The Spirit of Prophecy

The Spirit of Prophecy: Preface

By Art Katz

The Spirit of Prophecy: An Examination of the Prophetic Call

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10b).

There is a powerful and irrevocable identification between the Lord Jesus, His own distinctive Person, and the spirit or essence of that which is prophetic. The bond between the two is inextricable and intimate. To miss the meaning of the prophetic is to miss the Lord. To reject the prophetic is to reject Him. Jesus Himself functioned as a prophet, and what He is in Himself is what the prophetic thing is in itself. It is that intricate and that joined.




Classically, a prophet communicates the sense of God as He in fact is. This is the foundation upon which the church is built ("...built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone (Eph. 2:20)"). It is not the teaching or the ministry alone that apostles and prophets bring, but equally the sense of God as He in fact is in Himself. It is Christ Jesus Himself. In the bringing of the word, the prophet communicates something formed in his own person of that sense. This very thing is foundational to the church, or the church would inevitably be given over to a view of God that is shallow and that is likely not God at all. Prophets, therefore, among their other functions, correct the church from a faulty or inadequate perception of God.

It may well be that the greatest enmity of the world against God is visited on prophets for exactly this reason, namely, that to 'assault' a prophet is to assault God. The world is at enmity with God, but the prophet is the visible, corporeal manifestation of elements central to God's own being, and therefore the world has the opportunity both to identify, to hate, and to despise that which stands for God. The testimony of the prophet is the statement of God, not only when he is speaking, but often when he is silent. His very presence is an abomination and an offense to a world that despises God. We need to watch with a jealous urgency anything that purports to be prophetic and is not, because it subverts the validity of that calling for the church in putting before it a false model of God.

There is a great accountability for that gift of God to men, and if it is mistreated, ignored or rejected, then the end result will inevitably be judgment. We pay a great price when we lightly regard or disregard, let alone violently reject him whom God sends in that prophetic mantle, because it is so much the essence of God Himself in His own being. Israel repeatedly stoned the prophets that were sent to her, and in so doing, invited and made necessary the devastating judgments that followed. In fact, the coming of the prophet is the 'day of decision.' The receiving or the rejecting of the prophet is the making of a final statement to God. It is a fateful decision, one way or another, that can determine the future of that individual, that church or that fellowship.

May this modest attempt at identifying the essential characteristics of the prophetic leave the reader with a greater regard and understanding of the Lord Himself.



The Spirit of Prophecy: Introduction

By Art Katz

There are two great words that the church needs to guard with a fierce jealousy, namely, prophetic and apostolic. If those two words are cheapened or made to stand for something that God did not intend, then we have lost our foundation. If our apostles and prophets are dubious, what then will the superstructure be if it is based on that foundation? The superstructure cannot exceed the foundation, and therefore the foundation deserves the most exceeding attention. This has been our long-standing passion and jealousy, and we have been watchful over the use of these words lest they should be used indiscriminately or lightly, which is unfortunately what is happening today.

There is a present phenomenon taking place worldwide of a sudden interest in the prophetic calling. One of the interesting things to note is the popularity now of that calling, with people gleefully tripping off to conferences in order to hear men who are being called 'prophets' and 'oracles.' We are told that in the Last Days there will be false prophets, false apostles and false anointings. In the book of Revelation, the church in Ephesus is congratulated by the Lord for discerning the false apostles, "those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false (Rev 2:2b)." We need, therefore, to have some framework of understanding or at least be able to intuit what the apostolic and prophetic functions represent and the importance of what they represent.

There is certainly a naivete and ignorance about the prophetic among God's people. There are untold numbers of ministers taking for themselves these titles, or allowing themselves to be so described, who are not in fact in these offices or are false expressions of it. It has become so that many cannot even distinguish between the gift of prophecy and the office of prophet. We cannot think of a more fundamental confusion that would destroy the foundation of the church than this one thing alone. The office of prophet is so holy. They are as the "holy prophets of old." The gift of prophecy is something else and can be exercised through any believer as the Spirit wills. That, however, does not make them a prophet and that distinction needs urgently to be made.

The most formidable nature of deception in the Last Days is not going to be something so bizarre that it can be instantly identified as being out of the bowels of hell; rather it is going to be couched in the most conventional, orthodox and biblical language. It will, for that reason, be more difficult to discern the good than it will be the evil. Evil is apparent, but good is subtle. Good has much going for it and much to commend it, but if the good is not from God and just emanates from a kind of altruistic, humanistic personality, then good will be just as destructive to the interests of God as evil. That which appears as good will keep us from the particular and perfect will of God, and it is, therefore, more deadly than blatant evil since it is not recognized as evil.

