Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and welcome back to the series, The Return of the Elijah Prophets which was interrupted by the Passover Season, and which I promised we would return to as this is a most critical subject to be conversant in given the now very dangerous times we live in. This will be the eighth part of the series. However, we aren't going to return to the Book of Daniel just yet as there are some other things we must first do.

Before we took that pleasant diversion into the historicity of the Book of Daniel (which I hope you enjoyed and about which there is yet considerably more to be said) we were tracing the characteristics of the nevi'im (prophets) and of prophecy itself. There are many notions about these amongst modern Continuationists - those who believe such gifts have continued unabated, if perhaps less frequently, since apostolic times. These false notions need radical correcting if the Remnant is to be adequately prepared for its anointings, let alone be able to identify them. For one thing, prophecy is sometimes a very hard thing to pin down analytically. Governed as it is by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), it is a very unpredictable thing, rather like the wind itself, for as you know the Hebrew word ruach carries with it the sense of both breath and wind. In His famous secret, nocturnal conversation with an initially very confused Nicodemus, Yah'shua (Jesus) said:

"'The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of (birthed by) the Ruach (Spirit)'" (John 3:8, NKJV).

Indeed, I had absolutely no forewarning of when, or how, I would be born again of the Ruach (Spirit) when it happened to me on 30 March 1977 - indeed, I wasn't even theologically primed to the idea of a 'rebirth' or being 'born again'. It just happened during a time of fasting and intense prayer. The spirit of prophecy is the same - it is unpredictable: you never know when it is going to come, how it's going to come, or even what sort of power is going to be manifested through you. Likewise it is impossible to say in advance who will become a navi (prophet) and who will not. Both the choice and the empowering is due entirely to Yahweh and there can be no true navi (prophet) without both of these. You can't ordain people to 'be' nevi'im (prophets) as the Mormons do (even though they never prophesy nor display any of the apostolic powers commonly associated with the authentic biblical bearers of the office) and you most certainly can't 'claim' prophetic power as so many of the false ones do in the charismatic movement. Shouting 'Fire! Fire! Fire!' doesn't mean you have any and usually these charismatics don't because they have no clue what actual prophetic fire is (clue: it's not a spiritual anointing or healing power - it burns the adversaries of Yahweh up into a pile of ashes).

All genuine prophecy has a threefold characteristic. It has:

• 1. a 'hand';
• 2. a 'ruach (spirit)'; and
• 3. a davar (word).

Let me explain. The 'hand' and the 'ruach (spirit)' are the means of inspiration whilst the 'davar (word)' speaks of the content of prophecy. However, in Hebrew the word davar is a little richer than our English word 'word' but also includes within it the very deed that is done too. This is something most Protestants miss because if you speak to them of 'the Word' their mind as a rule spontaneously difts or leaps to the written Bible. Well, it isn't. 'The Davar (Word)' in the Scriptures, as in the prologue of John's Gospel, is always spoken and indeed the 'word' is never complete until it is read out or spoken directly from the lips of the navi (prophet) receiving it directly from Yahweh. It doesn't mean it cannot be, or isn't, written, but it must be spoken. But more than that even, the davar (word) is also the deed done of which that spoken davar (word) describes.

A good example of this davar (word) would be the creation account in Genesis. Elohim (God) said, 'let there be...' and 'there was...'. The spoken davar (word) was always followed by an action just like emunah (faith) which is never just passive but proactive. Faith has to be 'done'. Moreoever, it is never enough for a prophetic davar (word) to just be written - it must be spoken too. No authentic navi (prophet) just wrote a prophecy or revelation down without speaking it out loud to a divinely designated target audience whether it be a single person or a whole nation. It must be heard and then repeated. And here's the important truth to understand: the speaking of the davar (word) causes it to happen. That's critical to grasp. That's also a reason we are commanded to confess our testimony of Yah'shua (Jesus) with our lips, that "every tongue confess that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is Master, to the glory of Elohim (God) the Father" (Phil.2:11, NIV). Emunah (faith) is not complete without confession. "I believe..." spoken to an audience, even if it is only one person (but two, three or more is better) makes it biblical genuine belief and not just the airy-fairy armchair kind that has no power to move anything.

