True Prophets are Never Popular
by Tom Sparks
I remember, back in the summer of 1970, when I had just graduated from High School, and I attended a rock festival at a park near our city. There were thousands of people there, from all over the country. It was a weird experience to say the very least.
That evening, I made my way to the back of the park, where some Christians were gathering to help feed the multitudes, and it was there I experienced the baptism in the Spirit, and several words from the Lord.
As I left that weekend the Lord spoke to my heart that He was placing a prophetic call upon my life, though at the time I had little idea of what that meant. I just remember thinking “cool,” that should be exciting. Little did I know that it would not be near as exciting as it would be challenging.
As time has gone by the journey this calling has taken me on has been, to say the least, a very turbulent one, and to this day continues to be just about the most difficult aspect of my life. Why would I expect it to be otherwise, considering the lives of the prophets in the Old Testament? Prophets are rarely if ever liked, and only the most radical of people can stand to be near them for long seasons of time.
I’d like to be cautious at this point too, because I very much respect the full biblical calling of “Prophet,” and I’m not certain I fall into that category. I generally lack the sign gifts that should attend the true prophet, and I’ve really “missed it” at times, so I’m cautious of considering myself as “A Prophet.” Let’s just say I sense a “Prophetic Calling,” on my life. I would say I’m “Prophetic,” but perhaps not “A Prophet.” Those caveat’s aside, let’s move forward.
Prophets are uncomfortable people. They see things way off down the time line of human history, and they make the people uncomfortable between where they are in history and where the words they speak will take full fruit. Add to this, the words they bring are generally not words the people are prepared for or want to hear at the time they are given. It is often the role of the prophet to make the people uncomfortable with where they are by showing them the error of their ways. Who wants to hear that?
Even just a cursory look over Jeremiah or Ezekiel’s life and no one in their right mind would jump at the chance to be called a prophet of God, unless of course they were nurturing some love for rejection and misunderstanding. Not likely…
So, what does the prophet do? He is cornered by the revelation he receives from God, and cornered by the people who don’t want to receive it. The very nature of his words threaten the comfort and status quo of those he ministers to, and people mostly bristle over such things. When Jeremiah told the people they would starve to the place of eating their own children and ultimately be drug across the deserts to Babylon, he was not popular for saying this. He was considered delusional. All true prophets, or even prophetically inclined folks, are often considered delusional.
The problem with this, of course, is that men or women can believe they are prophets when all they are is deluded. This is just a compounding of the confusion the body of believers must contend with. On one hand they want to hear from God and be obedient to Him, on the other hand they don’t want to follow false prophets, and then if they are hearing from a true prophet his words are making them so uncomfortable that they don’t know whether to stone him or embrace him. This is the nature of “out of the box” experiences.
You see, modern prophets, as much as this is consternating to all of us, are just men and women who are “in process” like everyone else. They can be wrong. They can really miss it. They can get waaay out there on a prophetic limb, and blow the whole Word, or enough of the Word to so muddy the water that no one can receive it from them. But, God being Who He is, is undaunted. He brushes off the prophet’s dust, listens to him whine about “I’ll never prophesy again…blah, blah, blah,” then reshapes him, cleans up the Word, and sends him back out to be rejected again, as he speaks things so outside the box that everyone thinks he’s still crazy.
When ones speak to us, from a place outside the boxes of our preconceived ideas, the place they are speaking from is not a place we’ve been before and it sounds so foreign to us that we can’t imagine they are speaking from God. Who would have ever thought God would let Israel come to the place of starving and eating their own children? But He did!
Outside the box communications upset us, make us angry, make us fearful, and tend to cause us to want to do just about anything we can to stifle the messenger. We even develop theologies of what God’s word will be like, when it comes to us. We tell ourselves that because He is love, when His true Word comes it will make us feel good, will promise us things we will enjoy, will fit with our current thinking, and will give us an overall sense of well being and peace. This is unfortunately rarely the result of true prophetic words. The very nature of a true prophetic word is that God needed to say, through a prophet, something we weren’t hearing in Him ourselves. For whatever reason, our ears were too dull to hear something important He had to say to the body, or we were hearing it but didn’t like what we were hearing so He must raise up certain individuals who have been made ready to be sacrificed on the altar of public rejection.
