Who Has Stood in the Council of the Lord?

I am reading from a wonderful book each morning for devotional time — ‘My Time with God: 15 Minute Devotions for the Entire Year’. This morning I came across this scripture from Jeremiah and brief commentary by Os Guinness. I have a lot of respect for Guinness, so I paid close attention to what he wrote. First the passage from Jeremiah:

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, “The Lord says you will have peace”, and to those who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, “No harm will come to you”. But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or hear His word? Who has listened and heard His word?” (Jeremiah 23: 16 – 18 NIV).

Jeremiah is speaking out against the false prophets who are prophesying by Baal. Today, I would equate this with Pastors who are preaching a Gospel without repentance and without calling out the false gods of our culture that Christians in America are bowing down to. I equate what Jeremiah is saying with a Church that does not preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and all that this Gospel means. This is the heart of what I have heard some call ‘easy believeism’ — religion without repentance, a tolerance of idolatry, and a drifting away from God’s moral laws. Christianity that stresses repentance, speaks out against the idols in our lives, like sports for example; and calls people to a higher standard of living is mocked today, even in the Church.

But the problem with ‘easy believeism’ is that it is religion in the wasteland. In Jeremiah 23, the prophet writes about these false prophets “The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land lies parched, and the pastures in the desert are withered” (Jeremiah 23: 10 NIV). The adultery he refers to is religious adultery: the worship of other Gods, which for us are the gods of wealth, power, etc. And because of this, the Land is cursed!

Here are the words from Os Guinness. He is speaking about the problem, as He sees it, with the evangelical Church in Americas:

“The real problem is that in what is said (he is referring to what is preached) there is almost no sense of announcement from God, and in what is shown, there is almost no sense of anointing by God. Jeremiah attacked the false prophets of his day with the damning question: “Which of them has stood in the council of the Lord, seen Him and heard His word?” Are we who profess a high view of authority much better in practice? Is such a standard too demanding?” (pg. 63 of ‘My Time with God’).

We expect our pastors to put time into preparing their sermons. We expect them to study their Bibles, pull out their commentaries, find present-day parallels to the text to make the word relevant to our lives today. But do we expect them to ‘stand in the council’ of the Lord, to ‘see Him’ and ‘hear His word’?” Not just to study His word, but to hear and see God Himself, and then preach from this revelation and anointing? And if we expect this, does the church give the Pastor the time to spend with the Lord? Or do we demand that he be all things to all people?

And what about us? Do we put all of this responsibility on our Pastor? Aren’t we also called ‘to stand in the council of the Lord’ ?

This is Kingdom life. Life in the Kingdom of God is life in the ‘council of the Lord’, it is life in His House, seeing, talking, and listening to our Father through the intercession of His Son, and the Power of His Spirit. Kingdom life is not religion; it is the daily communion of my heart with His. It is ‘knowing the mind of Christ’. It is operating in His anointing and revelation so that we might be an effective source of Living Water into the world around us.

Kingdom life is also about failing daily to live this life, but repenting, getting back up, and vowing, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, to do better next time. It is a life of spiritual growth, it is a journey. But most importantly, it is a life of trust in and dependance upon God, yielded to Him for my every need. It is an attitude of humility.

Apart from life in the Kingdom of God there is very little revelation and not much anointing. To quote A. W. Tozer, the Church in America today (and in other places in the world, not just America) needs fewer scribes and more prophets. I don’t want to hear a word about God from my Pastor, I want to hear a word from God.

Is this standard too demanding? Well, yes, it is demanding. Christ expects a lot from us. And in America and Europe today it is too demanding for many. But if your heart’s desire is a real life with Christ, the demands are not impossible. Remember: “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Grace and peace

John