Remember where Isaiah begins his whole prophecy with,
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
for the Lord hath spoken?
The greatest prophetic book begins not by an
address to men, but by an address to
nature itself.
Dumb, inanimate nature.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
for the Lord hath spoken.
Why is he addressing the elements?
Because the nation itself is deaf to God.
But nevertheless, he doesn't say, well, it's vain
for me to speak if people are not
hearing.
He still brings the word.
The word still goes forth and will not
return to God void.
Talk about the efficacy of the word, the
mystery of the word and its power, even
to go forth into nature, let alone into
men, and that the prophet is not discouraged.
And in fact, you'll find in your experience
that there'll be more than one occasion when
you might just as well be speaking to
nature when men are not hearing.
But you're not at liberty to shut up.
The word still has to go forth, even
though it seems completely pointless and somehow affects
something in the purposes of God.
So, Lord, we just thank you for inducting
us and bringing us into an Hebraic perception
of the word, its reality, its mystery, its
creative power, for it has not changed.
We have.
We have become modern, skeptical, secular, narrow, utilitarian.
We look at all things only as it
affects something and does something, and we don't
understand the proportions behind it.
So to be enlarged in this way, my
God, is to catch a glimpse of you
and the glory of God, who is the
creator through the word, and gives us invitation
to be also, at a lesser level, co
-creative with you.
So we bless you, Lord.
Oh, precious God, change us, stun us, shape
us, by the very word that we're hearing,
that we will come into a new relationship
with the word and the instruments for the
word that have their origin in God, that
is so desperate for this hour.
Bless us now as we continue, Lord, give
us a fresh second wind to go on
and bring the line upon line, precept upon
precept of your intention.
And we thank you, Lord, and give you
praise in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, let's look at Jeremiah chapter 23.
It begins with a condemnation of the shepherds,
and then it goes on to a condemnation
of the false prophets.
In verse 9, I'm reading from this version
that I have.
If yours expresses it a little differently, where
it would be a benefit to hear that,
pipe in and we'll compare even these versions.
Concerning the prophets, my heart is crushed within
me, all my bones shake.
I have become like a drunkard, like one
overcome by wine, because of the Lord and
because of his holy words.
That deserves some pause and reflection right there,
to show that the man for whom the
word comes is not some disembodied spirit or
some mechanical instrumentality.
He's flesh and blood, he has nerves and
emotions, he's affected.
How could a word be God's word and
not ravage and have its effect on that
one for whom it is coursing, even to
the feeling like a drunkard and one overcome,
my bones shake.
And then, by contrast, for the land is
full of adulterers, because of the curse the
land mourns.
Notice the prophetic way of understanding reality.
The whole name of the game, the issue,
is what is reality?
What is in fact real?
How is it to be understood?
Is this man off on some far-fetched
tangent, that he's seeing the land as stricken
because of the false prophet and the false
words that issue from them, and the social,
religious, political conditions of Israel that makes the
false prophets popular?
That even the land itself will be affected
and the land will mourn?
What a mentality this is.
What a way of perceiving.
But if he's correct, and that is reality,
we are the ones who are off base.
We're the ones who are completely unrelated to
things as God sees them.
And no wonder we're like walking into walls.
For the land is full of adulterers.
That's not only just the sexual sin, that
it transgresses the parameters of right sexual behavior,
but also the word of adultery as adulterating.
You know what that means, to adulterate something?
To disfigure it by mixing.
To lose its purity by adding, changing, mixing,
is to adulterate.
And in the prophecy of Isaiah, he says
your wine is turned to water and your
silver is turned to dross.
And that is what was once original, was
once pure, was once holy, was once invigorating
and powerful, has now become adulterated.
Your wine has become like water.
You could spit it out.
It has no value to bring scintillation or
renewal or joy.
Wine is a symbol of joy.
And your silver, which is the symbol of
righteousness and redemption, has become dross.
The thing that was once skimmed off has
now become the substance of it.
So the two most precious things have become
debased through mixing.
And it's the prophet who's aware of this
and speaks it to the nation that has
no consciousness that that has taken place at
all.
And it was through a progressive deterioration, a
process over a course of time, that this
adulteration and debasing has taken place.
So gradual as something like that frog that
is put into a pot and the temperature
increases, it doesn't know until it's cooked.
But the prophet knows.
He's aware from the very beginning.
He's sensitive.
So that what is otherwise just a commercial
campaign of merchandising is already for him the
beginning of the end.
Excuse me?
To allow this is the beginning of the
end.
The Star Wars thing is not a passing
phenomenon because Star Wars Roman numeral 2 or
normal numeral 3 is already in the works.
He sees the beginning of the end.
Something has already had its inception that is
devious and destructive.
It needs to cry out from its inception.
When the prophet Isaiah cried out those things,
there was no consciousness of them to the
people who were being addressed.
This way he says, Hear, O heavens, and
give ear, O earth.
And then he predicts the judgment that will
come long before there's any evidence that it's
even on the way.
