CULTURE
PROPHETS - REVISITED
How Do I Recognize and Die to
Culture Prophecy?
Following are other examples of culture prophecies mixed with exhortations and teachings that are common to today's prophetic movement.
I. Responses in the aftermath of September 11
The first example is from a nationally renowned prophetic ministry whose intercessory gift and insight into heavenly realms I respect and believe to be of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it helps to piece together a trail of prophecies to catch the scent of their nature. That is the case here. Following is a string of prophecies (or just their titles) with dates as reported by the Elijah List. The calls to prayer and fasting are for averting national tragedies regarding terrorism in America (bold emphasis is mine):
Sept 11: CRISIS PRAYER DIRECTIVES - APOSTOLIC COUNCIL OF PROPHETIC ELDERS
Sept 16: "This will be a time that I will empty the pockets of this nation," saith the Lord. "Do not fear the emptying of the pockets for I have caused deep pockets from past avenues of supply to come into this land. Fear not the emptying of the pockets for once the pockets are emptied, I will begin to fill them new and fresh, for I have new strategies of supply. Fear not the emptying of the pockets of this nation for the garment that it has on now that has stored supply for such a time as this will not be the garment that will be worn in days ahead. For I will put new garments on my people, then I will refill their pockets with the supply to advance into harvest. Until now, the garment worn has not had pockets filled for harvest. But I am awakening My people and this nation to Harvest."
Sept 21: STRATEGIC INTERCESSION FOR THIS WEEKEND, PRAY FOR SEPTEMBER 22, SPIRIT OF ACCUSATION IS LOOSED
Oct 16: THE NEXT EIGHT DAYS—THRU OCTOBER 22—ARE CRITICAL
Oct 25: 1. I've had several prophets and intercessors send out an alert concerning Washington DC.....We must pray for our nation's Capital the next three weeks. Ask God for a cleansing so "no disease" can take root and sweep this city and region. Several have picked up on a planned attack on the city. 2. Pray for the President of the United States and the Cabinet. 3. Pray for our soldiers and their families. 4. Pray for your airports, especially the nearest hub to you. 5. Water conduits. The Lord alerted me this morning to this. 6. Bind the enemy from your street. Actually go down to the end of your street or your apartment entrance or whatever, and anoint it with oil and declare the enemy forbidden to enter in. Bind disease from coming in your mail. Declare that the germs will actually be killed if they enter your street. 7. Pray for the largest bank in your area. Pray for the banking system. 8. Pray for the protection of bridges. 9. Pray for the four largest populated areas in your state. 10. Pray for any ship channel that is in your region. Have a watchful eye! Be polished! Be sharp! Be bold!
I am personally a firm believer in prophetic intercession. But while the Lord calls us to prophetic intercession, if that intercession has no greater context than this life, it becomes culture prophetic. Taken together, this string of prophetic urgings bears many telltale marks of culture prophecy. First, its urgings are feverish and reactive. Second, they are time focused to the point of oppressiveness. Together, they emanate a sense of "prophetic worry" totally in response to the enemy's agenda. Their effect is to create a prophetic tyranny of the urgent that reinforces the cares of this life as our ultimate reference point. That sense of urgency and alarm is rooted solely in this temporal concern, not with respect to anyone's eternal destiny. In the context of this urgency, and similar to the "Christmas" prophecy we looked at, The Sept. 16 prophecy above coddles our worry for American money—a sort of back-handed admission that the church really links its sense of dependence on the Lord to the state of an earthly economy. The Oct. 25 exhortation has a flailing effect—one that leaves us with a breathless sense of impending doom if we do not follow through to do every one of these things. Having no greater context, its only purpose is to preserve natural life for the sake of preserving natural life in as many ways as possible, dependent upon us no less.
Conclusion: this string of prophetic exhortations is rooted in ultimate concern for preserving natural life for its own sake, thereby reinforcing our love of this world. It is culture prophetic.
II. American identification teachings
The next two examples come from the same prophetic teaching article as released by the Elijah List on Jan. 7, 2002. The author is a forefront name in the prophetic movement, one whom I have respected for his great wisdom and profound insight in many areas, but one who over the last decade has increasingly followed the road to culture prophecy. This is evidenced through his deepening application of prophetic realities toward the imaginary end of sanctifying human cultures and adamic lineages of people. Two excerpts are selected here to make two separate but related points. The first is a commentary on the terrorist mindset (emphasis mine):
"It will be much better for us the more we realize that we are fighting a very patient enemy that is now planning for years down the road. Many think that because they did not hit us hard during this holiday season that they probably no longer have the ability. They do not think that way. They most likely have been focusing more on the next holiday season, or even two years from now, than this one.
"The enemy understands very well that we have a tendency to get mad for a little while, throw a few cruise missiles and bombs, and then turn back to our real concern—the economy. They do not believe we have the patience or resolve to win against them in a long, sustained, war. They have studied the way that Vietnam wore the United States down and they are determined to fight for as long as it takes."