There are no dumb nevi'im (prophets) but neither is just hearing ever never enough either. Thus the apostle James wrote:

"But be doers of the davar (word), and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the davar (word) and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect torah (law) of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work ('doers who act' - NRSV; 'acts upon it' - NEB; 'do what it says' - NLT; 'an active doer' - Barclay; 'makes a habit of so doing' - JBP), this one will be blessed in what he does" (James 1:22-25, NKJV).

Do you remember I taught you some months ago that when an apostle wrote a letter and it was sent to a congregation viâ a messnger, that that messenger had that letter first of all read out to him aloud by the writer so that when he delivered it to a congregation he would speak it out in exactly the same way he had heard it spoken - with the same tones and emphases? That is how a written word becomes a living, spoken word. Thus when Paul, for example, was being sarcastic (as he was a number of times) the messenger would know when to change the tone and inflection of his voice to make sure that that specifically came across and the words not be misconstrued. We do not now have the advantage of that complete message because the writers and their messengers have long since died. So in large measure we have to guess. The mood of the writer is not always clear even if there may be hints of that mood in the text. Only a linguistic expert can shed light on these things. No we can all be 'smartalecs' (a would-be clever person) and say, 'the Ruach (Spirit) will show us' and whilst that may sometimes be true, in my experience it rarely is, one of the reasons for all the denominationalism that plages the Body. That is another reason you need nevi'im (prophets) in the New Covenant congregations.

As I said many months ago, the Bible is a story - a narrative. It was designed to be read out aloud. Do you remember I told you about David Pawson's church in Guildford, England (my home municipality), and how his little congregation read the Bible out loud continuously 24 hours a day, with someone reading for something like 15 minutes at a time to then be relieved by the next reader? They did this day and night until the Bible had been read through. And without any pulpit preaching, that little church suddenly took off and grew. Even unbelievers asked to be a part of that reading marathon and were converted by the Ruach (Spirit) as they joined in. Wondrous things happen when you speak the prophetic davar (word) aloud. Yes, there is power in the Davar (Word) and that is proof of it!

That's why Yahweh created in this manner:

"By the davar (word) of Yahweh the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the ruach (breath) of His mouth"
(Ps.33:6, NKJV [1]).

You must bear all of these things in mind when you encounter the 'Davar, the Miltha, the Logos (Word) of Yahweh' which the true nevi'im (prophets) unfailingly uttered. It was never an idle word they spoke, nor was it merely a description of something they believed would happen. It was the Davar (Word) of Yahweh. If Yahweh had spoken it and the navi (prophet) heard it, then without doubt when the navi (prophet) spoke it, that Davar (Word) would unfailingly, without any doubt, come true sooner or later. The Davar (Word) would not lose it dynamic until it had been fulfilled. That's a very important concept to remember because it's not like the ordinary speaking of human beings. It has a supernatural origin. It goes forth from Yahweh's mouth, however you want to envisage that, and it will not return void or empty or unfulfilled. It will accomplish what Elohim (God) intended when He spoke it:

"So shall My Davar (Word) be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void (empty, unfulfilled),
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it" (Isa.55:11, NKJV).

The navi's (prophet's) task was to hear this davar (word) and to repeat it, for in speaking it out loud he was helping it towards its fulfilment. That is why a true navi (prophet) can never be silent when he receives such a davar (word) - he has to deliver it, it is part of his calling and commission to do so, and he will have no rest until he has done so.

