Prophetic Insights
The Crucial Virtue
What will Christians esteem most highly as history hurtles towards its climax? Power? Revelation? Supernatural experiences? Success?
 Teresa of Avila (Spain) |
Humility is one of the greatest virtues at all times, because it is at the heart of the nature and character of God Himself,
"The Lord is exalted over all the nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth." (Psalm 113.4-6)
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross." (Philippians 2.5-8)
The word "humility" (humus=soil,earth) essentially means "lowliness".
Modern Western "celebrity" culture generally despises it, and today's "gung-ho" Christianity usually considers it an embarrassment and a liability ... especially so far as leadership is concerned. But the Lord delights in it, and in its manifestation in the character and lifestyle of His People,
"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken (humbled) and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51.17)
"For this is what the high and lofty One says - He who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." (Isaiah 57.15)
"This is the one I esteem: He who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My word." (Isaiah 66.2)
But not only does the Lord delight in this virtue, He also sets it forth as being crucial in the Last Days,
"Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time ... the time of His visitation." (1 Peter 5.5-6)
The time of God's ultimate visitation is Jesus' return to be "king over the whole earth". (Zechariah 14.9) His authentically lowly ones will be best positioned and equipped to serve Him immediately before and during these great and terrible days. By such humility the Lord began to usher in His Kingdom,
"Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your King comes to you, gentle (humble) and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' " (Matthew 21.5)
And by just such a People, He will consummate it,
"And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth." (Revelation 11.3)
("Yet ... I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting." Psalm 35.13)
FOOTNOTE
The following are divine, practical pointers, indicating how we may pursue an "education" in lowliness, thus humbling ourselves "under God's mighty hand",
"But when you are invited (to a wedding feast), take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honoured in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 14.7-11)
"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you...Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honour one another above yourselves." (Romans 12.3&10)
A Rogue Wave
On the morning of Thursday, November 29, I dreamt that I was standing on a beach (again!). As I looked inland, I could see a wave of water coming up out of the ground. When I looked again, I could see that it was building to tsunami-like proportions, and racing towards the coast ... full of menace and destruction.
"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24.12-13)
"The king (Saul) said to her, 'Don't be afraid. What do you see?' The woman said, 'I see a spirit coming up out of the ground.' " (1 Samuel 28.13)
"Then I saw another beast, coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon." (Revelation 13.11)
During the past 16 years or so, I have often dreamed about waves rolling in onto the shore out of the ocean. On every occasion, these dreams have spoken of something God was planning to do ... especially along the lines of Holy Spirit outpouring, revival or visitation.
This is the first time I have "seen" a wave come out of the land and run to the sea. It reminds us that immediately before the Last Day (the return of the Lord Jesus Christ) the earth will be hit by a dramatic and sustained surge of unparalleled wickedness and lawlessness ... both human and supernatural.
"Concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction." (2 Thessalonians 2.1-3)
But God's response to this, is to grant yet greater grace and power,
"But where sin increased, grace increased all the more." (Romans 5.20)
"When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will (lift up a standard against him) put him to flight." (Isaiah 59.19)
At this time of intensification of the collision of opposing kingdoms, there are significant decisions to be made. We can stand dumbfounded in the crash zone, waiting for the rapture to pluck us to safety. We might charge at the wave of satanic pollution and detritus, cursing the darkness and brandishing our "cute" political manifestos and moral-improvement tracts. Or we could run with all of our might into the long-promised and oft-prophesied final Wave of God's grace, glory and power in history ... which is going to harvest the earth.
"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him. But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue His enemies into darkness." (Nahum 1.7-8)
"He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the river had risen and was deep enough to swim in - a river that no one could cross. He asked me, 'Son of man, do you see this?' " (Ezekiel 47.5-6)
Hell will Howl
What are the ultimate (most significant, highest, greatest) purposes of God, so far as you are concerned? Church growth? Revival? 24/7 prayer? Israel? The success of your ministry, church, denomination? Do we need to be concerned about such a highfalutin question at all? Surely (you may say) it's enough to observe where the majority of Western Christendom is presently stampeding off to, and just run-along and join right in?
 Theodore Austin-Sparks |
"If we will not, however, embrace the ultimate purposes of God, then neither, ironically, will we have any relevance in His immediate purposes."
