懼怕人帶來對先知性信息的妥協

我們會繼續評估我預言即將臨到西岸災難的方式；當然，這些是從我的觀點來評估，因此會比較主觀。目前，人們控告我說這些預言帶有許多不同的動機，沒有一個我認為是對的，所以我不想要回應他們來為自己辯護。然而，關於我們要如何預期人們回應諸如此類的預言，我認為這些是很好的例子。

我無法瞭解會有任何人想要釋放像我對西岸那樣的預言，除非他們真實看見某事。倘若我可以在其中得著任何好處，我到現在還沒有想到，頂多我會很慘直到預言應驗。我的經驗告訴我當預言應驗時，我也不會贏得更多尊重，很有可能反而更糟。已經有一些人控告我以咒詛帶出這些事件，我感謝他們將我的屬靈權柄看得如此高，但除了神以外，我不認為誰有這樣的能力帶下如此重大的事件。這是從朋友傳來的，所以藉此可以想像我的仇敵在說什麼。

神將預言賜給先知不是為了讓他們交朋友。倘若神賜給你話語或信息，就像我對西岸的領受，你可以指望不但交不到朋友，可能還會失去一些朋友。倘若我們要先知性地被神使用，我們心中需要立刻預備好，我們要討主喜悅而不是討人的喜歡。使徒保羅在加拉太書一章10節寫著：『若仍舊討人的喜歡，我就不是基督的僕人了。』我們若被懼怕人驅使，或渴望討人喜歡，我們就在為主發言上妥協了。

我們可能以為當我們的預言成真了，人們就會開始相信我們，把我們想得比較好。再一次，那並不是我的經驗。聖經上也少有這樣的事。正如我們看到主耶穌自己，當祂預言聖殿被毀後來應驗了，也沒有許多猶太人悔改轉向祂。可能只有少數人這麼做，我相信主就算只為一個人，祂也願意發這樣的預言，並走上十字架。那是祂的本質，祂是好牧人，會留下九十九隻羊，只為出去尋找一隻迷失的羊。這也應該成為我們的本質。

成為主的使者，我們必須心滿意足於領受主的認可，並相信祂所允許的一切結果。結果很有可能是那位使者會受到被差去幫忙之人的射殺。充滿屬地想法或自我野心之人會覺得很糟，剛好可以使他們遠離這樣的事。我在過去二十五年不斷受到攻擊與控告，這一點都不好玩，但一嚐到天堂的滋味，忠心的獎賞使一切都大大值得了。

我們必須持續聚焦在一個事實上：我們的工作就是順服，我們相信在審判日那天一切都會翻轉。我個人嘗試讓自己的動機越簡單越好─就是在那日聽見主說：『好，你這又良善又忠心的僕人』（參考馬太福音25:21）。當我開始思考人們會如何回應某件事，或這會如何影響到我與朋友的關係，反正最後通常會和想的不一樣，所以為何要浪費時間或讓心思游離到那去呢？

因著我過去的經驗，我意識到自己可能變得太疲憊於這方面的事，倘若我是如此，那是不對的。當人們對我表達他們對一些西岸領袖回應這些預言之方式的關切時，我必須向他們承認我也很驚訝，但我的驚訝是還不算太糟。我認為許多人以很大的恩典和敬重來看待此預言，也比我所預期的敞開。我也認為倘若角色對調過來，他們處理的可能比我來得更好。

即便如此，我承認一些西岸的基督徒領袖嘗試對我精神分析確實困擾著我，最後認為我的動機與推理不但沒問題，而且我認為可能剛好與事實相反。那是一個驚喜，特別一些我很熟識的人公開分享這些事而沒有先來找我，他們當中有一些人很難過怎麼我沒有先跟他們分享這些預言，我想這也值得了。我很抱歉對此忽略了，我假定他們聽我分享這麼多年，應該都很留意這些事，但再一次，我假定他們已經聽到信息，事實上他們可能完全沒有聽到。我必須為著那樣的假定負責。 

此外也出乎我意料之外的，我預期會最抵擋這些話的人，例如電影工業和商業團體的領袖，他們的回應像是我所期待最成熟基督徒的回應一樣。他們很真誠敞開的問了一些很好的問題，我則建議他們詢問神，而神也以很戲劇性的方式來回答他們。再一次，我所期待的是來自教會領袖的回應，我卻被拒絕了，但正如一些人所說的，或許最重要的基督教領袖不再是教會領袖了。

從我一成為基督徒開始，我就一直投入地方教會。正如我常教導的，沒有堅固的地方教會關係，我們便嚴重地限制自己基督徒生命的成熟。然而，在聖經所有偉大的信心英雄中，我只能找到四位利未人，就是今日我們所謂的專業神職人員。教會的歷史證實了許多相同的模式，或許今日我們要再次經歷，就是一些最重要的基督教領袖不是教會領袖，而是商業、軍事、政府、教育或其他職業的領袖。

(摘自 喬納 word for the week, Week 35, 2011)


The Prophetic Experiences, Part 11
Fear of Man Compromises the Prophetic Message
Week 35, 2011   

We will continue to evaluate the way I’ve handled giving the word about the impending West Coast disasters. Of course, these are from my perspective, and therefore, are subjective. Presently, I am being accused of having many different motives for giving these words, all of which I do not consider to be true, so I don’t want to answer them just to be defensive. However, I think they are excellent examples of how we can expect people to react to words like this.