Do you remember the story in 1 Kings 11 where Ahab's nevi'im (prophets) claimed they had heard the "davar (word) of Yahweh)". Do you remember them saying that the king would be victorious in the battle he wished to fight against the Syrians? But the true navi (prophet) Micaiah said they had got it wrong: this, he declared, was not the "davar (word) of Yahweh". He, the authentic navi (prophet) had heard the genuine article, namely, that if Ahab went to war then Israel would be left as "sheep without a shepherd" (1 Ki.22:17), in other words, the king would be killed and Israel defeated.

Well, Ahab foolishly accepted the prediction of his own court nevi'im (prophets) - the false ones - and as assurance in case things went wrong he disguised himself as a regular soldier so that the Syrians would not pick him out as a desirable target. But as you know, a certain Syrian fired an arrow 'randomly' into the throng of the Israelite army and without realising it he killed King Ahab. The point being this: that all the human efforts in the world cannot thwart the Davar Elohim (Word of God). It's impossible. Because the Davar (Word) pursues its way unerringly towards its fulfilment and the proclamation of it by a navi (prophet) simply helps it on its way.

Now as you know charismatics have a very different view of prophecy and the prophetic, a false, heretical view. The 'word of faith' ones in particular believe that someone born again and baptised in the spirit becomes (in the words of its leaders) 'a godlet' and because of this great position of honour bestowed, he simply has to declare a 'word' with his lips and it has real power. He believes as a little godlet Yahweh has authorised him to bring something into existence out of nothing. For them, their 'prophets' are therefore more than mere 'instruments', or a means, of delivery - they actually believe they have the power to command Elohim (God) to do something and He has to do it - this is not unlike the teaching of the Talmudic rabbis. This is a major delusion and is a feature of occultism. Those practicing these satanic arts, empowered as they are by demons, really believe in this lie. Whatever it is, it isn't Christian/Messianic!

Listen to Kenneth Copeland and other 'word of faith' teachers like him. Some of you may remember, in a frenzied spirit and with a crazed look in his eyes, how he 'ordered' Corona virus to be destroyed through the 'godlet' power he believed he possessed? It didn't work, of course, did it? He prophesied that his 'word' would end the pandemic. Yet his hypnotised followers continue to believe in and follow him.

Do you remember how the same wild clan of false teachers were declaring that Donald Trump would be re-elected to a second term and how that spectacularly failed, in spite of all the vote-rigging? The point is, Yahweh did not intend Trump to serve a second term in office because the first term was a fixed period of grace given by Him to allow America and the world one last chance to repent before the Penultimate Judgment was unleashed. And it has now been unleashed. We are in the midst of a complete corporate communist take-over. The fact that lots of charismatic 'prophets' wanted Trump to be re-elected, or thought he deserved to be elected, was entirely besides the point. It isn't our business to set the prophetic agenda. And now we have a clown-king, a puppet president barely able to comport himself because of advancinmg dementia, as president of the United States because Yahweh willed it, and for a purpose those false nevi'im (prophets) completely failed to discern because their own agenda, with their limited understaning of the Divine Plan, was what dominated and twisted their thinking.

This year (2021), as thousands of years ago, there were true nevi'im (prophets) and false ones. The word of the false prophets had no dynamic, no power, and it missed its mark entirely. Only the true nevi'im (prophets) were vindicated, as Micaiah was in his day. The false nevi'im (prophets) were the first to be exposed and sifted out in spite of their vain attempts at damage control. How many of you believed them or promoted them? How many of you were plastering their prophecies in your Facebook accounts and elsewhere. Oh my, you need to repent and seriously question your discernment, and ask why you were deceived! This can't be brushed under the carpet now, as so many false prophecies have been in the past, because this is a time of accounting. The metaphorical carpets are going to be pulled up and a spotlight thrown on all the fakery of those false spirits deceiving millions that they are the 'Holy Spirit'! You need to get your brooms out and thrash those carpets hard!

