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lwpray
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Joined: 2003/6/22
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office



Prophecy autentifies God’s presence. It defines and brings identity to the listener, the receiver, in relation to God and his goals. Prophecy provides a framework within which God intends to bring deliverance. It sets standards and goals. Prophecy is relevant, not dreamy. God speaks to his children by name. He does not work in an impersonal way, emitting waves and flows to accomplish some unspecified results in a body without definition. A Church is a Church, it is marked out and defined geographically as well as socially. Each Church need to be treated as a local unit according to its specific needs and flaws. The seven Churches - Rev 2-3 - received each a personal letter from the Lord, no duplicates, no copy machines. Prophecy, its aims and results can and must be measured and taken through a process of discernment. The expected repentance and the result of repentance are utterly sharp in its contours.
The spiritistic prophecy machine sounds like God - benevolent clichés, theologically tolerable - but is pumping out generalities as if God is graciously looking at his nice children but having nothing in particular to say. ”Everything is fine and it is going to get better and I am OK and you are OK.” Prophecy brings definition, aiming towards integrity and holiness. Prophecy brings definition and judgment but is not judgmental. Mind you, pearls are not to be cast before swine - how to discern and to identify swine if you are not to judge. For what reason is the gift of discernment given to the Church? Prophecy comes in power, but not as a dreamy flow lifting you up into rosy bliss.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/27 3:38Profile
lwpray
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office




The prophet’s mouth is not the law and truth, but law and truth have to be found in a prophet’s mouth. Prophets must make sure that their words really belong to the Lord, 1 Pet 4:11. Prophets cannot demand obedience based on blind faith. Prophets are not the law, they have no right to re-define law, or the truth as revealed in the Bible. Our faith is based on truth. Truth is our deliverer, Joh 8:32. Obedience related to truth purifies souls and prepares for sincere love for brethren, 1 Pet 1:22. Revelation, true prophecy allows you to gird your mind for action, 1 Pet 1:13. Holiness is not harsh. A prophet brings you back to the Book.

True prophecy has learnt to understand the necessity of living and applying the Cross. True prophecy has learnt to explain and to enforce the law of sacrifice as revealed in the pouring out unto death of the first Seed-grain, Jesus Christ. The prophet, the deliverer takes you back to the only possible freedom that leads to a blessed life - the freedom of obedience - Ps 119:2. From where does the blessing come which is flowing like rivers over a disobedient people? Judgment begins at the house of the Lord, 1 Pet 4:17.
The product of proper prophecy is the dividing of the spiritual and the soulish, Heb 4:12, for the sake of true worship, Joh 4:23. Prophecy brings division. Prophecy does not generate excitement, it prepares minds to become girded. It never exaggerates, it never stirs for the sake of an arousal, rather it brings peace and order. Prophecy brings revelation rather than revival. Prophecy without moral consequence leads to death. Revival without moral consequence says ”I am rich” thus revealing its true nature, which is utter poverty. A revival which leads a person to love the Lord in a greater measure but allows her to continue without change, living according to her traditional values and standards is but deception.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/27 15:22Profile
lwpray
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office



Deliverance brings you face to face with a thorough re-evaluation, most certainly in relation to the position God has been allowed to have in your life. He will break away from the pattern established which rules in favour with the old nature. The Cross killed Christ, and it is going to kill every sinner. It dethrones you and installs the Lord on the throne of your heart. This is what we find at the core of the prophetic dimension.
Prophets bring the people back to reality, back to order. Their message calls the people to build the Temple and to forsake their own comfort. Words focusing on personal affluence distract and confuse the aim of the people of the Lord. The law of sacrifice cannot be compromised. The altar has to be restored. Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal, and their message of prosperity. Haggai rebukes the minds set on building mansions on earth. Esra restores the dignity of a nation by forcefully preaching moral law. Man brought back to God is man brought back to servanthood. Poor nations are those who have a Church where God is treated as a waiter. Deliverance brings order. Deliverance is the beginning of God’s holiness made to be seen among his people.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/28 1:21Profile
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office




