Prophets and Their Home Towns.

By Kerry Korr

This article is a bit of a sequel to an article entitled: Receiving a Man of God. That article more or less, was an admonition for home towns to receive the man of God who already exists within their midst. This article targets the unwelcome prophet in his home town, with an instruction to be that man of God to his own people.

"If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?" (1Tim.3:5)

OK, before you discard this article, because I know a lot of you are hurting; consider the company you are in. God told Ezekiel he was sending him to a stubborn and rebellious nation, so he would make Ezekiel as hard headed as they were. (Eze.2:3-9) I am not going to take the time to count how often the book of Jeremiah records offences against the prophet. Moses , well, how would you like to have been Moses? He was a rich kid, then he was banished from Egypt, then God sent him back to defy brother Pharaoh and deliver Israel.

And then when he did, all they did was complain, and go their own way! Nah, you're in good company, as an unwelcome prophet in the midst of his own people. Let me pause at this point to mention to the gender sensitive reader, girls are included in every word of this article, with a complete lack of prejudice, and they will find themselves every bit as unwelcome as any man. Please, all of you, forgive offence, and read on.

He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous

man's reward. And if anyone gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. ( Mt.10:40-42)

And they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them: "Only in his home town and in his own house is a prophet without honour." And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

(Mt.13:57-58)

Mark 6:4 records reference to relatives. Among relatives a man of God is not received. In his home town, among his family, even in his own house; where he has become 'old news'; is a man of God received without honour. Yet the guy from out of town, the fresh face; is received with open arms. This is a true principle that even in the secular business world; is well known. The adage goes: "tonight's expert is a guy from another town who does the same thing I do, and says the same thing I say; but because he is a fresh face, and you are not intimate with his faults, you will receive him."

As this word was forming in my ability to perceive it; the Lord kept reminding me that we are made in his image. People are made in the likeness of God! He kept saying this phrase: "

When you recognize your offences against your brother, know this: he is made in my likeness, and possesses the same long-suffering and grace and forgiveness that I do." God's children have his same genetic make up. They are made in his likeness, and have His Spirit, and His love! You are made in his likeness. Forgive! Forgive seven times seventy times! Forgive them all! (Mt.6:14-15; 18:21-22, 35; and

Col.3:13)

An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city, and disputes are like the barred gates of the citadel. (Prov.18:19)

Jesus compared offences against one another with murder! And in light of "receiving a man or woman of God, it's the same as killing, to allow an offence to interfere with the free exchange of each supporting link within the body! (Eph.4:15-16)

As the man of God, do not let the neutralization effect of offence stop with your unforgiveness! Do not permit anything on your part to permit their salvation to be snatched away.

For he came to his own, but his own received him not. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God; children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. (Jn.1:11-13)

Sure, they need to receive you in order to receive what God put in you for them, but you must not commit Onan's sin of withholding what God put in you to give. (Gen.38:9-10) You have within you the seed of destiny, like the story of Judah there in Genesis, and his sons who would not partake in sowing the very seed of Christ! Jesus was inside their sowing. David was inside their sowing. They refused to participate in their destiny, the salvation of the whole world; which

was a natural part of their every day life. They needed to do that right there where they lived, and because they refused, they perished. (First Er, then Onan) The name Er means: 'watcher'. He

didn't do anything, he just stood back and watched as his destiny passed him by. Onan means: 'powerful, intense, strong'. He had an ego, and thought his destiny would come about by his own means, or strength; instead of the gift of God. Right there in his own midst, he despised his own destiny from God and withheld himself from his own!

If God had meant for you to sow seed somewhere else, he would have put you there. You would have been born into a different house. You would find yourself in an entirely different set of circumstances. So often, we chase all over the place searching for the will of God, moving here, moving there, etc. He put you right in the middle of the families and circumstances that he wants you to minister to. Stop running around, as though you were dissatisfied with the portion he gave you, and take joy in what God has done for you! If you cannot express the love of God to those in your midst, what makes you think you can express the genuine love of God anywhere else? You, in your rejected state, wind up drinking of the same cup, and reject your brother, sharing in his offence against you. Oh my God! Help us to love one another! (Eph.6:1-10) Help us to love the place that you have prepared for us!

God very definitely uses 'out of town' ministries effectively. That is one of the things that he made, and made well! But we must have completeness in our familial relationships at the local level, and continue to minister to one another effectively! That is why there are so many instructions in the New Testament about how to properly relate to one another. Above all, we must continue to receive one another as men and women of God.

To do that, sometimes we have to ignore glaring evidence to the contrary, and believe what God has spoken. Sometimes, in relating to another person, we have to embrace the "hidden Christ in them", because there is no evidence of anything greater.

"...anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward..."

How are we righteous? Only by God's declaration, and by faith. God declared: The righteous shall live by faith. And we know that: "there is none righteous, not one". We are declared righteous through faith in Jesus. The whole first eight chapters of the book of Romans details the way this works. Of particular importance in these passages are the following: Rm.1:16-17, Hab.2:4, Mt.3:21-24.

We can not, we must not rely on our human perception. What God has declared is much more powerful than what we can see in our flesh! We must see one another as God sees us, and embrace his declaration: "It will happen that in the very place where it is said to them, 'you are

not my people', they will be called; 'sons of the living God.'"

(Rm.9:26 [Hos.1:10])

Joel says: Let the priests who minister before the Lord weep between the temple porch and the alter. Let them say: "Spare your people, Oh Lord. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples,

'Where is their God?'" (Joel.2:17)

God himself says in Ezekiel: Rid yourselves of all the offences you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live! (Eze.18:31-32)

It is not a delight that the disobedient die! It is grieving and cause for great mourning. It is cause for those who love one another in the Lord to do everything they can to restore one another to

grace! God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. Love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says "I love God", yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: "Whoever loves God, must also love his brother." (1Jn.4:16b-21)

The key is to love one another! It is to know each other after the Spirit! (1Jn.3:24) (1Jn.4:1-6) The key to both a young warrior and an old warrior surviving on the battlefield that they are fighting in together, is that they love each other in the way that is described in 1Cor.13:4-7. That love has a singleness of focus that is united, not in skill levels, nor by strength, nor by wisdom; but by a determination to succeed together and defeat the enemy. They watch one another in practice, and observe one another's moves. They watch each other in battle and look for opportunity to render aid either by assisting, or by getting out of the way! They learn one another's strengths and weaknesses, and rely on help from the other's strength, and render aid to cover the other's weakness.

We are the people of the Lord, his sons, his children. We must understand his ways! If we do not receive one another as unto the Lord, we lose out on the good gift that God has put inside our brother for our support and edification. We begin to get weak, and cannot see.

Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1Jn.2:10-11)

Embrace the man of God in your brother that you see every day.

Embrace that thing in him every day. Let the prophet in your midst say to you what he sees, day to day. Let the righteous man minister purity and righteousness to you each day! Do not let familiarity detract from what God has put right in your midst! Do not let offences against you, stop you from stepping into your own destiny!

Kerry W. Knorr