-marked love.

 

The prophet’s role is to remind his people of the necessity of guarding the presence of the blessed element of spiritual fascination in true worship. The prophet’s aim is at all times to teach the wonder of being filled with moral excitement, an aspiration for that which is perfect, this which constitutes true worship. The prophet’s hope is to be able to help to lead men into a true experience of sacred astonishment which the nearness to the Throne alone can induce. The prophet is himself a man who carries a mark of encountering the inconceivable elevation and magnitude and splendour of Almighty God.

 

Worship is music of a different quality – rare in modern times, behaviour of a kind which overwhelms in its refinement, emotions lofty and clear as Heaven itself. Few are the men who have entered into these realms of dignity and majesty. Fewer have come back forever changed. A minority of these who truly went through the change have words enough to describe what they saw and encountered, words by which men might be provoked to enter a similar quest.

 

Do we dare to think of and ponder the implications of the Throne? Do we dare to stop to consider; “Do you know the ordinances of the heavens?” Do we have courage enough to come to rest at the feet of Him who reveals our nothingness – “Can you set up their rulership on the earth?” The prophet speaks on behalf of Him who alone have power to conduct heavenly affairs on earth. The prophet alone is able to speak of the life to come after the devastation of our personal, petty thrones. The prophet is a prophet because his own agenda and his personal ambition are shattered by the realities of the throne of God. The prophet is a man continually diminishing.

 

Zion, the House of the Lord, the gathering of the saints in splendid worship contains and reveals the Throne.

 

The House of the Lord assembles the priests of the Most High to sanctified ministry, a service which reflects the Glory of the Most High.

 

The House of the Lord is a place of prayer aiming at the setting up of the ordinances of Heaven on Earth. “Thy Kingdom come”. The prayers of the House find multiple variations on one, single theme: “Establish Zion as the very mountain out from which law shall go forth to the nations and unto which every nation shall gather for the sake of the eternal rulership of the Son.

 

The House of the Lord represents Life governed by the Throne.

 

At the House of the Lord, in Zion, at its center one will find an altar which displays true rulership.

 

Lars Widerberg

Apprehended. . .

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Apprehended for diligent exploration

 

 

Reading: 1 Pet 1:10-11.

 

A man absorbed by the mystery of Christ. A person taken captive by the prospect of salvation. A fragile vessel gripped and held by the revelation of the glory of God. These are descriptive statements defining the prophetic man.

Apprehended for the sake serving fellow men in the delivering of a living, a penetrating word from Heaven. Apprehended, chosen, set aside for the sake of ministry. God marks a man for ministry. Approval of any other kind will only cause distraction.

 

The Spirit of God brings the reality of Christ in the making of a man. Speaking before men, a speaking in obedience to the instruction of the Holy Spirit has no other target than a growing revelation of Christ. The Holy Spirit describes Christ, reveals Christ, draws hearts to Christ and is constantly engaged in the formation of Christ. The issue of prophecy is the issue of testimony, the Holy Spirit speaks Christ. ’Testimony to Jesus is the spirit which underlies prophecy’. Rev 19:10. (Weymouth, 1912.)

 

A prophetic statement embodies evaluation, it contains salvation, it brings Christ. Prophetic speaking gathers proficiency to praticularize grace and judgment. The apostle saw Christ, the risen Christ, dressed for his role as the Redeemer, indeed with a sword in mouth. The rule of the Righteous comes along the lines of sacrifice. It speaks refinement, it speaks severing.

 

The prophet is a man of diligent probing. He is set to inquiry, he is set apart for a requiring task of searching. His gift to man is one of examination, placed among them as an assayer. He is a trier and a fortress. Jer 6:27. He is constantly engaged by matters of measuring. Christ is the measure to be set forth in every form in every way of man.

 

This man, the prophetic man, finds but one subject worthy his attention, to this he restricts himself by discipline and by joy of the purest quality. His mind and spiritual faculties is set to thinking and praying its way to an understanding of the magnitude of the glory of God. He is ever concerned in a laying hold of a greater revelation of the power and the procedures of salvation. He is taken in by the necessity and possibility to grasp a fuller, an even fuller view of the context of the sufferings of Christ.