In other words, if your ultimate destination (concern, passion, ambition) is not according to God's, why would you ever think your pathway there is going to carry you along His "narrow road that leads to life", which incidentally, "only a few find"? (Matthew 7.14)
T. Austin-Sparks (in an essay entitled "Prophetic Ultimacy") identifies the culmination of history as being "the theocratic glory" ... the literal, global reign of our Lord Jesus Christ from His millennial throne on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in Israel.
"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him." (Matthew 25.31-32)
For all aspiring prophets, Austin-Sparks' assertion should have the same effect as a wack up the side of the head with a very large, frozen tuna. Our brother continues his thesis by unequivocally insisting,
"A prophet shows the unbroken continuum of things past, with the imminence of the eschatological (end-time) future, that culminates in the theocratic glory. The prophet announces or projects the impending end of the world in apocalyptic fury and judgement in a way to birth the longing for the new heaven and new earth in which dwells righteousness."
Why is the Western Church in the main so yawningly indifferent to the Second Coming of Christ? Because the prophetic ministry has failed to communicate precisely and sufficiently graphically what is finally to become of our world as the result of humankind and satan's "reign" ... a smouldering and howling wilderness, studded here and there with massive, steaming piles of human excrement! Nor have we sufficiently and adequately prophesied the glory and the wonder and the unutterable beauty of Heaven's King, His throne in Jerusalem, and the Kingdom which He alone can usher in and inaugurate here on our ruined earth.
"The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously." (Isaiah 24.23)
Still pining to be an oracle for the hour? Then ponder this parting shot from our brother's essay,
"When we do, however, embrace them (the ultimate purposes of God) then all hell will howl ... The moment we embrace the ultimate purposes of God we become marked people before the powers of darkness."
"And then the lawless one will be revealed (exposed), whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the splendour of His coming." (2 Thessalonians 2.8)
"This, then, is how you should pray ... 'Your kingdom come.' " (Matthew 6.9)
Divinity and Desolation
The Last Days will be a time of glory and fury; revival and judgement! Life on the earth is going to get worse and worse...and better and better. Christians must understand and embrace this scenario and condition of apparent contradiction, in order to be engaged by God's purposes for the human race immediately before Heaven's King takes His Throne on earth in Jerusalem.
This is most apparent in Bible prophecy concerning God's Jewish People. But as it goes for Israel, so it will be for the Church and also mankind.
"There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality." (Romans 2.9-11)
The great Isaiah was granted uncommon insight and foresight along these lines. In chapter four the seer anticipates a day when the Glory Cloud will appear and remain over the city of Jerusalem, because the King is in residence. This is immediately preceded by two events ... one is glorious, but the other terrible. In verse one we read that "seven women shall take hold of one man...saying, 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name, take away our reproach.' "
Something calamitous has happened to Israel in The Land. Men have died in such numbers and such a short space of time that there is an uncommon surfeit of women. War widows?
But at the same time something glorious and miraculous is taking place (vs 2-3), "The Branch of the Lord (Jesus) shall be beautiful and glorious...and he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, every one who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem."
Even as Israel suffers war and its terrible consequences, it is experiencing a unique and ultimate event in its history ... a national revival through the universal acceptance of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah.
Then in chapter eleven, Isaiah foresees the Branch (Jesus) anointed with the 7-fold, fulness of the Holy Spirit coming to "smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked." In His kingdom on earth "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb...the lion shall eat straw like the ox...the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den...they shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain."
The prophet anticipates a day of such divinity that "the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." And "in that day the nations will resort" to Jesus "who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious" in Jerusalem.
But this day is not only divine and glorious. In chapter ten, Isaiah describes (again) a concurrent calamity which befalls Israel from which "only a remnant within them will return ... though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea."
The prophecy decrees that "a destruction is determined overflowing with righteousness" (v22); days of fury running neck-and-neck with days of glory...for Israel and for the Church and for the world!
And following on, in chapter twenty four, the prophet witnesses a moment of such overwhelming majesty that the sun and moon in all of their natural beauty will feel humbled, because "the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders." (v 23)
But how goes it for Israel and the Church and the world at this time?
"Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants...The new wine (Church) mourns, the vine decays...For thus it will be in the midst (centre...Jerusalem) of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree (Israel), as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over...the earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through, the earth is shaken violently...it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it." (vs 1,7,13-14,19-20)
And then in chapter twenty eight, because of the "costly cornerstone" Jesus, which God has laid in Jerusalem, Israel's "covenant with death shall be cancelled", and its "pact with Sheol shall not stand". But God also speaks here of an "unusual task ... extraordinary work" which takes place simultaneously. "For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, of decisive destruction on all the earth." (28.22)
What is this? Well, what follows in chapter twenty nine gives partial light,
"Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped (Jerusalem) ... I will bring distress to Ariel, and she shall be a city of lamenting and mourning; and she shall be like an Ariel (altar ... Ezekiel 43.16) to Me ... I will set seigeworks against you and I will raise up battle towers against you.
"But the multitude of your enemies (the nations who wage war against Jerusalem) shall become like fine dust, and the multitude of your ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away; and it shall happen instantly, suddenly." (vs 1-5)
The conclusion of Isaiah's repeated visions is inescapable. Before Heaven's King is finally enthroned on earth, Israel and the Church and the world will experience the very best and the very worst days in history! Days of glory and days of fury! Days of divinity and days of desolation!
And the major part of preparing to live in and engage such days is to acknowledge and accept that these things shall be so, even as God has ordained. Sticking our heads in the sand, or losing them in the clouds will not suffice. The Lord does not need extra ostriches or angels in these Last Days. He needs ordinary people abandoned into the hands of our extraordinary God.
And most especially, He requires a Church which will seize this "one-minute-to-midnight" opportunity to conclusively repent of the Holocaust and our interminable history of antisemitism. How? By identifying with and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and the Jewish People everywhere in their final season of extreme pressure and great difficulty. And also by humbly and prayerfully serving God's ancient People in their greatest and most wonderful hour ... their universal restoration to God through their and our Lord and Saviour and King, Jesus.
"Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your (Daniel's) people (Israel), will arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your (Daniel's) people (Israel), every one who is found written in the book, will be rescued. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake (Romans 11.15 'Life from the dead'), these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." (Daniel 12.1-3)
"Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full ... Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision...And the Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble." (Joel 3.11-17)
"And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head, and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, 'Put in your sickle and reap because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.' And He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth; and the earth was reaped." (Revelation 14.14-20)
"The harvest is the close (consummation) of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age...Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matthew 13.36-43)
The city of Jersusalem
True Centre; True Circumference
Too many wannabe prophets are behaving desperately today, hunting for "new" revelations. They are locked in a deadly contest for platform space and money on the Western Church's adulatory and lucrative conference circuits.
Breathless acolytes rush to report the "latest, greatest" prophecies coming out of these pseudo-seers. They turn my stomach and make my blood run cold. As the genuinely great Church Reformer, John Calvin (Switzerland, 16th C) observed, "I consider looseness with words no less a defect than looseness of the bowels."
These prophecies are truly fantastic; uttered by spiritual fantasisers, they are hollow fantasies designed to lure the Body of Christ into shallow water where ship-wrecking rocks of deception lurk beneath the ocean's surface.
If any man or woman should dare or presume to speak on behalf of God Almighty, let their prophesying first of all be anchored and entirely submitted to His Word, the Bible.
"And when they say to you, 'Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,' Should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn." (Isaiah 8.19-20)
And secondly, let them be unequivocally, unapologetically and experientially anchored to God's prophetic centre here in this world...The City of Jerusalem in Israel!
"Thus says the Lord God, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations, with lands around her.'" (Ezekiel 5.5)
Jerusalem has been the world's centre so far as God is concerned from ancient times.
- It has been the centre, because it has always been the place of God's Altar. (Isaiah 29.1-2)
- It was there that the Patriarch Abraham offered his only son Isaac...a type and a foretelling of Jesus' redemptive death in that same place. (Genesis 22)
- There King David sacrificed acceptably and so halted God's judgement on Israel. (1 Chronicles 21 and 22)
- Solomon's Temple was raised up in that city (2 Chronicles 3.1)
- and the Lamb of God laid down His life there. (Matthew 16.21)
And it will forever be the Lord's centre here on earth, because it is His Throne too!
"At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the Lord', and all the nations will be gathered to it, for the name of the Lord in Jerusalem." (Jeremiah 3.17)
"And He said to me, 'Son of man, this (v5 the inner court of the Temple) is the place of My Throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever." (Ezekiel 43.7)
"He (Jesus) will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David (in Jerusalem); and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end." (Luke 1.32-33)
The Jewish Midrash (exegetical commentary on the Old Testament) has this to say concerning the matter, "As the navel is set in the middle of the person, so is Eretz (the Land) Israel the navel of the world. Eretz Israel is located at the centre of the world; Jerusalem is the centre of Eretz Israel."