So he sees, look at the acuteness of
the seeing, what has passed the observation of
his own contemporaries, and he sees what the
consequence will be as judgment.
And he speaks it with such a reality
as if it's already present and already taking
place.
No wonder such men are dismissed as mad.
It's either that they are mad or they
are intensely sane.
And that those who are going along with
the present debacle, D-E-B-A-C
-L-E, the corruption of the ones who
are insane and don't know it.
That insanity passes for sanity.
Darkness passes for light.
Lies for truth.
And there's only one voice raised against it.
It's the prophetic voice.
Standing in identification with God for what is
true.
It's the plum line of God.
But it's painful to bear this hue.
It eats you up.
The land is full of adulterers because of
the curse the land mourns.
And the pastures of the wilderness are dried
up.
Their course has been evil and their might
is not right.
Both prophet and priest are ungodly.
There's such a conjunction between prophet and priest.
The religious functionary and the false prophet.
I don't know where he says this.
The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests bear
rule by their means.
They advantage one another.
They compliment one another.
They slap each other's back and confirm one
another in what is religiously and spiritually false.
And so they confirm one another as if
they're true.
But only the prophet sees through it.
When one of the most celebrated prophets of
today was beginning to become publicly known and
someone came into the locality who was also
considered prophetic and began to celebrate him, I
wrote a little note and I passed it
to the pastor who was sitting alongside me
at whose church this was taking place.
And the note that I wrote to him
was, the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests
bear rule by their means.
There's always going to be a conjunction between
the false prophets and the religious functionaries who
benefit from that relationship.
They reinforce one another.
They compliment one another.
They establish one another.
They become a fraternity.
The true prophet is outside and looked upon
with scorn and condemnation because these guys believe
that what they are in is reality and
that this other guy is mad or he's
false or he's all the rest.
So here is Jeremiah addressing the condition of
these men.
Both prophet and priest are ungodly.
Even in my house I have found their
wickedness, saith the Lord.
He goes from his own statement to God's
own interjection.
He's probably so close to the heart of
God that the Lord could not miss the
opportunity to slip in his own statement.
Isn't that remarkable?
So much so you can almost say, where
does the prophet end and where does God
begin?
So much so that we can come to
an hour where the prophet can speak for
God as God and Elijah can say, as
the Lord my God liveth, it shall not
rain nor dew but according to my word.
That's either outstanding and unbelievable presumption and arrogance
or it's a man who has become so
subsumed in God you can't tell where he
ends and where the Lord begins.
That's the kind of prophet that is prophet.
Therefore their way shall be to them like
slippery paths in the darkness in which they
shall be driven and fall for I will
bring disaster upon them in the year of
their punishment, says the Lord.
In the prophets of Samaria I saw a
disgusting thing.
They prophesied by Baal and led my people
Israel astray.
Where was Israel's discernment?
What about the false prophets in Elijah's time
who were absolutely persuaded that they were not
false and when Elijah tested them at Mount
Carmel you build your altar and I'll build
mine and let that God be God who
answers by fire.
These men believed that the God that they
were celebrating was God and they leaped on
their sacrifice and cut themselves and yelled and
screamed and went through all kinds of whirling
dervishes to invoke God but there was no
answer because they were in the shelves not
only deceivers, they were themselves deceived and now
it was being found out there was no
answer.
But Israel was celebrating them and celebrating Baal
through them.
Where was the nation's discernment that they could
not recognize the falsity of this because the
false prophets were speaking man-pleasing things syrupy,
benevolent God is not angry with you this
is the best of all possible worlds this
will be corrected God is not going to
judge but there will be a year of
punishment says the Lord and the disgusting thing,
they prophesied by Baal they must have had
some kind of unction some kind of anointing,
some kind of quickening but it was not
from God isn't that remarkable?
We can come to a state let me
say this, this is so critically important where
we are so tuned to the benefit and
to the result and to the effect that
we give little pause as to the source
if the thing will work if it will
have an effect if it will do something
that seems to affect something to be desired
we don't question its source and that's the
whole experience oriented condition of the church today
they'll run to the most distant places whether
it's Toronto or Oshkosh if they can receive
something that appears to be of benefit but
will not give a serious consideration to what
is the source of that which they are
receiving I've heard terrible tales of the woeful
after effects of what has been received a
woman left that place shrieking, the husband had
to pull off the car to the side
of the road his wife had gone berserk
because she had lost all sense of herself
when they told her not to think not
even to pray just to open herself for
the experience that is the outflow of a
man celebrated whose name I don't even want
to mention who said we're so hungry for
something to happen we don't even care if
it comes from Satan yes and belly up
to the bar and get drunk on it
we're so starved for something to happen our
Christianity is so grey so dull, so uninspiring,
so without consequence let it even come from
Satan but let something from God happen well
if that's our mentality you'll get something but
it will not be from God and you'll
rue the day that you ever got it
isn't it remarkable that nothing has changed?
