“If anyone says he has read all of Augustine’s writings, he is a liar.”
DISCLAIMER:
For the record, these are my own nuanced thoughts on the topic.
With many thanks to Sandy Landry, who had the patience as a mother in Israel, to work through the Gifts with me, for working with me through towards my Redemptive Gift, and Anna Zimmerman, who was the first to challenge the idea that I was a Teacher.
As I had said before, I first encountered Arthur Burk’s material 18 years ago. Specifically with respect to the Redemptive Gifts of Cities. I was going to college at the time, in a Teacher City, and belonged to a Teacher Church.
So, my very first shoulder rub with the Redemptive Gift’s (RG’s) was with the gift of Teacher.
My best friend, for the longest time after he had first pegged me as an Exhorter, became convinced after some discussion that I was in fact a Teacher. Some other friends also had that thought, and even some mentors and pastors.
That was until I had a conversation with Anna, in which she ranted about the various gifts in relation to me. I had earlier been in the process of thinking that I was a Teacher, a Prophet, or a Mercy (go ahead and laugh at that one, after all that is why you read my writings: to laugh and to receive the medicine that you need for your liver complaint.
I had recently taken Mercy off of the Table, and was thinking that maybe I was a Prophet.
I was in the process of telling Anna that I was wavering between Prophet and Teacher, and despite my vast library, I made an observation that in my spirit that I was Prophet despite that. It was something I felt.
So, I told Anna that I thought I was a Prophet, and she replied affirmitavely that I was.
So, I asked her to expand on her reasoning for that, and the following piece gives some wonderful nuggets as to how some of the gifts flow.
I mean, if I played dumb and decided to do a process of elimination, then I wouldn’t think you’re a Mercy because you have never at any point whatsoever pulled the Mercy “feeling” card. You are emotional, sure. Off the charts emo, but not like the Mercy. That’s a totally different thing. You say you’re touchy feely, but again, it’s not like the Mercy. You have some issues, but I would bet your issues to overcome are based more in stuff from your past that you haven’t worked out all the way. Kevin Prosch was super touchy feely Mercy, and you’re not the same touchy feely at all.
Ruler would be a joke because the idea of you organizing or structuring anything is hilarious and your moral code is a lot more stringent than any Ruler’s would be.
And you don’t have enough of a face to be a Giver. You’re not chameleonic in the least. What you see is what you get, and that’s that. And spotting financial deals doesn’t seem to be your thing.
Exhorter… I mean, you’re loud, but you’re not community driven enough. You care more about intimacy and the principles that Exhorter’s sure ought to have but it’s not so easy for them, I don’t think.
Teacher would have been fine, but we both know you’re so abrasive and confrontational that for a while I honestly thought you were an awful teacher.
Servant would make a funny joke. I’m just going to leave that one.
So, what I know about you is that you are very black-and-white. You say whatever you want to say whether people want to hear it or not. You are super emotional, but aside from junk, it’s more the volcanic emotion of Prophet, not the… Uhh, weird emotion of the Mercy. You don’t seem to be too lost on them when it’s your spirit. You go with your own flow, not Mercy.
The thing about being a Prophet is that you haven’t found your thing yet.
You like new stuff, but you don’t really know what that is yet, which is why you have had a tendency to spout truth left and right, but it’s usually copying from what someone else learned as opposed to your own source.
And for the meantime, it’s fine, because God has yanked you around to build deeper roots so that when the time comes you can really let loose, but you’re not there yet.
So he uproots you and does something else, and then does it again, and does it again. And you’re packing the misery for it, but that’s because your finest Prophety hours haven’t come yet.
Oh, and the whole “I don’t care what you think even though I do care what you think” is also hilariously Prophet.
Some of what follows can apply to me, but there are some very telling markers AGAINST that idea. And I will detail those below. Some of these characteristics are my own portrayal of the gift.
BEHAVIORAL TRAITS OF THE TEACHER:
- While Prophets are usually very quick and sudden, Teachers tend towards a characteristic penchant for slowness and painstaking analysis. They like to pore over details and hunt for 11 sources to back each assertion they make.
- While Exhorters understand and love many relationships, valuing human interaction with great compassion, Teachers love and value their books and research. Their personal libraries rival most theological and public research institutions. While I am not an RG Teacher, my library is indicative of a Teacher.
- Teachers shun secondary sources in favor of the originals.
- They value the old over the new.
- They prioritize those things which are stable, secure, and well-tested.
- When they share the results of a piece of research, Teachers’ writings tend to carry a depth, a precision, and an accuracy that no other gift can match.
