I have struggled for many years to know what to say and for the right spirit in which to say it, but now the time has come, and I believe I am possessed of the right spirit.
A LONG TRAIN OF ABUSES
Dear Steve, Lee, and others,
There are many of us who read the List and Charisma each day, sirs, and have done so for years.
But, sirs, that has begun to change, and the change has been coming for years.
There are those who function in the Redemptive Gift of Prophet. I am specifically excluding that particular gift.
Rather, I am speaking to those who engage in the Manifestation Gift of Prophesying (1 Cor 12 and 14) and the Office of Prophet (Ephesians 4:11-13) given for the equipping and mentoring role of young Prophets coming up. I am speaking by the mercy of G-d and not in anger whatsoever.
It was my understanding that a major prophetic ministry, if memory serves correctly, Elijah List, posted a report years ago that no more than 13 percent of the words given on average have come to pass.
And many times, these words have not come to pass. Further, more often than not, when the words failed to come to pass, the response of either silence or of qualification for previously unqualified words that were wrong has been so loud that many of us have not known what our response should have been.
Many of my colleagues have had their trust shaken in the accuracy of the prophetic word, especially when Hebrews states in multiple places that we have a better covenant than the Old Covenant, under which Elisha the son of Shaphat functioned, and Elisha, under the Old Covenant, heard what the king uttered in his bedchambers.
Sirs, many of my generation grew up under my parents generation (born during the 1950’s), listening patiently to that generation of prophetic voices speak about the things of G-d. And the track record has repeatedly failed to live up to the nature of prophecy.
Further, the willingness of the List specifically to tout “accuracy” in introducing certain of these men lands badly with many of us for two reasons.
- “Accuracy” should be a given in prophecy and therefore should not even be a necessary part of an introduction. A person’s reputation should speak for themselves. (For example, when you think of resurrections from the dead, one need not tout David Hogan’s credentials)
- The parading of a person’s accuracy lands with me, at least, as implying that others in the List have a trouble with accuracy, which has proven to be the case repeatedly.
- We are so willing to make much of a person’s accuracy, without even concerning ourselves with their humility. See here for my views on humility and the prophetic.
I for one, spent years listening to my then-pastor and his wife making a number of proclamations that were not grounded in the reality of Scripture, and have watched people engage in all sorts of unweighted words. Several of my closest friends were damaged or cursed by challenging their authority, as they operated heavily in control and manipulation.
To cite an example other than the most recent issue with the Red Tsunami, one U.S. President was prophesied to have a “spirit of humility”. That word has fallen flatly; he has proven to manifest anything but that spirit.
The author of that word has issued something like an apology, which is a start, but here is the bottom line, Mr. Shultz, Mr. Grady, and Company.
The track record for this generation is abysmal and unacceptable. The integrity of my parents’ generation of the Prophetic Movement has some major question marks when they will not accept the scrutiny of correction of the church at large. Many in my generation have run out of patience when it comes to our parents generation of the Movement making a course correction. The following words are appropriate:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The Declaration of Independence
The hardest transition to make is from G-d’s order to G-d’s new order.
Rich Marshall
The abuses without repentance leave much to be desired.
13 percent fulfillment is unacceptable.
That statistic of 13 percent was relayed by a friend of mine, Arthur Burk. I say “friend” because Arthur has come to be a sounding board for some of my frustrations. I say “friend” because I helped him put up a compost pile, and wired some of his lights at his new office, and because I pray consistently for him and those things that are his priorities. His is a precious connection that I will not barter as a chip in a game; and he is one person that provides a unique counterpoint when I am not sure the Prophetic Movement has gotten it rightly.
1 Corinthians is explicitly clear that one prophet should speak and the others should judge what they have to say. A problem, however, arises when a prophet speaks, the judges agree and the word is blatanly off-point, and they then either qualify it, as Mark Taylor did, speaking that voter fraud and other earthquakes would provide the necessary seismic shift to create the Tsunami in question.
