Knowing The Prophets – Joseph Addai Kusi
KNOWING THE PROPHETS
If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams. ……When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him. (Deut. 13:1-5, 18:22)
If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. (1 Cor. 14:37)
And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar…. And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man
that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. (Acts 11:27-28, 21:10-11)
Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)
And Micaiah said, As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. (1 Kings 22:14, 19-23)
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. (Rev. 1:1-2)
“Despise not prophesyings” was the admonition of Paul the apostle to the saints at Thessalonica. Such a faithful saying surely is worthy of all acceptation with us as it was with them. “Quench not the Spirit” was what came before. We are sure that the two are inextricably linked, for when we despise prophesyings, the Spirit is quenched.
We have seen that from the very beginnings of the church in Jerusalem and its primest missionary expedition from Antioch, two ministry offices have been the undergirding and solid foundation upon which her purpose, government and mission have been built. They are the ascension ministry gifts and offices of apostle and prophet. We must bear ourselves to realize also that these are the two most persecuted and misunderstood ministries, and we are instructed to know that is the work of none other than the dragon, that old serpent.
Satan has sought with untiring malice to destroy the man-child that would be born. If Satan can shake and distort the foundational offices of apostle and prophet in their strength, zeal, function, disposition and appearance, then he can destroy the whole church, and this he knows full well. Religion which Is Mystery Babylon has persecuted the apostles and prophets who revealed Christ until her judgment came. Rejoice over ye heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. (Rev. 18:20)If the the church cannot discern who apostle and prophets really are, Satan’s work is easy. That would mean the church doesn’t know what the church is and who Christ is. This is why the Lord commended the church of Ephesus for proving false apostles and finding them liars.
No ministries in the church have met with more affliction, disapproval, misunderstanding and persecution. We have realized that the most bitter cup of suffering and persecution is wrung out to the apostolic and prophetic men in the church who are mighty in healing power. Here and now, we are content to remove the scales that cover the essence and purpose of the office and ministry of the prophet and the mist that beclouds its dispensation, for Satan has not been little busy darkening the minds of men both within the church and without about this office.
Who then is a prophet, and what is prophecy? We have tomes of literature in our private and church libraries. I have seen some fair accounts from some brilliant prophetic and evangelical men. There is Mr. Theodore A. Sparks and his deeply perceptive book on the subject, and there is Ravenhill, that fiery Englishman with his marvelous poem on the prophets that is every bit worth reading. Some fine expositions by Derek Prince and Gordon Lindsay have also caught our attention. Then there are the many works that came from that prophetic move in America, though very few of those hold any substance. Most are, I am sad but not sorry to say, prophetic pretensions and presumptions.
In the thirteenth book of Deutoronomy, the Lord adjures the children of Israel to reject any prophet or dreamer who shows a sign that comes to pass to turn them after other gods.
“And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams”
We can see from this portion of Scripture that many speak by some spiritual emotion or inspiration but not always from God or after God. Generally speaking, to prophesy is to speak an oracle under inspiration, and many there be who exercise themselves in such crafts whether by righteousness unto God or of wickedness unto damnation. But firstly, a prophet must be one who has power and grace of God to turn the hearts of men after God by his inspirations. This he does by signs and wonders, and here we arrive at the centrality of significations to the ministry of the prophet.
When we exegete the Scripture above, we arrive at two conclusions, first among them being that a prophet is one who shows a sign or a wonder that comes to pass, but this in and of itself is insufficient to establish the matter. We must settle it by the second, which is that, the sign he shows turns men to God. Therefore if any man turns men into the way of God and of righteousness yet without inspired spiritually emotional words and signs that come to pass, he is not a prophet. Also, if a man shows a sign that comes to pass to turn the hearts of men away from God, he is a false prophet and a sorcerer, and worthy of death. He may turn men to himself or another god, but not to the One True God. We live in an era where men called “prophets” by their visions and predictions have turned men to excess, greed and self-seeking rather than to God and His righteousness.
Moreover, Moses said in the law,
“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
The Lord showed that the thing spoken in his name which comes to pass to cause men to fear his name and seek him is by the mouth of a prophet. The mark then of a prophet is one who shows men the true way of God with signs in the name of the Lord that come to pass. In like manner, Paul the apostle warned the Corinthian saints that if any man thought himself to be a prophet or spiritual, he would acknowledge that the words of Paul were the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ. If in any way, any man in the assembly had powers of seeing and hearing the unknown and yet, his sayings and signs did not confirm them in the knowledge of Christ and of God which Paul taught, he was not a prophet.
“If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. (1 Cor. 14:37)”
Agabus signified by the Spirit a great dearth in the whole world, and it came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. He showed this prophecy by a sign and it happened as he said. This same Agabus took Paul’s girdle and bound his own hands and feet, and showed the meaning of his signifying, “Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.”(Acts 21:10-11) Prophets are strange to common men, for they are men who can marry a harlot to signify the idolatries of Ephraim, and walk to the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field to signify the Lord’s anger upon Rezin, king of Syria and Pekah, the son of Remaliah. (Isa.7:3-4) They are men who lay at His feet as dead and yet are taken to a great and high mountain to see that great city and the mystery thereof. Prophets communicate the present words of God in the current emotion of God with signs both of the past and of the future that come to pass.