So back to reality and emet (truth). Generally-speaking, the Davar Elohim (Word of God) may be a davar (word) or comfort and consolation, as in Isaiah 40-55, but far more frequently it is a word of Judgment upon Israel or Judah or even upon foreign nations. I have no doubt the ancient nevi'im (prophets), like the authentic modern ones, enjoyed their task of an impelling judgment on the wicked nations seeking to destroy their own. Speaking for myself, it gives me enormous pleasure hearing Yahweh pronounce judgment on the unrepentant wicked - the murderers, child-molesters, rapists, liars, deceivers and the like - whose day has come because they have crossed that final line preventing them from turning back. But then, as now, when the Davar (Word) was directed against their own nations and their fellow countrymen, and more especially the chosen people of Elohim (God), it caused the true nevi'im (prophets) unspeakable grief, it went against the grain to utter words of doom against their own nations because they knew in speaking these words they were helping bring the prophecy to pass. Yet this is what their duty compelled them to do. This is why a navi (prophet) in such a situation always feels such a strong sense of compulsion as we recall in the case of Jeremiah:

"But if I say, 'I will not mention Him (Yahweh)
or speak any more in His Name,'
His davar (word) is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot'" (Jer.20:9, NIV).

I have experienced this many times, however annoying it has been to my listeners, and yet when the things spoken come to pass, there is usually no further complaining or resentment because by then the truth has become self-evident. Then people really start getting confidence in the Davar (Word). Yahweh's Davar (Word) will go out, no matter what people believe or think; and if a true navi (prophet) refuses to speak it, for whatever reason, Yahweh will compell him to speak it until he does. So it was with the navi (prophet) Jonah when he refused to call Nineveh to repentance because he hated the Assyrians so much, and was even more upset when the city did repent, when he wanted fire to come down from heaven to destroy it to vindicate his rage, much like those first talmidim (disciples) of Yah'shua (Jesus) who wanted to call fire down on Samaria for failing to welcome Him (Lk.51-55).

Many of the prophetic sayings of this nature with which we are familiar are prefaced by the so-called 'Messenger Formula', that's to the say, by the words, "This saith the LORD" or better, "This is what Yahweh has said".

However, just because a man believing Himself to be a prophet because he feels a sudden rush of energy when he thinks of something he believes to be inspired, or great certainty because of that 'rush', does not necessarily make it so. Self-confidence is not a validation measurement of prophethood. Emotions do not necessarily equal truth, and more often than not they don't. The heart is a deceptive thing (Jer.17:9). Though many of those who deliberately and maliciously cultivate false prophecy do not feel such things because they're wantonly deceptive, most of the sincere but misguided and uncalled ones actually do experience them, deceived as they are by lying, fleshy spirits, which also 'call' them to be nevi'im (prophets) too, oftentimes tickling their pride and the fleshy wish to be famous.

And this is the problem: when the authentic tradition has died out, when there are no longer any genuine nevi'im (prophets) from whom authentic prophecy, and the spirit thereof, is to be actually heard, there is no reference point for those wondering but not knowing. Elisha had Elijah to be tutored by. But who tutored Elijah? And who was the first-called navi (prophet)? These are questions we must yet answer, for as I have already said in earlier sermons, there were bands of authentic nevi'im (prophets) of old, but so, as we have also seen, there were false bands. And even the false ones have a 'hit rate', if I can call it that, because of either pure chance or demonically-provided 'inside information' gleaned from monitoring true nevi'im (prophets) who have already spoken out their message aloud to someone.

