Words of Truth

As a man who has been labeled a prophet by some and a radical preacher by others and delusional false prophet by many, I have been for quite some time desiring to explain what I believe to be the nature and function of “the modern day prophet”.  Many modern day preachers of the gospel who are calling God's people to repent and turn back to the old paths, the truth of God's law.  They call attention to the ancient landmarks of our apostolic forefathers, as prophets, they call men to do something different and change masters.  They may not call themselves “prophets” but they are acting like the prophets of history.   

Historically, God-sent prophets are called from their mother's womb. Notice Jer.1:5, “Before I formed you in your mother's womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as prophet to the nations.” NIV  These men experienced an intense weight of truth that bear directly down on them from God's heart.  They were to speak forth this burden from heaven directly to God's People.  Usually the people don't respond so the burden intensifies even more.  At some point the heavenly word becomes a literal part of the prophet's heart.  As in the instance of Jeremiah, the words of God burn so hot that he could only but prophesy.  Much like a woman who is very pregnant and close to the time of birthing her child, so a prophet of God carries a “word” burden in his spirit that intensifies until it bursts forth in a heavenly prophetic utterance. 

Many of these true prophets of God that were sent directly to the rulers of His People had the major responsibility to call these kings and princes back to God's law and ways.  The intent of their words were to warn God's people to “turn back to God”  Either obey or perish!   Obedience to God's clearly known commandments, or major destruction and harsh punishment would come very shortly against them.  If the people did not repent, then the Lord of heaven and earth would bring  unusual hard forces against His people: foreign nations, earthquakes, plagues, and barrenness to their women and to their crops.  All this just to turn His people back to His holy law.    

Oh the goodness and severity of God that He will not destroy people without a proper warning!

God's mercy is seen throughout the history of mankind.  No man can judge God -  “unfair”.  If you are a student of the Word of God and are familiar with the historical accounts of Noah, Abraham, and Moses,  you will soon realize that these men were prophets. and functioned very effectively in bringing God's people back to His holy ways.  

Some of the prophets God chose to speak His words were noble and wealthy men or women who loved Yahweh.  Some were lowly shepherds, others were kings, one in particular was a notable shipbuilder, and many others were priests who labored full-time in the house of the Lord.  Though these men came from different walks of life, they all shared the same call of God, “to turn men back to God's Holy Law” and to warn all the inhabitants of the earth that judgment was and is coming.

The first human family had a prophet born to them.  Eve bore Seth right after the murder of righteous Abel.  When Seth was born, Eve uttered these words, “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed”  Gen. 4:25 

What is the significance of the word “seed” here in this context?  There is an intimate connection in history and in the genealogy of God's seed between birth of  “the prophet” and the preservation of God's seed in the earth.

Remember the words God spoke to the serpent right after he deceived Eve, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and Her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise her heel.”  Gen.3:15.  

To the women the Lord said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children;”  Gen.3:16.  A cosmic war intensified at this point in all the earth and universe.  Why?  Because the Maker of heaven and earth injected a vile of His holy enmity into our world to combat the evil in the heart of man.  Our God created this war between the serpent and the woman that drives a very intense war that wages on to this very hour.  This war being played out between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is going to end soon.  

This war started with death and a murder and it will end with a much bloodshed.  The Lord's has, and will always have a seed on the earth.  This seed, through the proclamation and advancement of truth, will crush the serpent's head was by the development of a holy pedigree of men that would first, by the call of God, hear His voice, and then proclaim His Truth to his wicked and adulterous generation of sinners.  This goes on today and will continue til the Lord's glorious return!

So Eve, seeing that righteous Abel is dead, longs for another righteous son to take his place.  When Seth arrives on the scene through much pain and sorrow, Eve proclaims the cry of her faith in the Lord's promise by saying, “God has given me another seed”.

We see that the birth of the seed who eventually bears the true Seed, Jesus Christ, comes through much travail and sorrow.  The word, “the Seed” is pressed against a world and its ruler who have gone after “death” and the desire of men to govern themselves.  Notice that after Cain kills righteous Abel, he who God deemed “righteous” by his faith and love for Him, the Lord will not allow anyone to kill unrighteous Cain.  Gen. 4:15 says, 'And the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him 'sevenfold'.”  And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.'  

