You’ve been called by Almighty God to the mighty task of prophet in today’s church. In some respects, we all can prophesy…but the prophet himself or herself is anointed by the Ancient of Days to speak holiness to the flock.
This is in no means to be taken lightly. It produces fire in the hearts of men, and unholy anger in the hearts of the stonewallers, both saved and lost.
When God positively, absolutely, and resolutely needs to reclaim and restore what has been lost, he doesn’t call the other gifts in his body…He calls the prophet.
Be very wary, careful, and bold. Press into God the Spirit and hear His voice…and speak His words no matter what the cost and consequence. Prepare for rejection, and heart-ache of epic proportions. Fight the good fight.
And…welcome to the loneliness of holiness. Please read and meditate on these words of our dearly departed brother and fellow prophet, Leonard Ravenhill. Other than the brief reference to “thus saith the Lord,” this is spot on…
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Picture Of A Prophet – by Leonard Ravenhill
The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men.
Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, “No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected.” The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his “brand name.”
The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him “Man of the year” when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan!
The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, “has almost always been that of recovery.”
The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally ‘otherworldly.’ [Read more…]