Post by Sunnysnet on May 19, 2004 15:40:35 GMT -5
The unhappy thing is that great numbers of Christians in the world have never heard a true prophetic word spoken in the authority of God, and all they have ever heard they assume is normative, and think that this is what the prophetic word is. They have no basis for comparison.
To hear such a word once, however, is to be ruined forever for anything less. There is, therefore, a great cry and need for that word and that authority to come into the earth, that the church might be rightly ruined and made candidates for the truth.
Elijah means, "He is deity". There is such an union with God that you cannot tell where Elijah ends and God begins. "...There shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word." Elijah is a man on the resurrection ground which means that he himself is one with deity.
It is no longer Elijah's righteousness. The cry of Elijah is not a piece of human temperament, but God's own cry through a man who is living in the dimension of very God Himself. It is God crying unto God.
It is deep answering unto deep in a man who has gone through and beyond the religious categories, and is in the realm of God Himself. That is the key to the last day's activity of God. Merely to be well-meaning, rightly-intentioned, principled, religious and sincere will not avail. The child, or ultimately the nation Israel will remain dead.
The false prophets did not know that they were false. They actually expected that there was a God that would answer them. The vilest form of apostasy is when the people who are apostate do not even recognize or see themselves as apostate, and think that they are fully in the faith.
That is the ultimate apostasy and we need to seriously ask whether we are already describing the condition to which the church has come, even in its best and most celebrated forms.
We are not just talking about the mainline churches like the Episcopal and the Methodist, but are we are willing to consider those forms of the church that are the most charismatically celebrated in Christendom today?
The apostasy is even worse in those places because it is not even recognized as apostasy, and so much so, that when one comes to confront and challenge, then that one is called a 'troubler of Israel' and is shown the back door.
The prophetic man has somehow in the deepest corridors of his heart a little tremor of discomfort, that though everyone is shouting 'Amen' and 'hallelujah' and having a great time, there is something in his own heart that cannot say 'Yea' and 'Amen'.
It is not yet the authentic thing, though it purports to be and appears to be and uses all the right language appropriate to being it. The prophet is so attuned to God, who Himself alone is authenticity, that when he comes into the presence of something that appears to be right and is not, then it registers upon his own soul. How can such a man be found and formed in such a way? It is the crying need of the church in this hour because the deception is far more extensive than we know.
The issue of the prophet is the issue of life or death. It always was and will be again, especially in the last days. The time is coming when we will have to confront the false prophets as Elijah did.
We can no longer say, "Well, you are entitled to your opinion. You are not compelled to agree with me." Rather, "Your view is actually lulling people into a false security that will ensure their death and I confront you, for it is wrong."
Elijah confronted the false prophets and we are coming to the hour where we will no longer be able to keep our opinions to ourselves.
The issue of who is really true and who is really false is now being required to come out on the table and be an open matter. No present issue is perhaps more critical for the church in identifying and distinguishing the one from the other.
Author?
Art Katz
upstream.homestead.com/elijah_prophetrest.html
To hear such a word once, however, is to be ruined forever for anything less. There is, therefore, a great cry and need for that word and that authority to come into the earth, that the church might be rightly ruined and made candidates for the truth.
Elijah means, "He is deity". There is such an union with God that you cannot tell where Elijah ends and God begins. "...There shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word." Elijah is a man on the resurrection ground which means that he himself is one with deity.
It is no longer Elijah's righteousness. The cry of Elijah is not a piece of human temperament, but God's own cry through a man who is living in the dimension of very God Himself. It is God crying unto God.
It is deep answering unto deep in a man who has gone through and beyond the religious categories, and is in the realm of God Himself. That is the key to the last day's activity of God. Merely to be well-meaning, rightly-intentioned, principled, religious and sincere will not avail. The child, or ultimately the nation Israel will remain dead.
The false prophets did not know that they were false. They actually expected that there was a God that would answer them. The vilest form of apostasy is when the people who are apostate do not even recognize or see themselves as apostate, and think that they are fully in the faith.
That is the ultimate apostasy and we need to seriously ask whether we are already describing the condition to which the church has come, even in its best and most celebrated forms.
We are not just talking about the mainline churches like the Episcopal and the Methodist, but are we are willing to consider those forms of the church that are the most charismatically celebrated in Christendom today?
The apostasy is even worse in those places because it is not even recognized as apostasy, and so much so, that when one comes to confront and challenge, then that one is called a 'troubler of Israel' and is shown the back door.
The prophetic man has somehow in the deepest corridors of his heart a little tremor of discomfort, that though everyone is shouting 'Amen' and 'hallelujah' and having a great time, there is something in his own heart that cannot say 'Yea' and 'Amen'.
It is not yet the authentic thing, though it purports to be and appears to be and uses all the right language appropriate to being it. The prophet is so attuned to God, who Himself alone is authenticity, that when he comes into the presence of something that appears to be right and is not, then it registers upon his own soul. How can such a man be found and formed in such a way? It is the crying need of the church in this hour because the deception is far more extensive than we know.
The issue of the prophet is the issue of life or death. It always was and will be again, especially in the last days. The time is coming when we will have to confront the false prophets as Elijah did.
We can no longer say, "Well, you are entitled to your opinion. You are not compelled to agree with me." Rather, "Your view is actually lulling people into a false security that will ensure their death and I confront you, for it is wrong."
Elijah confronted the false prophets and we are coming to the hour where we will no longer be able to keep our opinions to ourselves.
The issue of who is really true and who is really false is now being required to come out on the table and be an open matter. No present issue is perhaps more critical for the church in identifying and distinguishing the one from the other.
Author?
Art Katz
upstream.homestead.com/elijah_prophetrest.html