The God of our fathers wants all men to win the fight with the serpent and his descendants.  The Word of God says in I Tim.2:4, “who desires that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.”  The context of this verse is that of “prayer” and how we ought to pray for kings and rulers in high places.  

In the 1st family that God created, God told Cain these words to remind him of His word and law before he sentenced him to judgment, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire [is] for you, but you should rule over it." He knows the descendants of Cain, the seed of the serpent, will continue to seek to totally destroy the righteous seed of Abel.  These continual attacks by the descendants of Cain in no way discourages our Powerful God to continually raise up prophets, descendants of Abel, that preach His message by their very real, personal, and self-denying example; they call men back to God.  Our Jehovah wants all mankind to walk in the newness of the life He intended for Adam, a walk of sweet and intimate communion with our Creator.  

As we stay within the context of Cain and Abel we will start to understand the inauguration of this  holy war with sin and evil as revealed in how they treated God's revealed law.  Cain is a figurehead of all those who fall away from the goodness of the God as displayed in creation and as His redeemer.  God saved Cain's parents by killing a sacrifice instead of them and by clothing them with His righteous clothing which came at the cost of bloodshed.  Did Cain openly doubt God's existence like many do today?  Does Cain sacrifice or give back to God some of his possessions? Yes, he does!  But he did not express his devotion to his creator and redeemer in the way prescribed,  “And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.”  Gen. 4:3

Cain gives an offering to the Lord and Abel also gives an offering to the Lord.  So what distinguishes Cain's offering from Abel's offering?  The answer lies in a careful reading of Gen.4:4,  “Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat.  And the Lord respected Abel and his offering.”  Abel gave the unblemished lamb, the firstborn, the best, and all of its contents, including the “fat” of the sacrifice.  “Real” blood was shed and a “real” death occurred when Abel offered his sacrifice to the Lord.  

The word “Cain” means “man”.  When he was born, Eve said, I have acquired a man from the Lord.” Gen.4:1  Cain was a tiller of the ground.  Adam's curse from the Lord was, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken, For dust you are, and to dust you shall return”  Gen. 3:19  

As a man, Cain worked the soil, he was keeper of the dust of the ground, he was vitally connected to the curse of Adam.  He was in every way the seed of the serpent, just like all of us by nature.  Just as satan was at one time a great angel in heaven, in charge of all the worship of heaven, so Cain was a great builder and worker of God's earth, he had tremendous power and potential to do good.  And just as satan was not satisfied with his role and his function as the greatest worship angel ever made by God, so Cain was not totally satisfied with his role as keeper of the ground.  When Cain worshiped the Lord he brought a part of his labor, not his best and not all that he had!   

So we, today, in our times live in a climate where many say that they “love God”.  They are familiar with His Word, but they are not giving God their best.  They may be great at preaching God's word or managing a church, like Cain they are great at building man-made enterprises, but they are not giving their best to God.  They are not giving God their “all” and they are not forsaking “all” to follow the Lord Jesus.

I do not believe for one second that Cain doubted God's power and love.  But that he held back portions of his life and labor that were to be solely given to the Lord.  Cain was unwilling to depart from the world of “self” management, or, “his” love for the “cursed” ground that he was bound to return to some day.  Do you believe that Cain could have become a seed of Eve or do you believe that he was bound to be a seed of the serpent?

Abel is our archetype, our prophet, our beautiful example to follow in order to learn “the way” of a true prophet of God.  Abel gave God his best, Abel was more then a shepherd.  Abel was a worshiper of the one and only true God.  As a prophet, Abel revealed the heart of a “true” man of God, he gave God everything, he set the stage for the Seed to establish truth in the earth!

Abel was a man who tended sheep and as such, he pleased God.  Think of some of the prophets who were to follow Abel and they too were shepherds?  Moses, David, Amos, and even our Lord is called the Chief Shepherd of the sheep I Pet.5:4, “and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”.  

Many times in scripture the Lord refers to us as the “sheep” of His pasture.  Why are we called sheep by our God?  Are we not defenseless and helpless like sheep?  Are we not called to be “living sacrifices” to God, just like sheep?  How was Jesus death described in Is. 53, “as a lamb went before His shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”  Are we not, as His sheep, made to “follow” God and his under-shepherds?  Are we not safer “with Him” then in the world? 

