ARE YOU CALLED AS A PROPHET?
(Part 2)
Let me say here that obeying the voice of God, especially for those who have been called into the prophetic, deliverance and healing ministry is a very hard task. Like I mentioned earlier, this is “The call to death”. It is a heavy cross that only few can carry. Besides, no one can carry such a cross except God gave him the grace to do so. Whoever is called into that ministry must deny himself completely and follow God. The Prophetic call is such that God will break and strip the person to a point where he would trust no one else but the Lord alone. He must come to a point where he would not be able to trust even his own abilities anymore. This is because God Himself will make sure that the person fails in everything he does outside the will of God. His success will depend of how willing he is to follow God because only God’s plan will go through successfully in his life. He must be brought to a place where God and God alone will be his sufficiency.
Such people go through a lot of hardship, rejection, frustration, accusation, disappointment, intimidation, name calling and all manner of things that make life unpalatable. Let me also say that almost everyone called to this type of ministry have either desired death or have faced death threat at one time or the other from the enemies of God. This happened to people like Elijah, Moses, Jeremiah, Jonah and other prophets in the Bible. Don’t get it twisted; it is still happening to people in our days too because God has not stopped raising prophets. In our days and from what I have seen, I can say that Prophet XYZ(name withhold) is a good example of what true Prophets of God go through in the discharge of the divine call of God upon their lives. As a follower of the Prophet XYZ’s ministry, I have seen tons of persecutions, accusations, attacks and name calling in the life of the man of God. Yet, he is still pressing on. The more they persecute him, the higher God takes him. Remember once again that “the bigger the cross – the bigger the crown too.” Prophet XYZ is wearing a big crown because he is also carrying a big cross.
Now, let me give you one related example from the Bible. There was a time in the wilderness when leading the Israelites to the Promised Land became too heavy for Prophet Moses. It had become such an unbearable burden on him he sought death. So, he asked God to take his life. But what could be so heavy on Moses, the same man who made the whole of Egypt tremble with God’s backing? This is the same Moses by whose hands God destroyed the mighty army of Egypt; the same man who divided the Red Sea and performed other signs and wonders. Why would this same man ask God to kill him? The story was that the same people he had delivered from bondage became fed up with eating manna in the wilderness such that they forgot all that Moses had done for them. Their disappointment moved them to blame him as the cause of their woes. Let us consider the following scripture.
“And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” (Numbers 11 vs. 4- 6)
You see what I mean. Prophets suffer for the sake of the people God assigns to them; yet the people hardly appreciate them. The Israelites were in bondage in Egypt for four hundred years. They had no freedom because they were slaves who worked all year round to please their masters. Day in and day out, they kept calling on God for deliverance. Finally, God heard their cry and anointed Moses as their deliverer. Moses had to risk death when he went back to Egypt for their sake. If God was not with him, Pharaoh would have cut off his head for murdering one of his subjects forty years earlier.
You would agree with me that Moses needed a lot of faith to accept the call to go back to Pharaoh and ask him to let God’s people go. He was a wanted man in Egypt, and that was enough to scare him. But he trusted God and risked it for their sake. It should be understood that Moses was not a slave. He has never been a slave even in his days in Egypt. He was raised a royal and treated as one because he was the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. But he cared about his brothers and sisters who were suffering in Egypt. The love he had for them and his obedience to God was the reason he accepted the call of God to go back to Egypt and rescue them from bondage. However, this decision was at the risk of his life, but he did not mind. For their sake, Moses risked death and went to Egypt.
In Egypt, Moses’ problem started with convincing his own people that he was sent by God to rescue them. Being called as a prophet is one thing; but being accepted as one, especially among your own people is another matter altogether. That’s why there’s the saying that “a prophet is not without honour, except in his own country.” As a matter of fact, Moses had to convince his people that he was sent by God before they gave him support. That was indeed the first hurdle to cross. Even that would not have been easy if the Lord Himself had not spoken directly to Aaron who would later become Moses’ spokesperson about the deliverance mission.
“And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.” (Exodus 4 vs. 27 – 31)
So, after Moses gained the support of his people, together, they would confront the King of Egypt to seek their freedom. Well, as expected, that did not come easy. God Himself had already told Moses so. Yes, God had told Moses that He would harden the heart of Pharaoh until His power was made known to the world through what He would do in Egypt.
“And the LORD said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.(Exodus 7 vs. 1 – 5)
That was what God told Moses. He asked him to go and tell Pharaoh to let His people go, yet the same God told Moses that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart so he would not listen to him. You can imagine how frustrating that was for Moses. It looked like God was enjoying it all; but this development would cause more problems and suffering for the Israelites, and Moses would be blamed for it.
“And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh: And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. (Exodus 5 vs. 19 – 23)
Again, you can see what Prophets go through. Moses had his confidence in God, yet the same God told him things that would discourage him by saying that He would harden the heart of Pharaoh. So, once again, Moses needed a lot of faith and courage to obey God after hearing that. This is what happens to prophets all the time. It is God who decides what prophets say and do. They have no power to decide things and run them at will. No, that is not possible. Prophets take instructions from God and do nothing on their own as far as their relationship with God’s people is concerned. Their lives are filled with frustrations, disappointments, and rejections by the people they lead.
To be a prophet, you must be extra humble. God Himself will humble you so you can submit totally to Him. If you are not humble to the core, you cannot be a prophet of God because you will surely fail. Sometimes, God humbles a Prophet by changing His mind over something the man of God had already prophesied to people. This can be very disturbing and humiliating to the prophet. Can you imagine prophesying that God said so, so and so, and then come back to say that God has changed his mind? Are you serious? Who will believe your story? That is part of the ordeal true prophets of God face. They do as God tells them and it can be humiliating some times. Yet, they have no choice. After all, a prophet is a servant and not a master. God is his master, and his duty is to obey His orders, even when it appears ridiculous to the prophet and the people.
The prophecy of Prophet Isaiah that King Hezekiah will die is a good example. God indeed told Isaiah to tell King Hezekiah to put his house in order because he was going to die. When the King heard it, he cried unto God for mercy. Instead of death, God added fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah. How did the prophet feel about it? Your guess is as good as mine.
To be continued……