And closer to our own day, the English Christian author and essayist, G.K. Chesterton, warned vehemently (early 1900s), "When madness falls on man and they dream in a dark frenzy that Jerusalem is (merely) a town in Palestine (as opposed to being the world's centre) then we know their very minds are in decay."
The circumference of a circle does not create the centre. But the centre does however determine the circumference. For centuries men have attempted to determine the centre of the world; usually putting themselves (their governments and their churches) in that place. Satan forever seeks to alter God's geography by constantly working to destroy the city and its Jewish "first citizens". History in the Last Days will revolve around the devil's last desperate bid to achieve this; God's extraordinary intervention and deliverance of the city; the great revival of the Jews which begins and is fulfilled there.
"I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives...And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son ... In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and impurity." (Zechariah 14.2-4;12.10;13.1)
The central and crucial events in the count down to the Lord Jesus' return to Jerusalem are going to take place in Jerusalem...the centre of the world. Those who choose to ignore or treat this fact of life in a contemptuous manner, will thereby step off the circumference of God's End Times' activity (most especially prophetic discernment and comprehension) which will be scribed and released by God from His centre. No centre, no circumference. It really is that stark. You may be prophesying and dreaming and "seeing" your heart out ... but if you're not on this prophetic circumference formed by His centre, sadly what you say will be little more than gastric noise and flatulence.
"We were pregnant, we writhed in labour, we gave birth, as it were, only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, nor were inhabitants of the world born." (Isaiah 26.18)
"You conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble." (Isaiah 33.11)
Those who are faithful watchmen of Jerusalem will see the Son coming ... and also accurately observe and note the key stepping-stone events which must precede history's consummation,
"On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, 'Lo, your salvation comes; behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.' And they will call them, 'The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord'; and you shall be called, 'Sought out, a city not forsaken.' " (Isaiah 62.6-7 and 11-12)
"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognise that her desolation is at hand...and then will they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory ... Even so you, too, when you see these things happening, recognise that the kingdom of God is now near." (Luke 21.20-33)
POSTSCRIPT
The same week this essay was posted, millions of Muslims "celebrated" their version of "Jerusalem Day"..."Al-Quds-Day"...vehemently protesting against the City of Jerusalem being the heart of a State of Israel in the Middle East.
In the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini instituted this annual event, and decreed that it fall on the last Friday of the Islamic month of Ramadan. This year's keeping of the "feast" took place on Friday, October 5. Iran's current leader, President Ahmadinejad, maintained his aggressively anti-Israel stance by telling protesting Iranians that "the creation, continued existence and unlimited (Western) support for this regime (of Israel) is an insult to human dignity."
"The Iranian nation and countries in the region will not rest until Palestine is free and criminals punished," the president continued.
And an influential ayatollah, Iran's chief judge, Mahould Shahroudi, told those attending the "Al-Quds-Day" protests that Friday's rallies were "a good start for the destruction of Israel."
For Islam, Jerusalem is considered their third "holiest" city...after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
A Golden Vein
There is a golden vein of theology which runs unambiguously from the Reformation (the beginning of the End Times?) to the present. It concerns Israel's destiny in the Last Days. If mankind (and Christians in particular) paid more serious attention to this apostolic plumb line, the history books could record a vastly different and less tragic story concerning the Jewish People.
Many of those who are (quite rightly!) pro-Israel would be spared the embarrassment of behaving as if they alone had very recently discovered something novel; their pastors would be spared pressure from people who want their particular "Israelology" to be the beginning and the end of local church life and theology.
Much more importantly, we would all be spared the nauseating complacency and patronising smugness of Christians who hold that the Church has completely replaced Israel in God's plan of salvation. Such leaders are so arrogant in their position that they do not hesitate to employ their ecclesiastical and political power to stomp into silence Bible teachers who are simply appealing for a Biblical consideration of the subject.
From the days of God's 16th C Reformation of the Church in Europe, pious and scholarly preachers have dynamically equated in their teaching three ultimate truth-events.- The 2nd Coming of Christ; the national revival of Israel; a final, global "harvest" of mankind to the Lord through the Gospel.
