The Deliverer

¨

Aspects of the Prophetic Office  –  The Deliverer

Salvation is wholly of God. He alone is the author and perfecter of our faith, Hebr 12:1-2. God is certainly our redeemer, and he will return to Zion to deliver his people, Isa 59:20. Indeed, there is no other name given unto man, through which he will be able to obtain relief. No other method are valid in securing forgiveness and the deliverance from sin than the method of divine substitution, Lev 17:11. No sacrifice will satisfy the demands of God almighty than the one given once and for all at the Cross, Heb 9.

Yet, salvation is a matter of careful examination and inquiry. Salvation is substantial. Salvation is meant to bring tangible results. Redemption and deliverance set up sharp and clear borderlines. So does the process of sanctification. Salvation is to be practically applied and worked out, Phil 2:12. Examination and inquiry. Within what limits can I expect God to operate? What does He want to accomplish? How does He do it? How am I to be involved? Salvation is to be prayed for, while probing and searching the rich and long texts of prescriptions and promises.

A prophet is recognised by his pursuit for truth. A prophet’s eye might see through you but only to try to see you through. He is occupied with probing and testing for the sake of relevant expressions of the salvation so costly to our Lord. 1 Pet 1:10-11. Timely expressions. Christ painted before our eyes by the use of proper colours, royalty and redemption, a praying priest.

Christian faith is basically a matter of worship and revelation. Christianity is all a matter of registering and applying what is pursued during long hours of listening. Christianity is the religion of probing, measuring and weighing. A Christian has to learn to read, read the 1189 chapters of revelation and instruction. He has to align himself properly to all that is possible to take in from all of those texts. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart, Ps 119:2.

The prophetic dimension is the realm of listening, of careful examination. Revelation demand two things: The searching, inquiring mind of man and the revealing Spirit of God. Revelation leaves no room for man’s passivity and complacency.

What kind of salvation is it that the true prophets so eagerly pursue? Salvation is wholly of God; why try to understand and lay hold of the process of deliverance? Why spend time and energy on categorising the sources and mechanisms of bondage and slavery and the way to freedom.

Instruction, preaching the Word of God, brings deliverance. Lack of insight brings devastation, Hos 4:6. A prophet’s task is to bring deliverance, Hos 12:13. They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace. Jer 8:11. Revivalism is but an illusion. The folly of fantasy is bondage and slavery.

Instruction, a relevant call to repentance is bitter medicine to the deceived as well as to the deceiver. “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” Ephesians 4:17-19.

Salvation offers a delivered thought life. Salvation re-establishes the will to and the ability to think, to understand and to examine. Anyone telling you not to think is a false prophet. Anyone telling you to obey without questions or to just let go emotionally is inviting you to live under a delusion. Revelation, the prophetic dimension, brings instruction and ability to take proper measure.

Any betrayal, any falsification of true religion has its root in man’s distorted view of the Cross. Thinking and relating rightly as to the fact of the Cross brings deliverance. Downplaying its importance, treating it in a derogatory fashion, redefining its role is the point of beginning of any man’s folly. A friend of ours was lost when he stated that he had been at the Cross once and never had to return to it anymore. The open rebellion was a fact.

The following quote brings optimised rebellion into light: ”If the death of Jesus on the Cross paid for man’s sin, then every man could die for himself”, E. W. Kenyon. Lack of insight brings devastation. Prophets give themselves to careful examination and inquiry to be able to describe the process and mechanisms of salvation.

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. 2 Chron 16:9. A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, declares the LORD. Isa 59:20. When he comes, he does so to present a practical plan and program to bring his people out of bondage. God states in a most practical and definite way the reasons for captivity. In the same manner he sets forth his program for deliverance. Love is unconditional, but holiness is not optional. Deliverance is brought about according to appropriate patterns related to the specific settings and conditions of the captives. God has his Cyrus. He secures the foundation of worship by igniting men’s heats with fiery desire to build the temple according to the set plan.