I hope I have won your judgment as to the foundation of all prophetic ministry, as founded in the work of redemption in the earth starting with righteous Abel and moving from Abel to the end of the age.  I would like to illustrate and expand the “role” of those called to be prophets today. 

 I simply can not imagine a man or woman called to be one of God's prophets who is hidden and not publicly seen in a time of great apostasy.  At the end of the age the blood of the apostles and the prophets will continue to flow in the streets until the Lord comes and brings to a much needed end to the great “Lie” that has captivated the world and the hearts of men.  This intense and sad reality can easily be witnessed in just a surface reading of Rev. 18:24, “And in her was found the blood of the prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.” 

 Any believer in Jesus can determine from a simple reading of this context of the book of Revelation that this chapter of Revelation speaks clearly of the end of the age and that the “in her” referred to here in verse 24, has to do with spiritual Babylon and “her” hatred of the prophets and saints of God.  The prophets and saints here represent the continued work of the “Seed” of the woman who yearns to crush the head of the serpent as prophesied in Gen. 3:15.  

 Notice at the beginning of this chapter in Rev. 18:2-3, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!  She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.  For all the nations have drunk of her wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” 

The principality of Babylon is over the American empire and has been managing many other empires in world history since the days of Cain.  As we draw closer to the end of the age, the spirit of Babylon will have complete worldwide dominion.  If we believe in the word of God, we are on the verge of witnessing a worldwide and very powerful prophetic ministry.   As those that have gone on before us, we have the supernatural blood of the Seed of the Woman working in us and through us.   Those who have been called to be the prophets and saints of God, are being summoned by our Lord to destroy the seed of the serpent that will end the tyranny of Satan's empire on the earth.  

As we march forward in this war, we will enter the most intense season of persecution that has ever been witnessed on the face of the earth.  In light of this truth, the Lord is calling his people to come “out of her” or “out of spiritual Babylon,”  Why would our God tell us to do this?  As a safety precaution, He, Our True King, desires that we keep from the participation of her sins and her judgments.  So from this scripture, we, the seed of the women, are fighting hard against the seed of Cain.  

As this work of darkness brings forth its final manifestation supernatural power to deceive, if possible, the elect of God.  Satan, and His empire keepers will be the primary architects of the end-time plan that inspires the rise of the Antichrist and his prophet.   At the end of the age the major force in the earth is the empire of Babylon.  This empire is one of the oldest enemies of the Lord's work on the earth.  Through a revived Roman empire, she will rise to her highest zenith of power and control to seductively captivate all of the earth's inhabitants and through subtly and craftiness allure them into her impressive kingdom.  

Did you know that the Babylonian empire was derived out of the line of Cain.  After the flood judgment of God to purify the earth and grant it a new start.  The prophet Noah took his three sons into the protective covering (type of Christ's blood and water washing away of our sins), Shem, Ham, and Japheth were preserved from this judgment but soon they would fall prey to sin of Cain.

 The sin came about when Ham looked upon his father, Noah, when he was naked and drunk.  God cursed Ham and his descendants by making them subject to the descendants of Shem and Japheth forever.  The Babylonian empire came out of this line.  So the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent continues.  One of the greatest of Ham's descendants was the “mighty hunter” Nimrod, he built large kingdoms in the land of Shinar, modern day Iraq.  His descendants were the ones who built the tower of Babel, a very proud project that the Lord ended by confusing the languages of the people who were working together to build the greatest structure ever built to reach the heavens.  Read Gen.11 at your leisure. 

Some of the nations that came out of the lineage of Nimrod were the Assyrians, who destroyed the  northern kingdom of Israel.  Also the Philistines, whose lords put forth the great giant, Goliath, to destroy Israel during the days of David!  These Philistines were originally from the isles of Troy.  The descendants of Abraham saw the descendants of Troy as the great beast that came out of the Mediterranean Sea.  Notice how this verse in Rev. 13:1 ties these enemies of God into the war that leads to the climax of this age, “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.”  Our modern day adversaries look and act very much like the old ones!