Who would want a calling like that? When God told Annanias to tell Paul he would suffer great things as an apostle, I seriously doubt that Paul got a warm fuzzy feeling about it. I imagine he cringed and wondered how it would all play out.
In these days I continually hear God challenging the Institutional Church and its many religious systems. Well…who wants to hear that? Certainly not the Senior Pastors who have been working hard to build a salary, a name, a successful Church, and a legacy. They don’t hear God’s challenges to the system they have bought into lock-stock-and barrel, with an “oh goodie” sort of response. They feel threatened, condemned, and angry. It sparks their natural senses of protection for all they’ve built and the lives of those they are shepherding. They are certain it is the voice of the enemy trying to undo all the good they have done, and to scatter the sheep. I know this. I’m well aware of how this strikes them, but then, as prophetic I’m less called to care about how they “feel” about what God is saying, compared to my responsibility to speak “what” He wants said.
The people in the institutional Churches don’t want to hear this message, because they’ve invested their lives and money into the system, have many friends and family members in the system, have experienced wonderful things in the system, so to hear anything that threatens all of that sounds like something right out of the pit of hell, except for the fact that it isn’t out of hell, but out of heaven.
We shouldn’t be all that surprised that God would pick times and seasons to upset our theological and personal apple carts. One only needs to scan the Old Testament, to see that God has never truly been into the “Let me make you comfortable,” sort of place. I don’t know what it is about our God, but He’s absolutely not afraid of upsetting His people. It’s not as though He were insensitive and unloving, but compared to His purposes being fulfilled, He is clearly determined to do what is best for us, not what makes us feel the best. I, as prophetic, don’t like this, and I’m certainly aware that His flock doesn’t appreciate this, but what are we to do? We either serve God or man, and we all know the final outcomes of those who serve men over God. Not good…
Over the years, my calling as a prophetic voice has cost me my reputation, my source of income, my title, my office, my position, 7 churches, one home fellowship group, and most recently a couple of blogs, and countless friends. Even my wife rarely knows what planet I sleep on. She does her best to comprehend the struggle I face in trying to obey God’s Word to me, but because I’m an imperfect prophetic voice and believer I don’t always minister the Words He brings to me with the greatest of finesse and tenderness, so she has to live with the outfall of my failures and insensitivities. Add to this, and I can just hear someone groan in disagreement with what I’m about to say, but occasionally I’m convinced God actually causes me to say and do things I would never say or do, out of concern they would hurt or upset people. These are some of the hardest things I’ve ever experienced. I’ll find myself spending time before the Lord, asking Him, “Was that You that caused me to breach my better judgment or sensitivity for how something should be said?” At those times I seem to receive a strange impression from Him, as if He were saying “Why would that so surprise you Tom?”
Listen to Jeremiah wrestle with something very strange in God:
Jeremiah 4:10 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, Saying, ‘You shall have peace,’ Whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”
Jeremiah 20:7 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived: you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me. 8 For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach to me, and a derision, daily. 9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not hold it back. 10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my friends watched for my failure, saying, “Peradventure he will be enticed, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.” 11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail: they will be greatly ashamed; for they will not prosper: their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten. 12 But, O LORD of hosts, that tries the righteous, and sees the emotions and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I opened my cause. 13 Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD: for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
If a modern prophet prayed a prayer like that most would say… “Well, he just doesn’t understand the message of grace, under the New Covenant. He thinks God is mad about things that aren’t right, but he doesn’t understand the place of grace.” They’d be certain that things hard to hear wouldn’t come from God…things that cut across the grain of their traditional upbringings and “the way things have always been…” But, while God, in Christ, has been propitiated by His blood, He isn’t finished with His plan for His Church, and because 2000 years of Church has needed some serious correctings, He has chosen now to expose the errors and urge His body towards change. Nobody likes change. We love status quo. We’re always certain change is of the devil, as if it were always him trying to unsettle the kingdom of God.