Compare the quality of the presence of God of the revivals of the olden times to the glamour and frivolity in the so called revivals of today. Shame. Mature prophets bring maturity. Mature prophets speak the heart of the Lord. The prophetic messages of today speak the heart of man - ”More, Lord”. People of the Lord, come to your senses! Does the gold dust pay the bills? What does the poor nations of the earth need? Will they become satisfied by prophetesses wearing masks of modern cosmetics, flashing in the heavy spotlight, pretending to shine as if Heaven were present? Pay the bills of the poor! What a lovely sound from teeth with heavenly gold fillings chewing the best of the best kitchens while the majority of the world is starving. God’s glory? By no means! The spiritual realm brings support of prophets of deception who are misleading a people who happily give their consent. Samuel, the prophet, considered it to be sin not praying for deliverance of the people, 1 Sam 12:23. And we certainly need some deliverance.

The false prophet is eager to declare that you have the right to ”Prophecy your own future”. Faith is looked upon as a tool to be used to accomplish you own salvation, all according to your own taste. Prophetic ability is considered to be words of your own mouth and fantasy producing your prosperous future and your daily well-being. Praying for daily bread is obsolete. Christian faith has nothing to do with the spiritistic Mind over Matter techniques taught by mediums who mutter and mumble, Isa 8:19, or pop-preachers proposing pacifying mind is the way of an overcomer. Faith is a relation. Faith is not creative power released by an overheated imagination. Prophetic words are not a law in your mouth for circumstances to obey and become regulated by. God alone is creator.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/28 14:54Profile
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office



Prophets are to bring messages of deliverance and they do so first of all by addressing the folly of fantasy. Prophets bring deliverance by bringing the people back to obedience. Divination, faith techniques and prosperity pursuit is all but deception and spiritistic delusion - Jer 14:14. Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behaviour; because it is written, YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY. 1 Pet 1:15-16.
Prophets call for purity of mind and of soul. Prophets speak truth which can be seized and acted upon. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 1 Pet 1:22. Salvation is optimised as to aim and goal. Salvation aims at the deliverance from the folly of fantasy, the vanity and self worship, unto obedience and true worship in spirit and truth. Holiness is never optional.
Overcoming equals obedience and ability to continue in obedience. Overcoming aims at overriding any obstacle of inherent and inherited disobedience. The overcomer prepares himself for perfect worship in spirit and truth.

The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor 1:18. The Cross is power unto salvation. Prophetic proclamation of the Cross is power unto deliverance. The Cross is the key to the door in the narrow gate leading to life in and fellowship with Jesus Christ. The Cross is the beginning of deliverance. The Cross can safely be preached, because it cannot be compromised. The Cross can safely be preached because it will cause its own specific results. It kills the one daring to manipulate it and it restores the one daring to die through it. The Cross is the lifestyle of a Christian. It represents the continual re-capturing of the possibility to live a sanctified life. The Church is born crucified, it lives crucified. It surely dies when turning away from the Cross.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/29 4:46Profile
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office



The Cross allows you to become more and more fully delivered to obey moral law. The modern cross releases you from the obligation to die to the world, to sin and to flesh. The old Cross, the real Cross kills and does away with the sinner. The death of Jesus Christ brings life, which is ability to live holy. To live is to have the capacity to handle any given situation in accordance to moral law. Reducing or eliminating the Cross opens for any and all of the principalities and powers which were meant to stay disarmed, Col 2:15.

Prophets call to overcoming on the ground of the Cross. Prophets who have given themselves to careful examination and inquiry of the mechanisms and procedure of salvation define overcoming as a work involving all your mind, all you heart, all you strength and all you soul to establish obedience to moral law through the presence of the Holy Spirit unto sanctification. God writes law, writes the covenant on man’s heart and mind, Heb 8:10. Overcoming is a work unto worship in spirit and truth. Prophetic deliverance brings truth. Prophetic words are meant to establish a solid foundation for change, for sanctification according to moral law. The process of salvation is reduced to nought through the neglect of the Cross. The Cross is indeed in it self the mechanism of deliverance. The prophet who has not given himself to the examination and inquiry as to the procedures of salvation and sanctification has no prophetic message to bring forth to the people of God.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/29 8:55Profile
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office