The more you study world history and geography, you'll find that God's kingdom is about to wage a great battle against all the world empires that ever had power over the nations of the earth.  Nations like Egypt, Persia (Iran), Gog  & Magog (Russia and/or Turkey), Sheba & Dedan (Saudi Arabia), and of course, Babylon.  These empires represent “the seed of the serpent” and they are oath-bound and very determined to destroy the Seed of the woman.  

In the final battle of this age, the Babylonian empire combines all the empires of “man” and wages a great assault against the nation of Israel.  This is known as the last great battle or “Armageddon”.  In order for our Lord to destroy Babylon, and He most certainly will, we must get out of her assemblies and her alliances, or we will face her judgments all alone.

Today those of who are being called to be the “modern day prophets” that will usher in the kingdom of Christ.  We carry that very same mantle that Elijah carried all the way to wicked King Ahab and his pagan wife, Jezebel.  This word was directed to the faltering northern kingdom of Israel.  Who won in the conflict?  

We are called in the manner of John the Baptist who “cried out” for the Lord's people to repent and turn back to Jesus the Messiah.  We are calling “all” who name the name of Christ, back to the original Gospel message.  The Gospel that has a claim over our lives.  The Gospel who has a Jesus who is Lord over every second of our lives.  We call the release men and women from  captivity and servile bondage and the allurements of this age.  Jesus will not come back until His Bride walks in the supernatural faith of our forefathers and performs the righteous acts of the saints spoken of in the book of Revelation.  These works, like Elijah's, exceed those of the seed of the Serpent.

Our Groom is waiting for His Bride to perform the righteous acts of faithful devotion and loving service that usher in the Father's great and final wedding feast as noted in Rev. 19:7-8, “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready, And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

The modern day prophet is no different then those that preceded the One Great Prophet – Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus is the Seed who came to fulfill the promise God made to Eve, “that her Seed would crush the head of his seed,”  Our Lord's death and resurrection was and is the crushing of the head of the serpent.  We shall see soon in perfect fulfillment in the last great battle on planet earth, when our Lord Jesus comes at the cry of chosen People, the nation of Israel, who will finally see the One that they pierced as their True Messiah.   At the point of their penitential cry, the Lord Jesus Himself will bath His sword in the blood of the nations and totally destroy their and our enemies. 

Today, and all those who have left “everything” in service Jesus by taking his message to the ends of the earth, are marching in the same way as those who have gone on before bearing his word (seed) in our hearts and allowing the Spirit to pour through our mouths, the “living water” and “true seed” of Jesus Christ.  Our call is right in line with all those great prophets who prophesied to the nation of Israel.  

They were commissioned by heaven to call her, God's people, back to a sincere heart obedience and faithful adherence to the law of God.  Without a “true seed” of life coming out of us, there will be no true conversions, no one will turn back to God, and revival and restoration will tarry.  Christ is preaching through us and we are His “ambassadors” beseeching men to be, “reconciled unto God”, before it is too late.  II Cor. 5:18-20.  This work must happen and will happen in the days ahead!

There are some of you who will operate in every form of spiritual power because of the “role” the Lord has intended for you since eternity past. Eph.2:10. Whether you are called to preach Christ through powerful miracles, or you are to operate primarily in words of knowledge, and some of you may move Christ's message forward with a powerful healing ministry.   I believe many of you are called to preach the Word of God under the power of the Holy Spirit before thousands of lost souls.  As we see the day approaching, we who are “true prophets” of Jesus Christ, we will have to endure more and more suffering.  Many of you will have to give your life to preach Christ.  

Whether we are powerful proclaimers of the Gospel, or we are called in a different way.  We stand strong in the promise that one day soon, The Lord Himself will crush the enemy of our souls under His feet.  Please don't despise the day of small things, some of you may be great one-on-one ministers of God's holy spiritual power.  Your work brings much needed healing to broken hearts.  

No matter what your prophetic gifting or audience, in the end, you are preaching through heart of preparation and your godly and heavenly lifestyle the Lord's return.  Your godly life is the way of “complete surrender” and you are setting forth a call for an “exclusive” self-denying abandonment to the person of Jesus Christ.  The only way to be effective as a modern day prophet is the to walk in the way of the cross!  May God bless His Word to your heart!

Blessings,

Jonathan