Look, gang, when a word is off, it is true we may not be dealing with the concept of a false prophet, but there may be a fault in the prophecy. And if we engage repeatedly in faults in prophecy, and say “the L-rd has said” when the L-rd has not said, then we have crossed over into falsification. And we need to repent, or admit that we may have been wrong.
This speaks of a dreaded lack of humility in the Prophetic Movement, and those who claim the office of Prophet.
And I, for one-and I imagine others in my generation (those born around 1980, many of which have left the institutional church) will not accept such abysmal numbers and statistics as indicators of the arrival of the true Prophetic.
I am also not talking about those who are learning to operate. I am speaking to those with a national voice and some experience in delivering national words.
We will have either a broad-based repentance that issues forth from the bowels of the Prophetic Movement and a reform in its basic governance, or we will have a new governance.
We will have Prophets that operate with love as their lynchpin and BOLD HUMILITY as their hallmark. We will have Prophets that are capable of saying, “I am willing to admit what I hear may be wrong”. Those who see themselves or are seen as leaders in the Movement must learn to be subjected to the rest of the body of those who flow in the prophetic.
We will have Prophets that apologize boradly when they issue words that do not come to pass, and will be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
We will have a purification of the Prophetic Movement that refuses to settle for 13 percent pass rate as acceptable.
Because Elijah and the rest of the Old Testament Prophets were completely human like us, this means we are also like them, accessing the same Spirit of G-d, and capable of a far greater accuracy than we current demonstrate and a humility like they had.
We will have a Movement that does not qualify a word that does not come to pass.
We will have a Movement that does justly, loves mercy, and WALKS HUMBLY with its G-d.
We will have a Movement that is steeped in the intimacy of this new season of Isaac, rather than the systems and covering of the old season, the season of Ishmael.
We will have a Movement that walks in the humility that we saw demonstrated in the Redemptive Gift Mercy, Bob Jones.
We will have our Movement purified, or we will become the new Movement.
The time for qualifiers, and words that cause defilement in the minds of the hearers is over.
The time for repentance is now, and I beseech you therefore, brothers and sisters of the Prophetic Movement to repent and reform your actions before the L-rd, or face a judgment (a decision) against this increasingly falsified Movement by those of us willing to speak up and step into the office of a Prophet. We are done with the season of the Ishmaelite Prophetic, and we will have the season of Isaac that the L-rd has promised us, with character, integrity, humility, accuracy greater than 13 percent, a willingness to boldly apologize when we mess it up, and lynchpinned on love.
HEALING AND THE PROPHETIC IN BRIEF CONTRAST
Granted, I understand, there is a temptation to perceive that I am in agreement with being harsh towards prophets. As in the following concept of the delivery of prophetic words versus ministry of healing.
If a man comes by with a gift of healing to minister to a group and 98 out of 100 people get healed, then the man has a legitimate gift of healing.
But if a man give 98 accurate prophetic words and 2 that are inaccurate, then he is a false prophet and we should uncompromisingly stone him with stones that he may die.
That is not my issue.
The movement is not even hitting 20 percent accuracy, much less 98 percent accuracy. This is a problem.
HOW WE TREATED THE PROBLEM IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES VERSUS THE CURRENT MODES
Given that stoning was the punishment for inaccurate words or words with a malicious motive, how can we expect that the standard has decreased or changed under the New Covenant? Something must be done when an Office Prophet, a leader in the Movement, messes up this badly. I am not calling for stoning, but I am saying that there are spiritual consequences when we are inaccurate by this magnitude that go into effect when we are off. This isn’t even prophesying by the Spirit of G-d. Rather , in many cases, it is prophesying in accordance with the desires of our hearts. We wish G-d to move in such a way, and so we prophesy, declare, and decree it to be so.
What we are seeing at work in the Movement is the fruit of that behavior, and it is not good fruit. It is failing inspection. We are seeing the Principle of Sowing and Reaping at work, and I imagine it has been going on for some time in the Prophetic Movement if only 13 percent average accuracy is what we have to show for it.
Be quick to listen and slow to speak, brethren.
Respectfully Submitted,
The Paraclete’s Hammer