Aspects of the Prophetic office - The Forthteller
By Lars Widerberg

God is never intimidated, nor silenced by Babylonian dizziness, drunkenness or delusion. God is not perplexed, nor is his ability to take action curtailed when encountering the maelstrom of confusion which gets rougher and tougher in the endtime. A relevant, heavenly plan is set in motion within any given Babylonian society to bring salvation to the afflicted as well as judgment on perpetrators. The plan is a man. The plan is a person, a prophet. The plan is a prophet who reflects the very obedience of the Lord, Jesus Christ himself. He may be a Jeremiah, a man of tears, about whom the Lord said: ”Before conception there was a concept.” - Jer 1:5. He may be an Ezekiel, whom God asked ”Will you judge the city?” - Ez 22.2.
Before man is, there is a concept. Long before salvation is brought about, there is a plan. Before there is a prophet in making, there is a royal command. Most likely the things and the men that are not, are chosen for the task to nullify the things that are, 1Cor 1:28.
Prophets are commissioned, sent by royal command. Prophets are ambassadors - speaking and acting on behalf of a peculiar nation not belonging to this world. They are seldom welcomed, at least not by the undisciplined, disobedient crowd. He is certainly recognised, but rarely accepted. To label him a recognised prophet is to disarm him and lock him into the system which he is sent to confront. A true prophet is not an attraction in crowded auditoriums.

Paul describes a delicate aspect of the prophetic office in his first letter to Timothy. His own role was founded on a royal command, 1 Tim 1:1. The young man, Timothy, receiving the letter was set apart for no easy task. His allotted part of in the work was to ”stay behind”, to bring order through instruction. He was divinely commissioned through prophesy to preach a moulding, formative message - 1 Tim 1:3, 18. The two letters to the young brother belong to a small group of letters labelled pastoral letters. The pastoral words and colours used are anything but picked from a pastel palette.
Two of the keys to the first letter to Timothy are the Greek verb paraggellein, and the great words of the Holy Spirit - parakletos and parakalein. These words are indeed provocative. The Parakletos is the Spirit of truth, the teacher, the interpreter and the one reminding the obedient listener. Usually, the word is taken to mean to comfort, but it is by far the rarest meaning of the word. Even if it is to be taken in that sense, it still has the background of a comfort that makes a man able to stand on his two feet facing life. Parakalein is used of exhorting troops who are about to go into battle; it is the word of the rallying-call. Paul said: ”I urge you to remain… to confront false doctrine”, 1 Tim 1:3. ”I urge you first of all to pray…”, 1 Tim 2:1.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/30 17:00Profile
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office



The other word, paraggellein, is repeated again and again in the pastoral letters. The mildest and most soothing word found in the English would be to instruct. First and foremost it is a military word - a command issued to soldiers. It does not relate to harsh judgmentalism. Holiness is never harsh. Paul says, ”Prescribe these things…”, 1 Tim 5:7. Prescribe, instruct, teach, charge, urge, command, demand. These are words used of doctrine relative to right, godly living. These are words calling for adherence and summoning responsibility.
The prophet brings the people of the Lord to obedience. Prophecy allows us to look into what the Lord is planning to do, but the greater part of the work of the prophet is related to what the people is supposed to do. His work is to put the people to work. Christianity is not an exciting and thrilling experience, it is blue collar work. Christianity offers lessons in the art of godly and righteous living according to heavenly pattern and protocol. There is no finality to Christian faith and living this side of eternity.