So, here’s to all the looney prophets who stand up to millions of believers worldwide, and have the insane audacity to say, “Um folks…we’ve been going the wrong way, and um, well, uh, God says its on His calendar to make some changes now. I’m sorry if this upsets you but that’s just what God is doing now.” The people don’t sit up, take note, and tell all those looney prophets, “We’re with ya man! Go for it! We hear God in this!” No, instead they persecute the prophets. Prophets prophesy and the people persecute them. It’s an age old cat and mouse game, and nothing is different about this game in our day.
If the stakes weren’t so high I’m sure prophets would actually do what Jeremiah threatened doing “just shut up!” But, they are too high, and God doesn’t spend a lifetime dealing with a prophet, just to bring him to the point of delivering the message He has prepared him for and then just let him off the hook. No way! God is far too determined for that. He dangles him out there for everyone to laugh at, mock, scorn, and hate. From God’s perspective, there will be plenty of time in eternity to heal the prophet’s wounded self image, or even his body if they decide to burn him at the stake. God is just not into molly coddling His prophets. Many times I wish He was… I get really tired of speaking on His behalf, being rejected, then watching time go by, and the words I’ve spoken come to pass, but enough time has gone by for anyone to remember that I said the things that happened would happen, so I just live in the perpetual state of ridicule and being misunderstood, while God’s purposes are accomplished because of His prophesied will into the earth, and their job was done. They get their reward later. Now, if they are true prophets, instead of being boot kissers, and liked for it, they get mocking and persecution, later… well, we’ll see what they get. God doesn’t say much about it…probably because He doesn’t want prophets prophesying out of false motives. It’s a rather austere sort of life for these folks.
And you want to know where it gets really tough? When it is those who are the closest to you who just don’t get who you are, what He is doing in you, and how uncomfortable He has made your life because of His message that He brews within you.
Listen to scripture:
Matthew 13: 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” 58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Luke 12:49 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! 51 “Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. 52 “For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. 53 “Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Luke 18:28 Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.” 29 So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 “who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Psalm 41:9 Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.
These verses make it very clear that even those who are closest to the prophet will not necessarily understand or appreciate the call upon the prophet’s life. He is not called first and foremost to accountability to them, no matter how much the doctrine of accountability gets banged around in our day. He is first and foremost accountable to God, and must be willing to be misunderstood by everyone around him. Those closest to him will hurt him the most though, and their words will always mean more to him when they miss judge his heart and intentions. Very rarely will the true prophet end his days in peace and tranquility. Most often he will be driven off into the wilderness to pray and speak what he has heard in God, and journey his journey alone.
Sound like fun yet? Ready to join the prophets troupe? Do you know any prophets like this? Still like them? Hang in there…eventually you won’t. They will eventually step on your toes and the toes of all your friends around you, and you will feel it your Christian duty to let them know how crazy, how sick, how rude, how harsh, how insensitive and how WRONG they are. This is your calling, as the body of Christ. His is just to follow the Lamb wherever He leads, and leave the rest to God.
Let me draw near to closing with Jeremiah’s description of his fun filled journey as a prophet of God. I’m sure this will inspire all the would be prophets out there:
1 I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2 He has led me and made me walk
1 In darkness and not in light.
3 Surely He has turned His hand against me
Time and time again throughout the day.
4 He has aged my flesh and my skin,
And broken my bones.
5 He has besieged me
And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
6 He has set me in dark places
Like the dead of long ago.
7 He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out;
He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry and shout,
He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
10 He has been to me a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in ambush.
11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces;
He has made me desolate.
12 He has bent His bow
And set me up as a target for the arrow.
13 He has caused the arrows of His quiver
To pierce my loins.
14 I have become the ridicule of all my people—
Their taunting song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drink wormwood.
16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel,
And covered me with ashes.
17 You have moved my soul far from peace;
I have forgotten prosperity.
18 And I said, “My strength and my hope
Have perished from the LORD.”
19 Remember my affliction and roaming,
The wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul still remembers
And sinks within me.
