Let the Lord expose our sin so we can be restored from our captivity

Our calling on the earth is to be Priests of God Most High. This is not widely understood or taught in most modern churches, but it is a biblical truth that we must sooner or later embrace in order to find and fulfill our destiny in the Lord. A priest is someone who ministers or serves the Lord largely on behalf of other people who may not know the Lord as well (be in right relationship with Him). When you ask an older sister in the Lord to pray for you, seek the Lord for a prophetic word for you, or support you in some other spiritual sense, you are asking her in a way to minister to you as a priest. We don’t call it that, but that is the basic idea.

The error of the Nicolaitans in establishing a false hierarchy, artificially separating the “clergy” from the “laity” in the Body has created some of our discomfort with using the term ‘priest.’ In the New Covenant we have through the Lord Jesus, we are ALL called to be priests: men, women and children alike. We are not divided into a special class of ruling ministers and a common class of peasants: No, we are all brothers; joint heirs with none other than Christ Himself. So we are rightfully uncomfortable using the term ‘priest’ if there is some suggestion that only a select few individuals are privileged to minister in this way. This is a right and calling available to all believers.

And as priests we not only help other believers, we even help the unbelievers. Yes, a large part of our calling as priests is to minister on behalf of the unsaved, “the sinners,” as we think of them! Jesus told me one time that I did not really understand His Kingdom—that it was also for the unsaved—it is ministered THROUGH the Sons, but it is supposed to give light, hope and rest to all of mankind!

But what happens when those called to be priests walk in as much sin and darkness (deception) as those they are called to minister on behalf of? And more to the point in this season, what will the Lord do about it?

This month I have been hearing the Lord say a few things about judgment coming first to His house. This message began to take shape first when we started hearing the Lord warn of judgment, by means of a flood of water, that would be poured out on our city in order to wash away its sin, and also the sin of the Lord’s people. In response to this we held a solemn assembly to seek clarification of the Lord’s word ... and we got clear confirmation. Then we gathered on behalf of the city to repent of the main sins the Lord indicated to us. This is a part of the calling of the Lord’s priests.

During this time of prayer the Lord confirmed that He heard and forgave us personally, but that judgment upon the city was nevertheless inevitable. Not what I wanted to hear, but there is a bit of a story. He then said that judgment first must come to the house of the Lord. This is 1 Peter 4:17.

Then He showed me some verses in Jeremiah 6:12-15, and then 8:4-13 which repeat much of the same passage—this at first I was only curious about. The verse in both of these passages that stuck in my mind was 6:14-15, “¹⁴ They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, `Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace. ¹⁵ Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush.”

I was only curious about this passage until later that day during Sunday worship when I heard the Lord say that He was grieved, “My people do not know how to repent,” He said! That’s when I realized I did not randomly read these verses in Jeremiah—this was the Lord’s word unfolding. I felt stricken to hear Him speak of His grief in a room full of people singing songs of joy. If we the church are in such a state, and can’t or won’t wake ourselves out of it, then judgment is surely on the way ... judgment intended to purify us, the church, so as to bring us to repentance of our own sins. Only afterwards would we be able to stand in the gap as priests to intercede for the sins of the city! That means the judgment will start with us, but logically because it has to start with us! We are the priests, and if we are unable to do our duty, then something has to be done to get us into proper shape!

To Uphold Zion’s Cause

Three other verses He gave me during this time are Isaiah 34:8, Lamentations 2:14 and Psalm 32. Each of these is relevant to this judgment.

First Isaiah 34 deals with God’s coming judgment and it is sounding very awful until we come to verse 8 which reads, “For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause.” (NIV)

So this judgment has come actually as an answer to our prayers! It is to establish the Lord’s Kingdom on our behalf! How does that affect our prayer direction? I have no idea! Sounds like we are going to have to wrestle with the Lord to find out!

The second verse is Lamentations 2:14. The Lord asked me to open the Bible so He could teach me something I did not know. I immediately found this verse, which reads:

“Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions; and they have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity, but they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.”