Our prophet is a forthteller. This aspect of the prophetic office deals with royal commands and heavenly demands. His words are distinct, ”It has to be said of you…”. His words are sobering and humbling. They bring you back to the Cross. They call for repentance. They are confrontative, they hold admonition and bring warnings. Our prophet is a forthteller. He dares to be labelled as offensive. He certainly rocks the boat. He creates disruption and disunity for the sake of unity built on righteousness.
Our prophet is a man who, like Jeremiah, is told to keep quiet for the sake of unity. Bringing unity at the cost of holiness will open for antinomianism, lawlessness, and will in the end lead parts of the Church to bow down to an antichrist. The community of churches, denominations and religious multi-structures are all too eager to display a unity belonging to this inferior category. Their efforts prophesy the spiritual disunity existing as a provocative force before the Lord. He is not perplexed by the Babylonian confusion. He knows how to divide between right and wrong, between holy and profane. Amazingly, Jezebel rules among those who profess the gift of discernment. Amazingly, too much prophecy stems from a gnostic/spiritistic source at the so called schools of prophets of today. Forthtellers, speak up. Forthtellers admonish and charge the straying sheep and their leaders.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/31 1:42Profile
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office



The prophetic office has not changed its design or function as it moved from the older dispensation to the newer. There is no new dimension or pattern to be taken on by prophets of today. God is moving along the same paths as in the olden times. God is, and was, and is to come. He is light, never changing, no shades.
There is no present day truth - what is has always been. What is available to the Church of today has always been at hand - holiness and godly living. The gnostic prophet believes in a ”new thing-ism” - new truths and experiences gushing forth. His reformation is a reinterpretation of the Book, reducing the message of the Cross, allowing Flesh to stay alive. There is no truth but everlasting truth. The present day truth offer excitement to itching ears. The Old prophets spoke perfectly true about our days. The true prophets of our days bring the people in line with the message of old.
A prophetic message demands response. A message heard today to be forgotten tomorrow, allowing the listener to run for new revelations tomorrow holds no prophetic quality. Prophetic forthtelling captures hearts and touches consciences. Prophetic forthtelling enlightens souls and reinstructs minds. Forthtelling reintroduces the Cross and installs it as the focal point it is meant to be. Prayer puts God to work. Forthtelling puts the people to work in right and honourable praying. The forthteller is commanded to speak out - Ez 20:46. He is instructed to prophecy against - Ez 21:2. He is even there to judge - Ez 22:2. The Lord gives words to the forthteller; ”Say to her” - Ez 22:24-25.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/10/31 15:06Profile
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 Re: Aspects of the Prophetic Office



The prophet knows what time it is, knows what kind of time it is. He holds prophetic understanding of the mentality and mood of this present time. He identifies and knows the trends of a society by looking at its roots. He is able to analyse trends and upcoming events by judging foundations. His words are a force against the mentality of the day. His words are purifying words, never playing the game of soothsaying, numerology and Gnosticism. He rather cuts off the spiritistic influence and shortcuts the flow of falsehood.
The forthteller is the cupbearer of the people. Probing and testing belong to his office. Food and wine was to pass the mouth of the cupbearer before reaching the king’s table. Food and drink must undergo complex scrutiny before served to the people. Certain men must be hindered from preaching strange doctrine, 1 Tim 1:3. Some careless and unloving ”prophetic leadership” dare leave the testing of the food to those who have no ability to discern. The poor and needy are the first to be sacrificed as always. Romantic prophecy, promising that God is going to increase, prosper and protect at all times, robs the people of a proper relation to reality. Prosperity prophets pacify the people.

Genuine comfort makes a man able to stand on his feet - literally - facing reality. The Holy Spirit lifts you up form any fallen state to stand before the Lord. A prophet instils courage to take a stand. The forthteller leads the people step by step to come to her senses. The forthteller puts man in a position in which he will properly use any and all God-given faculties. He rules out passivity as an option.
He never invites man to abandon thinking and probing. He never gives in to the cry for encouragement in a time when most of the people are heading in the wrong direction. Encouragement can never replace instruction in a situation of straying. Disobedience leaves no room for blessing. Blessed disobedience is counterfeit Christianity. Hananiah predicts prosperity within reach whenever he shows up, Jer 28: 3. Hananiah has no place among the forthtellers, he who makes the people trust a lie, v. 15. His fortune telling will mobilise a forthteller because he counsels rebellion against the Lord, verse 16. Obedience is the central theme of a forthteller.


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Lars Widerberg

 2004/11/1 4:27Profile





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