21 This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
22 Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust—
There may yet be hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him,
And be full of reproach.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
32 Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of men.
34 To crush under one’s feet
All the prisoners of the earth,
35 To turn aside the justice due a man
Before the face of the Most High,
36 Or subvert a man in his cause—
The Lord does not approve.
37 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass,
When the Lord has not commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That woe and well-being proceed?
Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?
What’s the upside? Is there an upside? Of course!
Here it is:
Mat 25:23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
Well done doesn’t mean “perfectly done,” it means “well done.” There is a difference. God’s not anticipating perfect prophets, just faithful ones.
Better to live for this, than the approval of man.
This article was taken from Tom Sparks' website called Freedom's Price Ministry: http://www.fpmin.com/index.shtml
July 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Reading the article by Tom Sparks both interests and disturbs me. Prophetic people do have a tough road to hoe at times but I always think there is a significant missing element for the prophetic that needs acknowledgement and a mechanism to assist them.
Firstly Tom has been very honest about his past track record, ie he has not always got it right. This can take the form of a prophet getting the wrong timing, the wrong interpretation or just getting it totally wrong. The current prophetic movement is very young and this is to be expected and many us although very tempted can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. So to protect us all yet still embrace the prophetic voice I believe there is an urgent need for confirmation of prophetic revelation in any given instance. The more significant the revelation the more urgent and essential the confirmation.
I meet so many prophets who think their prophetic word is the final word on a situation or person or event. I personally think this is arrogance and not what God has intended for the NT Church. For me prophetic words start to form or add to revelation I have been getting from God, it is only part of the ongoing leading. Prophets can get all wound up as they for some reason think they have the whole revelation..end of story.
We as a Church and community desperately need prophetic input and guidance, we need leadership who submit to and are comfortable with the prophetic. We also need an environment that receives prophetic words and holds them in tension until there is confirmation from two or three other sources. Some of the issues on God’s agenda at the moment are so significant, serious and paradigm changing we don’t want to get it wrong. God is obviously more than able to give the same message to more than one person.
Church leadership needs courage and bravery to, once it has received two or three confirming words from multiple sources to then move ahead. Who would blame a Church pastor who has been burned as a result of a prophet getting it wrong..as they all do occasionally. A poor pastor has to live with years of consequence, he or she potentially loses both his reputation and years of work, the prophet loses his reputation.
In my experience most prophetic people are loners and this has to change. Unfortunately most pastors are loners as well (although they they don’t think they are). So we don’t have a good environment to create either shared revelation or shared confirmation but this is where we must head.
I believe one of the most pressing needs of this explosive revelatory era is an environment of shared, mutual leadership that together weighs and decides on the input being received from God. We need to acknowledge no one is perfect or sees the whole picture either prophet or pastor and hence we need structures and organisms that accept this but provide vehicles and mechanisms to move within it. God in His mercy is speaking loudly today there is an urgency to learn how to listen.
My belief is that one of the roles of the apostolic is to bring pastor and prophet together in a context that will bring forth considered revelation and resultant action fully releasing God’s directions and plans. The great need for this age is church leadership relationships of trust and mutual decision making. Historically we have had very little of this, no wonder we are having problems.
July 8th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Vaughan,
I think you are right on! The sooner we settle that we all only see a part, and even the part we see is seen through that darkened glass, the better.
Such incredible failures in the prophetic should be troubling to us. If it doesn’t trouble us, and if we don’t speak up when we see it and hear it, then our passivity becomes tacit acceptance. Case in point: The whole so called “apostolic” movement in the traditional Church setting. While Jesus will be glorified in some measure through this, as He always is, I’m as certain as I ever have been that this is more about the flesh of man the glory of God.
I’d like to take it a little further. I believe the only reason any of us would resist having our words tested by those who are spiritual in the body, is because we nurture a “lone ranger” attitude connected with a desire to protect the “my ministry demon,” that seeks entrance into each of us. The “I can’t let you evaluate the Word I bring because if you find a spiritual/scriptural flaw in it it makes me less significant, and if I’m less significant than you then you will get invited to extend your ministry and I will be sat down again.” How sick and sad, but such “one upmanship,” has too long characterized much of the leadership of the body.
