What Do Prophets Look Like?

So, what does a prophetic person look like and sound like? As to whether there are prophets today as there were prophets in the Old Testament, whether there is such a thing as five-fold ministry that includes prophets and apostles today, whether prophetic words are being spoken and uttered. Let's put that debate aside and let's ask the question, are there people who have what we could call a prophetic persona or a prophetic calling? People in the body, people anointed and called and graced by God, not to be speaking prophecy of thus saith the Lord. We're giving you a personal prophecy about a new job opening that's coming your way.

But rather, are there people that have characteristics that are similar to the prophetic calling of those in the Bible regardless of what you believe about spiritual gifts today? That's what we're going to talk about. I think you're going to find it eye-opening and helpful.

This is Michael Brown. Welcome to the line of fire. On a very regular basis, we're checking for the latest news in Israel, but still, the expected onslaught from Iran has not yet happened. On Monday, I talked about, are we about to enter into an apocalyptic end-time war? Is Israel about to step into what some would refer to as the Gog Magog War prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39? If it is for this age, if it is something before Jesus returns, are we about to step into that?

My answer was no. I don't believe that is the case, although Israel could be in very dire straits, and it's certainly a time to pray for Israel and all the surrounding peoples and nations. I wrote an article on it last night.

It's up on the Line of Fire website. So if you missed it or if you just want to share this with others, go to thelineoffire.org and just click read and you'll see the latest articles and also where we do our best to continue to help you to have a spiritual perspective on what's happening in the elections. And obviously, the consequences of the presidential elections will be massive, and there's so much we still don't know in terms of what will unfold in the next almost 100 days. But the one thing we can certainly pray is, Lord, your will be done, your will be done, your will be done, what is best for America, what is best for the church, bring it to pass. And ultimately, you and I are responsible for you and I. In other words, we have our one vote, we have our one life, and we are accountable to God.

So let us live lives that bring him honor and glory, regardless of what happens in the upcoming elections. All right, here's how you can weigh in or ask me questions. I may get a chance for some random questions on different subjects. Again, I want to invite those who may have watched the three hour roundtable with Doug Yvette and Holly Pivik about so-called NAR, New Apostolic Reformation, what it is, what it isn't. It's getting a lot of views online, but if you'd like to call in and talk about that or have some questions for me or differences with me, 866-348-7884. Anything we talk about on the line of fire, Bible theology, culture work, politics, Israel, phone lines are open for that discussion, 866-344-TRUTH. And a reminder, if you're not getting our Frontline newsletter, it comes out once a month, and this month we are especially going to talk about the transformation in my own life and Nancy's life, breaking the stronghold of food as we're celebrating 10 years. I'll be celebrating 10 years of life transformation later this month. A lot of edifying, encouraging testimony. Great stuff will be coming your way.

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Looking normal again. 866-344-TRUTH. Okay, let's put aside the debate about whether there are prophets today in a way that was similar to the Old Testament, hearing the voice of the Lord and giving prophetic words. Let's put aside for the moment the question of apostles and prophets in ministry today, in the foundational way in the church, put that question aside. Are there people who have a certain calling, a certain burden, a certain anointing to go against the grain of the society or to bring a wake-up call to the church or to be watchmen on the wall? You might be a Baptist. You might say, I don't believe in speaking in tongues for today. I don't believe in gifts of healing and miracles as normative for today. But I get what you're saying about prophetic type of people.

Or you may be Pentecostal Charismatic. Either way, I'm talking about those people who are watchmen on the wall, who in the words of 1 Chronicles 1232 are sons of Issachar and understand the times and know what Israel should do, would have a sensitivity to the burden of the Lord and the things that are on his heart would often be on their hearts. Therefore, this would compel them to speak and to act. This would compel them to go against the grain, to swim against the tide.

It would compel them to bring a word of repentance, a wake-up call. In Amos, the third chapter, there are a series of questions that are asked and it's culminating in saying that the Lord will do nothing without revealing his secret to his servants, the prophets. And it says, the lion has roared, who can but fear? The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?

So again, I'm speaking now in a more generic term today. When you're gripped, when you're burdened, when you just have to speak forth the word of God. It could be the written scripture. Again, I'm not debating prophecy, the gift of prophecy for today. I'm talking about this type of prophetic person who hears, who feels, who's gripped. Who has a certain sense of holy, divine compulsion to stand and speak.