The key words in this selection are the pronouns us, we, and our. The use of these pronouns by a prophet offering political commentary on a human war essentially blurs the identity of the American church and the adamic American nation in which it finds itself, thus reinforcing the church's sense of adamic identity in America.
This blurring is common in the American church at every level, but in the prophetic church it is especially odious. The truth is that "we" as the people of God are NOT America. Nor are the people of God in ANY country OF that nation any longer. But especially is this so of the prophetic people. For not only are the prophets not of this world, but an outstanding feature of the prophetic ministry is its call to highlight the separate uniqueness of the Lord's people from among all other adamic nations and identities. [For more on this, please examine the article Disciple, What Is Your Name?]
But culture prophecy does just the opposite. It uses the words of the Lord to a nation not only to reinforce that nation's own natural self-esteem, but to reinforce the natural identity of His own people, rather than, as Peter said, to save them from the surrounding adamic generation (Acts 2:40). Unfortunately, this prophet's teachings and writings are typical of the prophetic movements' increasingly confused teachings regarding the identity of the Lord's people in this world. It is a good example of culture prophetic teaching.
III. Pro-Israel/America prophecies & teachings
"Just as Ishmael had to be driven out of Abraham's household because of his antagonism toward Isaac, there is still animosity between the sons of Ishmael and Isaac to this day. The nature of Ishmael can be understood as the result of this basic rejection. However, the Lord loves Ishmael, and will make the Arab people a great nation, and likewise a blessing to the whole earth (see Isaiah 19:19-25).
"Assyria in this text includes all of the land from modern Iraq to Egypt, which includes the land of the modern Arab peoples. There will be reconciliation between the descendents of Isaac and Ishmael. Their unity and love for each other will bring a blessing to the whole earth. Satan knows the Scriptures very well, and this is why his number one priority in the world today is to keep the strife going between Israel and her Arab neighbors. Just as their unity can bring a blessing to the whole earth, their division can bring strife to the whole earth.
"One of the best things that can happen is for the reconciliation, which was begun by one of the greatest and most courageous statesmen of all time, Anwar Sadat, to continue between these two peoples that are in fact brothers. To the degree that friendship between them grows, blessings will come to the earth. To the degree that strife between them grows, peace will be taken from the earth. Therefore, keeping this strife going is the enemy's top priority."
Nowhere is the culture prophetic's entanglement in adamic identity more clearly seen than in its pronouncements regarding Israel, the Arabs and the United States' "covenant" relationship with Israel. These pronouncements are anchored in serious misunderstanding and misapplication of Old Testament prophecy regarding peoples and nations. When the New Covenant was initiated, a new order was certified in which all adamic identities—including Jewish—became ultimately irrelevant in the face of Christ.
Beginning with Jesus' confrontations with the Jews in Jn. 6:63; 8:33-47, this truth was expertly propounded by Paul throughout his writings and echoed by the other New Testament writers, all of whom understood that the true people of God is a spiritual people, not aligned with any fleshly nation whatsoever, and that the Old Testament promise to Abraham's seed is to be realized through a spiritual people in Christ out of every people in the earth, including the eventual conversion of many from the original natural seed of Israel.
Culture prophecy does not recognize this divine irrelevancy of human lineage but instead seeks to sanctify it. Indeed, national Israel is as great a stumblingblock to culture prophets as it is to the nations of the world. Culture prophets are wrapped up in a no-win contest over Middle East issues because of their devotion to natural Israeli identity—an identity Paul Himself, a natural Israelite, counted as loss!
In the article above, the writer speaks to the prophetic sanctifying of present flesh and blood identities stemming from Ishmael, even to the point of ascribing praise and righteousness to Egypt's Anwar Sadat. He is teaching that earthly peace can be produced by earthly reconciliations between these lineages. (This is what the United Nations also teaches and is the basis on which the man of sin will be received as the Prince of Peace.)
Yet the truth is that none of these Old Testament prophesied reconciliations can happen until the peoples are converted to the Lord where they lose their esteem in these identities. Peace can only come through conversion and surrender of natural identity to Christ. All other natural "peace plans" between Israel and all other nations prior to the Lord's return and their submission to HIM is a trap over which all nations will come to embrace the man of sin, and thence over whom they will all meet their final defeat (including the United States). In this, the culture blindness of the prophetic movements is unwittingly contributing to the preparation for the revelation of this man.
Nothing here is to say that the Lord does not speak to or about adamic nations as nations. He very much does. But if that Voice is not spoken in context of and with final respect to the superseding truths of the New Covenant regarding natural identities, it is culture prophecy, and it is contributing to the final work of iniquity. [For extensive study of this problem concerning natural Israel, please consult the article Palestine Belongs to the Meek.]