[SIZE=medium]{Extracts from 'The Prophetic Call' by Art Katz}
In Jeremiah chapter 23:1-32, God gives us a powerful statement about true and false prophets. Talk about an indictment! It is one thing to have Judgment against nations, but when you begin to indict the prophets of God, when the loftiest and the noblest thing has become the most profane, then that is a profound statement of the low condition of a nation prior to its judgment. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it that way! [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]Jeremiah 5:31a
It is remarkable how self-serving this reciprocal thing is between heads of movements or fellowships and the false teachers, and how comfortable they are with one another and how they affirm one another. The people are in an unspoken agreement with their ministers: "You present a biblical message. We will pay the bill and have a Sunday service that will leave our lives free from any kind of demand that would really affect our true vested interest and lifestyles. We don't want a message that is going to challenge where our heart really is. We want to be able to say, 'Amen' and 'We've been to church'"-and that kind of thing. As the priest, so also the people. As the pastor/preacher, so also the congregation. [/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]It is into that situation we have now come to:[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] 2 Peter 2:1-3 [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]In the past there were false prophets, now there are false teachers among you. They will gain many adherents to their destructive theories, bringing the Way of truth into disrepute. In their greed for money and adulation, they will trade on peoples credulity with complete fabrications.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, they will be driven away into the gloom and fall in it; for I shall bring calamity upon them, the year of their punishment, declares the LORD[/SIZE][SIZE=medium].[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]Jeremiah 23:12
This confirms that there is not an immediate judgment, but that there is an appointed time in which God judges those that profane His house; those who may have originally had authentic and holy callings. That may well be why the Lord is allowing to continue that which is now being called prophetic and is so popular, but for them, as with the priests and prophets of old, there will be a year of visitation or a time when God will bring them all to judgement.
There is a consequence for false prophecy. For the preacher of it; James 3:1, and for the believer of it, for being taken in by the ‘nice’ outcomes, that are taught, when what the Bible prophets actually wrote, is quite different. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you[/SIZE][SIZE=medium]...' Jeremiah 23:15-16a [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]Jesus said: Do not be deceived[/SIZE][SIZE=medium]…Matthew 24:4
Notice that God still calls them prophets. It may be because the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. They still retain their official title, but what they are performing under that title is in God's sight an abomination. There is nothing more profane than when the sacred is no longer authentically sacred. When we take the sacred phrase, 'Thus says the Lord' and merely employ it as a device to win the attention of our hearers, then we are desecrating the sacred. We are making the sacred profane and if we are not as a godly people setting forth the distinction between the profane and the sacred, how different are we to the rest of the world? The ramifications of what we are talking about are beyond any full understanding at present.
Jeremiah 23:16b-17[/SIZE][SIZE=medium]They keep saying to those who don’t bother to read the Word for themselves: 'The Lord has said: You will have peace' and as for everyone who follow their stubborn hearts, they say: 'Calamity will not come upon you.' [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]This must be the very quintessence of what a false prophet is, namely, the giving of a false comfort and a false assurance of peace that does not regard the truth of the difficulties that need to be faced. It is an unwillingness to bring a hard word. The things that are preached are normally flattering and encouraging to the flesh, rather than challenging or threatening. False prophets prophesy peace when the world is in turmoil! 'Calamity will not come upon you' and ‘God will take you to heaven’, is sadly the kind of statement that is coming from today’s pulpits, especially among Christians of the Western world. They are giving false security to their flock. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]But who has stood in the council of the LORD...?[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] Jeremiah 23:18
God requires still that His prophetic people be in His presence. I do not see many in the earth today who are in this place. What then shall we say for all the so called; prophets that have arisen in recent years for there are many who profess to be prophets, but are they really hearing the council of God? Not likely, as evidenced by how they all have a different interpretation of the Prophetic Word. God's judgment[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]is severe on those who say: this is God’s word, but it is of their own volition.
We can know when the Word is from the council of God because it has a beneficial effect. It will affect the nation or fellowship in turning it toward God, rather than away from Him and from their wrongful ways and practices.