Spiritual bondage and deliverance requires definition. Each and every illness reacts only to its own cure and remedy. Holiness is not optional. The way to holiness is not optional. The way to holiness is set as to course and events, carefully planned for each and every individual according to his character and final goal. Deliverance aims at moral action. It profits us to quote C. G. Finney: ”Here is one grand mistake of the Church. They suppose that revivals consist mostly in a state of excited emotion rather than in conformity of the human will to the will of God. Hence when the reasons for the excitement have ceased and the public mind begins to grow more calm, they begin immediately to say that the revival is on the decline, when in fact with much less excited emotion there may be vastly more real religion in the community.” – The promise of the Spirit.

Prophecy autentifies God’s presence. It defines and brings identity to the listener, the receiver, in relation to God and his goals. Prophecy provides a framework within which God intends to bring deliverance. It sets standards and goals. Prophecy is relevant, not dreamy. God speaks to his children by name. He does not work in an impersonal way, emitting waves and flows to accomplish some unspecified results in a body without definition. A Church is a Church, it is marked out and defined geographically as well as socially. Each Church need to be treated as a local unit according to its specific needs and flaws. The seven Churches – Rev 2-3 – received each a personal letter from the Lord, no duplicates, no copy machines. Prophecy, its aims and results can and must be measured and taken through a process of discernment. The expected repentance and the result of repentance are utterly sharp in its contours.

The spiritistic prophecy machine sounds like God – benevolent clichés, theologically tolerable – but is pumping out generalities as if God is graciously looking at his nice children but having nothing in particular to say. ”Everything is fine and it is going to get better and I am OK and you are OK.” Prophecy brings definition, aiming towards integrity and holiness. Prophecy brings definition and judgment but is not judgmental. Mind you, pearls are not to be cast before swine – how to discern and to identify swine if you are not to judge. For what reason is the gift of discernment given to the Church? Prophecy comes in power, but not as a dreamy flow lifting you up into rosy bliss.

The prophet’s mouth is not the law and truth, but law and truth have to be found in a prophet’s mouth. Prophets must make sure that their words really belong to the Lord, 1 Pet 4:11. Prophets cannot demand obedience based on blind faith. Prophets are not the law, they have no right to re-define law, or the truth as revealed in the Bible. Our faith is based on truth. Truth is our deliverer, Joh 8:32. Obedience related to truth purifies souls and prepares for sincere love for brethren, 1 Pet 1:22. Revelation, true prophecy allows you to gird your mind for action, 1 Pet 1:13. Holiness is not harsh. A prophet brings you back to the Book.

True prophecy has learnt to understand the necessity of living and applying the Cross. True prophecy has learnt to explain and to enforce the law of sacrifice as revealed in the pouring out unto death of the first Seed-grain, Jesus Christ. The prophet, the deliverer takes you back to the only possible freedom that leads to a blessed life – the freedom of obedience – Ps 119:2. From where does the blessing come which is flowing like rivers over a disobedient people? Judgment begins at the house of the Lord, 1 Pet 4:17.

The product of proper prophecy is the dividing of the spiritual and the soulish, Heb 4:12, for the sake of true worship, Joh 4:23. Prophecy brings division. Prophecy does not generate excitement, it prepares minds to become girded. It never exaggerates, it never stirs for the sake of an arousal, rather it brings peace and order. Prophecy brings revelation rather than revival. Prophecy without moral consequence leads to death. Revival without moral consequence says ”I am rich” thus revealing its true nature, which is utter poverty. A revival which leads a person to love the Lord in a greater measure but allows her to continue without change, living according to her traditional values and standards is but deception.

Deliverance brings you face to face with a thorough re-evaluation, most certainly in relation to the position God has been allowed to have in your life. He will break away from the pattern established which rules in favour with the old nature. The Cross killed Christ, and it is going to kill every sinner. It dethrones you and installs the Lord on the throne of your heart. This is what we find at the core of the prophetic dimension.

Prophets bring the people back to reality, back to order. Their message calls the people to build the Temple and to forsake their own comfort. Words focusing on personal affluence distract and confuse the aim of the people of the Lord. The law of sacrifice cannot be compromised. The altar has to be restored. Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal, and their message of prosperity. Haggai rebukes the minds set on building mansions on earth. Esra restores the dignity of a nation by forcefully preaching moral law. Man brought back to God is man brought back to servanthood. Poor nations are those who have a Church where God is treated as a waiter. Deliverance brings order. Deliverance is the beginning of God’s holiness made to be seen among his people.