We have known and believed the words of that angel who met John, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev.19:10) It is clear to us that from Moses to David, through the pre and post- exilic prophets to the Revelation of John, all the prophets were sent to speak of the Holy One who would come by utterance and by signs. The heart of the prophetic office is to show the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the mystery of God with revelatory signs and tokens confirming the Word spoken. Was it not of this that it was said,
“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:” (Acts 7:52)
The enduring and sure record of Amos is that God will do nothing but he reveals it to his servants the prophets. Surely, God’s great all-encompassing work and mystery is Christ, and therefore prophets are men who are drawn by God into his heart to see the secrets of the deepest mysteries of God and of Christ. A prophet Is one who reveals Christ.
God’s only delight is Christ, and therefore he who calls himself a prophet and yet has no answer from God in the depth and height of the Christ mystery that was with God before the ages, is not a prophet no matter how many things he sees or hears about others. Nowadays, it is common to see in our cities some strange fellows who parade as prophets. They seem to be willing to do or say anything to make everyone believe they are genuine men sent from God with great power. They make a show of prophetic knowings, seeings and hearings about the private lives of their congregants. They call these matters out in the open to high applause. We have no problem with this, but these men I speak of do not have any testimony of Christ or of the Word of God. They do not bother to find Christ in the Word of God and all they do is to make divinations and tell people’s secrets. A great lot of these exhibitions are demonic and occultic, and others are fraudsters. There is no resemblance of the Lord in them and there is no answer of his Word in their mouths, and yet they are prophets? I do not hear them say like the elder said,
“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. (Rev. 1:1-2)”
Oh, this Revelation of Jesus Christ and his testimony are the spirit of prophecy, but by what spirit these wicked men prophesy, I do not know. I do not hear them say such things as,
“And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” (Isa. 11:5)
My ears have waited and my heart has longed but when they speak, they don’t say, “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.” I do not see upon them the holy burning and the beauteous incandescense that was upon John or Ezekiel. When they with eyes full of lustful greed utter vain swelling words, in motive pursuing filthy lucre, my heart is not washed with the noise of many waters, and the awe of the Lord’s thundering. Where are the prophets among you?
Where are the men who have soared to the upper settles of the mountain altar which Ezekiel saw? Who among you has numbered the chambers and citadels of the Temple and marveled at the radiance of her glory? Who can tell the things of the day when the earth shall be new again and the wolf and the lamb shall dwell together, even the day when the lion who turneth not away for any shall make way for the antelope to walk by and when he shall eat straw as an ox? Who among you has soared upon the wings of the wind and shown signs in the heavens? Where are the eyes that have seen the place of the hiding of God’s power, and whose ears are they which have known the terror of the way of the Most High? But alas as Hosea said, “The prophet is a fool. The spiritual man is mad.” (Hosea 9:7) Then Ezekiel added, “Woe unto the foolish prophets That follow their own spirit and Have seen nothing.” (Ezek.13:3)
The ancients said that they would wait till a prophet would arise in Israel who would show them what to do with the stones of the destroyed temple They wept and said, “Who among you saw this house in her first estate?” Where are you, Haggai, Isaiah and Zechariah? Return, you sons of fire who proceed from the throne of God and save my soul from these pretenders and wicked men who want my money and my bread, who frame their doings to provoke the Lord and the eyes of his glory. These ravenous beasts prophesy when the Lord has spoken, they do not fear when the lion roars. When the Lord seeks men to tell a lie to those whose hearts are not after him, he sends a lying spirit into these men, and they stand at Ramoth-gilead and speak nice things to an ungodly king, “for the Lord shall deliver it into the king’s hand.” (1Kings 22)
Micaiah was the man in whom was the true word of God. He was the prophet who knew the dark sayings of God and his secrets. Only he could tell that the Lord had sent a lying spirit into those men. The rest were wells without water, wandering stars foaming out their own shame. Prophets are not men concerned with the relative and the normal- their only concern is to declare and signify in absolute terms what the Lord has shown them absolutely. They do not bring the feeling of God to us in the confused language of political correctness or in the blurred light of a clouded sun.
Prophets are relative insofar as God chooses to be relative, and absolute to the measure which God is absolute and this is why men don’t understand them. Take the words of Jesus of Nazareth, that great prophet God approved with signs and wonders who they crucified under Pontius Pilate. The words which he spoke from God had no bearing on human standards of reference or satisfaction. He just spoke from God and many there were which hated him. He seemed little interested in vindicating or explaining himself, and that is the true way of the prophets.
Let no man deceive you. Whether in reference to the Old testament or to the New, a prophet is a man sent from God and elected to show the mystery of God and of His Christ with significations and tokens to back his claim, and revelatory signs and wonders following him in power. Prophets are friends of God and they live in solitude, rejected fully by men and accepted fully of God. Oh Lord, let the words of Elisha be heard among us, “Let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
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