there's such a timelessness about these evils and
the alternative to the truth and the true
and false prophets and that's why it's so
valuable for our time that's why when we
advertised these days we said the title of
the school was Jeremiah, prophet of the end
days there's nothing more appropriate for ourselves than
the issues to which he himself had to
struggle they led my people astray but in
the prophets of Jerusalem I've seen a more
shocking thing it's one thing to take place
in Samaria but Jerusalem itself, the holy city
they commit adultery and walk in lies they
strengthen the hands of evildoers so that no
one turns from wickedness the very opposite of
what should be the effect of God's word
is men turning from wickedness to repentance unto
God but a word comes that does not
require a turning but rather confirms them in
the evil so that they continue in it
has got to be a false word a
true word will always require of God's people
change or leave off what they're doing or
turn again to God the false prophets will
reinforce men in their error and in their
evil as if it has the approval and
the sanction of God but the God is
Baal and not the God of Israel and
if that happens in Jerusalem woe for the
nation itself if this is what's happening in
the principal city, in the capital what can
we hope for in the nation and if
it's happening in the nation what can we
hope for in the world for this is
a nation to be a priest and a
lighter to the world and if their own
light has turned to darkness what can we
hope for elsewhere and that's why the prophet
is so jealous that's why he's so intense
even to the verge of insanity because he
knows how consequential this deviation is and the
whole nation has gone running after it all
of them have become like Sodom to me
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah therefore thus says
the Lord of Hosts concerning the prophets here
is no longer Jeremiah expressing his heart that
is chafed it's now God taking over and
now making his own statement and I'm just
by that inclined to say how often when
we are intensely in something close to the
heart of God we leave that point where
it's no longer ourselves and God then comes
in and maybe we don't see God enough
and enough of his speaking because we don't
give him that opportunity our conversation is not
the vehicle through which he can then enter
because it's not a godly conversation it's gossipy
or chatty or shallow it's not where his
heart and thought is we haven't begun the
day with God in the place of communion
and therefore we're askew we're out of sorts
we're out of place we're not where his
mind and heart is so what I'm saying
is we would be hearing much more from
God if men were in the place of
God and that he could just as it
were shift gears and move right out of
that into himself and we would hear the
oracles of God therefore thus says the Lord
of Hosts concerning the prophets I'm going to
make them eat wormwood to give them poisoned
water to drink for from the prophets of
Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land notice
the irony of God's judgment that he makes
men to suffer the consequence of their own
evil that they spread false things and it's
not the water of life therefore this is
the water that they themselves will drink it'll
be poisoned that the judgment of God will
be in exact proportion to their sin all
the more because they are purveyors of the
word that's why Paul says let not many
men be teachers for the consequence for them
is double it's a high responsibility now were
these men always false?
because God is addressing the prophets it's as
if we can well consider that they may
have been authentically called to truth and to
true prophets but over a course of time
as the silver has turned to dross and
the wine to water they themselves have turned
from true to false and not overnight but
by a process of erosion and disfigurement of
which they themselves are not conscious until they
don't even realize that what is animating them
is not the spirit of God but the
spirit of Dale and that what they're speaking
is not God's word but the word of
that one who is anti-God and they
don't even know the difference they have not
only lost their own discernment they are the
deceivers of others and are themselves deceived and
it didn't happen overnight it happened over a
process of time together with the nation as
the priests so also the people as the
prophet so also the nation so what is
the message for us who are accused now
of being false but a vigilance I shouldn't
answer my own question how do we safeguard
ourselves from the possibility of becoming false even
if our calling was initially true and I
would say one of the greatest provisions is
Ben Israel slapdash, silly, weak and defective a
collage of souls that the world would not
even look up to take notice if this
is the very salvation of the prophetic man
if indeed it's a community and not a
trailer court if indeed he can hear from
them and they have the heart and the
courage and the love to speak to him
and to say I noticed the last time
a few times now that somehow when you
say this I don't quite get the witness
or you're becoming professional or there's something you've
lost your naturalness your voice is becoming affected
there's something that doesn't sit well really I
haven't been aware thank you, I need to
be aware something is slipping I need to
be conscious and be repentful before the Lord
that I'm slipping from the authentic thing into
some kind of professional thing I once sent
out a letter I don't know if I
can find a copy of it to 50
men who are either who either purport to
be prophets or connected with the prophetic phenomenon
in America and I gave 12 statements of
what would distinguish the true prophets from the
false asking their feedback and one of them
was that the false prophet is never going
to allow himself to be in this kind
of a context in which he can find
correction with brothers Amen but will be a
kind of holiday in phenomenon who has an
establishment or a ministry and surrounded by those
whose salaries are paid by him and will
not bite the hand that feeds them but
will confirm him even in his error he
will not want correction and will see to
it that the conditions of his life do
not permit it that man is on the
way to being false and the one letter
I got back was from one of today's
most prominent prophets indignant at that reference that's
the one thing that that gouged him with
which he took issue but I believe it
profoundly and very little is said about the