- The Teacher’s willingness to strive for accuracy should not be construed as a license for the other gifts to be lazy in their research. As a matter of fact, that quality should provoke the other gifts to stronger research, ESPECIALLY WITH ALL THE FLAKY CRAP THAT PASSES FOR RESEARCH IN THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT, such as the obsession with Strong’s concordance numbers and their popping up everywhere, and treating every conincidence between the kiss you got from your baby this morning and the squeal of the brakepads in your front left rotor as a prophetic sign from G-d. With G-d, there are actually sometime coincidences. I apologize. I get peeved with what passes for Teacher but isn’t.
- Teachers are a very safe place emotionally. For this reason, many can be confused by others and confuse themselves with the gift of Mercy. People feel like they can share the depths of their darkness and the Teacher will not stone them or adjudicate their situation the way a Prophet will. Prophets are legendary for their licenses to hunt (thanks, Arthur, for that colorful description). Prophets are usually those who will confront sin and things that need fixing and changing, and will therefore actively seek out those who need to be corrected. A Teacher on the other hand, would not usually seek out those who need fixing.
- Teachers can manifest and create environments where trust is fostered. Extending trust is a characteristic of a Teacher. Because of this, it is possible to take advantage of a Teacher in many different ways.
- Extending this idea, the Tribe of Levi, which had the Gift of Teacher, functioned in the priestly role, shows us a picture of what the Teacher does: reconciliation to G-d. Teachers are restlessly obsessive with showing people thw way back home. Teachers show us the way back home to G-d. With deep and methodical sequences, the Teacher, when asked about John 3:16, will thread you all across the ENTIRE canon from Genesis 1:1 and show you the picture of reconciliation, affection, and the deep love of G-d.
- As a result of not confronting people with sin, Teachers can often default to embracing selective responsibility in an immature expression. Listen to the Principle of Responsiblity in the Seven Principles teaching to get a better handle on this concept.
- Teachers are designed, DESIGNED to be the FACTORIES of new revelation (Joy Unstoppable, Disc 5, Cut 5: Running a Factory-LISTEN TO THIS CUT). They are designed to be the ones who read the Scripture, see the deep truths and gemstones and release those into the body. They are the miners that dig out the most hidden gemstones.
- Teachers are slow and methodical, and they have staying power to uncover the solution to a riddle. Because of this set of qualities, they They are designed to take the deep riddles that puzzle us.
- Teachers, Teacher companies, and Teacher entitites at their high levels are consummate tinkerers (Sir Henry Royce, Orvile Wright) or full of consummate tinkerers (Hewlett Packard: Onyx Business DNA, Disc 2, Cut 2: The HP Way, Timestamp 7:40-9:20. Thus is what makes them good in research arenas.
Examples of Teachers are Levi and his tribe of priests, Luke, Isaiah, Ezra, Mary the mother of Jesus, Samuel the Seer, Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard, Sir Henry Royce, Steve Wozinak (my assessment) formerly of Apple Computer, St. Augustine of Hippo, Rudolf Bultmann, Karl Barth, Craig Keener (one of my heroes), and St. Thomas Aquinas.
So, what do y’all think? More color, depth, or something missing? I am glad to revise.
So # 8 is where I think I have the most trouble differentiating between a Prophet and a Teacher. Reason being is you state that Prophets are most likely to point out where you are wrong, and Teachers can listen to your wrongs and make you feel safe. So, what about all that that was said on the FB site in regards to how Teachers have this burning desire to judge/condemn, or point out someone’s wrongs? What’s the difference?
I think the key here is that I didn’t build the comment out as far as it couod have been built out. I was moving from a place of understanding Teachers basically. As the Teacher matures, they will not be just a safe place to share your sins with, but they will, still with tact and grace, move toward a place where they are comfortable confronting you.
Prophets on the other hand, as they mature, will gain some understanding about the timing of their confrontations, even though they will have a burning desire to ignore timing.
The context for a Teacher confronting is in first understanding that you feel safe with them.
The context for a Prophet confronting is that it is right always.
The one needs a little nudging to correct and do it well.
The other needs to be trimmed back a bit.
As to Teacher’s desired to judge/condemn, that flows from their internal fight with the religious spirit and the Amalekite spirit of predation.
If they get win that fight, then we can understand that their judgment versus the Prophet’s judgment comes from a different motive.
Teacher: it is wrong because the book says it is wrong.
Prophet: it’s wrong because it violates principles. It is wrong because my internal truth indicator moves down.
When a Teacher gets judgment wrong, the product is behavior like some of that of John MacArthur, “this whole segment of the body of the body of Christ is a cancer”.
Teacher and Prophet are both willing to attack whole sections of the body, but each does
it from a different motive.