Ok, so, let’s take your exhortation to the next level. What I’m about to share will perhaps stretch the intention for this thread, but I’m ok with being asked to keep it shorter, if Brett prefers that, but I’m going to share here some things I “believe” God has been speaking to my heart about, and in the context of this spiritual body of brethren I invite spiritual evaluation of what I think He’s been speaking to me.
Consider the following:
Up until John the apostle died, around 100 AD, while the Church had her troubles, the apostles did a pretty good job keeping things on track with God’s heart. But, within 50 short years after John’s death, his student Polycarp allowed the Church to begin its detour from God’s plan, as it appears to me he allowed his skill in communication and leadership to go to his head, and because men tend to exalt men over Christ, in Polycarp’s lifetime men put him on pedestal and encouraged him to see himself as one called to administrate the broader Church towards regional oversight.
Ignatius was Polycarp’s disciple as Polycarp was John’s disciple, and true to form, the disciple exceeded his master, and Ignatius took the Church into full blown regional bishopric, and the Church has never been the same since. Fifty years saints, just fifty short years, to completely derail the Church from the style of leadership Jesus ordained for His Church for all time, with the result that Jesus’ Headship was denied and His authority usurped.
Church ceased to be “all about Jesus,” and rapidly became about the will of man for Jesus’ Church. Little by little Jesus took a back seat to the ideas, and developing traditions of man. These moves set the Church up for Constantine’s major changes, and with his sweeping reforms the Church was plunged into a quagmire of the rule of man, with all his religious laws, ideas, and traditions. We’ve been trying to dig out of it all ever since.
In my short lifetime I’ve watched the Lord carefully and yet “obviously” begin the process of seriously realigning the Church with His purposes. Why now? Why so dramatically in so short a time? I don’t know the answer to this prophetic question, but I can see it happening, and I know it is God.
We are witnessing the Church move from a concept of “a building equals the Church,” to “people, gathering wherever, equals the Church.” We’re seeing leadership move from hierarchical one man shows, to non hierarchical and Jesus becoming the Head of His Church again. These are not small changes. These are unbelievably huge and important changes. Who would have thought such a thing would take place in so short a time?
Throughout the world His Church is quietly getting up, out of their pews, saying goodbye, and moving into homes, offices, parks, beaches, coffee shops, etc.. I won’t detail all the changes here, because chances are you are already well aware of what has taken place and what is taking place.
So, where is this heading to?
First, some of the prophetic dangers I believe the Lord has spoken to me about:
1. All such sweeping changes have “always” turned into man’s personal movements. This must not happen, though I believe I see it happening. I’m convinced Jesus is always opposed to movements, because movements take His Church away from Him again, and become about the agendas of man. What needs to be done can be done by Jesus, working simply through His people, and needs nothing of man’s agenda. What is happening from Him is not a movement. It is a realignment with Christ.
2. It must not become a business. Church ministry as a business is diametrically opposed to Jesus’ rule, because businesses always demand business administrators, and these kinds of leaders always steal Jesus’ leadership and take the Church away from Him and down human agenda pathways.
3. It must not become the “new denomination,” or justification for splintering the body yet further. If it is to honor Him it must become that which embraces all, not limits the participants. It is not about destroying Church buildings and denominations, as it builds its own new philosophical structure. It is about allowing Christ to create an environment where all His people can worship Him without the interference and controls of man.
4. It must not develop into specialized ministry cliques, comprised of “apostolic troupes, Church planting strategies, missional over definings and organizations.” Man just can’t stand the thought of not “organizing to death” everything God does. He continually thinks of his significance as attached to a “thanks Lord, we’ll take it from here,” sort of posture. Jesus doesn’t need us to take it from here. Leave it with Him.
5. It must not become about anything else other than singular focus on Jesus - loving Him, knowing Him, worshiping Him, and honoring His headship.