I cannot understand why anyone would ever want to give a word like I have about the West Coast unless they really have seen something. If I have anything personal to gain from this, I have not figured it out yet. At best, I will look bad until these come to pass. My experience tells me that when they come to pass, I am not likely to be thought of more highly, and very likely, it will be worse for me. Already some are accusing me of bringing to pass these events with curses. I appreciate that they think so highly of my spiritual authority, but I don’t think anyone has the power to bring about such major events except the Lord. This is coming from friends, so you can imagine what my enemies are saying. 

Prophecy is not given to prophets for them to make friends with. If you have been given a word or message like the one I was given for the West Coast, you can count on it not making you any friends and probably causing you to lose some of them. If we are going to be used prophetically, we need to settle in our hearts right away that we will live to please the Lord and not men. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, “If I were still seeking to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” To the degree that we are driven by the fear of man, or the desire to please men, we have compromised our ability to be a spokesperson for the Lord. 

We may think that when our prophecies come true then people will believe us and think better of us. Again, that has not been my experience. The Scriptures also bear out that this will be rare at best. As we see with the Lord Himself, even when His prophecy about the temple being destroyed came true, not many of the Jews repented and turned to Him. It is possible that a few did, and I think the Lord would have given this word and gone to the cross even for one. That is His nature. He is the Good Shepherd who would leave the ninety-nine to seek out just one who was lost. This should be our nature as well. 

To be a messenger, we have to be satisfied to receive our approval from the Lord and trust Him with the consequences that concern us. There is a high probability that those consequences will be that the messenger is going to get shot at by the very ones they’re sent to help. This looks bad for the earthly-minded, or the selfishly-ambitious, and serves to keep them away. It has not been fun to receive the attacks and accusations that have been constant for me in the last twenty-five years, but one taste of heaven, and the reward for faithfulness will make it overwhelmingly worth it. 

We must keep focused on the fact that our job is obedience, and we will trust that on the Judgment Day all will be made right. I personally try to keep my motives as simple as that—to hear on that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (see Matthew 25:21 NIV). When I start thinking about how people are going to react to something, or even how it might affect my relationship with friends, it usually works out differently anyway, so why waste time or mindshare going there? 

Because of my past experiences, I realize I may have become too jaded, and if I have, that is a flaw. When people have expressed to me their concern about the way some West Coast leaders have responded to these prophecies, I had to admit to them that I too was surprised, but my surprise was that it was not much worse. I thought most handled this with a lot of grace and respect, and far more than I was expecting were open. I also think most handled this probably much better than I might have if the roles had been reversed. 

Even so, I confess to being troubled by some of the West Coast Christian leaders’ attempted psychoanalysis, and the attributing to me of motives or reasons that were not only wrong, but I think are the opposite of the truth. That was a surprise, especially the way some whom I know pretty well shared them publicly without coming to me first. Some of them were upset with me for not sharing these words with them first, and I think there is merit to that, too. I am sorry that I was not much more sensitive to do this. I assumed that after years of hearing some of this from us, they were well aware of it, but then again, I was assuming they had heard messages that they may not have heard at all. I’ll have to take the blame for that assumption.

Also to my surprise, the very ones I was expecting the most resistance from over these words, such as leaders in the movie industry and the business community, have responded like I was expecting only the most mature Christian leaders to respond. They are asking good questions with sincere openness. I have been recommending that they inquire of the Lord about it, and He has been answering them in dramatic ways. Again, this was the response I was expecting to get from church leaders, but as some have been saying for some time, and I have been rejecting, maybe the most important Christian leaders are no longer church leaders. 

For as long as I have been a Christian I have been devoted to the local church. As I often teach, we are severely limited in our Christian maturity without a strong local church relationship. However, out of all of the great heroes of the faith in Scripture, I have only been able to find four who were Levites or today who we would call the professional clergy. Church history bears out much the same pattern. Maybe today we are about to again experience that some of the most important Christian leaders are not church leaders, but are in business, the military, government, education, or a host of other vocations.

If this is the case, who should be the main ones we try to reach with important words?