Old Testament phenomenon of the school of the
prophets in the time of Elijah and Elisha
there were schools of prophets but the word
school is not school as we presently understand
it wasn't a place of instruction it was
a collegium the word college is another synonym
for community it was a life together of
people who either had that call were sympathetic
to that call were intercessors for that call
or were being groomed in that call who
related to the man who was in that
call and were in that kind of relationship
by which he himself could be a beneficiary
as well as a teacher so God from
the beginning gave prophets a protection to keep
their integrity by being in a kind of
authentic relationship with others who were jealous for
the prophetic integrity and that was the beginning
and that I think will be descriptive of
the end the false prophets will be found
in isolation living in their own petty kingdoms
with their staffs of paid workers who confirm
and applaud them even in their error but
in the end they will be eating wormwood
and drinking poisoned water and serving it and
serving it providing it to others and so
thus says the Lord of hosts do not
listen to the words of the prophets in
verse 16 who prophesy to you they are
deluding you they speak visions of their own
minds not from the mouth of the Lord
and I had to correct a brother, a
Jewish brother in Florida who sent me page
after page of his faxed prophecies and they
were full of good things and true things
and I got no witness and I finally
had to answer back and say dear brother,
for all of your well meaning intention this
is not the word of the Lord and
it was like inflicting a grievous wound he
truly believed that it was because what he
was saying was true but it was clear
it had not that source it came out
of his own spirit his own understanding of
things that need to be expressed but that
does not give us leave to express them
let alone to say, thus saith the Lord
it's already on the road to becoming false
through the misuse of truth wow thank you
Lord that leaped out of my mouth talk
about the anatomy of deception begins with the
misuse of truth and not immediately with error
don't think that because it's true that you
have the right to pronounce it let alone
to append the label thus saith the Lord
wait for God to say it in his
own time, you can offer it as an
opinion and as a statement that needs to
be made but don't address it and give
it the appellation thus saith the Lord if
the Lord has not said it you are
already on the path to deception and to
error through the misuse of truth and this
young brother didn't know better and was doing
it thinking he was doing God's service the
question for him is will he receive my
word of correction or be offended and at
that juncture is the issue of his whole
future well how is it that I have
to from Minnesota send him a word to
Florida wasn't there anybody in his messianic congregation
who had heard his prophecies who did not
witness them as coming from God to tell
him so no not one had ever mentioned
what I'm speaking to him from this great
distance because what they were hearing sounds true
you can find biblical support for it and
the man says thus saith the Lord he
believed he got it from God so let's
not make an issue out of it they
didn't love him enough to critique him and
to correct him and the lack of love
was proportionate to the lack of discernment so
that they themselves are complicit with him in
the deception and will themselves suffer loss because
to receive that as the word of the
Lord when it's not is to yourself become
dulled and less capable the next time of
exercising any kind of right discernment our life
is charged daily and hourly with such issues
that if we miss it we make ourselves
candidates to miss it yet the more for
the dullness that comes into us by allowing
something to get by as being God's word
when it in fact is not because we
have not the courage or the discernment or
the love to speak up in the moment
that we first heard it and say no,
and what's happening in the whole charismatic sleazy
setting where prophecies come forth and tongues and
interpret and thus saith the Lord and no
one, either the minister the pastor or anyone
finds fault or says well maybe I understand
your heart but I don't have a witness
that that was the Lord this is so
critical that in the history of Israel in
2nd Chronicles 20 I think it is when
they were faced with the greatest threat Judah
from the three uncircumcised nations on their borders
a word came to them, the king called
the fast and called the people together and
when they were assembled a word came to
them through the prophet Jehatsiel saying the battle
is mine saith the Lord but not yours
but nevertheless go out against them tomorrow what
a prescription for disaster if that was a
man speaking out of his own soul or
his own flesh and they went out tomorrow
and got demolished but the priest it was
a priest who prophesied and when they heard
that word from the Lord they went down
on their faces they knew it was the
word of God because they knew the man
and the vessel for whom the word came
he had already established credibility, he was a
priest, he walked before them they were in
relationship, they knew his heart, they knew his
spirit, they knew that this is not some
amateur taking a shot at it and wanting
some attention to be dramatic it was a
tested vessel who had an authenticity whose character
and life was tested and known and therefore
they received it as the word of the
Lord and went the next day what would
have been their disaster three armies overwhelmingly against
them that would have done them in they
not only went forth but they went forth
with the sweet singers of Israel in the
forefront of their army and the king, I
forgot which one he was, had to ask
among the people who are the sweet singers
of Israel and the people knew and identified
them and he set them in the advance
of the army and when the enemy heard
their praise they were confounded and slew one
another so that when the army came they
were done in and they were three days
in taking the spoil what a triumph can
you imagine coming back with rejoicing they had
not to lift their arms to win their
victory the praise of God by the sweet
singers of Israel had already won it and
the prophetic word was true when they went
forth the next day, go ye out against
them tomorrow, don't go right now when you're
all fired up and you're gung ho, hey
the Lord has spoken, let's go get them
tiger, tomorrow rest on this, take this into
your spirit, sit on it, put it under