Second, a need for redefinings:
1. What God is doing isn’t Christianity, it isn’t Christendom, it isn’t Church as we have understood it previously. What is it? Relationship with Christ, and with Christ in one another. It isn’t a worldwide religion, laid alongside of other world religions. It never was to be that, and it isn’t that. It isn’t a thing, it is a Person. So, let’s drop the terms Christian, Religion, and Church, for the most part, or use them very carefully. We are believers in Jesus Christ. We are followers of His person, not a set of rules, standards, and practices. We are His people, not a religious organization known as a Church. The term Church is too laden with religious baggage to be of any further use to what He is doing. The sooner we download that term the better.
2. We don’t have Pastors, Church administrators, or leadership, at least not in the sense we’ve come to know them before. Each of these terms have become so synonymous with control concepts, that they no longer serve safe and helpful purposes. We have those called to serve and teach His body. Put away all these unnecessary terms, and learn to become transparent, in terms of clear delineations and known only by love, grace, wisdom, example, care, and the power of the Spirit.
Where is the Church heading:
1. The entire House Church movement will become something the Church, that has come out of the traditional Church, will have to come out of again. God is not building a House Church movement. It is not about the place or a designation, it is all about the Person of Christ. The movement will die, the names that are growing big in the midst of the movement will face another serious season of the cross, and be called to take their hands off of what God is doing, and be satisfied with being nameless and faceless again. What will emerge is a nameless, faceless, organizationless, people of God. He will take the current “big names,” among the House Church movement, back into the wilderness for another season of refining. Many of them were taken out of the traditional Church, and into the wilderness, but before the wilderness could complete its work within them they found a path out of it and into the limelight again, further deepening their commitment to their security and significance. This next phase of the desert for them will be the most excruciating of all, but it will produce the deepest and best work of all.
2. The writing of books, developing of ministry networks, and conferences must all pass through another refining work. Men are struggling with security and significance to too great of a degree. It isn’t that book writing and relating to other brothers, or bringing the brethren together, is bad. It is just that it is becoming too much about becoming big shots, with big reputations and big ministries, while Jesus becomes less and less the focus. We’d rather go hear some big name House Church leader, than bow before Jesus and quietly worship and listen to Him. This tendency will be dealt with over and over again, until a people wake up to its invasiveness and refuse its development.
3. The true Church of Jesus Christ will pass through a season, very soon, where she is less interested in reading many books on “House Church,” less into networking with coordinating Church leaders/apostles, and attending conferences. They will lose their interest in these things in favor of a very simple development of meaningful relationships with a few key believers whom Jesus has connected them to. It is the “human/flesh element,” that takes everything God does and tries to carve out a specialized identity with it, instead of just letting it drive them deeper into Him. It’s as though we start out right - broken, humbled, revelatory - and then turn into something about us again. Jesus will always confront this. This time it will happen faster than with past movements.
4. Ministers will travel, not so as to give them something meaningful to do, nor to hone their speaking abilities, nor to network the body, nor to derive income, nor to develop control systems, but quietly as simple servants, not coming with any agenda or any desire to be invited back so as to increase their sense of significance. They will not allow bodies of believers to become dependant upon them, need them, or worship them. They will quietly move among the body without much advertising and self promotion.
5. The emphasis of “about Jesus only,” will grow among those who have seen the truth. The body is about its Head, not all the other “stuff” it has tended to be about. Simple love and devotion to Him will be all that is tolerated or desired. Those who bring something else will be spotted for their immaturity and ulterior motives. They will not be tolerated any longer. They will be loved, chastened, and sat down, while they learn that no matter how well they speak, write, or network, it isn’t about them, it is about Jesus. This will be hard on them, but it will set them free into something they’ve never seen before. We are simply called to know Him, love Him, and walk before Him, letting Him lead us into simple and pure acts of love towards one another and the world.