Compare the quality of the presence of God of the revivals of the olden times to the glamour and frivolity in the so called revivals of today. Shame. Mature prophets bring maturity. Mature prophets speak the heart of the Lord. The prophetic messages of today speak the heart of man – ”More, Lord”. People of the Lord, come to your senses! Does the gold dust pay the bills? What does the poor nations of the earth need? Will they become satisfied by prophetesses wearing masks of modern cosmetics, flashing in the heavy spotlight, pretending to shine as if Heaven were present? Pay the bills of the poor! What a lovely sound from teeth with heavenly gold fillings chewing the best of the best kitchens while the majority of the world is starving. God’s glory? By no means! The spiritual realm brings support of prophets of deception who are misleading a people who happily give their consent. Samuel, the prophet, considered it to be sin not praying for deliverance of the people, 1 Sam 12:23. And we certainly need some deliverance.

The false prophet is eager to declare that you have the right to ”Prophecy your own future”. Faith is looked upon as a tool to be used to accomplish you own salvation, all according to your own taste. Prophetic ability is considered to be words of your own mouth and fantasy producing your prosperous future and your daily well-being. Praying for daily bread is obsolete. Christian faith has nothing to do with the spiritistic Mind over Matter techniques taught by mediums who mutter and mumble, Isa 8:19, or pop-preachers proposing pacifying mind is the way of an overcomer. Faith is a relation. Faith is not creative power released by an overheated imagination. Prophetic words are not a law in your mouth for circumstances to obey and become regulated by. God alone is creator.

Prophets are to bring messages of deliverance and they do so first of all by addressing the folly of fantasy. Prophets bring deliverance by bringing the people back to obedience. Divination, faith techniques and prosperity pursuit is all but deception and spiritistic delusion – Jer 14:14. Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behaviour; because it is written, YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. 1 Pet 1:15-16.

Prophets call for purity of mind and of soul. Prophets speak truth which can be seized and acted upon. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 1 Pet 1:22. Salvation is optimised as to aim and goal. Salvation aims at the deliverance from the folly of fantasy, the vanity and self worship, unto obedience and true worship in spirit and truth. Holiness is never optional.
Overcoming equals obedience and ability to continue in obedience. Overcoming aims at overriding any obstacle of inherent and inherited disobedience. The overcomer prepares himself for perfect worship in spirit and truth.

The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor 1:18. The Cross is power unto salvation. Prophetic proclamation of the Cross is power unto deliverance. The Cross is the key to the door in the narrow gate leading to life in and fellowship with Jesus Christ. The Cross is the beginning of deliverance. The Cross can safely be preached, because it cannot be compromised. The Cross can safely be preached because it will cause its own specific results. It kills the one daring to manipulate it and it restores the one daring to die through it. The Cross is the lifestyle of a Christian. It represents the continual re-capturing of the possibility to live a sanctified life. The Church is born crucified, it lives crucified. It surely dies when turning away from the Cross.

The Cross allows you to become more and more fully delivered to obey moral law. The modern cross releases you from the obligation to die to the world, to sin and to flesh. The old Cross, the real Cross kills and does away with the sinner. The death of Jesus Christ brings life, which is ability to live holy. To live is to have the capacity to handle any given situation in accordance to moral law. Reducing or eliminating the Cross opens for any and all of the principalities and powers which were meant to stay disarmed, Col 2:15.

Prophets call to overcoming on the ground of the Cross. Prophets who have given themselves to careful examination and inquiry of the mechanisms and procedure of salvation define overcoming as a work involving all your mind, all you heart, all you strength and all you soul to establish obedience to moral law through the presence of the Holy Spirit unto sanctification. God writes law, writes the covenant on man’s heart and mind, Heb 8:10. Overcoming is a work unto worship in spirit and truth. Prophetic deliverance brings truth. Prophetic words are meant to establish a solid foundation for change, for sanctification according to moral law. The process of salvation is reduced to nought through the neglect of the Cross. The Cross is indeed in it self the mechanism of deliverance. The prophet who has not given himself to the examination and inquiry as to the procedures of salvation and sanctification has no prophetic message to bring forth to the people of God.

Lars Widerberg