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Chapter 12

Prophet or Loss

WHERE ARE THE PROPHETS?

�And he gave [the Body] some [as] apostles; and some [as] prophets; and some [as] evangelists; and some [as] shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.� (Ephesians 4:11�16)

Who gave?

Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God

Whom did He give?

Men to be His apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers

To whom did He give them?

The Body of Christ

When and for how long did He give them?

From the Day of Ascension, �till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.�

Why did He give them?

� for the perfecting of the saints
� for the work of the ministry
� for the edifying of the body of Christ
� that we henceforth be no more children who are tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive � but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ.

Where are the prophets today?

Here and there in the Body of Christ

But the Body doesn't often like the messages that they bring, so it doesn't usually or easily accept them or recognize them. God gives � to the Body of Christ � men who are to be His apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers of His beloved people. It is deception to think that these five ministries ceased to exist sometime in the dim biblical past, to be �restored� sometime in the dim end-time future.

The Body of Christ will continue to miss many of God's blessings until we throw-off the deception that the Bible is only a history of the faraway past and dim predictions about times to come. When we see that it all applies to us today, then we'll see that God is Who He says He is, that He means what He says in His word, that His will is going to come to pass on earth, and that His judgement (not our own) will set our eternal destiny.

Then we'll pay closer attention to His word, obey His commandments, heed His warnings, and jump to do quickly whatever He bids us to do. We fool only ourselves and do ourselves no spiritual or eternal good when we say that we believe on Him and belong to Him but still try to �follow Him� in our own ways rather than in His.

The Body today thinks that shepherds are denominational �pastors� (this old Roman Catholic relic is only the Latin term for sheep-herder or shepherd), many of whom are not the shepherds whom God sends to tend His flock. The Body acknowledges all kinds of novices and leaders as teachers, including many who teach sweet but poisonous doctrines. (In spite of the fact that 1 Timothy 3:1�7 says that a spiritual leader of the Body �must be not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.� (emphasis added)

The Body today thinks that evangelists work only in circus tents, municipal stadiums, or broadcasting studios. The Body today thinks that Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and the surviving eleven disciples were the only apostles � and considers prophets gone with the Old Testament age.

Jesus came to His own, and they wouldn't receive Him as the Messiah (John 1:11). They knew Who He was, and they rejected Him � because He didn't satisfy their expectations. As you wait for those whom God sends you, guard against your private expectations, for these ideas are most likely to delude you and cause you to turn away His messengers while you receive messengers who bring their own words instead of His. Don't demand that new words jibe with what you already know or believe before you will receive them.

Any man whom God sends for your edification (often including correction!), exhortation, and comfort is likely to be someone whom you will find hard to receive. You will probably misunderstand him, his message, and his purpose � even though you may know that he comes in the Name of the Lord. Rejection is the normal lot of the prophet. If you know the reasons behind this rejection, you can avoid missing a man who has been sent to you from God.

Deception runs wide, wild, and deep through the Body of Christ today � because we run after false prophets too eagerly and with a too ready suspicion turn away the true prophets God sends. Neither the attractiveness nor the unattractiveness of a message or messenger is a sign of its spiritual value or validity. False prophets and false prophecies are certain to be in some way attractive. Christians must learn how to accept any messenger whom God sends. We must learn how to resist, ignore, or reject false prophets and all deceptive teachings. How can you know when a prophet comes from God?

In John 7:17, Jesus shows us the first requirement for knowing whether a man and his teaching come from God �

�If any man desires to do His will (God's pleasure), he will know � have the needed illumination to recognize, can tell for himself � whether the teaching is from God, or whether I am speaking from Myself and of My own accord and on My own authority.�

In the next verse, Jesus shows a vital contrast �

�He who speaks on his own authority seeks to win honor for himself � he whose teaching originates with himself seeks his own glory. � But he who seeks the glory and is eager for the honor of him who sent him, he is true; and there is no unrighteousness or falsehood or deception in him.� (The Amplified Bible)

What kind of man is he likely to be?

A true prophet �

� is an ordinary man with extraordinary ways. To many people, his ordinariness makes his extraordinariness hard to accept, and vice versa.

