The Charge of Today’s Prophets

Isaiah 58:7b

⁷ ”Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house—when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood?” AMPC (Bold Emphasis mine).

We are living days that have been prophesied. Days where many are confronted with the things they have been ignoring for some time which the Lord sent them warnings through His messengers to either fix the situation or remove it from their midst. It is understandable that some things cannot be dealt by human means, and for that we need the Lord to take us to that place where only He can be our deliverer from those situations.

I am referring to some of the exposures that are happening in the body of Christ. Some leaders have been caught doing all kinds of catastrophic acts that show a lack of character and spiritual maturity since many of them have mishandled God’s people under their care in ways that have left deep woundedness and a lack of care for those hurting souls. As we know this is not the way that God has commanded His people to treat one another. John 13:35 tells us that people can tell that we are disciples of Jesus if we love one another. It says,

“By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].” AMPC

For this reason, God has been tipping the scales and have sent His prophets to warn and also to expose. Many of them have been doing a good job of following Scriptural protocol to do this. However, there is an error on the part of many other prophetic people who have been violating God’s principles for warning and exposure. Matthew 18:15-18 describes to us the process.

¹⁵ “If your brother wrongs you, go and show him his fault, between you and him privately. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.

¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take along with you one or two others, so that every word may be confirmed and upheld by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

¹⁷ If he pays no attention to them [refusing to listen and obey], tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a pagan and a tax collector.”

¹⁸ “Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven.” NKJV

To the prophetic people, God is telling us to first go in private and warn as the Lord leads and only when there has been continual rejection and ignoring of the warnings, then God will take the issue publicly for the person(s) to be exposed. That is in part because God is dealing with pride, fears, neglect, ignorance of God’s Word and principles, wounds in their soul, demonic strongholds that have been influencing them away from His will, unforgiveness, resentments, bitterness, jealousies, and all other things that are getting in the way of their obedience to God’s will expressed by His messengers.

Some of the transgressors may think that what they are doing is not worth paying much attention to, but in reality, obstructing the will of God for themselves and others is a big deal to God and also worth focusing on for James 2:10-13 tells us,

¹⁰ “For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.

¹¹ For He Who said, You shall not commit adultery, also said, You shall not kill. If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become guilty of transgressing the [whole] Law.

¹² So speak and so act as [people should] who are to be judged under the law of liberty [the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love].

¹³ For to him who has shown no mercy the judgment [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgment.

We are called to deliver and not judge the “what” of the situation or the motives of the people we warn because only God knows the heart of the people or leaders in question. When God reveals the reason behind the conduct or mindset that led to the wrong behavior He is entrusting us with that person’s live in our hands. We cannot take information that was to be at times classified and use it haphazardly because we will be held accountable for what God has entrusted to us.

I am by no means ignoring or neglecting the suffering of the victims. I have found myself on that side of receiving blows of the enemy through leaders and other Christians that were operating out of the woundedness in their soul and were used as puppets of the devil. So I know how that feels just like others who operate in the prophetic. I am not the only one, but we must also understand that this is part of our calling on behalf of the body so we can be used effectively on its behalf and for the glory of God alone. This means that the enemy hates us and will use those who are supposed to be on our side against us. But we should not let that keep us wounded and bitter towards others in God’s house. Instead, we are to proceed to handle the situations at hand according to the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:9 says,

⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;” NKJV

This helps us not get offended by the leader or other believers and use our own righteousness which leads to judgmental attitudes to view the fallen as people that are beyond repair and worth all the judgment coming to them for shame should be their portion for what they have done. One oversight that is the size of a mammoth here is that judgment does not belong to us. It only belongs to God. We, His prophets are His mouth piece, but we are not His finger to point. James 4:11-12 says,

¹¹ Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? NKJV

Luke 6:37 also says, ³⁷ “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.” NLT

 I have had my share of mistreatments in the Church for which I have had to seek continual and steadfast healing of my soul. I know this is important to do because it ensures that I remain as God’s mouthpiece in purity and truth and keeps me from pointing the finger which is the easiest thing to do. In addition, I do not want to have anything in common with the accuser of the brethren that seeks wounded messengers to not only expose but also to judge others and fall into slandering and gossip.

Having been the victim of so much slander and gossip myself even by those who have been close to me, has given me a level of understanding that just as I need healing to keep from becoming a stumbling block to others, so do those who have fallen from God’s way in such an alarming way. God does expose, but He also tests those who come to scrutinize and bring a magnifying glass among those in the body to see how they will respond to the circumstances.

In fact, everyone who comes under the knowledge of the “public facts” is tested to see if they will cover their brother or sister as the initial passage on this post admonishes, or will they perpetuate the exposure with slander and gossip. Those who proceed with the latter are doing the work of the devil who seeks who he may devour with our mouths and self-righteous attitudes towards other members of the body of Christ and that way make the Church look like the last place unbelievers should look to satisfy their need of a Savior.

There is a great example in the Book of Genesis of the charge of every prophetic people and even those who do not prophesy towards others who have been found at fault or the victim of a misunderstanding or attack of the devil to their character. Genesis 9:20-27 observes,

²⁰ “After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard.²¹ One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked.” (Bold Emphasis mine)

²⁴ When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. ²⁵ Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham:

“’May Canaan be cursed!
    May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.’”

²⁶ Then Noah said,

“’May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed,
    and may Canaan be his servant!
²⁷ May God expand the territory of Japheth!
May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,
    and may Canaan be his servant.’” NLT

We can see here that there are great benefits to having an attitude of honor towards those who God exposes. God promises in verse 27 that He will expand our territory and prosper us and our family. But those who are used of the devil to talk about and shame with their mouths the fallen of His people that only He has a right to judge are cursed and become the servants of others. This means that there is no promotions or rewards for taking on a judgmental and offended attitude towards others. Only, spiritual demotion.

Instead, we should check to see if our emotional and spiritual filters are clean in our soul (our mind, will, and emotions) and have not made us to have things in common with Satan himself against others in God’s family. God expects us to extend our hands to those who have fallen away from His will because in His army we are not to leave our fellow and fallen soldiers behind. We can help them through our prayers for their repentance, for their restoration to a right standing with God, for their healing, and all other things God leads us to. This could include fasting on their behalf to help break any demonic assignments against them.

Not every person that was found at fault will be restored to their position of leadership in God’s house, but here are other ways God may lead to the edification and restoration of those who have made costly mistakes against others in the church. When it comes to an up close and personal word of correction for them, He always sends someone of their same spiritual rank or higher to do that and also to give wisdom and take them by the hand towards restoration just like the Good Samaritan did.

We do this because we want to sow mercy instead of judgment for the times when we would want others to give us mercy. If we are not of their same rank or higher and chose to correct or expose a leader, we are out of God’s order and showing a lack of compliance with His spiritual protocol. What the Bible tells us to do for our leaders is to pray for them so they come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4). This should be first and foremost and in many cases could very well help us avoid some of the tragic things we are seen. Where is the praying church?

To God alone be all the glory. ▪

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