This prophetic word is titled The Old Prophet
Who is this word for? Everyone in ministry, if you’re building a church or ministry or starting a business.
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1 Kings 13
And behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make offerings. 2 And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” 3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’”4 And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. 5 The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. 6 And the king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before. 7 And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” 8 And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, 9 for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
11 Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. 14 And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” 15 Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” 16 And he said, “I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, 17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’”18 And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him. 19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” 23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. 25 And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.” 27 And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. 28 And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. 29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”
33 After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. 34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.
Most of us already know this story but I want to point a few things out to you that the Lord showed me and then share a story and some practical application.
1. I realized after going back to read it, that it never says “the young prophet, or the new prophet”, it calls him the man of God. I look through numerous versions and only the GNT says prophet, I believe I will go with the most obvious which is, the man is not a prophet, yet. He was given instructions and if he followed them he would’ve been able to be the young proper, but he didn’t. Well, not fully and his mission/assignment came to an end.
2. He’s sent to a town to deliver a message and then the Lord gave him further instructions… for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’
3. He did it right the first time when the king invited him but he failed when the prophet invited him. Why is that? I think he was wowed by the prophet. Prophet _____________ invited me and said GOD SAID. Even though he got a different message from God himself.
4. He failed the test to become one of God’s prophet because he is enamored with spiritual authority, power and position of the old prophet to the point that he threw away the instructions the Lord gave him to please the old guard.
5. Whenever God sends you to a place to prophecy and there are already prophets there, it means that compromise exists there. If you are an intercessor and God is pointing out something in a church when there are already intercessors there, that means the intercessors in that house are compromised. Why would God send someone from outside to give the word? Because everyone inside was compromised, plain and simple. We already see the compromise by the fact the old prophet lied to get the man of God to his house.
6. Why did he ask to be buried with the man of God? Because he recognized that he was the real deal and he was very much responsible for his death. That is a burden to carry so I guess that is his final way to honor him.
7. The overall message here is that when God sends you to do a job, do the job. When you are operating in the prophetic, or using the Gifts of the Spirit, what the Lord says takes preeminence. You can’t be enamored with people in authority because if they fall, you will fall too. You are to submit to the authority but when what the authority is asking you to do is an outright sin, don’t do it! You cannot operate in the fear of man and build God’s kingdom or a Business for His glory at the same time. You have to choose this day whom you will serve.
Real World Example:
You all know that I don’t use people’s names but this time I will because I feel it is right to help get the message across. I am not sure if you know the prophet Brian Carn. Well, the version of who he is today is not who he was when he just started ministry. Quite often we see this happen, someone who is gifted by the Lord if they get elevated too soon they fall into traps.
I remember when he just came on the scene, I saw him on a television program. As I was watching him I could feel that he loved the Lord, this was evident. I could also discern that he was really chosen by God to walk out this ministry. He was fresh, loved the Lord and was operating in his spiritual gifting quite well. He was invited to this television show (I won’t tell you the name of the person whose show it was but we will call him, the old prophet)
At the end of the show, the old prophet asked him to pray and prophecy something. Immediately, I knew it was wrong! The bible tells us about spiritual adultery, this is what the entire book of Hosea is about. The bible also tells us about spiritual prostitution (Ezekiel 16:35-44), this is when you use your spiritual gift to make money or for some type of financial gain. This old prophet is known for being a spiritual prostitute but this took it to a whole other level, he was asking this young impressionable man who looks up to him to use his spiritual gift so that the old prophet could make money. Yes, that is what he did. What do you call that? This is a pimp! He is using someone else’ gift to make money for himself. I know this sounds dirty but the truth is, this is in the bible.
And if you want to see the full context of how God sees us when we behave like prostitutes, you can read Ezekiel 23
I remember sitting there and saying to my television, “don’t do it, don’t do it”, when he was asked because I was so disgusted that he was being prostituted like this. I know for a fact this wasn’t discussed ahead of time because he had a look on his face of confusion and it stayed that way for about 10 seconds and I could see his brain was trying process really hard what he was being asked to do. Meanwhile his face was saying – this isn’t right, I can’t believe you asked me to do this on national tv, if I don’t do it I won’t be invited back, but you are a man of God with a big ministry, is this what they all do to grow their ministries? ok I guess this is how it is done and you are just showing me how to do it.
I could literally see his face processing what was happening and then deciding to do it even though he was heavily conflicted. Sigh.
This is not a program that I watched often the TV was on and it came on as I was doing something else. I never watched him again after that, it was a one time deal. For some reason the Lord allowed me to see him as he just got into ministry to where he is today so that I can see the difference. Now here it is over a decade later and I am reading the news and Brian Carn turned himself in last week to begin his 9 months sentence in jail for tax evasion. That’s what brought me to this message because I remembered clearly the first time I saw him. I’m not here to bash him! He made a mistake, and it cost him dearly. He has admitted to the mistake which is good but while he admitted it there is a spirit of pride that is so heavy on him that I believe the Lord wants to break off him. Pray for him. I am doing just that and hoping that his time away will give him the quiet he needs with the Lord, that he comes out humble, and that he returns to that same young man that we met the first time who truly loved the Lord and wanted to do what was right. That is my prayer for him, he returns to his first love.