6. As the body learns to walk in these new ways, Jesus will allow His power and authority to be manifested in new and more powerful ways. In the past, He has allowed His power to be manifested in a few “power ministries.” Why only a few? Because He has had three goals in this limitation.
a) To touch many people with His power.
b) To allow men to become corrupted by the power He gave them, so as to expose their lack of character, their lack of Jesus only focus, their man centeredness, their needs for security and significance. The body has watched these gifted men and women become corrupted, one after another.
c) To bring forth a body that has gone through the wilderness and learned to let it be all about Jesus, not “their ministry,” nor “their power,” nor “their reputation,” and certainly not about money. The only way for true power to flow in Jesus’ body is for His body to be so Jesus focused and full of His love and compassion, that His power can flow through them without it becoming “about them.” This has been a very difficult thing to bring about, because men are so set on worshiping themselves.
7. Purity must return at every level. Leadership purity, moral purity, and motive purity. The only reason it hasn’t, more than it has, is because it has been too much about man. If the body of Christ is to be what it has been called to be it must become so by putting off the old man and putting on Christ. It’s been too much about us, our ministries, our agendas, and our ways. Purity stands no chance when this is the case. Only a deep commitment to the love of Christ, knowing Him, and bowing before Him, will create the purity necessary to allow Him to bring forth the next major phase of His purposes for His people. To the degree that purity becomes about relationship and love, rather than laws, rules, and religion, it will become a force within us to release His presence throughout the earth. Those who resist His purifying work, and who persist in impurity, just because Jesus continues to use them, will find they have been corrupted by their impurity, and driven into the wilderness for long seasons of purification. As many trips around Mt Sinai as are necessary, to teach us that it is all about Jesus, will be ordained for each of us.
I’m sure there will be other things the body of Christ will be led into, but this is as far as I can see it for now.
We have a long way to go, but it is clear Jesus has put into motion a new season for the people of God, and as such we will learn what it means to become His called ones. It will slay us, heal us, build us up in Him, and cause us to become His light to a dark world.
Jesus, it is truly about You Lord!
July 13th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Amen Tom!!!! I can surely relate and agree to all you have said. Without going into many details, I will summarize in my life what your message confirms.
Under Construction: God at Work, the making of a godly woman:
I was very involved with the “church” system for a number of years, even involved with “ministry”, until, the Lord began to open my eyes in 2001. He told me that He was going to take me into the wilderness. At that time I really did not understand that concept, but have over the last year and a half, as I have began to understand as I have witnessed Him working and stripping me of my flesh and all attatchments and attractions to this world, it’s way and system. This has been in process over the past four years. He has removed all the barriers and false securities that the world tends to lean on, and that I in times past leaned on as well.
The wilderness experience will either kill you or wake you up to the true realities that exist, and can only be seen through the eyes of God and by the child who trusts Him. Only in these times did I realize that I could relate to the children of Israel in thier wilderness experience and take note and learn from thier experience and do my best not to make the same mistakes in not trusting God, regardless of what others may say or do. And, believe me, I have heard numerous opinions of men, even my own “household” and relatives, who have no clue what God is saying to His people today, which testifies that they do not trust in His ways. So, I stand a fool, and labeled a lunatic in their eyes to this day, because it is beyond their understanding…….
O’ the wisdom of men is foolishness to God, and His ways are high above our ways, who can understand them. In saying this, I have learned not to question God, but to trust and obey, and the outcome has always been for the best and for His glory!! All glory to God!
“To obey, is better than sacrafice”
Alot is going on in my life that does not make sense to the natural mind, but I know that God is working, and that I must trust and obey, regardless the opposition that I face daily. The amazing thing is, His strength in me to take all that comes my way with meekness, love & forgiveness of heart, and the more zeal to carry this cross even further.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:20
All For Jesus, Gale
July 25th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Dear Tom,
Thank you for “taking it a little further”!! I wasn’t expecting a response from the author but was delighted to read your thoughts, experiences and hope and beliefs for the future. It would be great to meet! I was with Brett last weekend but hadn’t read your response at that stage. So shall take your friendship and background up with him. Have browsed your site.
Bless you brother, look forward to marching into the new season alongside you!
August 10th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Vaughn,
In God’s timing I look forward to meeting, encouraging, and being encouraged by the developing body in Australia! Good times, good times!
Blessings!
Tom
August 21st, 2007 at 1:58 am
Popular prophets pinch the perfect prince of peaces proper props.