And a sense of what is happening in the spiritual realm in the world around us to understand what God is doing and what Satan is doing and what is happening in the world. And therefore can speak with sobriety and clarity. Do you understand what I'm talking about when I describe that as a prophetic type of person? Well, Leonard Ravenhill, wonderful man of God, a man of prayer, revivalist with whom I was very close to the last five years of his life, has a chapter in one of his books that's often been published independently, Picture of a Prophet.

So if you want to read what I'm reading from here, Picture of a Prophet, just search online, Ravenhill, so one word is his last name, Ravenhill, Picture of a Prophet, and you'll find it on multiple websites. Ravenhill said this, so he's speaking of Old Testament prophets, but he's speaking of prophetic people through the ages. The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men. Years ago, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected. The prophet of the Lord is aware of both of these experiences.

They are his brand name. The group challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology is not likely to vote him man of the year when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan. The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line.

He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is no more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet. The function of the prophet, as Austin Sparks once said, has almost always been that of recovery.

We are going to pause there for a moment and just chew on that word from Austin Sparks. The function of the prophet has almost always been that of recovery. In other words, something is missing. Something is gone.

Something that used to be there in the body, in the nation, in society. Some insight, some revelation, some standard, some closeness and nearness of God. Something was there that has been lost, and the prophet now comes along to recover what was lost.

A.W. Tozer, in his famous foreword to Leonard Ravenhill's classic book, Why Revival Tarrys, so in the early 1960s this came out. Tozer talks about the prophet. He identifies Ravenhill as a prophet type of figure, that he is a specialist. In other words, he comes when there is a particular need. Just like you call a specialist to repair something in your house, when something goes wrong and that's what they do, and that's what they wait for, for that moment, that's part of prophetic ministry. So on the one hand, New Testament prophetic ministry, what we all would agree happened in New Testament times, I believe it's still for today, but we'd all agree it happened in New Testament times, there was the regular prophetic flow of edification, encouragement, exhortation, 1 Corinthians 14, 3.

It's part of life in the body. Just words to bless, encourage, strengthen. But then there is that prophetic role to bring that urgent word in an urgent time. The prophetic person to raise his or her voice to say, you're going the wrong way, you need to turn around.

And often people like that see the world differently. Let me give you an example. I've joked about the five-fold ministry today, how it can look and feel different. So again, everything I'm saying you can still hear and receive, even if you don't believe in the concept of five-fold ministry today.

But let me illustrate it for you. You have a guest speaker preaching a message and coughing a little bit, so one of the helpers in the church realizes, oh, we didn't put water up there for them, let me come with a bottle of water and open the top so they don't have to do it themselves. As they're walking, they fall and the water spills on the ground. The pastor of that church says, oh, thanks for doing that, you've got such a good heart, hey, don't worry about that, we'll clean it up, just get another bottle.

The teacher, the person with the teaching orientation, they're like, okay, I noticed when you were walking that you took your eyes so you looked down and that's why you tripped. So they're going to give the practical advice. The evangelist is going to get up and say, we're all like spilled water, we're all like spilled water, we need the Lord, let's have an altar call, who needs to get saved? The prophet is going to say, you need to be more careful, you're not alert, you need to be more careful. And the apostle says, okay, we need to set up a system for our church and all the churches in the country how we can make sure they have water and the pulpit at the right time.

In other words, everyone is going to come at this differently. Or the pastor tells his elders, hey, we don't really know each other well in our church, let's just, two Sundays from now it's in us, we're going to have a potluck Sunday after service, we'll just all hang together. And the evangelist says, Pest, that's immoral. How could we be hanging out together when people are dying outside our doors? We need to go on the streets and share the gospel. And the prophet says, pastor, there's sin in our camp, there is no possible way that God's going to bless our fellowship. And the teacher says, could I share on koinonia, the meaning of fellowship and communion, everyone is going to have a different orientation. If you're a prophetic type of person, you see the world in certain contrasts, in certain black and white contrasts, you're not so much nuanced in the middle ground. No, this is just evil, this is just right. There's a different orientation.