I’m using his story because I see him as the man of God that was set off down a bad road by the old prophet. He learnt it from someone, he didn’t just become like that. Sometimes we can get so enamored with people who have platforms, position and prominence, that we lose sight of the fact that no matter what we need to obey the Lord!
In a situation where you are put on the spot you have to find the most graceful, tactful way to say no. As I was watching it happen, I wondered to myself what I would do if I was in his position, young, impressionable and looking at someone who I consider a mentor but knowing that what they are asking is wrong. What would I do? What would you do?
In the church today, pentecostal circles, there is this thing where we want people’s mantles and anointing. Well, the old prophet doesn’t have the ability to give you his mantle when he dies. Nope! God is the one who determines who gets what. (1 Kings 19:15-16)
If we go back to the beginning of Moses’ story it would make sense that the mantle would to Aaron, because he was there from the beginning. He was the one speaking to the Pharaoh for Moses, remember? But, the mantle didn’t go to him, it got passed to Joshua. (Numbers 27:18)
Remember Eli and his sons? (1 Samuel 2:12-36) Just because you have proximity and/or you are family doesn’t mean you inherit the mantle, God chose Samuel, someone from the outside.
Even with proximity it doesn’t matter! God is the one who decides, not man.
They can lay hands on your and impart anointing, you hang around them and you’ll catch on to the gift even function in it on and off (1 Samuel 10:10) but you won’t transfer the mantle! The next thing that gets imparted is the spirit that is on them – good or bad!
Now if God has ordained this person the “old” prophet meaning that this person is being replaced (it has nothing to do with the age), the last thing you want to happen is whatever bad spirit that is on them transferred to you.
The same spirit that is on the old prophet will get transferred to the new prophet. This is why God had to kill him in the story. It is a picture that your future calling in God will cease when you follow after a spirit that God is ending. So if that old prophet from the television show prostitutes his gifting for money, here you are prostituting your gifting for money. If the old prophet only has people around him who he can take from and use (pimp), shortly thereafter – even though you never started like this – you too only have people around you that you can use.
If the old prophet is unfaithful and breaks covenant, you too will start breaking covenants. Because THE SPIRIT TRANSFERS!! and not necessarily the mantle. The transference of the mantle is up to the Lord and you are not going to know until that person passes away.
Let’s honor our elders while at the same time making a decision never to cross the line and compromise ourselves. Pray and ask the Lord for discernment so that you can see clearly when someone is being replaced in the spirit. Recognize when God’s hand has moved off that person.
Saul may have been king but he was stripped spiritually (Ichabod) long before he died. God had already transferred the kingship to David when he got anointed. It is the SAME today, there are people walking around that have already been stripped, the Spirit of God left loooong time ago! But because the gifts and calling are without repentance they are still in the seat but God’s hand has long been removed from them. Ask GOD to give you discernment to see it.
People are not perfect, so we forgive and extend grace but I believe we have to be brave enough, not to suffer from the fear of man to the point that we can’t simply say, NO!
This is why the man of God in the story had to die. God wanted no communion happening between the man of God and the old prophet because there would be a transference of a spirit that the Lord was trying to end. We can sometimes get sad when things start shifting in another direction but there could be a chance that God is directing you elsewhere. What was once good is now being polluted by the old prophet.
The story bothered me so much, I couldn’t believe he was willing to throw out what God said for the word of the old prophet coming from “an angel”. I thought for sure I am missing something here so I went back and read again what exactly did the prophet say to him??
HOW did he fall for the trap in the first place? FLATTERY. If you read the story carefully, he was always referred to as “the man of God” but when the prophet with the lying spirit met him, look at what he said …”And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are,”
The hook.
The only time he was called a prophet was by the old prophet with the lying spirit. So he got puffed up, believed his own hype and that is what led him to a downfall.
The sad part is what the old prophet says at the end “he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried” And just like that!!!…. he goes back to being a man of God! ,,,,after he is dead.
Proverbs 26:28
“A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.”
Proverbs 29:5
“A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.”
Psalm 12:2
“They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.”
Psalm 5:9
“For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.”
Romans 16:18
“…For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve.”
There is a difference between paying someone a compliment and flattery. What is the difference? The sprit behind it.
Prayer: Holy Spirit impart a measure of discernment and discerning of spirits to me so that I will know flattery when I hear it. Reveal the spirit behind this wickedness. Break off of me the people-pleasing spirit and cause me to stand boldly for You. I rebuke, renounce and denounce any spirit that will cause me to loose the calling and ministry that You gave me. Break it off me Lord, in Jesus Name, Amen.
That is the message. As we move into the new year 5787, keep this in mind.
