103 What is a Prophet?

What is a prophet?

A prophet usually isn't invited to hold a speech by the prestigeous, nor to hold a sermon in front of your Southern Baptist congregation on Sunday morning (as much as one or the other preacher may think of himself as such).

A prophet doesn't hold "improve your life" seminars or fancy workshops.

A prophet is never popular. Otherwise Jesus would have lied, when He said, "The servant is not above the master. If they have hated Me, they will hate you also."

A prophet is the one guy out of 400 others that you don't want to hear. There were 400 false prophets during Jeremiah's day who foretold that Jerusalem wasn't going to fall into Babylonian hands. Only Jeremiah preached otherwise, and was thrown in the dungeon. Only Jeremiah was right, though, and was pulled out on the dungeon on behalf of the conquering Babylonians.

A prophet is never a pop star, and a pop star is never a prophet.

A prophet doesn't reap much applause. What does applause mean, from a world that crucifies its saviors, persecutes its prophets and applauds, nay, worships people that make Nero and Caligula look like Bambi and Flower in comparison?

People don't like prophets. True prophets, that is. In fact, they hate'em. They're a thorn in their side. They're the epitome of embarrassment and worse.
They're spots on the sparkling clean vesture of the Great Society, because they're pointing at the blood beneath that cloak, and forecast that society's doom. Who wants to hear about doom when we're having so much fun? Who wants to believe that the world could possibly be as bad as they say, when we've got movies that can make us laugh and cry, and we can get ice cream and custard in any possible flavor you can imagine? When there are people around as wonderful as Oprah?
Who wants to hear about 10.000 starving a day, about Iraqui victims of an unjust war, aborted children, or unjustifiable justifications for torture when things are going this good?

A prophet is the one guy that has the guts to say, "God damn America" while all the rednecks stop their ears and scream with all their might, "No, no, no! God BLESS America!" When that's the one thing even the Almighty simply can't do anymore.

A prophet is the one who weeps while everybody else is still drunk with laughter. He sits in sackcloth and ashes while the rest of the world parties, mesmerized and totally in love with themselves.

A prophet is an idol smasher. He has the audacity to crush that picture of a fake reality, that idol, that image people worship instead of the one true God, and could never be less appreciated for his deed.
He does and says what is the only right thing to do and say, even if no one wants to hear it or insists it's the wrong thing to do or say.
He doesn't go by the status quo. He goes by a different standard. God's.
He does so because he has the audacity to say that God still speaks today, to anyone who'll listen, young or old, because He is not a God of the dead, but of the living.

A prophet is all you wouldn't want to be if your hopes, dreams, ambitions and treasures lie in this world, and something one can only even consider becoming if he sees and knows that all this world has to offer is husks and like ashes between your teeth compared to what the World of tomorrow has to offer.

A prophet isn't moved by the scoffers. Trying to please them would be like betrayal and a slap in his God's face. He considers their opinions but dung that needs to go down into the ground in order to help bring about new life from the ashes of the old.
While everybody else roars the national anthem of the champions, he quietly hums the tune of God.
He is weird. Strange. Different. Disliked. Derided and despised. But never a coward.
Let the pack of the rest of them band together against him, the wolves gnash their teeth and the howls of a million demons threaten him, he still knows that he alone with God is a majority, for "more are they that be with us than they that be with them." (2.Kings 6:16)

A prophet is one who will pray for you to be able to see it (2Kings 6:17).