� lives in surrender to God and therefore in opposition to Satan � but constantly hears, from unweaned babes who can't bear to hear him, �You have to learn to surrender everything to God.�

� cares deeply for God, for His plan, for His people, and for His wishes. His love for God and for God's truth makes him oppose everything that leads and holds God's people away from Him. He puts God ahead of men, so others think that he considers himself better than them. (He doesn't think that he's any better than others � he just knows that God's way, which he seeks to follow, is better than others' ways.)

� places top value and priority on everything that comes from God, down to each word of scripture. He resists any alteration or modification of scripture � false or weak translations, verses used far out of their contexts, lost and misplaced emphases, open doctrinal disregard or misreading, anything that alters or weakens God's original meanings. He holds himself strictly to accurate interpretations of inspiration and scripture � more strictly than others can easily tolerate, for him or for themselves.

� respects the important differences between form and substance, particularly in spiritual matters, and knows that substance is preferable to form � while he's usually surrounded by people who favor form over substance even in �spiritual� matters.

� is deeply serious about eternal and spiritual matters and humorous about everything else � especially assumed poses and vanities. Some detractors find him too serious, and others think that he's too frivolous.

� fellowships with �ordinary� saints but ministers primarily to other leaders, many of whom fear and suspect him as a competitor although his purpose is to support their ministries, not to compete with them or to supplant them with his own � he has little or none of the celebrity syndrome that afflicts superstars and those who aspire to be superstars. He ministers to one leader alone while others seek crowds.

� knows that absolute, knowable truth and absolute good do indeed exist � in God and His word � and that man must partake of both to grow in His kingdom.

� knows how deceptions come and how they can seduce even the most pious saints, who love God as deeply as he does. His opposition to deception appears to others as opposition to them, to their individuality, and to their right to their own beliefs and self-determination � when in truth his deep desire is to see them come to a new knowledge of the truth so it can free them from the deadly grip of deception. He has been spiritually deceived himself and has had to recover from this spiritual rape, so he is more alert to deception and less tolerant of it than most others are.

� sees deceptions come from false or inadequate understandings of God's revealed words and seeks to make their true meanings as clear as possible. �Spiritual� people who rely on �direct guidance� see his reliance on the written word of God as rejection of the spiritual when in fact he is urging the trying and the discerning of spirits.

� is keenly aware that everything that he learns from the Lord � from His word, from His Holy Spirit, and from his own spiritual experience as a devoted disciple of the Master � is his for the edification of the Body of Christ. He often sees profound spiritual significance and truths in common-place events.

� seeks to grow spiritually while he seeks to help others grow. He seeks opportunities for his own edification as eagerly as he welcomes opportunities to edify others.

� weeps inwardly as he feels others' pain and sin. His deep care for them and for their spiritual needs makes him eager to serve � although he�s unwilling to ask the needy to supply his needs, he gives willingly of himself, his time, and his means, all to serve others � often at the expense of his family and home, which gives others reason to suspect his motives and to reject his ministry.

� understands eternity and infinity � and knows how important they are to God and His people. He knows himself, his worth and his warts, his strengths and his weaknesses � so he sometimes seems egotistical and self-centered, at other times to despise himself.

� has a deep sense of right and wrong that leads him to seek God's will in all things, beginning within himself. This drive makes him seek to be right in his own beliefs, knowledge, and ways � at all costs to cherished old ways. So he is constantly changing, moving forward, seeking to move forward, chafing and fretting at all hindrances to greater realization of the right and truth that God has for His people.

� cares so intently for God and His people that he can not sit under false teaching without aching to see it corrected. He knows that most false teaching is the sincere effort of deceived teachers � so his first desire is to free these teachers of their deception. His efforts in their behalf are usually taken as meddling, even after early rebuffs have taught him to approach deceived teachers discreetly and privately. Their rejection is especially painful.

� is a logical, practical man who sees in spiritual truth the epitome of logic and practicality � and sees clearly also the vanity, emptiness, and uselessness of contrived and affected �spiritual� behavior. Others see his respect for the logic and practicality of God's truth as intellectualism, and reject it as incompatible with their concepts of spirituality.

