Dear: Trent and Heather.

Thanks for the note, presently, I am working my way through the interior of Uruguay. I wanted to send you a quick note. I haven't met your friend so I can't really comment on him. But I can tell you my observations and you can, maybe, use them. I have constantly run into Prophets in the course of being a Christian for the last 35 years and generally they fall into one of four categories.
1. The real deal. I love those guys. They are purely Christ centered. They point to Jesus in a Spirit empowered way. They wouldn't let you spend one second talking about them, they are pointing to another-Jesus. These brothers have impacted my life in many ways and many times I can't remember their names as they were consumed with Christ. There are very few of these.
2. False Prophets. I have met only a couple. They were shocking as there were actually speaking on "behalf" of God and leading people away from Jesus and into blatant sin. These fellows have been consistent trouble for me.
3. Those that enjoy the title of Prophet. Africa and India are full of these brothers. They want a title, like an American wants to flash a Ph.D around. They generally do some ministry but want to be set apart. In many ways, I don't really think they have any idea what a Prophet is, it just sounds better than servant. I don't mind these fellows.
4. The neurotic person. This is quite common in the West and these are the "prophets", unfortunately, I have had the most dealing with. They are people that have had heaps of childhood rejection. Everything from a vicious father to no father. Generally they are thinkers and at some point commit suicide of the personality. They don't like who they are in real life, they have had very few successes, and are not the kind of person that people would naturally gravitate to. In short, you wouldn't put them in charge of a company. Mental hospitals have an equal number of people believing they are Jesus as believing they are a Prophet. The whole thing can quickly become psychotic. A psychotic will put the new identity in the hub of the wheel and make every spoke feed it. If you call them a prophet, that proves they are one. If you don't agree that they are a prophet, that proves they are one. Usually, their is an obsession with repentance and revelation. (repentance is only used in the Epistles three times) Revelations is open to nearly any interpretation and the Prophets are hearing God either on a person note for followers or having visions of heaven that really are of no help. I don't discuss with a psychotic, I direct them and therefore refuse to address the obvious, "Why is God tell you about me and God isn't telling me." or "How does the revelation move out of heaven into my home?" I just had a prophet at the conference in Argentina. He is a friend of my interpreter. I told the interpreter, "He introduced himself as a prophet and was calling people to repentance. He will be listening intently to find something I say that will give him an excuse to cut out of the meetings and accuse me." Well, it took four days as the conferences was all about Jesus and I admitted to my failed thinking. I could see him becoming uncomfortable as his obsession with being someone was moving his new identity of being a prophet out of the center. His wife was sunk in the despair of half brain washed and half with the realization that something was wrong with her husband. In the end, he bolted with an obscure complaint and telling that he had to get on in the truth or repentance. Basically, these are rejected people that have found a form of Christian religion to impose on followers and they have never had a follower up to that point. They need followers to validate their existence and to keep the follower on the hook, they dispense "secretes" slowly. If questioned or starting to feel abandoned, they will give the day or the Lord's coming a day Jesus doesn't know. They have a deep self-hatred. I am just giving you the text book cases. I have seen the Lord break through and get people out of varieties of psychosis. The psychotic prophet only sees two options. Remain a prophet or move back to being a rejected nobody. The goal is for them to see a third option, they can become a child of God and glory in the Christ that dwells within.

OK, that's my experience and again, I am not making any judgments about your friend as I have never meet him.

Finally, you are both special, you both have Christ in you. What man will add to that? If the brother is a Prophet, he will keep pointing you to Jesus in practical ways that work out in the exact expression of Matthew 5,6, and 7. He will point you to the "how" of I Cor. 13. If he is a Prophet, he will be thrilled and encouraged if you went on, deeper into Christ on your own. I would encourage you in all these things. Sometimes we keep one commandment and break ten others. Don't break the command to love and respect, to forgive, to ask for forgiveness, to remember the covenant that you have with each other (not a contract). Let nothing come between you. Nothing. I know prophets (real ones, again, I don't know this brother) and they would move you away from themselves to Christ.

Love you,

Mike

John 21:4-7b
4Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"
"No," they answered.
6He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
7Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!"