 

God’s truth comes by men who inquire. God’s truth is given to men who follow hard after him in a daring effort to secure understanding. He guides the meek into a seeing which befits and strengthens man on his road to Zion.

 

A prophet studies under the Holy Spirit in devastating solitude. A probing of this kind will not develop in fellowships of merriment. An assayer must pass through severe testing.

But the man marked for such a task will not be engaged because of his qualifications. The lack of qualifications makes him better off. His ordinariness is a bonus. His hunger for righteousness, his recognition of his inherent disadvantages, his resourcelessness and emptiness, his bankruptcy fits him for the first round in the refiners fire.

 

The prophetic man dares to do what is needed. The prophetic person shuns no personal sacrifice to lay hold of a perfected view into the mystery of Christ. Elijah was a man like any of us – in this simple truth one finds hope and solace. An understanding of the realities laid up for us in the grace and salvation of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, may be secured by daring men who take the risk of thinking, praying and diligent study under the Holy Spirit. Such a man will be apprehended and made fit for diligent exploration.

 

L. Widerberg

Formulaic prophecy

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God requires obedience according to patter, even according to Christ.

God orders and structures reality according to law and procedure.

But, he never sends his word according to formula.

 

Formulaic prophecy consists of that which is repetitious. The itinerant so called prophet or prophetess moves from place to place, conference to conference, country to country, bringing words to audiences of different background, history and cultural setup, words which do not hold enough specificity to direct mature men’s steps further into the purposes of the Lord.

 

If ever checked properly in the light of the Word of God these words would immediately fall flat, first of all because they are too broad, too vague, too general. Words of this kind follow modern methods of measurement – one size fits all. The major mood of the prophesying according to formula is outright flattery; it speaks to, charms and entices man’s religious fantasies. It leads man’s mind to misunderstand and misinterpret the mind of God. It deceives the poor and needy into believing that which is not worth believing in. Formula may bring certain truths, but it is never followed by life and authenticity.

 

God does not tolerate the frivolous prophet, and yet, they are many. God does not tolerate the flippant and superficial prophetess, and yet, they dare to appear and move to and fro in large hordes in these days when so much of the true prophetic word is about to be fulfilled. It does not occur to any of them that they themselves are a sign which declares the near end of this dispensation. Many are they that will come and prophesy falsely – Mt 24:11.

The flippant formulaic prophesying disengages discernment. It results in unruliness, its fruit is a people without discipline – Prov 29:18. Where the Spirit of prophecy is allowed to work according to the rules of Heaven, the people honours discernment, welcomes saintliness and begins to stand for veracity.

 

Formulaic prophecy presents God as being out of balance, being disordered, not knowing what was said by the prophet before today’s man of God. This kind of approach never tells what God is about to do among his people – except for telling them that it is going to be very new and very different. And, man has no practical role in this new thing except as a cheering audience. Obedience, holiness and the formation of saintly characters are concepts over-ruled and obsolete.

 

The formulaic prophet is a copycat. He prophesies according to latest trends and echoes men who hold prominent positions. He never dares to go against the tide for fear of loosing his place as one of the boys. Copycats secure mutual endorsement for the sake of overriding processes of discernment. The copycat operates in the realm of the sensational to gather followers who are not too eager to honour spiritual values. He attracts minds and hearts, who do not care for discerning the source of revelation as long it stimulates positively. He misuses the concept of edification, exhortation and comfort to set the mind of the audience to pleasure-seeking and self-exaltation and thereby to fleshliness.

 

The prophet holds a ministry of spiritual interpretation. He is constantly occupied, trying to find ways to express and explain the heart of God among the saints. His never-ending work includes the revealing of what might be found at the core of a revival according to Christ – which is a bringing of order, a bringing of obedience and a re-establishing of truth among the saints. The prophet holds things to the full thought of God. He represents God’s mind as against the prevailing course of things. There is never any place for that which is formulaic in his appearance. He is a living testimony to that which comes from the Living God.

 

God requires obedience according to patter, even according to Christ.

God orders and structures reality according to law and procedure.

But, he never sends his word according to formula.

 

Our prayer includes a desire for, a returning to the necessity of proper discernment for the sake of veracity among saints and Christians.

 

Lars Widerberg

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

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