The prophets message is a word of the Lord that has become a burden upon the soul or a fire shut up in the bones, an anguish or travail. The moment a prophet is full of the Holy Spirit to declare unto Jacob his transgression and Israel his sin. The fire constrains and consumes him and his generation persecutes him. Who is truly operating as the voice of God in this hour? Learn to recognize the signs of a true prophet of God. And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. Numbers 12:6 The prophets, to whom the Spirit of prophecy is a Spirit of revelation. Shall I hide from Abraham, who is a prophet, the thing which I do? Gen. 18:17. God will therefore be sure to reckon with those that put contempt on the prophets, whom he puts this honour upon. 2. The prophets cannot but make that known to the people which God has made known to them The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy? His prophets, to whom he has spoken in secret by dreams and visions, cannot but speak in public to the people what they have heard from God. They are so full of those things themselves, so well assured concerning them, and so much affected with them, that they cannot but speak of them; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. I believed; therefore have I spoken, Acts 4:20. Nay, and besides the prophetic impulse which went along with the inspiration, and made the word like a fire in their bones (Jer. 20:9), they received a command from God to deliver what they had been charged with; and they would have been false to their trust if they had not done it. Necessity was laid upon them, as upon the preachers of the gospel, 1 Co. 9:16. Register Now!