Instead of having a spiritual identity as an "old man," we "have put on the new man" identity (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). We have become "new creatures in Christ, the old things have passed away, behold new things have come" (II Corinthians 5:17).

In summation it can be said that Christians are no longer "depraved;" rather, they have the Holy Spirit of God indwelling and functioning within them. A radical spiritual exchange has taken place in the spirit of the Christian, an exchange of spiritual personages (Acts 26:18). This spiritual exchange has been accomplished for us by the "finished work" of Jesus Christ on the cross, when He exclaimed "It is finished" (John 19:30); "I've paid the price; I've accomplished the restoration of God in man."

In the soul and body of the Christian there are to be consistent "behavioral expressions" of our new "spiritual condition." The "saving life of Christ" (Romans 5:10) is to become operative in "abundant life" (John 10:10), as we "live through Him" (I John 4:9) and the life of Jesus is manifested in our mortal bodies (II Corinthians 4:10,11). Our spiritual "saintliness" as "holy ones" is to be evidenced in holy behavior that exhibits God's Holy character (I Peter 1:15,16), and we share His holiness (Hebrews 12:10). Jesus Christ, the Righteous One in us, wants to use our members as "instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:13) to manifest the fruit of righteousness (James 3:18). As the good treasure within us, God wants to exemplify His character of goodness in "good works" (Ephesians 2:10) derived only from God (II John 11). By the laws written upon our new heart, Christ the Law-keeper desires to express the character of God indicative of His nature in our behavior.

Oh yes, Christians still have those warped "desires of the flesh," those patterned propensities of selfishness and sinfulness within the soul and body, even though they have been spiritually regenerated. As Christians we are to engage in the process of re-patterning those desires through the "renewing of the mind" (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23). It took time to develop those old patterns; it will take time to re-pattern those desires consistent with God's desires so that the God-given desires can be fulfilled in God's way.

from: Man's Problem and God's Provision: Spiritual or Psychological? - ©1999 by James A. Fowler. All rights reserved.

God created man to bear His image in a receptive-faith relationship, and thus to allow the invisible character of God to be manifested visibly in the behavior of man. Man was created for God's glory (Isa. 43:7), but God does not give His glory to another (Isa. 42:8;48:11). God can only be glorified by the divine expression of His all-glorious character in man's behavior enabled by His indwelling presence and dynamic of grace. God only desires the expression of Himself within His creation.

In the fall of man into sin "in Adam," man forfeited the presence of God indwelling his spirit. Mankind was "without God" (Eph. 2:12), and "devoid of the Spirit" (Jude 19). The absence of the presence of God in natural man meant that there was no divine dynamic for man to function as he was originally designed to function, i.e. to express the character of God.

The Law revealed God's intent for the behavior of mankind by revealing the character of God. God told Moses to say to the Israelites, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). The Decalogue (Exod. 20:3-17), at the very heart of the Mosaic Law revealed the character of God: God is singular, exclusive, worthy to be worshipped, personally relational. God is life, faithful, truth, lacking nothing, the provider and sustainer of all we need. Man was created to express such divine character.

Though the Law revealed the character of a good and righteous God, it did not provide the divine dynamic whereby that divine character of goodness and righteousness might be expressed in man's behavior. The Law did not provide grace. Behavioral goodness in man can only be derived from God (III John 11), from the dynamic indwelling expression of God's character of goodness when God functions as Himself in man.

from: The Law of God - ©1999 by James A. Fowler. All rights reserved.

In what ways is the Law of God fulfilled in Christians today?

God's intent has always been to restore mankind to His created intent so that the character of God could be displayed in the behavior of man by the grace of God unto the glory of God. The Law of God given to the Jewish people was a prelude to that over-arching salvific and sanctifying intent of God.

So it is that Paul can say in Romans 8:4 that "the requirement of the Law can be fulfilled" in Christians who "walk according to the Spirit." The character of God is expressed in our behavior by the grace of God, by the life of Jesus Christ lived out through us. More specifically, the character of God's Love is to be evidenced in the behavior of Christians. "God is love" (I John 4:8,16). Paul explains that the manifestation of God's Love is the fulfillment of the Law (Rom. 13:10). "He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law" (Rom. 13:8). To the Galatians Paul writes, "the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Gal. 5:14). In so loving our neighbor, we will "bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the Law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2).