That's the kind of person I'm talking about, but not just by personality, but by call. This is Michael Ellison, founder of TriVita Wellness. I'm always thrilled to offer a new product from TriVita that is science-supported with equivalent doses per serving that follows the science. And that is true of our KSM 66 Ashwagandha with its protective process from farm to manufacturing plant, the KSM 66 has 24 published gold standard clinical trials in reducing stress, enhancing sleep, and increased vitality. In a recent Harris Poll, 87% of Americans feel stressed. I know the effects of chronic stress.

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Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to the Line of Fire and shout-out to our co-sponsor, TriVita. By the way, they're featuring Ashwagandha this month or this week, so I only take two pills. Before I go to sleep about a half hour, I'll refer to go to sleep just to help me to sleep and rest better.

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You can check out their great wellness products that I use myself at 800-771-5584. Okay, so back to talking about prophetic people. Let's read some more of Ravenhill's picture of a prophet. And again, Ravenhill is writing in a prophetic way too. David Wilkerson once said to me when I was preaching for him at New York City and Times Square Church, which I did often from 1991 to 1995, Pastor Dave said to me, Leonard Ravenhill is an Elijah kind of prophet. He's the last of his kind.

When he's gone, we don't have anybody like him. In terms of circles that we traveled and people that we knew, he was unique, so carried that prophetic burden. Again, not to get up and prophesy, thus saith the Lord, but to carry God's heart, to carry God's burden, and to speak a message accordingly.

Ravenhill said this, the prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.

All right, let me pause here. Number one, our goal is not to be unpopular. Our goal is not to be nasty, mean-spirited, off-putting. We can act in such a way that we can bring all kinds of negativity and unpopularity.

It's just because of our flesh. In other words, I could be unpopular because I'm a jerk. I could be unpopular because I'm nasty to people. I'm impossible to work with. I'm self-righteous. I'm a prima donna. I could be unpopular for any of millions of reasons. It's got nothing to do with the Lord. It's me.

It's on me. Or I could be unpopular because I obey the Lord. I could be unpopular, although I'm loving, gracious. I could be unpopular because I speak the truth. I could be unpopular because I represent the light and people love darkness rather than light. So unpopularity is not the goal.

But conversely, popularity is not the goal. Skillet, John Cooper and Skillet just dropped a new single. Their new album, Revolution, is coming out in November. Yeah, that's our heart. That's our burden that John and Skillet share with us.

So that drops, I believe, November 1st, but they just released the first song, and John sent it to me last night to listen to, and it is awesome. Unpopular. It's talking about being unpopular for the sake of truth.

And if that's the case, then own it, wear it, embrace it. So unpopularity is not our goal in that we do not strive to be hated, we do not strive to be rejected. If I'm rejected, let it be for the gospel. If I'm rejected, let it be for righteousness. If I'm rejected, let it be for truth. And if that makes me unpopular, so be it. I embrace it, I go outside the camp with Jesus, Hebrews 13, and bear the reproach that he bore. He was rejected, we're rejected in him, so be it. It's an honor, it's a privilege.

In Acts 5, 41, the apostles leave the son, Hedron, rejoicing after being severely flogged because they recounted worthy of suffering disgrace, bearing reproach for the name. But conversely, our goal is not popularity. Our goal is not to get everybody to like us. I want to reach billions of people. I want to reach every person on the planet. I mean, if you love Jesus, you want people to know the gospel, you'd love to reach every person on the planet. I'm called to speak to millions of people.

It's part of my calling. But my goal is not, is everybody like me? And our social media sites are just exploding, getting bigger and bigger because everybody likes me. What if they like me because I'm a compromiser? What if they like me because I tell them what they want to hear?

What if they like me because I tickle their itching ears? How is that good? How is that helpful? And Leonard Ravenhill once said to me, when Jesus was on the earth, he had the fastest shrinking church in the country. You know, he fed the 5,000, then he fed the 4,000, and then he gets down to this number, then when he dies, everybody leaves him, and so on.

And he dies in that sense as a seed alone in the ground, and out of that bears fruit that has reached billions of people and continues to multiply every second that we exist. So unpopularity is not the goal. The goal is not to be hated and rejected. But popularity is not the goal. Rather, being like Jesus and impacting this world is our goal. Rather, taking up our cross, following him, saying no to the flesh, no to the devil, and yes to God.

