The Journey of the Prophet Part III

 

The prophet has an assignment just as the teacher has an assignment, just as a missionary has an assignment. The assignment isn’t to predict the next President, and although the prophet may be endowed with interpretation ability of dreams, that’s not the prophet’s primary assignment. It’s not to give “A prophetic Word of the day,” and charge money. He works best in the company of the apostle when giving direction to the shepherds and others in leadership. Ephesians 4 lists a five-fold government. The prophet is one of them.

The prophet unveils a truth that goes against the climate, political voices, religious stupor and brings a truth often labeled as negativity or, worse, untruth. The prophet is given a bloody pen and a pen that blooms almond blossoms. Both pens pierce the prophet’s heart as they are one and the same. 

Jeremiah, take a scroll and write all the words I command you on it. “Perhaps when the people of Judah (America) hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jer. 36:3).

The officials go to the king in the courtyard and report all the words of the Lord given to Jeremiah, the prophet. What does he do?

Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him.  And as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut them off with a scribe’s knife and throw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire.

Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments.  Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.  Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, as well as Seraiah, son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.” (Jer. 36:22-26).

The king throws it in the fire after cutting it to pieces with a scribe’s knife.

The father tells his prophet. “Jeremiah, write it again!” 

The warning is dire, and the prophet is feeling the heaviness of the message sent from the Holy One, but his words burn and soon his people and their temple will burn because they will not heed the warning. “Write it again,” echos through the prophet’s soul.

The Father tells His prophets the same message over and over again. It’s a message I have heard at times since 2007. “Go speak to the people all I tell you. I’m not sending you to another nation. Not sending you to China, Tekoa. Not sending you on a missionary trip to Japan, Korea, or India and Africa. Just tell my people what I tell you, Tekoa. Just write the letter.

Me: But I am not good at speaking. I don’t have a doctorate degree. I don’t speak or enunciate English well let alone Hebrew.  I am a man of unclean lips. No one takes my messages seriously. Plus, it’s a stern message to write. It’s bitter in my belly, Abba.” 

But the response is as ancient as time:

“Write it anyway. Say it anyway. Make a city out of pots and pans, regardless. Rest on your side and take the sins of my people. Marry a Harlot anyway. Leave your land and family anyway. Speak to Pharoah anyway. Build an Ark anyway.

Tekoa, the people may not listen to you because they don’t always listen to me. They honor me with their lips while their hearts are far away. You dwell among scorpions and briars and snakes. But tell them what I tell you. Some may listen. Some may be as Obadiah to supply you with bread and water and safety.

“And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart. 8Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. 9Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house” ( Ezekiel 3:4-9)

“When I say to the wrong, ‘O wrong one, you shall certainly die!’ and you have not spoken to warn the wrong from his way, that wrong one shall die in his crookedness, and his blood I require at your hand.” (Ezekiel 33:8).

The prophet suffers at the hands of men and the Hands of the Holy one. His sufferings are his greatest buffeting, polishing, and preparation. These rejections and maladies cause the prophet to feel what the Father feels.

The prophet has a doctorate in suffering. Yes, this is a language the prophet understands. It’s a garment the prophet wears. Each physical, mental, emotional, financial form of suffering is like an elixir that he drinks down. The result of the weight of the diagnosis is part of a heavenly design. The prophet knows the sickness and impoverishment is for his own good. He knows that it is through His suffering that he learns humility.

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8).

 

The prophet stays at widows houses and demands they feed him first. The prophet loses his eyesight so he can see with his ears. He goes deaf so his eyes can zoom in clearer. When the doctor looks gravely and declares the prophet’s body is attacking itself, the Father says “My body is attacking itself.” When the prophet goes numb from the waist down, the father declares my people cannot feel intimacy. They do not long to become One. When I penetrate them, they go through the motions. They have forsaken their first love. Their legs will not hold them up to walk. They are babies crawling and cramming anything into their mouths. 

When the prophet’s food no longer stays down, the Father says, “my people cannot digest meat.” They live off crumbs and call it meat. They mistake knowledge for true intimacy.

When the doctors in white coats misdiagnose the root of the prophet’s condition or look at the prophet with suspicion and retort:

“The prophet has faltered to a form of attention-seeking.

The prophet needs instructions.

Even the prophet’s brothers and sister join in and proclaim he has gone mad or full of pride.

(Mark 3:21 NASB) When His (Yeshua’s) own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

“Why have you come down here (David)?” he asked. “And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and wickedness of heart–you have come down to see the battle!”(I Sam. 17:28).

The prophet is often misunderstood. Misdiagnosed. Holding a slingshot one minute and acting mad the next.

The Father continues to speak a message over and over until no matter where the prophet is, he is seeing those in need of healing and those in need of sing shots.

“Those who are sickly they have not strengthened, the diseased they have not healed, the broken they have not bound up, the scattered they have not brought back, nor have they searched for the lost.”

The doctors pronounce the condition of the prophet. It is Cancer. It’s the liver. The kidneys. But the prophet is as numb as the proclamation of death. He has heard the singing of the mockers and the formula of what he needs to walk in prosperity and healthy divine order.  But his Body takes on the ailment in the Body of Yeshua where idolatry and baseless hatred hide inside cells and must be hit with a heavenly chemo. Yes, sickness lives in these madmen. A sickness that feels the death of sons charred in priestly garments but must remain silent. Not only do prophets experience the death of children, but they also experience the death of spouses. Of course, everyone experiences the death of loved ones, but the prophet’s is unique:

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,  “Son of man, behold, I am about to take away the desire of your eyes with a fatal blow. But you must not mourn or weep or let your tears flow.  Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Put on your turban and strap your sandals on your feet; do not cover your lips or eat the bread of mourners.”

So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And the next morning I did as I had been commanded. (Ezekiel 24:15-18).

If the prophet is healthy then he becomes a caregiver to those suffering. He feels their pain and is present when their spirit leaves their body.

When the prophet corrects or rebukes, it is met with retorts that John the Immerser could have kept his head on if he had kept his mouth shut. Or the arrogancy of the prophet to think he is the only prophet left who had not bowed the knee.

Though ignorant and corrected, his words were not just arrogance, but a cry for the office he held and the school of the prophets he was over. Yes, in his madness and assignment to slaughter the false prophets, Elijah failed to see and understand that he was not the only one. There were 7,000 who had not bowed the knee. Seven is the number of completion and much more.

The prophet does not come outside and swing his mantle and command the cure for leprosy, but instead tells Namaan to dip seven times. To repent. To make straight paths. To bring forth fruit that is worthy of repentance.  Fear the Holy One of Israel, the God of Jacob. The prophet will repeat this message until he passes his mantle on to the next. And he will try to faithfully repent continuously, although like other men, he will fail.

Part One HERE

Part Two HERE