Watchmen; Jeremiah 31:6, are called to come into that whole scenario and bring the Sword of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord, and the truth of Scripture to people who have been long spoiled by pastors and writers of things like Prosperity theology and the rapture to heaven doctrine, that every one of us has been exposed to by preaching, books and the media, often ignoring scriptural truths. This is why we have so much controversy over what God actually does intend for His people and why God will soon take action to change everything. [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]THEN My people will see and hear clearly….they will finally understand and know the truth.[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] Isaiah 32:3-4, Jeremiah 23:
There are false teachers. We are told there would be: 2 Timothy 4:3-4 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]The false teacher speaks words of comfort when God would not have His people to be comforted, but to be stirred up. True prophets and watchmen who promote the Prophetic Word have to bear the reprisal, the rejection and the mortification of that word coming back into their own teeth. Prophetic anguish is to present the word of God and then to have it refused, but other doctrines believed. It is mortifying and the opposite of the joy and the gratification that comes when the word of God flows out of you and into the people who are receiving it. That is like tonic for your soul. We have to be as willing for the one as the other, or we will not speak the Words of truth, but we must warn people, whether they accept it or not. Ezekiel 3:1-6 [/SIZE]
In Jeremiah chapter 23:1-32, God gives us a powerful statement about true and false prophets. Talk about an indictment! It is one thing to have Judgment against nations, but when you begin to indict the prophets of God, when the loftiest and the noblest thing has become the most profane, then that is a profound statement of the low condition of a nation prior to its judgment. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it that way! [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]Jeremiah 5:31a
It is remarkable how self-serving this reciprocal thing is between heads of movements or fellowships and the false teachers, and how comfortable they are with one another and how they affirm one another. The people are in an unspoken agreement with their ministers: "You present a biblical message. We will pay the bill and have a Sunday service that will leave our lives free from any kind of demand that would really affect our true vested interest and lifestyles. We don't want a message that is going to challenge where our heart really is. We want to be able to say, 'Amen' and 'We've been to church'"-and that kind of thing. As the priest, so also the people. As the pastor/preacher, so also the congregation. [/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]It is into that situation we have now come to:[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] 2 Peter 2:1-3 [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]In the past there were false prophets, now there are false teachers among you. They will gain many adherents to their destructive theories, bringing the Way of truth into disrepute. In their greed for money and adulation, they will trade on peoples credulity with complete fabrications.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them, they will be driven away into the gloom and fall in it; for I shall bring calamity upon them, the year of their punishment, declares the LORD[/SIZE][SIZE=medium].[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]Jeremiah 23:12
This confirms that there is not an immediate judgment, but that there is an appointed time in which God judges those that profane His house; those who may have originally had authentic and holy callings. That may well be why the Lord is allowing to continue that which is now being called prophetic and is so popular, but for them, as with the priests and prophets of old, there will be a year of visitation or a time when God will bring them all to judgement.
There is a consequence for false prophecy. For the preacher of it; James 3:1, and for the believer of it, for being taken in by the ‘nice’ outcomes, that are taught, when what the Bible prophets actually wrote, is quite different. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you[/SIZE][SIZE=medium]...' Jeremiah 23:15-16a [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]Jesus said: Do not be deceived[/SIZE][SIZE=medium]…Matthew 24:4
Notice that God still calls them prophets. It may be because the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable. They still retain their official title, but what they are performing under that title is in God's sight an abomination. There is nothing more profane than when the sacred is no longer authentically sacred. When we take the sacred phrase, 'Thus says the Lord' and merely employ it as a device to win the attention of our hearers, then we are desecrating the sacred. We are making the sacred profane and if we are not as a godly people setting forth the distinction between the profane and the sacred, how different are we to the rest of the world? The ramifications of what we are talking about are beyond any full understanding at present.
Jeremiah 23:16b-17[/SIZE][SIZE=medium]They keep saying to those who don’t bother to read the Word for themselves: 'The Lord has said: You will have peace' and as for everyone who follow their stubborn hearts, they say: 'Calamity will not come upon you.' [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]This must be the very quintessence of what a false prophet is, namely, the giving of a false comfort and a false assurance of peace that does not regard the truth of the difficulties that need to be faced. It is an unwillingness to bring a hard word. The things that are preached are normally flattering and encouraging to the flesh, rather than challenging or threatening. False prophets prophesy peace when the world is in turmoil! 'Calamity will not come upon you' and ‘God will take you to heaven’, is sadly the kind of statement that is coming from today’s pulpits, especially among Christians of the Western world. They are giving false security to their flock. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]But who has stood in the council of the LORD...?[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] Jeremiah 23:18
God requires still that His prophetic people be in His presence. I do not see many in the earth today who are in this place. What then shall we say for all the so called; prophets that have arisen in recent years for there are many who profess to be prophets, but are they really hearing the council of God? Not likely, as evidenced by how they all have a different interpretation of the Prophetic Word. God's judgment[/SIZE] [SIZE=medium]is severe on those who say: this is God’s word, but it is of their own volition.
We can know when the Word is from the council of God because it has a beneficial effect. It will affect the nation or fellowship in turning it toward God, rather than away from Him and from their wrongful ways and practices.
Watchmen; Jeremiah 31:6, are called to come into that whole scenario and bring the Sword of the Lord, and the fear of the Lord, and the truth of Scripture to people who have been long spoiled by pastors and writers of things like Prosperity theology and the rapture to heaven doctrine, that every one of us has been exposed to by preaching, books and the media, often ignoring scriptural truths. This is why we have so much controversy over what God actually does intend for His people and why God will soon take action to change everything. [/SIZE][SIZE=medium]THEN My people will see and hear clearly….they will finally understand and know the truth.[/SIZE][SIZE=medium] Isaiah 32:3-4, Jeremiah 23:
There are false teachers. We are told there would be: 2 Timothy 4:3-4 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]The false teacher speaks words of comfort when God would not have His people to be comforted, but to be stirred up. True prophets and watchmen who promote the Prophetic Word have to bear the reprisal, the rejection and the mortification of that word coming back into their own teeth. Prophetic anguish is to present the word of God and then to have it refused, but other doctrines believed. It is mortifying and the opposite of the joy and the gratification that comes when the word of God flows out of you and into the people who are receiving it. That is like tonic for your soul. We have to be as willing for the one as the other, or we will not speak the Words of truth, but we must warn people, whether they accept it or not. Ezekiel 3:1-6 [/SIZE]