A clue as to how to discern between the true and false must surely be from living examples in our own time, and I am thinking here primarily, in very recent times indeed, of the insistant, confident and triumphant 'Trump will definitely get a second term as president of the United States on 20 Januaryu 2021' prophecies. You've all heard these so they are fresh in your memories and are useful to study. What did all these self- and denominationally-acclaimed 'prophets' have in common? They were nearly all 'Pentecostal' or 'charismatic', claiming to be 'Spirit-filled' with 'tongues' being the evidence of such; but every single one of them were Torah-rejecting and therefore disobedient, picking and choosing with mitzvot (commandments) to accept or reject as their feelings led them, feelings generated by either the flesh or the demonic entities driving their life of 'spirit-filling' and 'tongues'. These things are what nearly every single one of them had in common and about which I have been warning people for the last 40 years. But those possessing these false anointings are so intoxicated by them, so utterly sold out on them, that they will never listen to the true nevi'm (prophets) without concrete evidence that they were misled - deceived - and in many cases it will require utter humiliation. Right now they are holding out in the hope that the 'Biden phenomen' is temporary and that Trump will serve a second term in 2024. But that isn't what they originally said. They said that Trump would be re-inaugurated on 20 January, that 'the LORD' had told them it would be so, and they overwhelming 'felt' it emotionally that it would be so (because that is what they passionately wanted), and he wasn't. They absolutely had spoken, and did speak, falsely. Part of their self-justification now is redefining what prophecy is and that is why I have to give you this careful biblical instruction now.

But there is a lot more to be said about true nevi'im (prophets) and true prophecy which can appear mystifying to those who will not strictly follow the Scriptures. That is why kerygma - pure, accurate, truthful preaching of the Davar (Word), such as I am attempting to do this morning - must preceed charismata (the showy gifts). You see, charisma is not emet (truth) - it must first be coupled to kerygma or preaching (which is why the Cessationists get things all mixed up too and why there are so many denominations of them, just like the charismatics). When Kerygma and Charisma are dancing together, as they must, Kerygma must always be in the male leadership rôle. Charisma is a female, intuitive, impulsive sort of thing, and must be led or steered. Do you see the importance once again of divine tavnith (pattern) and order?

And the important rôle of Torah, the original Divine Instruction of our Heavenly Father which evangelical charismatic continuationists and kerygmatic cessationists are so keen to side-step....typically in the name of 'liberty' and 'freedom'...must be spotlighted continually. It's our primary source of written emet (truth), the Davar (Word). It prepares us to receive and contain the revelation of the Davar/Miltha/Logos (Word), the living Messiah! Yet the kind of 'freedom' and 'liberty' evangelicals typically speak of leads to anarchy, to lawlessness, and we all know who the "lawless one" is (2 Thes.2:8-9). Biblical liberty is all about the deliverance from the slavery and imprisonment of sin unlike the world's perversion of it which is pretty much all about the 'freedom' doing whatever you want or libertinism. Time and time again I encounter this lawless spirit, propelled by charisma, that tries to make 'freedom in Christ' to be something else.

Forgive me for hammering this out so insistently and repetitively but it is vitally important that the Remnant get this understanding right if we are to take the next important steps in the restoration of the fullness of what John in the Book of Revelation calls "the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth - to every nation, tongue, tribe and people" (Rev.14:6, NKJV), for how else will they truly be able to say with clean hearts and consciences:

"Fear Elohim (God) and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water" (Rev.14:7, NKJV).

So to summarise: When a true Torah-obedient and (in the New Covenant) Messiah-trusting navi (prophet) declares, "This is what Yahweh has said" ("Thus saith the LORD"), he must at once pass on the message to the people (and not flee as Jonah tried) for whom the message is intended, speeding Yahweh's Davar (Word) on its way.

So how do you distinguish a navi's own davar (word) and Yahweh's particular Davar (Word)? And can the two run side-by-side in the same way that Kerygma and Charisma are locked in a dance led by Kerygma? Certainly, if they are in full agreement. Take Amos 5:1-3 where we read:

"Hear this Davar (Word) which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:

The virgin of Israel has fallen;
She will rise no more.
She lies forsaken on her land;
There is no one to raise her up.

"For thus has Yahweh-Elohim spoken:

The city that goes out by a thousand
Shall have a hundred left,
And that which goes out by a hundred
Shall have ten left to the house of Israel" (NKJV).

