Nov 29th 2008
A few decades back when the prophetic movement started it mainly had an Old Testament version of the prophetic and prophets. There were many who were ministered by those standards, however, one of its setbacks was it produced extremes of judgmental and negative prophecies. Not that judgmental or negative prophecy are by themselves wrong, however, it became wrong when it started lacking Love and some of the erratic ways of the Old Testament prophets were adored and impersonated.
This left some sections of the body wounded. At this time arose teachings on positive confession. To some degree, the church was rediscovering God’s Love and the Goodness of God too. All of this coupled with the rising unhealthy focus and exaltation of self gave rise to a new breed of people who started to adopt a positive approach to everything. Although the core idea of being positive was of God’s origin to bring a balance to some of the extremes that had creped up, many started to build their foundations on that only. Out of it arose a counter-movement. They went from one end of the spectrum to the other.
Their extreme positive outlook led them to adopt a “New Testament only” concept of the prophetic ignoring the Old Testament roots of the prophetic or even the negative and judgmental prophecies in the New Testament. This has lead to another extreme today, where prophecies are largely from a positive standpoint. As a result we have a culture of pampered proud believers who lack Holiness and the Fear of the Lord in the church. Lawlessness abounds in great measure as a result.
If we are to progress as a body further in the Lord there needs to be a major change in the prophetic and the way it is viewed in some circles today. Now in saying this I need to put things in perspective. Firstly we must give credit to all that the prophets and the prophetic movement in general have achieved for good and the Glory of God. There are a lot of good things that have come out of the present movements and one of them is that the prophetic has been made accessible to common people not just a select few and credit must go to whom credit is due. On the other hand if we were to go to the next level several major changes need to happen, some of which we will see below.
1) Walking in God’s Love is not just being positive or saying nice things.
If we take a look at Jesus’ prophecies not many of them would fit into the “current streams” or “churches”. Jesus’ prophesied the destruction of the temple. He warned on the last days, which included all sorts of evil.
He even bluntly told his disciples “If you deny me before men, I will deny you before the Father”. Those were just a few of the many things.
Now if we were to judge Jesus by the scale we have today, He would be classified as an angry doomsday prophet who lacked Love and should be ignored. Why? Because we have tuned our ears to have people say nice things to us and our understanding of God’s Love is limited to just being positive or speaking positive.
God’s Love goes beyond just outward words or actions it looks to deal with the inward issues of the heart and therefore chooses whatever way best to deal with it. Which could mean being negative or brining in correction. In saying this am not belittling wisdom that needs to be applied to each situation [ which might be just using a positive approach] but merely helping us to see the other side which would in turn bring a balance. Paul, Peter, James Jude and even John were severe at times in dealing with issues. Here are a few of their quotes.
- “O foolish Galatians” How many people would include that in their sermon today. Well, Paul did.
- O vain man “Faith without works is dead”. “Adulterers and Adulteresses”… that would be enough to have a preacher kicked out of the pulpit today in some places.(James).
- “ Dog has returned to its vomit and the pig to its mire” (Peter).
Jesus’ address to the seven churches also stands true to what is being said here.
Brethren lets get back to the word of God and start interpreting the word of God as a whole. We need the whole counsel of the Lord and not bits and pieces of it.
2) Is prophecy edification exhortation and comfort only?
Today these three words have become foundational to the prophetic. I do believe that they are foundational and one of the main foundations to the prophetic but not the only foundation. As I had mentioned earlier prophecy and prophetic have to be connected to their Old Testament roots. In line with that there are several other important foundations that are necessary in the prophetic today.
Before going into that if we are thinking that the whole prophetic ministry changed in the New Testament. The answer to that is yes and no. The roots remain the same, however a main ingredient has been added which has changed its flavor entirely.
The main ingredient is God’s Love revealed and flowing out of individuals. At times the Old Testament prophets lacked this in their lives but as New Testament people we have the ability to walk in God’s Love all the time. Also we have a greater understanding and revelation of God’s Love than the prophets had at that time because we can look back to the events of the cross and resurrection of Christ whereas they saw it vaguely.
Now as said earlier the roots remain the same. One of roots, which is very important and also foundational in the New Testament is that the prophets of old had the job to keep people (Israel, chosen) close to God, which always meant to confront and expose sin and show them ways to deal with it.
We see this pattern in the New Testament from the apostles’ epistles and not only that in Jesus’ address to the seven churches.
Also the other important root is that the prophets were holy people themselves. They had a standard higher than others. We can see this in the New Testament as well. Almost every time they are mentioned they are referred to as God’s Holy prophets.
So Holiness in prophets and confronting sin and exposing it to keep people close to God, which are the other two important foundations, must be rediscovered again if we are to progress further.
Secondly in looking at the word’s edification, exhortation and comfort we would find that we have defined it with our positive mentality were as the biblical definition of it is different and includes rebuke and correction. Luke called “John the Baptist’s” strong preaching as exhortations and Isaiah calls it comfort. John’s exhortations were nowhere near the standards we have made for ourselves today. He called some” brood of vipers” and his main ministry was to preach on sin and repentance. The ultimate goal is to edify, exhort and bring comfort, which could mean being negative and bring warning at times. It does not mean just being and staying positive always, however every action must always flow out of God’s Love.
Where is the prophetic movement today?-2