That's our goal. And please hear me, pastors, leaders, young people in college, whoever you are, homeschooling moms, hear me. Folks in the business world, do what is right regardless of cost and consequence. Don't look for trouble. Don't try to stir up trouble. But if walking in obedience to God means you have to suffer rejection, so be it. If speaking the truth in love means you lose financial support, so be it.

If honoring God means you get rejected by your circles of friends, families, co-workers, religious denomination, if that's what it takes to honor God. Now, because we're stubborn. We want to be team players. We want to cooperate. We want to humble ourselves. We want to get low.

All of that, for sure. But we cannot compromise truth. We cannot compromise biblical conviction. And when you lose support, you lose friends, you may lose your church, you may lose your family, you may lose your life. When it's for the sake of truth, praise God.

It's worth it. And you can look God in the face on that day and know it was all worth it. Conversely, to gain the world and lose our soul is never worth it. To gain the favor of people at the expense of obedience, to gain the favor of people at the expense of honoring the Lord, to gain the love of the world and the finances of the world for the sake of compromise is to sell our souls.

And in that sense, to be more like Judas than like Jesus. So, let's be humble. Let's be teachable. Let's be team players. Let us do what is right regardless of cost or consequence as believers are doing to this moment around the world and have done for 2,000 years.

And going back to believers in the Old Testament, have done for 4,000 years. So, as Ravenhill said, the prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.

Ravenhill says this. He has no price tags. He is totally otherworldly. He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile, obviously to error and sin. He marches to another drummer. He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration. He is a seer who comes to lead the blind. He lives in the heights of God.

He comes into the valley where the thus saith the Lord. Again, he doesn't mean contemporary prophecy as much as with the word from heaven. He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of impending judgment.

He lives in splendid isolation. He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright. His message is repent, be reconciled to God or else. His prophecies are parried. His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void. He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow. He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead. He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs when dead. He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few make the grade in his class. He is friendless while living and famous when dead. He is against the establishment ministry, then he is established as a saint by posterity.

He eats the daily bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the bread of life to those who listen. More of this and your calls on the other side of the break. 866-348-7884. Full lines are open for anything you want to talk to me about.

Try to get to some calls later in the show. Friends, all of us are in the line of fire. There's a target on your back. There's a target on my back.

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Donate monthly. This is how we rise up. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on The Line of Fire by calling 866-342. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Thanks, friends, for joining us on The Line of Fire, 866-342. We'll talk about this, God willing, on the air tomorrow, on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, but Representative Cori Bush, one of the members of the squads, one of the most radical left Democrats, was defeated in her primary in St. Louis. She is a black woman defeated by a black man. The contrast on several issues came down to views on Israel, and the other candidate was pro-Israel, and she was very much anti-Israel. She said some very disturbing things today in terms of, okay, you watch now, now that I'm not in Congress anymore, now I'm going to tell you what I really feel.

It's just part of the ongoing anti-Semitism that pervades our society and that is only going to get uglier and that we continue to warn about. So when you see it, when it raises its head, that's when you speak up. In fact, I just sent a note to John Cooper earlier. We were just exchanging texts during the break, and I told him, hey, just talking about your new song, Unpopular. So it's Skillet's new song, Unpopular, if you haven't heard it, it's great. And I believe it's going to be an anthem for this young generation to do what's right even if it makes them unpopular, to not yield to peer pressure.

I believe God's going to use the song to give them conviction and backbone and courage to stand up even when, even when everything is against them and friends are against them and they get unfriended or cut off at school or from social media, hey, I'm going to do what's right because it's right, and I will embrace being unpopular because being unpopular with man often makes you popular with God. But just to say again, things are going to increase. I had sent a note to John, just the latest example of anti-Semitism, I saw on our YouTube channel, just really ugly, ugly stuff and justifying what Hitler did. And it's posted on our YouTube channel. So it's out there. We're going to continue to expose it. That's news as today is going on. That's why I mention it. But we'll probably return to it on tomorrow's broadcast.

866-348-7884. Even some random Bible questions we may get to. So back to, back to Ravenhill's picture of her prophet. Is this somewhat exaggerated, somewhat extreme? Yeah, it's a prophetic person giving you a prophetic description. But again, there's no nuance to it. It's black or white. It's in or out. It's yes or no. It's right or wrong.

