WesleyGospel Ministries

1:24 – “I kinda just wanna play with my trains,” he said.

Originally from “Becoming a Trumpet of the Lord” – fireinmybones.com (and Andrew Strom’s Revival List)

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My heart cries out for the American church to stop muddling, muffling, cheapening, distorting and merchandising the pure gospel. How we need to return to the simplicity of evangelism that cuts to the heart, produces repentance and reveals the Son of God.

For several months I’ve been asking the Lord to make me his trumpet. In my quest He’s shown me some of the qualities that shaped biblical prophets into His mouthpieces. I pray all of us will adopt these same characteristics.

1. A prophet is bold. True prophets have steel backbones and foreheads of flint. They do not cower when the majority disagrees with them. Like the apostle Paul, they are compelled to preach because a holy restlessness churns inside them. They are possessed by God, and they must release the fire inside. Will you pray for this boldness and say with Isaiah, “Here am I, send me” (Isa. 6:8, NASB)—even when you know you will be opposed?

2. A prophet stays Biblical. So much of what is passed off as prophecy today resembles what you might find in a daily horoscope. The so-called prophetic movement” in the contemporary church has been tainted by silly fads and charismatic witchcraft. One prophetic e-mail list sent out a word recently saying that dormant angels were being awakened out of the walls of our churches. (That’s not remotely scriptural.) Another predicted that God would begin to speak to people through the names of candy bars and blue jeans.

So much of our prophetic verbiage sounds like warm and fuzzy fortunetelling. This type of imitation prophecy’ can titillate and thrill those with itching ears, but it is pablum designed for babies who don’t want to grow up. What we need is a word we can sink our teeth into – true meat that is the Word of God.

3. A prophet does not compromise. Nathan was willing to confront King David’s sin, even though the prophet was on the palace payroll. Yet today, we practice the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” rule. We prophesy what people want to hear so we can get an honorarium and an invitation to return. This has caused some whole groups of prophets to collectively follow each other into a ditch.

Beware of the herd mentality! Don’t just swallow and follow! You cannot go along with something just because everyone else is doing it or reaching it. Stay close to the Lord, develop keen discernment and listen to the nagging voice of your conscience.

4. A prophet is compassionate. Some prophets today refuse to confront because they are too nice. Others speak rashly “like the thrusts of a sword” (see Prov. 12:18) and their words are delivered with a bitter, vindictive spirit. Neither of these prophets will receive his reward. We must speak the truth, and we must do it in love.

Most people think Jeremiah was angry and judgmental, but actually he wept when he confronted Israel’s sins. It is not enough to prophesy the Lord’s word – we should aim to speak with His tone of voice. We must be willing to intercede for and identify with those we confront.

5. A prophet stays pure. When Moses made the tabernacle, God told him to make silver trumpets that were “hammered work” (Num. 10:2). If we want to speak for Him, we must be willing to endure the smelting process. (In other words, prepare to be hammered!) Before Isaiah could be an effective prophet to his nation, his lips had to touch burning coals from God’s altar (see Isa. 6:6-8). We must be willing to visit the uncomfortable furnace of sanctification.

God is not so much interested in the booming voice, the rousing delivery, the charisma or the technological savvy that we expect today from celebrity preachers. What matters most is pure content, and that can only flow through a pure vessel.

6. A prophet faithfully embraces the call. Jonah tried to flee as far as possible from Nineveh, but the God of the second chance used a strange vessel to get the prophet back on course. It involved a visit to a fish’s stomach, where Jonah spent three days in darkness, stewing in digestive juices. When the fish vomited him on land, he was better prepared to speak heaven’s words.

Given to be destroyed
God shut the mouth of my enemy
What’s meant for my destruction
Destroy my enemy

–Luti-Kriss, “The ‘Anni Hilat’ Ion”–

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In Ephesians 2, verse 1, it says, “…and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

Now, what does it mean? What does it truly mean to be spiritually dead?

Well, I have a definition here. It means to be unresponsive to God. Utterly, totally, completely unresponsive to God, but responsive to every sinful stimulus, both human and demonic. Now, even that doesn’t shock you.

But you see, if you understood this text correctly, if you understood what I was saying, you would be shocked. You might even be appalled. And see, that’s the job of the preacher. You look at this text and you yawn. You look at this text and you put it in the category of Reformed doctrine when you should look at this text and weep. What is it saying about man?

Well, imagine this. Well, before we get there, let’s look at what it’s not saying. It’s not saying that man is treading water in a storm and crying out for God’s help. It’s not saying that man is floating unconscious in the water and needs to be revived a bit so that he might extend his hand and the Savior might take hold of it.

What is it saying? Imagine with me for a moment a rotting, putrid corpse at the bottom of a cesspool. A cesspool that was created by the moral filth and pollution excreted from that body, from that man.

You see, you hear he was dead. Then you hear ‘in his trespasses and sins,’ in the sphere of trespasses and sins. Yes, Adam is involved, but not just Adam. His own trespasses and sins. So if you want to get a good picture of what we’re dealing with when we’re preaching the gospel to men, it’s a dead corpse lying at the bottom of a cesspool that was created from the contamination, the moral filth that was excreted from his own body.

And not just that, although he is dead to God, laying down there dead to God, there is someone who’s put a ladle in the pond and is stirring it. He may be dead to God, but he’s animated and responsive to sin and the demonic.

So come to me with your silly preaching and tell me how you’re going to help sinners. You know, for this sinner to be helped, it requires a magnificent demonstration of the power of God that comes only through the preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.

But now let’s not just stop there. We’re not talking about one individual. Remember, I said we would talk about man. We would talk about man’s realm, man’s culture.

So now imagine you have this pond with a man in it. And then you see another and another and another and another. One corrupt pool after another all flowing into the same stream, all going as fast as it can away from God in rebellion and impurity hell-bent on its own destruction. That’s culture. That’s our society. That’s our world.

Samuel Rutherford, A Survey of the Spirituall Antichrist (London, 1648), pp. 42-45.

Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. –Hebrews 13:17 (KJV)

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THE WRONG WAY. Ronald Enroth, Churches That Abuse (Zondervan, 1992).

THE RIGHT WAY. Thomas C. Oden, Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry (HarperOne, 1983). This was a standard textbook on pastoral ministry in the conservative Wesleyan churches.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. –James 1:12 (ESV)

Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. –Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. –Romans 5:3-5 (ESV)

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. –James 1:2-4 (ESV)

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! –1 Chronicles 16:11 (ESV)

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? –Romans 8:31 (KJV)

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Dr. Candy Gunther Brown, Testing Prayer: Science and Healing (Harvard, 2012).

Larry Burkett, Business By the Book: The Complete Guide of Biblical Principles for the Workplace (Thomas Nelson, 1998).

William Gouge, Building a Godly Home. 3 vols (Reformation Heritage Books, 2013).

John Flavel, Preparations for Sufferings (Banner of Truth, 1997).

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (Whitaker House, 1981).

Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Whitaker House, 1982).

Luke, the beloved physician.
–Colossians 4:14–

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Dr. Candy Gunther Brown, Testing Prayer: Science and Healing (Harvard, 2012).

—. “Testing Prayer: Science and Miraculous Healing” (Veritas Forum).

—. “Testing Prayer: Pentecostals, Science, and Healing” (Institute for Pentecostal Theology).

Global Awakening, “Mass Healing Breaks Out In Worship.”

—. “School of Healing and Impartation” event ($150).

—. “Healing Testimonies.”

We Are Vineyard, “Candy and Josh Brown: Bridging the Worlds of Science and Faith.”

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

–Revelation 20:11-15 (KJV)–

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