By referring to "the Law of Christ," Paul brings the concept of Torah all the way around to its original meaning of "the divine directive." The living Lord Jesus who indwells Christian people is the Living Torah! Jesus Christ is the dynamic divine directive in the lives of God's People. Jesus Christ is Lord, implying the authoritative direction and guidance of God in the lives of Christians. The static written Law has come to the completion of its purposes so that the dynamic directive of God in Christ, "the law of Christ," may be operative in Christian behavior. Thus it is that Paul speaks of himself as being "under the law of Christ" (I Cor. 9:21), and exclaims with gratitude the Christian liberty of functioning by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:2).

The writer of Hebrews quotes from Jeremiah, indicating that new covenant Christians have God's laws "put into their minds and written on their hearts" so as to become the People of God (Heb. 8:10; 10:16). Jesus Christ, the living Torah, does indeed live in the Christian to become the divine directive in his life and to manifest the divine character.

from: The Law of God - ©1999 by James A. Fowler. All rights reserved.

Christian living is not a method or technique; it is an entirely different, revolutionary principle of life. It is the principle of an exchanged life "not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).

This is all part of our Gospel - it is not the Gospel plus! We must not get our terminology wrong. To divorce the behavior of the Christian from the Gospel is entirely false and is not true to the Word of God, yet all too often such is the characteristic of gospel preaching.

I would like to explore with you what is the true spiritual content of our Gospel not just heaven one day, but Christ right now! Christ in you, on the grounds of redemption,­ this is the Gospel! To preach anything less than this must inevitably produce "Evan-jellyfish" ­ folk with no spiritual vertebrae, whose faith does not "behave!"

Remember what James says in his epistle? "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead" (chapter 2:26). The "spirit" there means breath, and a body without breath is dead. Stop breathing and folk will bury you! In other words, a living body breathes, and a living faith breathes, and a living faith breaths with divine action. A living faith breathes with the activity of Jesus Christ. That is why the Lord Jesus, in John 6:29, said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent."

That is the work of God. It is your living faith in the adequacy of the One who is in you, which releases His divine action through you. It is the kind of activity that the Bible calls "good works," as opposed to "dead works."

"Good works" are those works that have their origin in Jesus Christ - - whose activity is released through your body, presented to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to the Adamic independence (Romans 12: 1,2).

It is only the life of the Lord Jesus -- His activity, clothed with you and displayed through you, that ultimately will find the approval of God.

From: The Saving Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. ©1961.

By: Major W. Ian Thomas

The Lord Jesus Christ claims the use of your body, your whole being, your complete personality so that as you give yourself to Him through the eternal Spirit, He may give Himself to you through the eternal Spirit, that all your activity as a human being on earth may be His activity in and through you; that every step you take, every word you speak, everything you do, everything you are, may be an expression of the Son of God, in you as man.

If it is of Him and through Him and to Him, where do you come in? You do not! That is just where you go out! That is what Paul meant when he said, "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). The only Person whom God credits with the right to live in you is Jesus Christ; so reckon yourself to be dead to all that you are apart from what He is, and alive unto God only in all that you are because of what He is (Romans 6:1 1).

From: The Saving Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. ©1961.

By: Major W. Ian Thomas

For godliness is not the consequence of your capacity to imitate God, but the consequence of His capacity to reproduce Himself in you; not self-righteousness, but Christ-righteousness; the righteousness which is by faith a faith which by renewed dependence upon God releases His divine action, to restore the marred image of the Invisible God. It is not inactivity, but Christ-activity; God in action accomplishing the divine end through human personality - never reducing man to the status of a cabbage, but exalting man to the stature of king! "For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).

At first sight this might seem to offer to you the possibility of sinless perfection as the result of spiritual regeneration, but this is far from being the case; for it is only your faith and your obedience which allow Him to be in you now what He was then (perfect) - and you will be what He was then only to the degree in which you allow Him to be in you what He is now (perfect)!

From: The Saving Life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House. ©1961.

Ro 7:12 - Show Context
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.