For the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters in particular, it was a sacred and evident truth that the return of Jesus to be this world's King of kings, would be immediately preceded by an unprecedented and universal spiritual awakening of the People of Israel. This they saw described by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans,
"For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.'" (11.15 and 25-26)
From this conviction has grown a centuries-old, rich tradition of Christian love for the Jews, unflinching support for the existence of the State of Israel, and unrelenting prayer for the protection and the salvation of God's Old Testament People.
I earnestly invite you to study this apostolic continuum, perchance it humble us all to become more Christ-like in all of our dealings with one another.
- "The world will be restored from death to life again, at that time when the Jews should also come and be called to the profession of the Gospel." (Theodore Beza - 16th C - John Calvin's "successor".)
- "The end of the world shall not be till the Jews are called, and how long after that none yet can tell." (Elnathan Parr - 16th C - English Puritan scholar.)
- "O to see the sight of Christ's coming in the clouds and our elder brethren the Jews and Christ fall upon one another's necks and kiss each other. They have been long asunder. O sweet Jesus, let me see that sight which will be as life from the dead; Thee and the ancient People in mutual embraces." (Samuel Rutherford - 17th C - Scottish Presbyterian commissioner to the Westminster Assembly.)
- "The Jews shall return to their own land. They shall enjoy it for a quiet and everlasting possession, their adversaries being destroyed. They shall also be filled with the light and knowledge of the will and worship of God." (John Owen - 17th C - Puritan pastor and member of Cromwell's Parliament.)
- "Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews in Romans XI." (Jonathan Edwards - 18th C - Congregational pastor, revivalist and theologian.)
- "Are you longing for a revival to the churches, now lying like dry bones; would you fain have the Spirit of life enter into them? Then pray for the Jews. 'For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world; what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead.' That will be a lively time, a time of a great outpouring of the Spirit, that will carry reformation to a greater height than yet has been." (Thomas Boston - 18th C - Scottish Presbyterian pastor.)
- "The second great event, which, according to the common faith of the Church, is to precede the Second Advent of Christ, is the national conversion of the Jews." (Charles Hodge - 19th C - Principal of Princeton Theological Seminary.)
- "Let this be settled. Israel is yet to be restored. Israel is to have a spiritual restoration or a conversion. Matchless benefits to the world are bound up with the restoration of Israel. Their gathering in shall be as life from the dead." (C.H. Spurgeon - 19th C - English Reformed Baptist pastor.)
Precious and Worthless
"Extract the precious from the worthless." (Jeremiah 15.19)
"Who can make the clean out of the unclean? No one!" (Job 14.4)
I dreamt recently that I was in a church where a paten (communion bread plate) holding consecrated wafers and copper coins had dropped onto the floor. I was anxious to gather up the communion wafers and put them in a safe place. The coins were left to lie on the floor.
In recent years I have happily taken part in a modest and unfinished reformation of the Church's thinking about and practical handling of money. Chief in this has been the restoration of Biblical giving ... especially the personal tithe (10th), free will offerings, and care for the poor. But many (especially Christian leaders!) have pressed this important recalibration beyond God's parameters and created (primarily for themselves) a theology of "conspicuous wealth". This distortion of the Gospel in fact has everything to do with getting, and very little to do with giving. It ties personal wealth to righteousness and (foolishly and vainly) attempts to relate the size of one's bank balance, house and car, to personal standing and favour with God. (Out of the way Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa!)
In the past I have unremittingly waged "war" on those Christians who, once they have carefully furnished all of their private needs, have set about enforcing their own code of mean-spiritedness and poverty-thinking upon the Church; most especially on their leaders who they view as mere employees.
But equally abhorrent to me is the current bout of heretical teaching concerning money, which so dangerously mingles the holy and unholy. Money is not holy. And money employed beyond the reach of the Bible's God-ordained proscriptions is unholy. Hence the completely unequivocal verdict,
"If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all the evils and some by longing (craving) for it have wandered (been seduced) away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang (spiked themselves on many thorny griefs). But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness." (1 Timothy 6.8-11)
"An overseer (elder or bishop), then, must be...free from the love of money." (1 Timothy 3.2-3)
I believe in that prosperity which is holy. And you are prosperous along these lines when you really know that God is taking care of you. That is without a doubt the apostolic definition,
"I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need." (Philippians 4.11-12)
Believe me when I say that I really do want you to prosper. But also believe me, that I do not want to see a warped view of material prosperity jeopardising your spiritual wellbeing, which is manifestly more important than anything else. And the two are powerfully (and dangerously) inter-related,
"If you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?" (Luke 16.11)
If the way you view and handle finance is off-beam, why do you think that God will trust you with His Spirit's anointing, gifts and mantles? It is of the greatest interest to me, that very often in church situations where "conspicuous wealth" is idolised, leaders view "their" ministries as a way of enlarging their own bank balances and pursuing self-centred lifestyles. This raises the plain and brutal question of what the true force and power is behind the "signs, wonders and miracles" which might seem to attend those ministries? If their "theology" indicates a lack of trustworthiness concerning cash, are they in fact in possession of the "true riches" at all?