It's light or darkness. It's kind of the prophetic mindset. Obviously, Leonard Ravenhill had your friends, but not a lot. And he was loved and revered by many for his walk with God and God's hand on his life. But he was also hated and reviled.

And A.W. Tozer said that the people who read his book, Why Revival Tires, would be equally divided. Equally divided. That they'd love him out of all proportion or hate him with a perfect hatred. And he says the same with the book, same with the person. So a few more points from Leonard Ravenhill. He said he eats the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the bread of life to those who listen.

We'll just put the graphic back up there for those watching. He walks before men for days, but has walked before God for years. He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation. He announces, pronounces and denounces. He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire. He talks to men about God. He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men. He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing. He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the marketplace. He is naturally sensitive, but supernaturally spiritual. He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.

He is ordained of God, but disdained by men. Our national lead at this hour is not that the dollar recovered strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, so that dates this for you, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet. He said, I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our nation like bread, fuel, energy.

I read between the lines from people not practiced and scaring folk. They feel like the seven years of plenty are over for us. The seven years of famine are ahead. The greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is famine of the hearing of the words of God, Amos 8.11. Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last 25 years.

Again, going back 50 years in writing this or longer. Hundreds of gospel messages streak across the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held. Healing meetings have made a vital contribution.

Come-outers have come out and settled too without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound.

Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. But where, oh where is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men from the fresh holy place?

What a concept. Incandescent men and women from the holy place. Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, our sour and sick spirituality? God's men are in hiding until the day of their showing forth.

They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry but he is vindicated by history. There's a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with the terrible earnestness.

The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable. Let him be as plain as John the Baptist. Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and stagnant churchianity. Let him be as selfless as Paul the Apostle.

Let him too say and live this one thing I do. Let him reject ecclesiastical favors. Let him be self-abasing, non-self-seeking, non-self-projecting, non-self-righteous, non-self-gloring, non-self-promoting. Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move men to God. Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has received the order of the day. Let him under God and stop the years of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism. Let him cry with a voice this century is not heard because he has seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon. God have mercy, send us prophets. So, friends, what I want to present to you is the need for bold, uncompromised, fearless gospel preaching, telling the truth, speaking the truth, regardless of cost or consequence, whether by life or by death, it's a New Testament mindset and commitment, but not out of human anger, not out of human agitation, not out of personal frustration, not out of self-righteousness or some sense of moral or spiritual superiority, but rather, rather with a broken heart, burdened by the Lord, coming out of his presence with fire on the inside, with tears on the outside, pleading with God's people, pleading with the nation to hear. Again, whether you're Baptist or Pentecostal, whether you're Methodist or non-denominational, whether you're part of a mega church or a house church, it doesn't matter. Let us, in the platforms that God gives us, bring his message of broken and burning hearts, messages that will glorify him. And I urge and encourage everyone listening, watching right now, please, please hear me and please give this prayerful consideration.

Have you on any level compromised your message for the sake of popularity, for the sake of human acceptance? It's one thing to really hear constructive criticism when we're harsh in our tone or we're judgmental or we're short with people. We're not Christ-like in our attitude. We hear that. We embrace it. It's one thing to recognize, you know, I'm speaking out of personal frustration. That's not the Lord.

I'm in the flesh. It's another thing to calculate, well, if I say this, I'll be rejected here. But if I say it like this, everyone will like me. Well, that's not for us to decide. The question is, what does God's words say? What is true?

What is right? Not what is pragmatically best for my ministry or life right now when it comes to truth. No, truth is truth. The question is, what are we going to do with that truth? Now, my goal, my goal is not to be rejected, hated, maligned.

It's not my goal. My goal is to speak God's uncompromised truth and reach the maximum number of people I can with that message. Now, again, we're all in perfect.

We're all doing our best. We do our best to hide ourselves behind the cross and declare what God's word says for the glory and honor of Jesus' name and to declare what the Holy Spirit is laying on our hearts. Let me make this very plain.