your pillow, sleep it, see how you feel
tomorrow morning in the cold grey dawn where
the excitement and the flush is gone and
the whole issue was was that God's word
or not now you then you go we're
going to face issues as epical as that
in the last days where if it's a
false word out of the flesh or soul
of a man however well intending it will
be disaster rather than victory and a critical
issue is the man himself and our knowledge
of him which we will never obtain as
employees whose salary is paid by him, but
as those who are living with him, not
as a prophet but as a brother and
the prophet has got to be willing for
the humiliation of being only a brother though
he might experience honor elsewhere, he's not going
to find it in his own home, in
his own country there he's just a brother
whose defects and humanity is very evident to
all and yet he's open for their correction
and he's corrected even when they're not correcting
he's corrected just in the matrix of community
itself in the outworking and conversation and things
that take place in the life together is
itself a correction I can't think of a
greater provision from God to keep a prophet
a prophet and keep him from being forced
in this if he's willing for the humiliation
of it so I knew 25 years ago
when the Lord called us to this property
this was not going to be a picnic
I knew it was going to be an
exercise in humiliation and I knew that what
I could have safely kept privately away from
the attention of men would necessarily become public
very quickly the condition of my marriage the
condition of my children my own condition and
however much anger has bucked against the same
community she herself has been the beneficiary whatever
our condition that she's alive and that we're
still together is the honor due to the
reality to which God had brought us and
that is not finished yet so talk about
celebration of community and it may well be
if we knew the situation here that these
prophets have become a clique and a professional
guild apart from the people and honoring one
another, celebrating yes brother you're the word of
the Lord, oh boy I really witnessed that
and they believe that, they confirm each other
and deepen themselves in their own error and
their own deception would you say this is
where the community is where you take out
the precious from the vile yep, it's a
continual process so they speak visions of their
own minds and not from the mouth of
the Lord and don't even know the difference
do you know the difference?
could you know when the Lord is saying
something or you're saying it?
do you know the origin of something that
comes up in your own spirit?
that's a sensitive thing, especially if what comes
up is true, they keep saying to those
who despise the word of the Lord isn't
that interesting?
their audience and the condition of Israel and
Jerusalem is of a people who have come
to such a place that they despise the
word of the Lord because look at their
reaction against Jeremiah, they're ready to kill him
it shall be well with you and to
all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts,
they say no calamity shall come upon you
so the distinguishing feature of false prophets is
false security, false comfort false assurance exactly the
antithesis of what the true prophet is saying,
whose words are full of warning of the
devastating calamity to come, his words are not
assuring, his words are threatening people want to
be assured they want to be comforted particularly
in an hour of insecurity the prospect of
a Y2K crisis or a crashing economy or
shootings in high schools, or bombings in Jewish
community centers people want assurance, they want to
hear something positive, they want to be comforted
they want to believe that this is passing
away and this is only a trivial phenomenon
that need not alarm them this is characteristic
of the hour, but our kids will grow
up they're not going to become monsters and
heartless and without natural affection though the word
of God says so in the last days
perilous times shall come, and men shall become
lovers of pleasure and lovers of self more
than lovers of God, without pity without natural
affection, without regard for father and mother that's
what the word says, but what are the
false prophets saying, oh it's a passing phenomenon
they're kids, they're growing up, this is only
adolescence are you guys marking your bibles?
are you putting in parentheses or in brackets
it shall be well with you and to
all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts
they say, no calamity shall come upon you
the false prophets speak the pleasing thing the
thing that condones evil, error the thing that
placates flesh, and gratifies men it has more
the fear of man than the fear of
God it's calculated to serve men rather than
God and that's where men are, men need
that acknowledgement they want to be respected honored,
but to speak the word of God that
is disagreeable to the flesh is to lose
the prospect of acceptance of honoring, of a
slap on the back of people celebrating you
so the true prophet has got to be
dead to anything in himself that demands or
requires acknowledgement, confirmation celebration or honoring from men
he's alive to one thing only well done,
good and faithful servant, and he's not necessarily
even going to hear that in the moment
of his obedience he's more likely to hear
silence from God and maybe in the day
of his reward he'll hear well done, as
in the day in which they receive their
judgment, he will receive his honoring, but until
then, he has to serve in the tension
of God's silence believing that he's speaking the
true thing even though every voice is raised
against him from men who prefer what is
false so where do you get the real
word?
the next verse, the next stanza tells us
for who has stood in the council of
the Lord, so as to see and hear
his word who has given he to his
word, so as to proclaim it if you
don't put that in brackets you're fired Mark
your Bible you ready?
that should go on like a neon sign
this is the heart of the matter what
is the nexus the anatomy the origin of
that word which is God's word and the
answer is, in the council of God, wherever
that is this young man from a missionary
fellowship in Florida not only had never stood
in the council of God, he didn't know
that there was such a place and just
assumed that what rose up in his own
mind was the word, because their goal is
true and needs to be expressed so, we
shouldn't go any further today, let's end with
this and burrow into this what does this
mean?