"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" (Matthew 7.22-23)
I believe that this dream indicates that it's now time for a genuine and radical separation of the sacred and the profane in God's House...especially in the Western Church. By-and-large we have trivialised Biblical morality. We've chosen convenient "hot" issues to go to war over, gone on worshipping success and wealth, and blithely ignored the Scripture's commands to take care of the poor and to labour for justice for everyone in our society.
"What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?...Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1. 11 and 16-17)
Today we are not far from Israel's condition in the days of the prophet Ezekiel, and therefore (in spite of the cheerful spinning of "seeker friendly" gurus) we are in fact far from God,
"Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the clean and the unclean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain. Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeking false visions and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord,' when the Lord has not spoken." (Ezekiel 22.26-28)
Absolutely Authentic
"You who know, O Lord, remember me, take notice of me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not, in view of your patience, take me away; know that for your sake I endure reproach." (Jeremiah 15.15)
"For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, 'The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon Me.' " (Romans 15.3)
The word "reproach" here means "to blame". These verses teach us that those who want to blame God for something, usually lack the courage or temerity to have a go at the Almighty, and so take out their anger and frustration on His servants.
This is a largely (and deliberately?) overlooked subject, which is of the utmost, if not ultimate, importance today.
Bearing this reproach is one of the most fundamental responsibilities and primary marks of the prophet who is genuine and authentic. The prophet's calling is (at its very heart and core) about carrying this divine reproach for Jesus Christ. It is not necessarily the immediate consequence of anything he or she has said or done. The prophet who lives as a hermit out in the backwoods of nowhere, will be marked and distinguished by this ministry. It is what prophets do!
(It is not in any way to be confused with the deserved criticism and rejection of pseudo-prophets; such search for censure and dismissal by deliberately speaking and behaving offensively and outlandishly.)
 Art |
He was rarely, if ever, invited to share a platform with the current epidemic of "revelation" hawkers who are currently monopolizing the "prophetic" spotlight in the Western Church. To such the masses at present flock, panting to accumulate more personal words of prophecy for their collections.
Personal prophetic words from Art were exceedingly rare, and therefore all the more to be treasured.
It was my privilege to travel with him through Germany early in 1993 for five weeks. We ranged through churches from Hamburg in the north to Freiburg in the south; from Dusseldorf in the west to Leipzig in the east. Somewhere around the midpoint of our "tour" I noticed that word was preceding us warning churches not to allow Art to minister because his message was "harsh". At one of our destinations we were given hospitality, but the prophet was not permitted to speak.
What was going on? Some German Christians could not stomach Art's message. I believe that they knew it to be the truth, but were profoundly annoyed with God that it was so. Rather than attack the Lord and try to silence Him, they turned on His servant and silenced him.
 Art Katz |
"Like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open His mouth." (Isaiah 53.7)
You do not get to bear this holy reproach as a result of attending prophetical schools or conferences, or by being officially "ordained" (if that's even possible?) a prophet. You either already know and experience this phenomenon or you don't. And if you don't, then you're not a prophet. You may have some measure of prophetic anointing on your life. You might even have the Holy Spirit's gift of prophecy. But you are not a prophet! In these Last Days you need to understand this, accept it, get over it and get on with your real life.
But if you are a heaven-sent prophet who has been ordained by God in your mother's womb (Jeremiah 1.5), then no matter how hard you try to be "good", no matter how well-behaved you are, more people will run away from you than run to you. You'll never be flavour-of-the-month in any church or movement for very long. You'll be hammered for messages you've never actually preached, "evil" deeds you've never done, and bad motives which have never so much as cast their shadows over your heart.
And by accepting all this uncomplainingly you are actually serving God and doing your "share on behalf of His Body (which is the Church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions." (Colossians 1.24)
And I repeat, if you do not at the very least intuit all of this, then forget any notion that you're a prophet. Give yourself and His Church a break. Find another avenue to explore in your pursuit of purpose and "employment".
