Biblical Audio Commentary – The Prophet’s Call

Biblical Audio Commentary – The Prophet’s Call

Transcript:

The Bible clearly shows us how a true prophet of God is called.  More than that, it states how God declares when a prophet is His versus one that isn’t of Him.  For a number of years in our current day we’ve had many among us who have declared they are prophets and apostles of God.  Whether they acknowledge that they are part of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) or not is immaterial – they are.  If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, the odds are that it’s actually a duck, despite saying it’s an eagle.  One such individual is the now very much disgraced Mike Bickle, founder of the International House of Prayer – Kansas City, a.k.a. IHOPKC.

What does the Bible describe when a true prophet of God is called?  What does God say is the standard for His prophets?  Isaiah and Jeremiah are two stellar examples of how God determines who is His own.  Consider what we see in Isaiah 6:1-9:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

 “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

God brings Isaiah into His presence, into His very throne room.  He then cleanses Isaiah and sends him out to do His bidding.

Look at Jeremiah 1:4-10:

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the Lord said to me,

 “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”

 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,

 “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

We learn that God actually called Jeremiah before he was born.  He brought Jeremiah in His presence and cleansed him.  Then God sent out the prophet.

This is important.  In both these cases we see that God sent out these prophets to warn the people of their sin.  Warning is key.  We simply don’t see in the Bible where God commissions prophets to tell His people and the world that everything is going to be fine – at least until the very end when the Lord returns.  As a holy God, He dispatches His holy prophets to warn of transgression and to inform that without turning back to Him, He will rain down His wrath.

There are several characteristics of a true prophet of God, but the key is Deuteronomy 18:21-22:

And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Here is a confirmation of that from Jeremiah 28:9:

“As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

In other words, God’s prophet speaks a Word that comes to pass.  This is always possible because God is omniscient; He knows the end from the beginning.

On the other hand, any one of these signifies and is the mark of a false prophet:

1. Through signs and wonders they lead astray after false gods ( 13:1-4);
2. Their prophecies don’t come to pass ( 18:20-22);
3. They contradict God’s Word ( 8:20);
4. They bear bad fruit ( 7:18-20);
5. All men speak well of them ( 6:26);
6. They deny that Jesus, the one and only Christ, has come once and for all in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:3).

The bottom line is that we know a true or false prophet by his fruit.  He is either faithful to God in Word and deed or he is not.  Ultimately there are three possibilities for someone said to be a prophet:

1. He is because God truly called him
2. He’s making it up in his own mind and is not one
3. He’s been designated by Satan to deceive and is false

That brings us to Mike Bickle.  Please refer to the linked article titled The Implosion of IHOPKC: Eight Overlooked Lessons by Holly Pivec and Doug Geivett.

Bickle is well-known for IHOPKC which initiated the 24/7 prayer room.  Since its inception, IHOPKC has kept prayer going continually.  On the surface this looks like it’s a good thing – right?  Well, we learn that many of the prayers the people engaged in with this operation are declaratory prayers.  These are instrumental in NAR because they are supposed to somehow release God’s power to change circumstances.  The problem, of course, is that rather than telling God what He should do, our position should be as petitioners to the throne.  That’s not to say we cannot remind Him of His promises, but we can’t declare so as to create something that God never intended, which is often the purpose in these kinds of prayers.

There is much more in this regard, but I want to comment on Bickle as a supposed prophet.  He claims that God called him to this position by bringing him to heaven and ordering him to climb into one of 35 golden chariots reserved for end-times prophets.  That’s pretty impressive, particularly for young, impressionable minds.

What the story does for me is bring to mind what the false prophet Muhammad claimed.  The Hadiths say Muhammad traveled to Jerusalem where he was taken at night into heaven by the angel Gabriel on a winged horse.  Just as good is the description of how Muhammad received the Qur’an.  All alone with no witnesses, he claims that the angel Gabriel met with him in a cave, and through (occult) automatic writing delivered this holy book.  To his wife Khadija, he described that Gabriel almost squeezed him to death in this process.  As such, he was somewhat hesitant to believe this angel was really from God.  However, his wife convinced him that the angel was a holy one and the rest is history.

In both of these miraculous stories we have men who – as it turns out – have very problematic lives.  In fact, what they say and how they live contradicts God’s Word as to true prophets.  It has come out fully that Mike Bickle was engaged in predatory sexual practices for many years.  Some of his teachings were legitimate from Scripture, but there is much that is contrary to what the Bible says.  I discussed this at some length in a prior Prophecy Update titled NAR Post-Trib End-Times Beliefs.

Of course, Muhammad is Allah’s prophet for Islam.  He was a sexual predator; in fact, he was a pedophile, marrying one of his wives, Aisha, when she was six years old.  But, hey, he waited until she was thirteen to consummate the marriage.  What a stand-up guy.

So it seems that there is possibly a pattern among false prophets.  They either make things up or have direction from Satan as an angel of light, and since they aren’t following God, they descend into sexual immorality.  Is that true of all NAR prophets and apostles?  That I couldn’t say – I hope not; but whenever God’s Word is distorted or ignored, just as Paul states in Romans 1, there is a clear progression toward ever more sin and depravity, much of it sexual in nature.

Because of the revelations against Mike Bickle have come out as proven, the IHOPKC church has closed, having just held its last service without him in attendance.

Sadly, it appears as if the NAR deception continues.  Some of Bickle’s staunchest defenders have publicly stated their regret for continuing to uphold him as a righteous man – others have not.  One of the major problems NAR prophets and apostles have is their lack of discernment – which is rather ironic, if you think about it.  There have been others in their midst like Todd Bentley, who was cheating on his wife while at the same time being feted as a wonderful, Godly man.  None of the other prophets or apostles – big names among them – sensed any problems with his life.

The other issue I’ve seen repeatedly is that these NAR luminaries can declare a “Word from God” that never materializes.  This is the #1 red flag.  Yet, they have a very lax approach to this.  They misheard God and made a mistake, but that’s okay.

In the realm of Bible prophecy, a lot of these NAR folks have a skewed end-times understanding.  I don’t know what Bible they read from – maybe it’s The Passion Translation – but none seem to acknowledge what the book of Revelation states as to how the end comes.  In their eschatology and theology, instead of major calamity through God’s wrath upon the world, the Christian church, led by these righteous apostles and prophets, is going to reclaim the earth so as to prepare it for the return of Jesus.  I keep looking for those Scriptures, but apparently miss from reading between the lines like they do.

If this powerful organization of NAR had actually heeded God’s true Word and worked in Spirit and truth to bring it to the world, how much better would things be?  I’ll bet that the Tribulation would have been pushed out many years if only the true Gospel was propagated and the church stood up against the depravations of the world.  But, that’s obviously not what has happened.  It’s the reason there is such rampant apostasy, and I dare say that NAR has been an instrumental part of it.

God wants us to know His glory and to speak His truth – not to spread a false message of hope.  The warning is that very soon God’s hammer will descend upon this unbelieving world.  Those of us who love and serve God will have a wonderful deliverance.

I’m weary and ready for a marvelous move of God.  I’m ready for Him to snatch me out of here in the pre-Tribulation Rapture that He has promised.

Let it be, Lord, let it be.