If I had the option of watering down the message, lowering the standard, taking away the reproach of the cross, taking away the holiness of God, taking away the fundamental truth of the gospel, water it down, get over all these offensive, divisive things. And let's just say, it's an arbitrary number. Let's just say I reach a million people a week. It's completely arbitrary. I could reach 10, I could reach 20 million. It's completely arbitrary. I'm just saying that. Let's say that some marketing people came to me and said, hey, Dr. Brown, if you would modify this, if you'd watered this down, if you didn't address moral and cultural issues, if you talked about other ways to God outside of Jesus, you've got a lot to offer, you could be reaching 50 million people a week.

Again, just using arbitrary numbers. That would no more tempt me than someone offering me roadkill on a plate. Would you like roadkill? In other words, the thought of it is repulsive. Repulsive. But it's normally not that blatant.

It's only a lot more subtle. And what we end up doing is the very thing that Jesus warned about. Rather than denying ourselves, taking up the cross and following him, and losing our lives for the gospel rather than save them, we seek to save our lives at the cost of the gospel. And you may do it as a pastor. You know if you really speak the truth. Let's say you just have a lot of affairs in the church and people leaving their spouses and going off with the one they committed adultery with.

You think, well, what's this epidemic? I need to teach much more on marriage and commitment and holiness and so on and restraint. If you do that, though, some of your biggest givers are going to leave. See, it can be more subtle in that, well, maybe I could preach on something else.

No, no, no. That's what you need to speak on. It's for God to supply your needs and the needs of the flock. And you don't cater the message to what someone else is going to like. Again, we don't try to be obnoxious. We don't try to be provocative. We don't try to stir up trouble.

That's just immaturity, carnality. But if obedience to God means we lose our financial support, so be it. It means the loss of life for believers around the world through this moment. If you're concerned, if I speak the truth, someone's going to unfriend me, I would just say toughen up. Toughen up. Because people are losing their heads right now for the gospel. We're concerned with losing a friend on social media.

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Call 1-800-771-5584, 1-800-771-5584, or online at Trivita.com. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to the broadcast. Remember, every Friday we send out an email, and you know, here are our latest articles and latest videos.

So I'm just looking here on our website. Let's take a quick look at the Line of Fire website, and let's just see the most recent articles on the site. One that was just posted today is Israel on the Verge of the Gog Magog War.

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Thelineoffire.org, click subscribe. So, over the years I kept thinking about wanting to write a book on the prophetic persona or prophets and prophetic ministry. I would teach a class beginning in the mid 80s on prophets and prophetic ministry, taught it for many, many years. And whenever I go to start writing a book on it, I think yeah well Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, wrote his two volume study called The Prophets. In the opening chapter, what manner of man is the prophet?

It was so overwhelming and so intense, I thought well I could never say anything better than the way he said it, and I kind of shy away from writing the book. Now I have included insights on prophets and prophetic ministry in different books that I've written. And if you read my Jeremiah commentary, this came out through the revised edition of the Expositor's Bible commentary. So it's 13 big volumes and then I'm in one of the volumes, Jeremiah is the main part of it, and also Lamentations Ezekiel and Daniel.

So you get the one volume, you get all those commentaries. But the biggest part of it is about 550 pages or so of Jeremiah. I really sought in writing that commentary to take the reader, especially a lot of evangelical pastors, to bring them into the heart of the prophet, into the mind of the prophet, into the burden of the prophet. And that they could see how Jeremiah thought and felt, and that they could help relate to that and process that for our own day, or help them deal with people who are prophetic type people in terms of calling and burden. But I included quotes from Heschel, of course, and I've included them over there, so I want to share a few of these with you. Before I do, I gave Leonard Ravenhill the two volumes, the prophets by Heschel, often reprinted in one thick hardcover. And he told me it's the most devastating stuff he'd ever read in his life. He absolutely was floored by it and thought it was incredible.

And it's happened with other colleagues of mine. They've read the books, and especially that opening chapter, and just been overwhelmed with the picture that is painted there. So here are some of the things that Heschel said. To a person endowed with prophetic sight, everyone else appears blind. To a person whose ear perceives God's voice, everyone else appears deaf. The prophet's word is a scream in the night.

The world is at ease and asleep. The prophet feels the blast from heaven. I want to read that again. It's actually one of my favorite quotes in the world on any subject from any author. To a person endowed with prophetic sight, everyone else appears blind. To a person whose ear perceives God's voice, everyone else appears deaf. The prophet's word is a scream in the night.

