Like Moses, and other prophets, the Lord gave to Jeremiah messages for kings, and for those under them. God gave the messages. He delivered the messages.
The prophetic ministry begins with God. God gives a person grace to enjoy His Word. He gives the wind of His Holy Spirit to empower communication to flow between God and humankind.
The Lord is on a mission to save people. I have enjoyed my most satisfying fellowship with God while serving Him in a missionary fashion. Recently, the Lord has me doing daily prayer walks where I pray for people in accordance with God’s exhortation via His messenger Paul...
“Therefore, I exhort first that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” [1]
An exhortation is a prompting from the Holy Spirit to do something. Isaiah wrote, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.” God’s Spirit prompts us to intercede for people knowing that God does exceedingly abundantly more than what we ask or imagine by His power as we pray for them. [2]
The Holy Spirit directs us to pray for people and for authorities, and then, leads us how to pray for them. The Lord wants people to be saved by coming to the knowledge of the truth about Him. He wants us to live quietly and peaceably in all godliness and reverence.
Receiving God’s messages for people requires being in His Word the Bible and being led by the Holy Spirit. A lack of response from a listener does not necessarily mean a failure on the part of the speaker of God’s Word. For example, God gave to Jeremiah messages for Kings Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. King Zedekiah listened but did not act. King Jehoiakim took Jeremiah’s written words and threw them into a fire. Both of these kings and their people eventually suffered great losses because they refused to listen to God’s Word. People have free will. [3]
God offered guidance to pagan kings through his prophets. Moses spoke to Pharoah King of Egypt! Daniel spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon! Throughout the Book of Acts, God spoke to political and religious authorities via His messengers. [4]
Our Lord Jesus Christ promised that the Spirit of the Father will help us to speak to authorities when that times come for us to do so. “When they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” [5]
Once, God led me to speak to a high official in China about orphans. I had been working with these beautiful children. Then, one day, I was informed that all foreigners were from henceforth prohibited from entrance into China’s orphanages. I was told that my only hope for reentry was to speak with the provincial head of social welfare. I was reluctant to do so because I was also holding Bible studies with university students at that time. I wanted to keep a low profile. However, on my way to the provincial office, I met a child wearing rags for clothing. The child wanted the empty soda can that I was carrying. After I gave it to him, he held it above his mouth and savored the last few drops of soda. Then, the Lord said to me, “This is why you are going before the provincial official today.” Then, I had peace of mind, and my heart that was full and ready to speak up on behalf of the fatherless. Though an armed guard accompanied me into the office of the Provincial Chief of Foreign Affairs, I had no fear. I explained my rationale for my request. When I finished speaking, the answer was, “Yes, you may go.” Praise the Lord!
The Lord spoke to Jeremiah saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” He replied, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.” The Lord responded to him, “Do not say, I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” Then the Lord touched Jeremiah’s mouth with His hand and said to him, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” [6]
The Lord had a purpose for Jeremiah before he was born. He did not have to earn or initiate it, but he did have to believe it. He needed to keep His eyes fixed on the Lord. God’s presence would go with him. God’s grace would fill the gaps between the magnitude of his calling and his insufficiencies. God is greater than kings. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Jeremiah had a voice. God had words. God’s Word, like a seed, begins to germinate once it is sown. His seed uproots, pulls down, destroys, throws down, builds, and plants. The Lord watches over it to ensure that it brings to pass just what He said it would do.
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” [7]
The Lord gave Jeremiah a vision of a blossoming almond tree to say that just as surely as the almond tree blossoms during a particular season of the year His prophetic words would be fulfilled in due season. [8] This is the confidence we have! God fulfils His promises in due season! Our role is to believe and to declare them with boldness and conviction.
Jesus Christ has revealed to us in the Book of Revelation a better Promised Land than the one the Israelites inherited. A new heaven, new earth and a new Jerusalem! He also revealed to us a worse calamity than occurred to the doubting Israelites. A lake of fire burning with brimstone!
The vision of 21st Century Jeremiah is like unto the days of Samuel, Elijah and Elisha when there was schools of prophets! Not a nonprophet organization, but a group of people who see the prophetic writing on the wall. The tribulation that is coming followed by the new heaven and new earth needs to be proclaimed.
Let us take heed to what Jesus said to us in Revelation: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” And “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” [9]
[1] 1 Timothy 2:1-7
[2] Isaiah 30:21; Ephesians 3:20
[3] Jeremiah 36:1-26; Daniel 1:2
[4] Acts 3-28
[5] Matthew 10:19-20
[6] Jeremiah 1:5-10
[7] Isaiah 55:10-11
[8] Jeremiah 1:11-12
[9] Revelation 1:3; 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:9
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