Why such a categorical (harsh?) demarcation? Because, according to the great Jeremiah, there is a clear and unmistakable link and correlation between the bearing of prophetic reproach and the uttering of prophetic words which are pure and powerful. To miss this vitiates the Church and leads to disaster.
"For me the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. But if I say, 'I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name, then in my heart it (the word of the Lord) becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.' " (Jeremiah 20.8-9)
To further honour Art as the genuine article...the authentic prophet, I would say that even when he preached very quietly and even conversationally his words being "of the Lord" were "like a burning fire"...consuming and igniting. Jeremiah-like they plucked up, broke down, destroyed, overthrew, and built and planted. (1.10)
Whence came such fiery oracles? Of course from God...but via a prophetic vessel in whom His words had been purified and charged with power because of His servant's willing acceptance and embrace of prophetic reproach.
"My heart was hot within me; while I was musing the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue." (Psalm 39.3)
"The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times." (Psalm 12.6)
An old song says, "Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die." Everybody these days it seems wants to be the oracle of the hour...but few appear willing to be disciplined into and in this office by fielding undeserved blame actually aimed at God. Art was such a "disciplined" one, and it showed in his demeanor and in his preaching and teaching, which eclipsed that of all others who claimed to be similarly appointed.
During his final visit to New Zealand in 2005, Art reminded us that prophets are not to go out "before they are threshed".
"They should be welcoming the threshing and expect it," he said, "because there are subtleties of soul in all of us...little insinuations of ambition, little presumptions of pride, little romantic notions of what we think prophetic service is, that God has got ruthlessly to deal with."
"This is necessary, so that when the prophet speaks it is God's word, not only in its content, but also in its mood and the spirit of its delivery. There's no cheap way to incubate this.
"He (the prophet) needs to be able to bear the reproach and rejection of what will invariably be the consequence of his faithfulness. (His) whole life and history in God is calculated to that end...its aggravation, every divinely calculated thing ... because that's how the prophetic person is formed, and that's how the prophetic Church is formed...not magically (but) existentially and actually."
Art pressed us on to the conclusion that the prophet's character is formed "in the historical situation, through the multitude of obediences".
"He has got to pass through the essence of the issues of life, in order to one day address them with penetration and authority in others, to compel them to ultimate decisions for or against God."
"But who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His words and listened?" (Jeremiah 23.18)
Art Katz stood in that place. Who will stand there now?
Are You Covered
On June 2, I dreamt that I was in a courtroom charged with a truly vile crime. The prosecutor spewed out lying accusations against me. Nothing, not even the truth as I knew it, could halt his torrent of falsehoods. Then I stepped up very close to the prosecutor and declared, "I know Someone who will cover me, and uncover you!" In that instant his mouth was shut tight and silence reigned in the courthouse.
"The accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcome him because of the Blood of the Lamb ..." (Revelation 12.10-11)
"Behold, My servant ... He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of Him." (Isaiah 52.13-15)
"Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1.29)
"In Him we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." (Ephesians 1.7)
Listen to the rest of this vital message for this hour in the Audio section.
It is entitled, "The Atonement" (track duration 1:04:43, 11mb).
It's Time to Jump
I dreamt last week that I was scrambling around a very rugged, rocky section of coastline in the company of two younger men who will undoubtedly be significant, national leaders in the coming next/last revival.
An indescribably massive swell was rolling in from the sea, effortlessly crashing over and engulfing the huge rocks, then washing back out with undiminished force.
I said to these younger leaders that if we tried to stay on the rocks, the power of the receding rollers would kill us.
It was time to jump in and entrust ourselves and our lives to the gigantic breakers. I wondered if I would be strong enough to survive these turbulent waters; but I did not doubt that the others would be okay.
We jumped.
"Again he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I would not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded." (Ezekiel 47.5)
"The floods lift up their pounding waves. More than ... the mighty breakers of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty." (Psalm 93.3-4)
"And His breath is like an overflowing torrent, which reaches to the neck, to shake the nations back and forth in a sieve." (Isaiah 30.28)
"So they will fear the name of the Lord from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun, for He will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives." (Isaiah 55.19)
It's time to jump. It's time to jump off the "rocks" of that religion which is all about what we can do, and not about who He is. It's time to jump into the dangerous yet life-giving turbulence and tumult of the next/last Holy Spirit revival.
