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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Grieving
Over The Ruins A true prophet of God often suffers condemnation and
criticism because of the nature of his message.
Through the prophet, the Lord exposes sin, demands repentance, as
well as the tearing down of humanistic, pagan, and even satanic
traditions. Only after these
are done can the Lord fully bless and restore those to whom the
prophetic message concerns.
I don't claim to be a prophet, however, like a
prophet, I'm sometimes criticized for being too negative in what I write
and teach. In response I
ask, "have you read the Bible lately"?
The trend to speak only positive things to make people feel good
about themselves results in a false sense of security.
How one feels about himself is not a true barometer of who one
is. Besides, this recent
trend is founded on humanistic new age philosophies. I'd suggest that most prophets in the Bible, if not
all, weren't real excited about being a prophet.
There was, and still is, a high price to pay to speak the
prophetic Word of the Lord. Take
the Old Testament prophet Amos for example.
Before becoming a prophet, he was a successful businessman. (Amos
6:10-15) Becoming a prophet
wasn't economically or socially beneficial for him, still, he obeyed the
call of God no matter how burdensome it was for him.
The word "burden" is often associated with
the prophetic word. A quick
reading of the book of Isaiah shows the prophetic word as, "the
burden of The prophetic word is definitely a burden to the
prophet because what he preaches isn't all that pleasant at times.
He would probably rather preach comforting and uplifting words
which would make him well liked and probably a bit more wealthier.
The apostle Paul put it this way.
In the last days, "to suit their own desires", many
people "will gather around them a great number of teachers to say
what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears from the truth and turn aside to
myths". (2 Timothy 4:3)
That's happening today. The prophetic voice of the prophet of God
is being ignored by many while the humanistic new age voices of false
teachers are being welcomed, both in our nations and in our church
groups. Some people today speak a prophetic style message,
which I do think is needed. Sometimes
I wonder if those people actually carry the burden associated with the
prophetic message, or have they just jumped on the end time band wagon,
preaching words of judgment. Jesus was weighed down with the prophetic burden
sufficiently enough that He cried bitterly over Jerusalem, the city He loved, yet the city He also condemned.
Behind Jesus' words of judgment and condemnation was a heart of
love and compassion for those He was about to condemn. I
suggest that if the modern day prophet isn't weighted down with the pain
of the prophetic message, he probably isn't a true prophet. Amos prophesied to the northern kingdom of I know the above words were directed to the northern
kingdom of Israel, but I think you might agree that the same criticism leveled against
Israel
could be leveled today against western nations, and even against much of
the western church. We, like
Israel
of old, live the life of luxury, but fail to grieve over who we have
become. We fail to grieve
because we fail to see ourselves as we really are.
If we took the time to see what the Bible says about who we
should be, we'd realize we aren't that.
For that reason, we fail to grieve. May we find repentance concerning our negligence.
There are things in our nations and in the church that should
cause us to grieve, but don't. Instead,
we "lounge on our couches, improvise on our instruments, drink our
wine of choice". Then
when the prophetic word is spoken, too often it's ignored, and in some
cases the message isn't backed with a heart of love and compassion.
If these things don't change, we might be in danger of being sent
into exile like |