� recognizes the reality of the spiritual realm and knows that spiritual matters are inseparable from the practical. His grasp of spiritual truth makes others see him as �so spiritually minded, he's no earthly good.�

� must deliver his message in words that must be heard or read, not merely in the example of his life. His appreciation of God's word (and of the saints' need to know it) drives him to convey God's truth to God's people � first in obedience to God but also to bless His people. He sees the people's spiritual ignorance of truths that he knows that God wants them to know, and he knows the importance of their learning always more of God's truth. To others, his emphasis on teaching seems the antithesis of spirituality. They often tell him to �lay down all your knowledge and seek the will of God� as if they believe that knowledge is automatically and always a barrier to spirituality.

� bears a special burden of heart for the Body of Christ as a community of caring, sharing saints. His aches and efforts for the Body lead many people to think that he is insensitive to individuals and to their cares, needs, interests, and opinions.

� has a clear vision and understanding of true unity in the Body, which he desires and seeks � not only because he knows that it's God's will but also because he knows his own need for blessings that he can enjoy only as a functioning member of the tightly knit Body of Christ. But the Body most often rejects him as �different� and unsettling, then denounces and shuns him as a loner.

� senses other people's character and motives without ever seeking to analyze them. He is sensitive to their needs and to their drives, and in his deep desire to bless them with the truth that in the knowing can make them free, he often seems (to them) negative, judgemental, and suspicious.

� recognizes and hates wrong � most of all, deception in all its forms. Those who see wrong less clearly and hate it less fervently � or even approve wrong and enjoy it � consider him intolerant and narrow-minded.

� prefers to deal in facts, not in his own or in other men's opinions, and in the clear messages of scripture, not in private interpretations and opinions. He therefore depends on scripture for the basis and the confirmation of his message. He looks to the word of God for His revealed will and to confirm any message � including those that come to him under His anointing. His fidelity to God's will leads him into deep, careful study, and he rejects all modernist, imaginative, or revisionist interpretations. He carefully separates clear truths from his own and others' opinions. Although he distinguishes revealed truths from personal opinions, others suspect him of presenting his own opinions as God's truth. His deep respect for the Bible's original, intended meanings leads him to deeper study of key words and statements, in the original texts, than members of the Body can understand, appreciate, or tolerate � so they tend to reject both him and his message.

� respects the important differences between careful Bible study and divine inspiration � and appreciates how important they are to his own edification. Both careful scholarship and the Holy Spirit's anointing increase his knowledge of God's messages and desires for His people.

� cares deeply about all people (individuals and groups), but his deep commitment to God's word makes him seem impatient with the opinions, traditions, and doctrines of men who set these ahead of the truth revealed by God. Those who treasure opinions, traditions, and doctrines consider him to be narrow, intolerant, and opinionated.

� often speaks the truth more clearly, more frankly, and more directly than others like to hear or find to be comfortable. People who should hear him and should faithfully take his message to heart consider him to be harsh, judgemental, self-centered, tactless, rude, and uncaring toward others.

� sees others' deceptions, error, and spiritual needs long before the rest of the Body suspects any of them, and seeks to dispel them, often before the Body is willing to move on and to grow spiritually. He is irreverent toward the false, reverent toward the true.

� desires love, respect, appreciation, fellowship, and intimacy no less than any other normal person � but his desire for God's love and approval is greater than his need for the love of others, so he may seem cold, distant, and forbidding while his heart aches from the abuse, betrayal, opposition, rejection, suspicion, and open condemnation that he receives from the people of God whom he knows should be receiving him and his message warmly to their bosoms in the Name and the Love of the Lord. When members of the Body receive his message but thrust him away, his spirit rejoices while his heart breaks. If he is married, his family suffers the same pains inflicted on him by the Body. Often, his family is abused by the Body.

� respects others' sovereignty over their lives, selves, and decisions. Not given to aggressive persuasion � though often considered pushy, especially by those who reject the challenge or resent the conviction of his message � he waits for opportunity and invitation to minister to those who need and will receive it.

� does not pretend to be the pure man that he seeks to be � and grieves that he is not. He grieves because he wants to be pleasing in his Lord's eyes. Others add to his grief by using his imperfections as excuses for rejecting him and his message.

