What Do You Call Work?

Specifically, holy work?

Certainly prophets, priests, missionaries...these do work we call holy.

But I'm thinking specifically on those we call prophets, the ones who are called to publicly address the re-setting of the natural course of the river that flows from the throne of God, men and women who do this work because God calls for the course change and they are intimate enough with God to be given the vision of that change. One of the greatest ploys Satan ever managed to make effective in the Church of the Bride is his bid to convince believers that this sort of prophecy no longer operates. Everything that needed to be said has been said already, so why do we need modern-day prophets and apostles to hold up signs indicating God's call to a different course. Why do we need them to remind us that He said there would be an "unusual act" out there somewhere. Never mind that modern-day prophets do not contradict that everything needing to be said has been said as they, too, hold the Holy Book out as evidence supporting these "new things" God is doing. No, these offices atrophy under the vast auspices of the pastoral calling, and we are told this is the fitting pattern for this dispensational era.

Really, now??

These philosophers would tell you that a prophet today could do little more than stretch out his arms and shout, "Just keep doing what you're doing! Listen to your pastor, as he's getting it all exactly right and his office is after all the only one left of any direct-link to the heart of God. Never mind that even King David needed a prophet to hold him accountable before God. Never mind that Peter needed Paul in the office of a "sent one" on the Lord's behalf in the heart of Peter. Rather, we say to you, 'Way to go! Keep heading the direction common sense, your pastor, and the latest book of tips and techniques tell you to go! Particularly, let's just keep on with what's made sense to us for the last 2000 years. That's a boat no true prophet should feel compelled to rock. Not if he's hearing from God!"

Really, now??

No where is a prophet called to such a message. God doesn't "design" someone to come down and say that. What he fashions someone to step up and say is the very thing common sense wouldn't bring into being. When He wants to "do a new thing" He tells of it first through a prophet. Hence, the dilemma in the life of the prophet, because when you get right down to it, people don't want God to do new things. They want to smile and nod about His immutability, His unchangeable ways, and they want to believe we're both on the same page, talking around the same topic. But we're not. And because we're not, Jesus' words are confirmed when he says that if we wouldn't actually kill the prophets today, we'd at least bury them, i.e. bury what they had to say about any new work God might be about to do, even now.

But many would balk at my saying this. "What are you talking about? Don't we pour over the lives of the prophets in our Bible reading every day? Don't we quote them, even memorize their words and quote them?"

OK. I'll grant that. But let's consider whether that Bible we quote could have happened if we had been the landscape wherein it was written. Could it have been created--literally--on "our property" that is designated as holy unto God? Let's make a list of those whose work would be censored right out of existence if it were actually happening now, shall we?

1) Ezekiel would be a goner. For one thing, he was extremely callous at his own wife's death. For another, he cooked his meat over animal dung--even though he said that God made a concession to his sense of purity as he couldn't bring himself to do what God wanted, which was cook over human dung. We would never accept a priest who said he "heard from God" that he should practice acts of impurity were such impurity translated into modern-day equivalents. Nor would we be at ease with that lack of compassion or even culturally acceptable personal feeling over his wife's demise. Was he really so able to be naught but a sign and a wonder? Or were some sociopathic tendencies slipping through a good facade? Let's give him the boot just for good measure and thank God for revealing the truth to us about that one!
2) Isaiah, would we really let him wander around our campus naked for three years? For three minutes? Especially if he said he did it as a sign from God. He's got his walking papers.
3) Elijah? Shacking up with that widow and her kid during the drought? What ever happened to staying away from all appearances of evil? (You're nit-picking if you say, "Yes, but that was a New Testament edict.")
4) Elisha? Too lacking in tact and diplomacy with people who are outside influences. Consider how he snubbed Naaman. Wouldn't even afford that foreign dignitary the common courtesy of a personal appearance when the guy came to see him, just sent him a message. A terrible offence. We can't afford the likes of him putting our "community reputation" in jeopardy that way.
5) How about the guys that are not so big-league? Better screen them, too. Hosea is out. Marrying a whore, for goodness sake? And when she runs off, and we breathe a sigh of relief, counsel him compassionately that it was God's intervention; but he runs after her anyway. He brings her back, plops her down in the middle of us, and says, 'Let's try this again.' Would we not maybe say, "You know, God gave you a second chance and you were so pig-headed about this particular woman that you lost all your good sense of how to serve God with your life. She's obviously become your God." You think we wouldn't take that point of view?
6) And then there is Abraham, the forefather of us all who call ourselves children of God. What if he preached to us that something was an abomination to the Lord in the days when he himself couldn't possibly be tempted by it, but as soon as he was in circumstances where he could commit that offense, he turned 180 degrees and began to say God called him to it? Is this not exactly what those around Abram faced when he led them away from a land whose people worshipped the moon by sacrificing their children. Did the lack of child sacrifice in his own company not support the idea that they walked under a doctrine that disapproved such acts? He surely condemned such a thing as child sacrifice when he had no child of his own, but once he had sons, did he not change his tune, saying this very act of child sacrifice was the call of God on him: how would we receive that seeming change of heart in worship and service? Would we say God's character was compromised? Would we say Abraham's was? Would we see it as a leap of faith on Abraham's part or as an act of gross backsliding into a domain of sin that only then could really tempt him?

And if we would even send Abraham away without acknowledging his faith, then whose seed are we?

In the words of the modern work-world visionary Peter Drucker: "So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work."
How difficult would we make the work of the prophets should they spring up in this day, writing Your word under our world-management?
Would we even have a Bible if it depended on us to receive those through whom God sent His word? Do we know what it means to honor that parcel of the law that reminds us to be circumspect with regards to anything touching the Sabbath?

You see, it all comes back to that holy-work idea. In every one of these situations, we are forced to consider what Jesus calls the work of the Father: that work which is not about the things temporal or naturally sensible, but rather a work that touches things eternal and full of the mystery of a higher mind whose ways and plans are beyond man's natural expectations.
Consider Christ's words in John 6:

26 Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."
28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

May we begin again, O Lord, to believe in Your "sent ones" so You can renew the days when we truly do Your work alongside You!