It Is So When God Says It Is So

Malachi, the final writing prophet of the Old Testament, left Israel with this provocative word from the Lord:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”  - Malachi 4:5

Four centuries later, John the Baptist began to preach in the wilderness about the nearness of God’s kingdom. Priests and Levites came from Jerusalem and asked him, quite bluntly, “Are you Elijah?” to which John answered, “No, I am simply a man trying to fulfill his calling. I am just a voice in the wilderness.” (see John 1:19-21)

But on another occasion, Jesus spoke about John as something “more than a prophet”:

… “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet …

… 13For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.  – Matthew 11: 7-9; 13,14

Obviously, there is a conflict in how these two cousins assessed the ministry of John. What is even more obvious is that we ought to trust Jesus’ appraisal of the issue; that John was indeed the reappearance of Elijah of which Malachi spoke. So, why did John himself seem to be left in the dark as to what was his very significant role in the kingdom?

No one can seriously consider that John was being falsely humble. His mission was consistently and simply to honor Christ: “Behold! The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” … “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 1:29; 3:30).  I can only conclude that John truly had no idea that he himself was a prophetic fulfillment. Jesus knew something of John’s worth that John did not know about himself.

We are servants of God and we must each learn to find our highest personal fulfillment in that simple reality. If we over-assess our value to the work of the kingdom, we will inevitably find ourselves humiliated. If we under-assess our value, we will likely sink into a mindset that we are superfluous to God, and that will be followed by seasons of inactivity, either due to despondency or due to distractions into other pursuits. When we finally learn to see ourselves as the servants that we are, we will find our satisfaction in that status, knowing that self-exaltation will result in a humbling experience, while playing the servant to all will result in some exaltation. Of course, one cannot know the precise nature of that exaltation, so it is folly to preoccupy oneself with what that exaltation might entail.

Suffice it to say that each member of the triune Godhead sees things about us that we cannot see. This truth is a source of wonder, but it is also a source of great comfort when that is what is needed as well as a source of stark realignment to His thoughts and ways when that is the need of the hour. God is the God of reality. We are fallen creatures prone to fanciful imaginings.

There is a particular phrase, wrenched from its proper place in Scripture and recklessly bandied about by “Word of Faith” proponents (Osteen, Copeland, Hinn, Meyers, etc.); “calling those things that be not as though they already were.” They present the phrase as though believers in God have the power, through the use of their words, to speak realities into existence. These powerful words, these “positive confessions” are the dynamic that will ultimately bring healing and prosperity into the lives of the adherents of these nutty doctrines. The advocates of this notion cannot even lift an entire sentence from the real text because that would blow the scam.

Romans 4:13-25 makes it abundantly clear that any reference to the power to speak something into existence (verse 17) belongs to God, not to man. The immediate context means that God would bring forth a nation from one-hundred-year-old Abraham and his previously barren wife. Inescapable as well is an acknowledgement of God’s creative prowess. There is no hint that the believer inherits any such power from God.

Still, Christians are in no way diminished by lacking such a power. On the contrary, we are encouraged and steeled for everything we encounter in this world by the knowledge that God sees and brings into existence things that we cannot see. We are cleansed of sin, we are children of the Father, we are regarded as friends of Christ, we are seated with Him in the heavenly realm, we are represented before the throne of God by Christ Himself, we are destined for eternity in the Father’s presence … not because current circumstances or human appearances so dictate, but because God has thusly spoken, and that is sufficient to make it our reality.