� comes when � and from where � the Lord sends him. He is not likely to come at any predictable time or with the message that you expect or desire, nor is he likely to come from church headquarters in Rome, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, or Springfield. He comes from wherever he may be when the Lord gives him His message and marching orders.

� loves God and seeks always and only to please Him. He does not consider God's love to be an excuse for carelessness or sloppiness. He considers God worthy of greater love than his heart can offer, greater excellence than his efforts can produce. Others think that he is trying to win God's approval by works, or dismiss him as �too much of a perfectionist.�

� loves God and seeks His will so fervently that he has little patience with those who profess to belong to Him but make little or no effort to try to please Him. He has no use for shallow belief or empty �Christian� behavior. Thus he is often more at ease with honest men who profess no belief in God.

� often gets so disgusted with wayward, willful saints � and so discouraged by their hard hearts � that he wants to discard all ministry and go back to simpler life. But he can't. He belongs to God, so his first loyalty and top priority is the will of God � not His people, their acceptance, or their approval.

Christians must escape the deception that knowledge is a barrier to Body life. The knowledge of His ways and His will that the Lord gives His people (especially His prophets) is no barrier to spirituality � except for shallow believers who cling to their comfortably familiar opinions, traditions, and doctrines rather than change to conform to Him. What these believers find so easy to reject isn't knowledge itself, but new truth that's meant to take the place of old, false knowledge that has become comfortable through long familiarity or special appeal.

�My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the lord thy God, I will also forget thy children.� (Hosea 4:6 � cf Matthew 23:34�39)

Knowledge and study and teaching are not carnal barriers to walking in the Spirit. If they were, why would God set teachers in the Body? Why would He give us so much scripture and �hard knocks� teaching and expect us to know so much as a result of it all?

What is a barrier to the work of a prophet is the American fetish of rugged individualism � which leads to competition among ministers (whom He wants to minister cooperatively) and to the attitude �I'll stand alone with Jesus and make up my own mind what He wants for me� in many members of the Body. Combine either attitude with the idea that knowledge is a barrier to spirituality, and it becomes not only easy but natural to refuse to hear anyone whom God sends with new knowledge.

Also wrong is the notion that the man who has been sent to minister must never have to struggle to do the work that the Lord sent him to do. The mightier the work that anyone is sent to do in His Name, the mightier is the opposition that man faces from the flesh and the devil. Surrender to God is necessary, but surrender is not what anyone who is on an errand for God is supposed to show to the enemy.

The prophet must struggle with all that he has received from the Lord, with all that he is in the Lord, against all the opposition that he faces from the flesh and the devil. This is his duty before God. This is not the same as struggling to escape from or to oppose His will, nor is it the same as struggling to do His will before His time. The prophet's spiritual life makes him a man of struggle.

When a prophet of the Lord goes forth in His Name, to the people and to the places where the Lord sends him, to do whatever the Lord has sent him to do, the doors that close in his face are indeed rejection � but it isn't God Who closes these doors. This lack of acceptance is not evidence of shortcoming or flaw in the prophet but a sign of hardness in the hearts of those whom he is sent to, to deliver his special message from the Lord.

Barriers that block His prophet's way are not the Lord's doing, not somehow �His discipline� for some mysterious purpose. Not everything that happens to His people � or that His people do � is His will. His will is not always done. It most often isn't done in this age.

It is not His will that anyone perish, but many will. It is not His will that His prophets be rejected � but rejection is the normal lot of the true prophet. The tragic readiness of God's people to welcome sweet-tasting poison and to reject sour truth makes them easy, even willing prey for false prophets.

When He sends prophet A to disciple X or group Y, He wants that disciple or group to receive him in the name of a prophet � not to reject him. But they usually reject him.

The reason that God allows them to reject him is simple � and ironic. However deeply God may desire something for (or from) His people, He never usurps their will or their sovereignty over their decisions. So the perishing person whom He wants to save from the pit is more likely to reject His lifeline than to accept it. It isn't �God's will� that he perish.

God sends prophets to His people because His people still need what He sends by these men. If the people already knew what a prophet comes to tell them � or would learn it on their own � there'd be no need for him to come with a special message. So the people aren't infallible judges of whom they are to accept from God, nor of what they're to receive through him.

