An Echo or a Voice?
An Echo or a Voice?
Today is January 8, 2021.
The election is over.
The prophets were wrong.
Who do we listen to now?
There is a problem in the church. Is it with the prophets? Why yes it is, however it is with all of us. We are ALL supposed to hear the Holy Spirit. We are ALL supposed to be a voice. We are all able to hear Him firsthand. And when we do that makes us a voice. A voice for the Holy Spirit. He speaks to people and they in turn speak out what He is saying. We are supposed to recognize His voice whether from Him directly or from His people.
ALL the prophets missed the Covid-19 virus and ALL the prophets missed the election chaos. ALL the prophets missed 2020! It looks like God does do things without revealing it to His servants the prophets after all1. Who do we listen to now? The One we should have been listening to all along: The Holy Spirit.
It is time to go back into your closet and return to the Lord. We have been distracted with life. We have let weeds and thorns grow up and choke us. Everything it seems matters—but some things matter most. What will He say to you on that day? That day you stand before Him Face to face? On that day I don’t want to be talking to a Stranger, do you?
John the Baptist was a voice. He recognized God. He recognized the Holy Spirit descending upon Him. Think about all the other voices that John must have been hearing—from the religious leaders to the people. And think about the OT Scriptures John must have been perusing over. Yet he was able to hear and see God. Why? First of all John lived differently. He lived in the wilderness away from the people. Does that mean we leave the city to live in Wyoming? Of course not. But we must not be of the world nor love the world. We are citizens of a different world—people of His Kingdom.
Secondly, John ate differently. He ate locust (yuck) and wild honey (not so bad). We too, if we want to be spiritually alert and sharp, we too must eat differently than the world. Jesus said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34) Jesus also said that He is the bread of life. What we eat determines to a large degree our fitness. It’s time to choose locust and wild honey. It’s time to be a voice of one crying in the wilderness, because we recognize Him.
1 His servants the prophets: Many believe this scripture in Amos 3:7 is still for today: Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets. But let’s shine a light on it in its context. This scripture is embedded in a direct word to Israel saying: “… O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying: 2 you only have I known of all the families of the earth…” If we are going to isolate verse 7 declaring that God only does things when He reveals it to His servant the prophets, then we too must believe that Israel alone are His people. See how that works? Yeah, me either.
What is the truth then? In John 16 Jesus states that all His people can and should hear the Holy Spirit:
“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”
We don’t need to wait for the prophet as they did in the OT. NT prophets have their place, but they not take the place of each of us hearing the Holy Spirit for ourselves.
