blessing_onioye

Someone tells you what will happen tomorrow, and immediately you call him a prophet. But have you ever stopped to ask what makes a person a prophet? Is it simply the ability to see?
We must understand that prophets speak; seers see. What comes to my mind first is Saul first encounter with Samuel; he was looking for a seer 1Samuel 9.

 Understanding their assignments helps us recognise what God has committed to each and what we should receive through their ministries.

A seer receives sight through dreams and visions. God can show such a person things concerning people, circumstances, and events ahead. This ability is not evil. God gives seers, and their operations have a place. However, seeing what will happen tomorrow does not, by itself, define a prophet's assignment.

Isaiah 30:10 says, “Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things.”

Notice the distinction: seers are addressed concerning their seeing, while prophets are addressed concerning their speaking.

A prophet brings the mind, counsel, and commandment of God concerning God and humanity. His assignment centres on revealing God’s eternal purpose: that God will dwell among men, and that men will be conformed to the image of His Son.

A prophet is a preacher who brings the revelation of God’s mysteries. His speaking gives direction into God’s intention. He communicates what is in God’s heart so that people can believe, respond, and journey towards its fulfilment.

This is why Revelation 19:10 declares, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

The spirit of prophecy testifies of Jesus Christ: God manifest in the flesh. Its concern is God’s habitation among men and the fulfilment of His purpose in humanity. We must understand prophecy from this centre if we are to understand the ministry of a prophet.

Prophets speak God’s thoughts ahead of their fulfilment. They keep speaking because faith comes by hearing. Through their speaking, the spirit of prophecy is released to accomplish God’s intention. What they proclaim may extend beyond their own lifetime, yet God continues working towards its fulfilment. You remember Prophet Isaiah talking about a virgin conceiving, and it never happened in his days or even in the next generation; the prophecy was fulfilled 600 to 700 years after ( between 739 BC and 681 BC).

Therefore, prophetic ministry cannot be measured by dramatic expressions, clothing, or the repeated declaration, “Thus saith the Lord.” Neither should we assume that someone knows God’s purpose simply because he can disclose hidden information.

The question we must ask is: What is this ministry revealing about God and His Son? Is it showing us God’s vision and how humanity connects to it? Is it preparing our hearts to become His habitation?

A person may be both a seer and a prophet; note that in the life of Balaam. Nevertheless, the assignments must be understood.

Today’s prophets must expound what God has already committed to His prophets and apostles. Their ministry should reveal the Son and serve the fulfilment of God’s vision.

We must therefore pay attention to what our hearing is producing. Are our hearts receiving God’s impressions? Are our lives being raised? Are we learning God and becoming responsive to His eternal purpose?

An idol is a doll of the eyes.
 It sits where the light should be,
 a small thing you dress in a large thing,
 until you cannot see.

It does not shout. It does not force.
 It only asks you look,
 and looking long, the eye grows dull,
 and dull is how you're took.

"They have eyes, but they see not,"
 the Psalmist sang of stone,
 "they that make them are like unto them."
 We become what we enthrone.

Now hear me. I am not against the world.
 I build in it. I trade.
 I code, I earn, I pay my bills,
 I use what God has made.

Paul said to use this world
 "as not abusing it."
 The trouble was never the thing in the hand.
 The trouble is where it sits.

A thing in the hand is a tool.
 A thing in the eye is a god.
 And the difference between the two
 is never found in the thing, but the nod.

The nod of the head that bows.
 The nod of the heart that says
 "without you I am nothing,"
 to something that will not stay.

Money is a servant with a good resume
 and a terrible appetite.
 Give it a desk and it works.
 Give it your eyes and it blinds your sight.

So how do you use and not worship?
 How do you hold and not kneel?
 The answer is older than every market
 and quieter than any deal.

Build your house with high doors
 and meekness cannot come in.
 Pride needs the ceiling raised.
 Glory needs room to begin.

But the new and living way
 was never through a high door.
 It was through a torn veil,
 and the only way through is low.

Low is where the water runs.
 Low is where the seed is sown.
 Low is where the Master knelt
 to wash the feet of His own.

The eye that is dull from gazing
 must be anointed to see,
 and He still sells eyesalve to the poor
 who have nothing but need.

So I keep my purple in my hands,
 never in my eyes.
 I let the earth serve the heaven,
 not heaven serve the lies.

The idol asks: look at me.
 The Lord says: look through.
 One makes the eye a doll's eye.
 The other makes it new.

Hold what you hold loosely.
 Stand where you stand low.
 The high door keeps out meekness.
 The low line lets glory through.

#Faith #Poetry #Idolatry #Kingdom