In many cases, of course, they recognize their need to be edified by his fresh word � but many needs, by their nature, blind the needy to their needs. Those who most need new words from God most often don't think they need any more teaching (though they always want more glorious and sweet blessing). They stand ready to shun challenge or rebuke, ready to turn away any such new word from God.

When He sends a special word to a deceived or self-sufficient disciple, His usual way is to send it by an humble (and often unattractive) messenger � whom the needy disciple, expecting a direct message from God, is most likely to reject (especially if the word or blessing isn't what he expects or what he thinks that he should get from the Lord!).

Such a messenger personifies a major message � we all need to be willing to receive an unwelcome message, in faith, in the Name of Jesus, from even an unwelcome messenger if that's the way that our loving God chooses as the best way to send it.

But a common deception gets in the way � the false confidence that �what I get is (a) always from the Lord, and no one else, (b) complete, and (c) always accurate.� This false assurance means that when a prophet comes, the Christian's usual urge and tendency are to straighten out the messenger's thinking rather than to hear his message. This form of rejection typically begins with the idea that the messenger must be taught in the basics of Christian belief and living before being set adrift.

This self-deception feels loving and Christian, not at all like open rejection of God's word and will. No one can easily admit that he spurns God's thinking because he likes his own or somebody else's thinking better.

A popular way to turn away a prophet is to assure him that he will �learn the way of the Lord once you are able to lay down all that you know.� Anyone who tells a prophet this does not understand spiritual maturity. God doesn't teach us, then expect us to throw away what He has taught us. There are things that we're to lay-down and things that we're to take-up in His name.

Another polite, �loving� way to reject a prophet is to tell him �you must acknowledge that what you've received is not the whole truth.� The prophet already knows very well that his share of truth is only part of a much larger picture. It is not the prophet, but the Christian who rejects him, who needs to acknowledge this fact about himself.

The church has some slick, sly ways to get rid of the prophets whom it doesn't want to hear. If you want to shut one up, to put him in his place, and just ignoring him isn't enough to suit you, you can always use him up. Drain him. Get all that you can get from him, use it as your own or junk it all, then make him toe the line that you draw. When you know that he hasn't any means, for example, demand that he tithe to your ministry, then dump him and ignore him because �he won't share what he has.�

If you really want to slay him, drop a word among the saints now and then � or better yet, among ministers � like �Saw ______ yesterday, and he looked sober!� even though you know that he never drank hard liquor in his life. You'll be surprised how clever you can be when you set-out to slay a prophet. But don't be surprised when you get some help from an evil source whom you thought that you had no interest in.

God's people must be willing to accept His words, His blessings, His direction, His reproof from whatever messengers He sends � from a drunk on the street, if he's the �ass� in whose mouth God puts His message, in whatever words or tone of voice that message comes, whatever its effect on cherished beliefs, �powerful� teachings, or sensitive feelings.

One special need in the Body of Christ is the willingness to accept those whom God sends in His Name alone � not in the name of a popular �anointed ministry� or slick television broadcast. God's words to His people and His work in their midst come when and as He sends them � not necessarily on a human schedule or in TV broadcasts or tapes.

Yet far too few of His people can accept a simple stranger in His Name, while most of them are all too eager to accept anything that �sounds right� � especially if it comes in fancy newsletters, slick magazines, radio or TV broadcasts, well organized �gospel� conventions, or tapes from a well established ministry with Inc after its name, IRS exemption, and bulk-mail privileges at the post office.

The reason is both simple and obvious � weak faith makes us lean on world-style signs of validity, and weak knowledge of His spiritual principles makes us lean on world-style crutches. But mass acceptance and popular approval are more reliable as signs of deception than signs of the spiritual validity of a man, a ministry, or a message.

Have you received a prophet lately? If you haven't, the reason can't be that no prophet has ever come your way. Do you want to try to get along spiritually without the blessings that you've missed when a prophet of God came your way, and you didn't recognize him or receive him in the name of a prophet? Don't let the next one get by you! �


Copyright � 1986, Dr Kenneth E Howell.
All rights reserved.
Christian individuals and groups are hereby granted permission to study, share, and use this essay � in its entirety, without deletion or modification � for the edification, in the name of Jesus, of themselves and others, with acknowledgement of its author but without requirement of compensation.