to stand in the council of God for
if that is the only place where God's
word is to be obtained, we had best
have some understanding of what that place is
and how to enter it and to find
the word of the Lord in it or
we ourselves will be added to the false
what is it?
how do you understand that?
there's no explanation wouldn't it be wonderful if
there were an asterisk and there's a footnote
at the bottom of the page that tells
you what the council of God is as
a matter of fact, there is from the
commentators that I'll share with you but what
do you think it is before you look
at anybody else's explanation?
not c-o-u-n s-e-l
c-o-u-n c-i-l the
s-e-l is the council of God,
like the advice of God, the kind of
counsel that we can receive from one another
advice, instruction but this is another word entirely
don't miss it, c-i-l a council
the King James says s-e-l the
King James says s-e-l the American
says c-i-l the American c-i
-l and Amplified says c-i-l too
c-i-l you know what I suspect?
that the King James written in the Elizabethan
times that at that time in the state
of the English language, there was probably one
spelling for both words it was the original
spelling for the word that has since become
distinguished from counsel, s-e-l by the
spelling c-i-l but the fact of
the matter is that God's c-i-l
is God's s-e-l but you're not
going to get the s-e-l, except
you get it in the c-i-l
who has?
the fact that God has to cry out
this is now God speaking, not Jeremiah who
has?
implies that there are not many very few
in all of the multitude of prophets there
were 400 for Baal and one for God
in Elijah and probably that ratio is the
same in all generations, it was the same
in Jeremiah's time, the plentitude of the prophets
were false but there was one Elijah one
Jeremiah who stood in the council of the
Lord who?
when God says who?
it's always implying there are not many very
few well, why shouldn't there be more?
why wasn't that council c-i-l as
available to the false prophets as it was
to Jeremiah?
couldn't they find it?
if he was flesh and blood like as
they, did he have any special prerogative or
privilege that was not available to them as
prophets of God and Israel?
how come they didn't find it?
because they did not want it they didn't
want it I was going to say they
did not seek it why wouldn't men, if
they know that they could get the real
thing from God why wouldn't they want it?
why wouldn't they seek it?
it's not convenient it may actually contradict what
they think to be the mind of the
Lord or the word of God and are
we willing to bear that contradiction, especially if
what we believe about God is to us
precious or important and has to do not
only with our security but our identity our
self-image are we willing for all these
things to be threatened?
when the real word would come?
what I'm saying is a true prophet has
got to be without any vested interest in
himself he's got to have nothing to preserve
nothing to continue nothing to be honored nothing
to be celebrated he's got to be devoid
of anything that he would clutch in such
a way as would prevent him from seeking
and receiving the word of God and whatever
the consequence of that word is because God's
word, if it's God's word will always require
and will require radically, or it is not
God's word the word of the false prophet
requires nothing false Christianity requires nothing, your body
at the service in whatever condition, you've stayed
up late Saturday night, watching all kinds of
filth, and come in on a Sunday and
plop your body down and put a buck
in a clay plate and say amen, it
requires nothing, the true faith is always radically
requiring, even unto death and so also the
word of God is requiring, so the false
prophet is not willing for the inconvenience or
the threat to his own established vested interests,
even his identity as a prophet he's not
willing to open himself to a word that
will come that will in any way threaten
what is presently precious to him, so what
then would a church be that has come
to prophetic stature an entire church corporately in
the stature of true propheticness that has no
vested interest in itself or for itself, will
seek and find and communicate the word of
God, let without hindrance whatever way the chips
fall courageously, even if it means their end
what a church, what a presence the world
will be transformed by the presence of such
a church just by its presence, let alone
its activity, when it will come to that
prophetic stature so what is the council of
God where is it ok we're talking now,
this is where the rubber hits the road,
this is the make it or break it,
either we understand this and there is an
actuality a place where we can come into
war, we can hear God discussing with angelic
beings who are called to governance the things
of his mind and will for the church
and for the earth, and hear that word
and then be commissioned to speak it, or
we're candidates ourselves for becoming false isn't it
remarkable, as significant as this is, how little
reference, just a passing comment, you would think
that God would give us chapters of laying
it out and telling us how to find
it just a hint, a clue a sparse
thing this is where we need to draw
something out from God's heart this is where
we need each other here is the collective
and corporate activity of the church right here
around these tables, to find our way into
a realm of truth that has been lost
virtually almost since the time of Jeremiah, and
needs now again to be restored, because the
false prophets who neither seek nor find that,
are having a field day today in vast
popularity and acceptance and their blab and their
bladder is going out everywhere as being the
word of God confusing the church and disfiguring
it, and keeping it from the very maturity
that we're speaking so it's time again to
understand this is this actual, or is this
a poetic figure of speech is there actually
a place where we can hear and enter
and receive the counsel c-o-u-n
-s-e-l and bear it before men
as God's own word would that be, I'm
just attempting to, would that be behind the
veil?
