Y Safle

I wrote this originally for Usenet, 14 years ago. Still pertinent today though.

” The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.”

– Joel 1:1

Joel was one of the so called minor prophets. Minor due to the size of his book, not due to the message he carried. The message of Joel is timeless. In fact, we are not sure when Joel was written. Was he one of the first or one of the last prophets? Who knows. His message was relevant to any time of declension within Israel, and in the same way it is relevant to a time of decline within the church.

Yet Joel did not wake up one morning with a sudden passion to be a prophet. He was not arrested one day with the sudden conviction that Israel was in decline, and promptly walk out and start preaching repentance. Scripture tells us that the word of the LORD came to Joel.

Joel was a man who knew what it was to wait upon God. He must have spent hours of each day in prayer and weeks in fasting. Joel would have been no stranger to intercession, pouring out his soul to the Lord in prayer.

Joel must have enjoyed a remarkably close relationship with God to know his voice. How do I know? Because the office of prophet was not an office that Joel could put on as he would a cloak. The office was given by God, imparted to him from the lips of God.

In the church today we have many “prophets”. Look more closely at these men though. How many of these self proclaimed prophets were given their office by God? What is the mark of a true prophet?

A prophet does not “strut his stuff” at conferences. He does not stand on national television and proclaim he is a prophet used by God. He does not seek reward upon earth. No, a true prophet is one who is rejected by men. He is ridiculed or beaten down. Rejected and despised.

Name one biblical prophet that was not.

A true prophet is also an intercessor whose walk with God is so close that when God speaks to him he will be able to stand up and say “The word of the LORD came to me.” He will not say “I think God says this”, and most importantly of all, he will never be wrong.

Joel was never wrong. His prophecies were the words of God spoken through him. If Joel had prophesied without God having spoken to him then he would have been in error, and he would have been killed, for such was the lawful penalty of all false prophets.

A woman in the Hebrides prophesied during the 1950′s revival on those islands. She said that Duncan Campbell would preach on her island and there would be revival. Mr Campbell disagreed but the woman merely said:

“If you were as close to God as you should be, you would hear His voice too.”

Mr Campbell accepted the rebuke and preached on the island and revival erupted that very night.

What of us? Are we close enough to God to know his voice? Are we patient enough to await his word? Are we courageous enough to enter the battle? are we adults in Christ who are willing to wrestle with God in prayer until he blesses us? Are we willing to be made vulnerable by Him?

Jacob wrestled with God until God would bless him (and in the process God made him vulnerable). So can we wrestle with Him in prayer. So must we.

This world knows only a sick church which is more interested in profits then prophets. We have spiritual mentors who adulterate the word with an “airy fairy” gospel which Paul would have disowned at once. The church is ill from its own ease, being lukewarm in its affection for the risen Saviour, paying him lip-service but never prayer service.

Before you throw up hands in horror and flame me for these words, I beg you to read accounts of past blessing. Read of revivals in the church and the way God was with us at those times. Compare the spirituality of those people with our own spirituality. Think about your church prayer meeting and answer me this: When was the last time your whole church gathered together for prayer?

I do not say what I say with venom. I feel no bitterness towards the church, for I am a part of the depravity of the current time. Nevertheless, we can surely never be complacent with our dead formalism or our over- emotionalism. There is an undeniable lack of depth in the church. I repeat, it is undeniable.

Joel must have wrestled with God over feeble and fallen Israel. We must now wrestle with God over the feeble and fallen church.

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