Some people say the test of true New Testament prophecy is that it is “encouraging,” quoting I Corinthians 14:3, which verse was actually written to compare speaking in tongues to prophesying, not to define false prophets. But people often quote this verse to define the entire scope of New Testament prophesying as a test of what is false—suggesting that the Lord only speaks good things that people want to hear through prophets nowadays, otherwise it is cannot be the Lord speaking.

Explain then why He spoke the prophecy of the Book of Revelations to John, chock full of death, famine, persecutions and judgments? There are many other examples of the Lord Jesus and his apostles prophesying famines, destruction, and God’s wrath in the New Testament. Was Peter a false prophet then when he told Ananias and Sapphira that they were going to die for their sin? Was that Satan? Think about that. No, it was the real Holy Spirit, for sure.

So I think it much more likely that this modern intolerance for the Lord prophesying to expose our sin in reflective of Jeremiah 6:10, which reads, “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed and they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; they have no delight in it.”

So yes, the Lord does send his true prophets to expose sin, in order to bring people back from their captivity to Satan. In a way one may consider such a prophetic word that exposes sin to be ‘encouraging,’ in that it is a healing and freedom to a sin-bound soul; it is proof that God accepts you as a son, as written in Hebrews 12:5-13. God’s words of correction and even the revealing of our sin is for our good.

However, when our preachers teach that New Testament prophecy is “only encouragement” they are not teaching this understanding but are trying to prevent the Lord from speaking correction though his prophetic vessels. Plain and simple, I must say that this is a wrong teaching.

I agree however that prophets must minister much more than a knowledge of or an exposing of sin; we need the Lord’s prophets to teach us His mysteries, our personal destinies, and everything about godliness that we need for our lives to blossom in the Kingdom. But to stop the Lord’s prophets from speaking His correction and chastisement and calling for repentance will only doom a people—the people will not be turned away from falling into blindness and self-deception, nor will they be broken free from this delusion once trapped. This is why the false prophets are spoken well of (Luke 6:26!) because they preach, “peace, peace”—only the things carnal people want to hear.

Prophets have no excuse for ministering harshly in fleshly intolerance. And I think this is how this doctrine may have first emerged: to prevent people from brashly exposing sin without love or an intention to heal, deliver and restore them. In this sense I believe prophets must be careful ... although there are plenty of New Testament examples of prophets rebuking sin openly, and doing so quite harshly. Consider Paul telling Peter off in Galatians chapter 2. Or the numerous times Jesus blasted the Pharisees. This was not to condemn them, but to rebuke them sharply to make them see their need to repent of self righteousness ... in hopes that they would be saved. Yes, Jesus loved the Pharisees ... and His love manifested in a sharp rebuke. He still speaks this way today, since He hasn’t changed.

To sum up this point, consider this warning: God cannot be mocked. If we block prophets from speaking God’s heart, who’s voice are we really blocking? Rather than blocking the prophets, let’s ask the Lord for spiritual discernment, allowing Him to speak what he wants us to hear, so will reap the rewards of holiness and repentance.

Psalm 32 as a model

The third verse that the Lord gave me is Psalm 32, which was our pattern when seeking the Lord during our recent solemn assembly. I see five stages:

1. Personal sanctification: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!”

2. This is through personal confession of sin: “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away ... I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide ... and You forgave the guilt of my sin.”

3. He will therefore protect us in a flood—exactly what we’ve been seeing in His prophetic warnings! “Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.”

3. Also the Lord then promises to teach us what we should do. God speaking says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.”

4. We need to be humble and follow his directions willingly: “Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come near to you.”

5. Light and darkness are then distinguished, and we will sing his praise! “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”

We do see that this judgment coming to the House of the Lord then is to align us with the “plumb line” He has set in our midst—not just the expression of the law, but more importantly the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is therefore our chance to become empowered to walk in the ancient paths the Lord long ago revealed that will lead us to eternal life: namely faith in the Lord. This will lead us to be able to fulfill our calling to bring salvation to the nations, the unsaved, those who live in darkness. This is the purpose of the Lord’s judgment, to bring our freedom and the ability to serve him, yes, even to serve him as holy priests.

Edward Johnson

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