How, therefore, will we discern? We have got to hate that which is good, the false good; that which purports to be good; that which appears to be good; that which will appeal to us as being nice, pleasant or right. We need to hate good in that sense, to hate sentimentality and to hate that which gives a nice feeling. The false prophet is the one who says, "Peace, peace, where there is no peace." He 'makes nice,' and which of us does not like to be made nice? There is something that yearns for it, and therefore the false prophets have a ready market, large audiences, great responses and mass mailing lists, because what is wanted is that which is nice, good and pleasant to the ear.

The false prophets of Baal with whom Elijah was in conflict actually thought there would be a god to answer. They believed wholeheartedly that there was going to be for them a fire from heaven. They were not cynical men religiously posturing. They were deluded and deceived themselves. The false prophets of the Last Days may be well-meaning men with sincere intentions, fully persuaded that they are right and that the other man is the person who is in error. What distinguishes, therefore, the one from the other? We can hardly think of a more valid question for the church at this time.

And so there are two parallel tracks, the fictitious, assumed and presumptuous nonsense of men as opposed to the authentic thing, now in process of restoration from God. One will flatter you with entreaties to your flesh and the other will inevitably call you to the Cross, and by that you can know who are the true prophets and the false. This issue of true or false is a critical issue, and it is the issue of the Cross in an authentic appropriation, not just in credal acknowledgment! Merely to be satisfied with credally acknowledging something as being true is itself the heart of deception and apostasy. To passively acknowledge something as being doctrinally true is not the statement of its 'truth.' It falls short of the existential reality that God is after. If we have not pressed in and wrestled to obtain the actual reality of truth, then we will not be able to communicate it to anyone. What we are seeing in the new crop of 'prophets' is a testimony of a dubious Christianity that has not pressed in and wrestled, but has been satisfied with glib credal affirmation and a craving for confirming experiences. It has been sufficient for us to 'get by,' but insufficient for God's glory! Everything rests in the existential appropriation of the faith.

There is something also about the seductive power of the approval and acceptance of man that works in us as a leaven for disaster. Man covets the approval by his fellows, to receive their appreciation and to be honored by them. To be indifferent to that honor and approval, and to speak the necessary word, though it bring painful rejection, can only be borne by someone who has no life to consider unto himself. It is all the same to that one as to whether he is accepted or rejected, misunderstood or approved. This is again where the Cross separates the true prophet from the false. Flattery is an antichrist mode of winning and influencing men. It is so beguiling, for who does not love to be flattered or to be acknowledged and recognized?

We need, therefore, to grow up in the ability to discern and sense truth in general, and truth about this calling in particular. It may well be that certain practitioners are so artful and so appearing outwardly to be prophetic that crowds will run after them, and the true man, who does not cut any such impression, is altogether ignored-and yet be the true bearer of God's requiring word!

Table of Contents

› Preface - The Spirit of Prophecy: An Examination of the Prophetic Call For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10b). There is a po ...read

› Introduction - There are two great words that the church needs to guard with a fierce jealousy, namely, prophetic and apostolic. If those two words are cheapened or ...read

› 1. The Prophet Historically and Presently - What rises in your own thought and in your own heart when the word 'prophet' is evoked? What image, what sense of things comes to your own understandi ...read

› 2. The Office of Prophet and the Gift of Prophecy - An important distinction, as we have said, is to differentiate between the gift of prophecy as opposed to the office of prophet. In fact, our failure ...read

› 3. The Prophetic Function - The quintessential function of the prophetic call is given to Jeremiah at the inception of his ministry: Then the LORD stretched out His hand and t ...read

› 4. Prophetic Proclamation - The prophets of God in the redemption history of the faith have always been the oracular kind. Their word distinguishes their calling. The prophetic w ...read

› 5. The Voice of the Prophet - God puts a great premium on the voice of the prophets. It is not just their words, but their voice that carries the urgency and divine seriousness of ...read

› 6. Proclaiming the Word that is "Given" - The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. If it is not God's moment, then we need to hold it. Something happens internally to the prophet w ...read

› 7. The Seriousness of the Word Spoken - There is a weight of responsibility on God's people to correctly identify whom God has set before them, and there is a choosing. In making that decisi ...read

› 8. The Anatomy of False Prophets - We need to be jealous for the truth of the prophetic calling. If the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, then we can ...read

› 9. Prophetic Formation and Integrity - It is an ultimate calling that points us again to the premium, not of the office as some abstraction, but that it rests and inheres with the man himse ...read

› 10. The Body of Christ -The Place of Formation - It is not to be imagined that God is going to send men like that out into the world and into the nations who have not first been sharpened and made ac ...read

› 11. Meekness -The Key to Revelation - The key then to apostolic or prophetic seeing and the receiving of the revelation of the mysteries of God is found in Ephesians 3:8, To me, the ver ...read