Prophet Blessing #10: Exposing False Leadership

Beloved, I call your spirit to attention, and I invite the Prophet portion to come explore how God has designed you to enrich the world in your very own way.

One of the ironies of your life is that some of the things people most hate about your tribe are things God highly values. For example, when our King did an evaluation of the Prophet church in Ephesus, He commended them for their utter intolerance of false leadership.

Listen to His own words: “I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those that claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.”

Those are strong words the King uses: “wicked men…tested…false.” There is nothing ambiguous about His meaning. And there is not even the slightest shadow of rebuke for the Prophets who walked out their design and calling this way.

The reality is that God designed the Prophet tribe to safeguard their civil and religious communities from those who want leadership offices but should not have them because they are corrupt at the core. It is as simple as that.

And this, Prophet, is the gift you give to the world at large. It is true that some from your tribe have handled this calling poorly at times, but the occasional misuse of the gift does not change the fact that this is what God has designed you to do, and it is a gift from you to us.

Today we proclaim to you that we are humbled by the price you pay to give this gift. Your tribe has been hated, reviled, persecuted and often killed in cruel ways by those they have exposed.

While generation after generation of Prophets have given their community the gift of standing up to corrupt leadership, only to be assaulted in return, history has judged you kindly.

So today we pay honor to your tribe for their righteous calling and say that this most reviled part of your identity is from God, and it is good.

We cannot start anywhere else than with the mighty Prophet Elijah. There were 7,000 righteous men in Israel who knew that their civil and spiritual leadership were corrupt to the bone. These were righteous men who did not worship false gods. But their righteousness did not stir them to action. It took a Prophet to stand alone against the vile, depraved leadership of that nation . . . at the risk of his own life.

What can we say about the Prophet Peter who stood before the assembled authorities of his nation and said to their face, “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed!”

The Prophet Savonarola relentlessly exposed corruption in leadership beginning with Lorenzo de Medici in the city of Florence and extending as far as King Alexander VI and even the Vatican. This netted him censure, followed by excommunication ending in death by hanging and burning.

The Prophet John Knox was unmoved by the political compromises of James Stewart, the Earl of Moray which allowed the Catholic Mary to remain Queen of Scots in direct violation of the law requiring only Protestant regents in Scotland. He put his life and ministry on the line relentlessly as he spoke truth about the corruption in the Edinburgh court and Holyrood Abbey.

A generation later Rev. Donald Cargill, a legendary Scottish Prophet, already under a sentence of death, courageously mounted the pulpit of a Scottish Kirk and in a carefully reasoned document laid out the spiritual basis for the excommunication of King Charles II; James Duke of York; James Duke of Monmouth; John Duke of Rothes; Sir George Mackenzie; and Thomas Dalziel of Binns.

For this he was eventually captured, tortured and hung. When corruption is rampant at the top, God gives to His people a gift from the Prophet tribe of someone with a will of steel, eyes like a laser and a voice that thunders the outrage of God against the travesty of wicked men claiming to lead in the name of God.

Most Prophets who have rightly exposed wicked leaders have been reviled, assaulted, excommunicated or killed in their generation, only to have subsequent generations acknowledge the immensity of their gift to the world and build monuments to their integrity and heroic sacrifices.

It is with shame, mingled with fear and admiration that we welcome you in our midst, Prophet. We choose to come into agreement with the King that you were made by Him for this task and that it is good that you are this way. We proclaim that your white hot fury against hypocrisy in leadership is truly a gift from our God to us through your hand. Therefore, we bless you in the name of our King, Jesus Christ.

At the Centrum B & B
Leiden, Netherlands
October 14, 2008

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