could be whatever that means that is to
say, what God is calling us to, is
not a once and for all spectacular entry
into the heavenly realm he may give that
as an experience as he gave Paul, but
it was too holy even to talk about,
that makes you wonder how that another man
in our own generation has already written two
books and threatens us even with a third
to come of what he is relating to
having a comparable experience but no, that's not
that's, I'm more disposed to say, within the
veil, that there's a place that God has
established through the blood of Jesus, which is
a new and living way, that gives us
priestly entree into the secret place of God's
own presence and he even tells us in
Exodus 25, when he gave Moses the pattern
on the mount of the tabernacle of God,
that the holiest place of all build a
mercy seat and cherubim whose wings touch and
there I will meet with you, above the
mercy seat and between the cherubim and there
I will speak to you in instruction and
commandment for the sons of Israel I'm getting
a Holy Ghost chill, so it must be
God don't come now it is when I
get a Holy Ghost chill I would safely
say, we're touching something now, it's not some
publicly available thing that's cheap this is the
things that are withheld and kept by God
it's not for the one who gazes cheaply
or for the religionist who wants to employ
it for the promotion of himself it's held
for those who will come before him in
a right disposition and spirit not because of
any qualification they have in themselves but because
of the blood of Jesus that's the new
and living way but how many of us
in this room now have ever been there
or think and have the faith to believe
that this is more than a poetic figure
but that this is actually almost the heart
of the matter and that there is an
actual place of which the earthly tabernacle was
only a shadow pointing to the greater reality
which is in heaven that there is a
holiest place of all that was closed to
all except the high priest of ancestral derivation
from the Levitical tribe but now is available
to any believer by the blood of Jesus
to come into the holiest place of all
and to bow and to wait and to
be before the Shekinah presence of God who
hovers still above the mercy seated between the
wings of the cherubim and he says there
I will commune with you and there I
will give unto you instruction for the sons
of Israel so I just want to say
I believe in my naive faith there is
such a place and it waits on a
faith to believe for it to have entry
into it and to believe in the efficacy
of the blood not only for the forgiveness
of sins but for the entry into the
holiest place of all for we dare not
come in our own naked humanity and innate
unrighteousness whose transgressions and iniquity is ever before
us how dare we come into the presence
of the Most High in that condition but
by the blood of Jesus and in the
Son and in His priesthood we can come
and it's not a once and for all
but as often as we will so can
you believe on the last night of the
meeting at Nuremberg Germany the city so celebrated
by Hitler for his pagan Nazi rallies of
what to speak that will conclude your final
statement for those days without any assurance that
they'll ever be returned to Germany or any
other place and that there's a statement that
God would bring that if you sought Him
in prayer in Nuremberg and in the home
where you're staying and in the attic where
you're placed that you can have access in
that place on the cold drafty floor at
5am into the secret councils of God in
heaven and receive their inspiration disposition and encouragement
for the word to be spoken later that
night many hours after your early morning prayer
time where though you were quickened and excited
by the flush of a consciousness that came
to you that by the time the speaking
comes so many hours later at night and
looking out onto the congregation if it feels
like a figment of your imagination it's dissipating
away it has lost its credibility and you
wonder if that indeed was the word of
the Lord because now it seems so inappropriate
but at 5am it seemed like wow will
you then speak it will you go out
against them tomorrow on the basis of what
you have seen and received in the early
morning hours the just shall live by their
faith and if the prophet is not a
man of faith to believe which means to
act on the basis of what he believes
we're finished so this is nothing less than
a dying that the hour has come you're
being introduced and you're called up to the
platform and you look out on the sea
of charismatic faces that would be much happier
with a false word that would confirm them
to where they presently are as against the
word that you believe God had quickened in
the early morning hours out of his secret
place and you have a choice to make
in your freedom of which of the two
things you will speak and address it's mortifying
and fraught with fear and the prospect of
rejection and failure every time but obedience unto
death and the gratifying thing was at least
on that occasion where the word had such
a cogency such a power as I told
you before the wife of the pastor who
never liked me because she leads to worship
there was always an unspoken kind of tension
between us there was not all that gung
ho for all that whipped up stuff she
said from the mouth the moment your mouth
opened your word was like a sword you
can hear the tape and see if I'm
exaggerating well that the inspiration came I believe
from the holy place and from the secret
place but you've got to believe that you're
there in the realm of spirit while your
knees are on the floor in an attic
upstairs in Nuremberg there's such a disjuncture between
what you believe by the spirit and what
you're experiencing physically there's a cold draft on
the floor you're conscious of your discomfort it's
a ridiculously early hour you're tired you're out
of it your mind is dull can you
believe in that physical condition and setting that
we in fact are actually more significantly than
Nuremberg and that the issue of your believing
will determine what people will receive that night
not only as the congregation but as the
key for a word coming through that congregation
into the entire nation of Germany itself that
word was of that kind that my interpreter
Klaus who I've known for 25 to 30
years been with me through every circumstance even
fishing here in Steamboat Lake where he turned
over the boat when he pulled the hook
too vigorously out of the mouth of a
fish we both ended up that that man
who has heard me time and time again
and translated everything broke down three times I
had to wait for him to recover to
go on that's how much it was the
word of the Lord so everything that I'm
saying believe me is not in any way
to draw attention to myself but the purpose
of this school is that I have an
experience and a history over a course of
time in radical life and death situations where
a nation is concerned because Germany is not
just Germany, Germany is God's ultimate key to
Israel's last day's redemption because didn't God say
in Flushing, Queens, New York in the late
1960s when I was a missionary to the
Jews and praying with a German brother in
a moment of time that the nation which
has cast my people into the fires of
physical destruction is the nation that will keep
them from the fire of my eternal judgment
didn't God say that?