In the first two verses Amos himself describes the situation as he sees it in a lamentation (a passionate expression of grief) which is basically his conceptualisation and expression of his own feelings of what Yahweh first said which he then injects in verse 3, and goes on to threaten the decimation of the Israelite armies. You can find more examples of this interaction between the navi's (prophet's) own thoughts and feeling and Yahweh's in Isaiah 1:21-23 & verses 24-26, and again in Isaiah 18:1-3 & verse 4, which I will leave you to read afterwards if you want to follow up on this. What this importantly means is that the navi (prophet) is not simply the unthinking mouthpiece of Yahweh. His own personality and consciousness play a rôle and part in his work. Into his own reflections about the contemporary separation he injects the Davar Elohim (Word of God).

Finally, remember this: It is Yahweh the Father who speaks first, the navi (prophet) echoing his Davar (Word) and not the other way round. The navi (prophet) never tells Yahweh what to do! Woe unto the navi (prophet) who does not know, and is not submitted to, the Father's Torah (Law, Teaching), for if He is not, how on earth will He ever hear the Son? For

"...the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does...that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent Him" (John 5:19-20,23, NIV).

The New Covenant navi (prophet) has these words burned into his soul for he knows He must honour the Father's Torah in the same way he honours the Son's Besorah (Gospel, Good News)) because they are intimately connected - they cannot be separated! That is why all true believers and all true nevi'im (prophets) - that is to say, the Remnant, the Bride,

"...sing the song of Moses (the Torah), the servant of God (Elohim), and the song of the Lamb (the Besorah/Gospel), saying:

'Great and marvelous are Your works,
Yahweh-Elohim (Lord God) Almighty (the Father)! Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones)!
Who shall not fear You, O Yahweh, and glorify Your Name?
For You alone are qadosh (holy, set-apart).
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested'"


(Rev.15:3-4, NKJV)

Consequently - and you charismatics and those of those disposed towards occultism without necessarily realising it - for all the power that there is in the davar (prophet), it is never magical in its effects. IT CAN NEVER COMPEL YAHWEH TO ACT! You cannot get Him to do your will as you might a geni released from a bottle! The navi (prophet) is utterly dependent on Yahweh and if he hears no davar (word) he has nothing to say. What he must do is "stand in the Council of Yahweh to see (vision) or hear His Davar (Word)" (Jer.23:18). And that "Council" or assembly, from whence he gets his authority, which it in turn gets from Elohim (God), is the Council of Yah's Elohim which is another way of saying the Divine Council or the Heavenly Council about which, in my experience, nearly all keygmatics (cessationists) and charismatics (continuationists) are wholly ignorant because it is a Heavenly Fellowship that most of them - the false prophets - were never a part of before they were born.

You see, the nevi'im (prophets), like Jeremiah, before they were born, were members of this Council, and remain members if they have not fallen away and perverted their gift. What most of these kerygmatics or charismatics do is confuse the 'Council' (assembly) with the 'counsel' (to give or receive advice, to have a consultation). A navi (prophet) must have stood in the Council before he can receive, and give, Elohim's (God's) counsel to the world. All of them are men with a shem tov or good name (Is.4:1). If he hasn't stood in that Council, he isn't called to be a navi (prophet), let alone an Elijah Prophet. Only if he was a member of that Council before he was born, and remains in good standing before it in mortality, can he stand before the people and give to them "the Davar Yahweh" - the Word of Yahweh.

Tomorrow I welcome you back for this year's second Rosh Chodesh assembly and the beginning of this year's annual Jericho March for a special message. Next week we shall return to this important theme of the nevi'im (prophets). May Yahweh bless you and fill you with all truth in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen

Endnotes

[1] Also see Psalm 148:5; Amos 9:6; Jonah 4:6; Isaiah 41:4; 45:12; 48:13

Acknowledgments