Teaching

Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded John as a prophet. Matthew 14:5 One of the reasons Satan hates it when governmental prophets are recognized by those God sends them to, is because God's voice takes a tangible position in the earth realm. Without the prophet, God's authority is largely based on the Mosaic premise of the sovereignty of Scriptures. Prophets take it a step further. They penetrate the barrier of human affairs alienating us from the reality of the Kingdom and introduce God's position on relevant moral issues.

When ministry is left solely in the hands of teachers and apostles, this doesn't work in the same way. It's because teachers are guardians of precepts and apostles are guardians of patterns. Prophets, on the other are guardians of precision, if you will. They respect the precepts and they understand the patterns of God. But they bring the much needed awareness of measures - too much of precepts can mean too little of God's Spirit. Too little of patterns can mean too much of carnal wisdom, etc.

Herod was afraid of John the Baptizer because he addressed wickedness in high places. The teachers of the law didn't do that. The priests wouldn't dare to cross the temple pattern. But the prophet allows God to take position in the realm of human affairs and bring relevance to the otherwise abstract concept of truth and morality.

Satan hates that. He hates it even more when the people recognize the prophet and heed to his warnings and admonitions. He hates it when prophets are accepted by a wide margin because it cuts into Satan's margin of influence in the minds of people, churches and nations.

This explains the struggle and the warfare over the governmental prophet. John the Baptizer was indeed a governmental prophet. He spoke out of God's concern for the state of affairs among those who represented His authority on the earth - priesthood, teachers of the law and the king. More than any of the prophetic variants we see in Scripture, Satan hates the governmental prophet - both in the Old and the New Testament era.

The natural habitat of governmental prophets should be Antioch type apostolic, Kingdom centered ekklesias. Boy, this was a mouthful for some folks out there. Never mind , moving on.

It's ironic that in Acts 13:1-5 we see the ekklesia (or "the church" as I used to say), being the epicenter of New Testament prophets and teachers operating in power, demonstrating how God's authority functions in the earth realm when man gets out of the way.

Today churches are the hardest spiritual environment for true prophets (i.e. those who won't bow down to the pressure to perform a dog and pony show people like) to penetrate. This has to change and it will only change when we abandon the "church" paradigm and we embrace the "ekklesia" paradigm.

I pray this word challenges the gatekeepers of churches (pastors) and gives them some food for thought. You might have been burned by some big-ego, money hungry, prima-donna so called "prophet". Likewise, most people can recall visiting or being part of a church plagued by a pastor who is bound by the same bondages.

It's time to let go and reach out for God's best. True apostles and prophets love God and his Kingdom, while at the same time Satan hates them and they are a prime target for him, even to the point of death.

George Bakalov