While the world is at ease and asleep, the prophet feels the blast from heaven. Very, very intense. And some of you relate to that as you hear those words. You get burdens from the Lord and this seems surreal and overwhelming and intense.

Then you talk to someone else like, oh, no big deal. How can you feel that way? How can you look at this world? How can you see the sin of this world? How can you see these things that are happening?

How can you see the sin of the body of Christ? And you're not burdened. You're not shaken. How can that be? It just seems so obvious to you. And other believers, pastors, leaders, friends, family members, it just seems so nonchalant. But that's the experience of the prophetic person. It's so clear to you and it's so real to you and it's so intense to you.

And yet others seem insensitive to it. The prophet feels the blast from heaven, the heat and the intensity of that burden. You may feel God's wrath ready to be poured out or God's grief over human suffering and sin. It's so real to you and someone else is like, no big deal. Let's go watch the game.

Let's go get some ice cream. How can you feel that way? Now, that's why prophetic people really need to grow in Jesus. Because prophetic people can maybe be too harsh or too opinionated.

Or even become obnoxious because they're trying to drive something home rather than growing in the character of Jesus. So now these things are processed through a godly heart and a godly mind. Heschel said this, the prophet is human.

Yet he employs notes one octave too high for our ears. What a concept. Often his words begin to burn where conscience ends. In other words, people are indifferent. What's abortion? A woman's right.

What are you talking about? And Hamas, Israel is no different than Hamas. And whatever the thing is, people become morally insensitive. Morally insensitive. So the prophet's words often begin to burn where conscience ends.

People have cut themselves off from hearing God and doing what's right and having a right burden. The words of the prophet, they begin to burn when human conscience ends. All right, a few more Heschel quotes. Heschel said this, the prophet is an iconoclast. The prophet is an iconoclast, meaning an idol smasher, challenging the apparently holy, revered and awesome. Beliefs cherished as certainties, institutions endowed with supreme sanctity.

He exposes as scandalous pretensions. You know, when the prophets would rebuke what was happening in the temple and tell the people God says, quit bringing your offerings, they're a stench in my nostrils. When you raise your hands in prayer, I won't listen, your hands are stained with blood. You're criticizing prayer?

You're criticizing sacrifice? When they would denounce the temple system in priesthood. That's God's holy temple.

Those are God's holy men. How dare you? How dare you question our denominational structure? How dare you question the historic doctrine of this church?

How dare, who gives you the authority? Well, they're not doing it by human authority or by human opinion. They're doing it by the burden of the Lord because God himself is displeased.

Heschel said this. It's about intercession and prophetic ministry. In the presence of God, he takes the part of the people. In the presence of the people, he takes the part of God.

Let me repeat that. In the presence of God, he takes the part of the people. In the presence of the people, he takes the part of God.

So, in intercession, you go to the Lord with a broken heart. Oh, God, have mercy. God, your people are ignorant. They don't understand. Lord, have mercy. Restrain your judgment.

Israel's just like a dumb sheep. They don't understand. Be merciful and compassionate, Lord.

I plead with you. Don't destroy. So, in the presence of God, you take the part of the people. And in the presence of the people, you take the part of God. God says you need to repent or else.

You better get your house in order or else. So, you represent God to the people. You represent the people to God. Last Heschel quote. The prophets must have been shattered by some cataclysmic experience in order to be able to shatter others.

One more time. The prophets must have been shattered by some cataclysmic experience in order to be able to shatter others. I've often said it like this. You cannot give what you do not have. And to the extent you have been broken, you can break others. To the extent you have been burdened, you can burden others. To the extent you have been convicted, you can convict others.

To the extent you have been moved, you can move others. What I've found fascinating over the years is when I'm writing a particular book and God moves on me to write the book, I just feel energized. The ideas are pouring out of me. I can't even write as fast as the thoughts are coming. And it may be two or three in the morning, I thought, okay, I've been writing for four or five hours. I'm going to sleep. And I pop back up. No, I've got to write more. I've got to write more. I'm burdened. What I found fascinating is when people go to read the book, they can't put it down.

It has that burning fire sensation to them too. The same with us to the degree we've received something from God. To that degree, we can share it with others. May God break our hearts more deeply. May he bring us more into the fellowship of his sufferings. May he give us more revelation of his heart that we may make his word known to a dying generation and a hurting church. May God raise up prophets.