Doesn't Germany have a significant destiny with regard
to Israel because God spoke that all those
years before and is this not an occasion
now where something can be transacted that will
affect that fulfillment in a word I'm saying
the stakes are enormous and there you are
in your BVDs 5 o'clock in the
morning on the attic floor in a picture
of complete foolishness and frailty and complete consciousness
of your terrible humanity and yet you're going
to bear that word before men that will
affect a nation that will affect Israel and
the establishment of the kingdom of God through
their restoration and the Lord's own coming it
could not be more loaded, the weight could
not have been greater and the whole thing
comes to pass in the word that will
issue out of your mouth if the word
says let not many be teachers what shall
we say about let not many be prophets
where every temptation is to be false because
this is not only inconvenience this is death
and what if instead of the people at
the end pouring out of their seats and
stretching out like dead people and groaning before
God under conviction, what if they had continued
to sit like this and had been visibly
unaffected and your word was without effect and
you had believed it to be the word
of God can you go on or will
you leap out of a window or call
it quits because there's no assurance of anything
visible to confirm that it's God's word or
that you have been faithful and obedient you
might actually right to the last moment have
cause to think that you have missed it
there's no guarantee and the prophetic man has
to live with either possibility it's only the
grace of God that I have the joy
of seeing the visible effect of that word
but I have had many more occasions under
auspices of exactly the same kind where the
issues were as great and where I had
believed that I had sought the God sought
the Lord in the holy place through the
rent veil equally where there was no visible
response but hard looks or disappointed faces and
you have to be able to bear the
one with the other if your obedience to
God is predicated on the gratification that comes
from seeing the visible effect of your word
you will be disqualified and made a candidate
for what is false for the false thing
will always guarantee a pleasant response from them
the issue of the prophet is the issue
of the cross so I think we need
to end on that note for now and
let this word shall not go forth void
and shall not return to the Lord void
more is being transacted right now over this
table over what the Lord has been building
this morning and through these days than we
can even begin to perceive who knows who
these men are and what their destinies and
callings are what about the tapes that are
going forth what about the transcriptions that might
come from this that will be translated into
Chinese and other languages and touch men in
distant nations and raise up in those nations
authentic prophetic men for this final hour because
of what we are discussing now and that
word will not return to him void so
Lord show me a bored Christian and I'll
show you a man out of the faith
so Lord we're so what shall we say
that you've used this school and this these
men and women you've gathered up to be
a matrix a womb for the bringing forth
of statements of a kind that I have
never heard in a depth and acuteness beyond
anything that I've shared before being brought into
a new dimension my God of severity and
sharpness because the hour is much later now
than it was before and the stakes are
yet greater and so we ask you to
watch over your word that you will perform
it let there be a birthing of authentic
prophetic men and women because of the word
that was just stated that has gone forth
over these tables today in distant lands as
well as our own even to the Indian
nations that will affect things my God to
touch both time and eternity seal it perform
it let it not return to you void
according to your own word bless these children
here Lord as that word moves through their
whole being and is brought to their consciousness
and they weigh up and consider the implications
of it and faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God then I
ask for a concomitant faith to the word
that has gone forth that if the word
was about the veil and the holy place
and the veil that's rent and the access
by the blood of Jesus let there be
now a faith born by that word to
obtain that entry and to avail themselves of
that access that they might receive the counsel
of the Lord in the counsel of God
in the holy place and that the earth
might again as well as your people here
a true word from God where there was
everywhere else a famine thank you Lord oh
seal this my God as a piece of
divine history beyond class that you have chosen
in the poverty of this place and its
nothingness to be the the auspices of something
birthed in point of time full of ramifications
till the day of your appearing and beyond
we bless you thank you Lord seal it
teach us how to walk the rest of
the day out the fast day that you've
chosen to bring this undistractedly and in quiet
free from chores and labors and other things
of pots and pans and just to let
your word filter into our souls into our
spirit into our thought into our consciousness and
change us for your word when it is
your word is beyond instruction beyond inspiration it
is necessarily an event and we want that
event and we're desperately in need of the
event of God's word and we receive it
as event and we thank you and give
you the praise in Jesus name