THE OTHERS:
Concerning modern day prophets.
There is coming a day where we will mark the true prophet by several factors that seems to have eluded the modern day church in many places.
These marks include their message, rejection as well as persecution. They will also be branded by what they are commanded to and willing to confront.
As unpopular as this is, nothing changes without conviction. In order for there to be conviction, there must be confrontation.
We see Stephen in Acts 7 accurately recalling the history of Israel and the forefathers without incident.
That is until we read in verse 51
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.
52 Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.
53 You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”
54 Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
He reveals the true condition of their hearts. In this, Stephen tells them how their fathers had persecuted the prophets. It is this same condition that caused them to betray the RIGHTEOUS ONE and became murderers themselves.
When true Word is preached, there will usually be only two types of responses.
1. Conviction unto repentance, producing Humility and brokeness.
2. The piercing of the heart that causes retaliation to the messenger. Pride, defiance, stiffnecked, hard heartedness manifests.
Mass acceptance of a person calling themself a prophet does not mean they are called as such or even have Kingdom credibility.
Heavens approval marks the carriers of this Divine calling with different qualifying factors.
By today's standards, being trendy, charismatic, motivational, or even inspirational may be acceptable to the masses. Yet, this does not qualify one as a prophet.
Prophets are not just revelational as many would relegate them to.
True prophets, by design, are confrontational.
It is this very nature that causes the true prophet to be highly misunderstood.
The ability for a prophet to understand God is a gift of faith He alone gives to the one He calls.
The prophet, in many cases can see and hear what no one else can perceive.
They are then given a commandment to speak the Word of God
They are called to be governmental.
Not only do they set order, they confront anything that is contrary to the Kingdom.
This causes them to also have a confrontational anointing.
Being Kingdom minded requires a Jeremiah 1:10 mindset to root up, pluck up, tear down and destroy before building and planting.
Anything not founded on the Word, leading of the Holy Spirit, Righteousness or Holiness becomes something that can eventually be confronted.
They challenge the kingdom of darkness.
They challenge the world.
They challenge the demonized.
They challenge the rebellious that call on the Name of the Lord.
They will even challenge the most obedient of Saints.
They are a plumb line set in the Earth to measure foundations and alignments.
They not only carry revelation.
They carry the authority of Christ by Divine calling. They demonstrate this through a lifestyle of Holiness, Humility and Christlike Character.
This authority to challenge the world as well as the Saints make them unpopular.
The demonized want them gone.The carnal and the rebellious in God's House will betray and murder many times before they will repent.
It is hard to reconvert one who has willingly chosen to pervert the truth.
This confrontation will cause them to experience great persecution.
There was a time true prophets and even the saints were marked by rejection, persecution, trials and the imprisonment they endured.
Being a true prophet, for the most part, will not make a person popular on a grand scale.
In Hebrews 11 the Scripture heralds the champions of the faith by the endurance they displayed to keep the faith.
In the beginning of Hebrews 11 we see those marked as having faith by their great obedience such as Noah and Abraham.
We see others experiencing great victories such as Gideon, Samuel, David and the prophets.
Hebrews 11:33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee.
35 Women received their dead by resurrection.
This is absolutely amazing. Faith is stirred and boldness is activated through reading the actions of these guardians of the faith.
Then we read this.
Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—
38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
39 These all, having been commended for their faith, didn’t receive the promise.
THE OTHERS.
The Word tells us that the world was not worthy of the presence of these ones whom they treated so harshly.
Whenever any level of faith is demonstrated, it will also stir up rejection and persecution.
So while they believed, preached and lived by faith, they did not receive the Messiah and the Promises at that time.
Yet according to verse 40, we have received what they believed for.
Now that is faith.
Whether we are accepted or rejected by man at the time makes no difference.
The Promise will manifest and we will get our reward.
The ultimate reward is the King and being an heir of God, not temporal things.
In His Love,
Jesse Griffin
