Stone Speak A symposium on worship, arts and the prophetic,
here and across the pond...

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Revelations 19:10-16

The Coming of Arthur by Alfred Lord Tennyson (an excerpt)
`The King will follow Christ, and we the King
In whom high God hath breathed a secret thing.
Fall battleaxe, and flash brand! Let the King reign.'
So sang the knighthood, moving to their hall.
There at the banquet those great Lords from Rome,
The slowly-fading mistress of the world,
Strode in, and claimed their tribute as of yore.
But Arthur spake, `Behold, for these have sworn
To wage my wars, and worship me their King;
The old order changeth, yielding place to new;
And we that fight for our fair father Christ,
Seeing that ye be grown too weak and old
To drive the heathen from your Roman wall,
No tribute will we pay:' so those great lords
Drew back in wrath, and Arthur strove with Rome.
And Arthur and his knighthood for a space
Were all one will, and through that strength the King
Drew in the petty princedoms under him,
Fought, and in twelve great battles overcame
The heathen hordes, and made a realm and reigned.

In the years to come, the crossover and changing of the guards will be signified by many things:

1. The coming of the King
2. The restoration of the prophetic
3. The release of ancient wisdom and treasures

JERUSALEM (from 'Milton') by: William Blake (1757-1827)
AND did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Revelation 5:5

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9

Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one;
clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.
In your majesty ride forth victoriously
in the cause of truth, humility and justice;
let your right hand achieve awesome deeds.
Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies;
let the nations fall beneath your feet.
Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.
All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
from palaces adorned with ivory
the music of the strings makes you glad.
Daughters of kings are among your honored women;
at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir. Psalm 45:3-9

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Does Truth Matter?

Two presidencies ago (in the U.S) the president was caught in a very public lie
regarding martial infidelity. At one point while being questioned he responded to
a particular question with the question: “what does ‘is’ mean?”. Essentially, with
one swell swoop, the truthful meaning of words was, to a large degree, thrown
out the window. And while politicians have always been politic to the point of
saying the right things to the right crowd, in today’s arena of public speaking,
whether political, or otherwise, truth is now largely seen as negotiable. In a
demonic Machiavellian manner the end justifies whatever means are utilized.
This almost absolute disregard for truth has, in turn, infected some contemporary
prophetic ministries. When I say prophetic ministry I am more speaking of the
ministry of prophets as opposed to the ministry of prophetically gifted people in
the local church. These are two very different ministries with two widely differing
spheres of influence.
The first red flags I began to notice were back in 1998 and 1999. At that time
it was quite fashionable, albeit, unanoited, to prophetically jump on the Y2K
bandwagon. A lot of the ‘whose who’ in the prophetic arena prophesied that
global economic destruction was going to take place as we entered the new
millennium due to the computers not being able to handle the digital change.
While I have certainly made my share of prophetic mistakes I heard the Lord say
quite clearly that not only was the Y2K catastrophe not going to happen, but the
false prophecies were actually going to derail many churches which were quite
focused on prayer and outreach to their communities. To a certain degree this
did happen. Many, many churches began to focus on the supposed inspired
message to buy generators, store up food, water, and supplies and get ready.
Well, the catastrophe never happened. And a lot of the church members who
were part of those ‘get ready for the worst’ scenarios ended us very disillusioned
with prophetic ministry. I saw first hand how the number of churches in North
America, Europe, and the UK who were beginning to grow substantially in
intimacy with God and seeking to know His voice began to view prophecy today
with real skepticism.
As bad as all of that was, that in and of itself, was not the worst part of the
problem. The big problem was the lack of accountability. Very few, indeed, of
the big voices who had given the false words ever came back in a public way
and said “sorry”. For the most part no one is expecting prophets to be perfectly
accurate. The weight of New Covenant priesthood is for  the hearer of
a word to correctly weigh the word and see if it bears witness with his or her
own discernment from the Holy Spirit, as well as ascertain the Biblicality of it.
But to the level that God grants visibility
accountability must be in evidence, or else the whole of the ministry comes into
disrepute.
A friend of mine who pastors an influential church on the East Coast confronted
one of the loudest voices of the Y2K message. When he asked for a mere public
acknowledgement of being wrong that prophet responded “oh no, because we
prophesied the warning the church prayed and the problem never happened”!
The problem with her justification, how ever, was it was simply dead wrong.
The prophecy had not been “if My people pray”. It had been “this will absolutely
happen and God will use the chaos to birth revival”. Now 10 years down the
road many so called prophetic ministries used this sort of ‘open ended’ theology
as a loop hole for false prophecies. Any evidence of humility and authentic
accountability has been thrown by the wayside. The reality of this can be seen
in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections when so many prophetic ministries cooked
up wrong predictions as to who would win. And only a few of those I know of
who falsely predicted the outcome have publicly acknowledged their mistake.
In order for the body of Christ to take seriously a critically important God
given gift there must be accountability within the context of grace. Since many
prophetic ministers head up their own ministries the weight is doubly on them to
regard accountability as a context for the operation of the gift. Other wise the gift
of God speaking will continue to be devalued in the church at large and those
ministries will end up kings of ‘anointed entertainment’. There will be a degree
of revelation and power but it will not have the true kingdom fruit God desires.
If we are going to represent the truth of Jesus, in truth, then that begins with our
hearts and motives being focused and absorbed with the Truth, Himself. Let’s
take heed of the prayer from the ‘man who shook the world’: “Now to Him who is
able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the
power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Marc A. Dupont
September 28, 2010

I have had the opportunity of being involved with prophetic and apostolic ministry
and ministries internationally for close to 3 decades. I count myself the richer
and wiser for this privilege of rubbing shoulders with many men and women who
God has spoken through to the body of Christ in wonderful ways with wonderful
messages of encouragement and exhortation.
Unfortunately, over the last decade, or so, I have also seen the current prophetic
movement both become more extreme and, more extremely irrelevant to
true Biblical Kingdom purposes. I believe there are three specific harmful
phenomena that have emerged which are much in evidence today. They are:

1. A Phenomenal focus on self promotion
2. A Phenomenal lack of self accountability
3. A Phenomenal emphasis on phenomena, to the cost of de-emphasizing
   the Lord Jesus

Dangerous Territory
For the sake of not unduly loosing anyone too quickly, allow me to discuss the
last point first. I have absolutely no problems with Holy Spirit caused, or induced,
manifestations. Whether it is Holy Spirit induced laughter, weeping, shaking, or
such things as gold dust appearing, or even gold teeth. My concern is rooted in
the hunger for these things as opposed to hungering and thirsting for the person
of God and His righteousness. As my friend Loren Sandford has written “In the
church today there is a trend toward seeking ways and means to generate these
experiences by our own initiative”
The danger of seeking after spiritual phenomena is really two fold: Firstly, it
ends up becoming a downward spiral of deemphasizing the Person and lordship
of Christ in one’s life and ministry. Secondly, it opens the door for demonic
deception in a huge way. The devil can, and will, appear as an angel of light
if that’s what you’re hungering for. My fear regarding this current hunger for
phenomena is summed up by the apostle Paul’s words found in 2 Corinthians
11.3: “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds
will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
Ministries which continually emphasize extreme phenomena and revelation do so
to their own, and others, destruction. There is absolutely nothing more extreme
than the love, the compassion, the power, and the majesty of God Himself.
The moment we begin to emphasize His gifts, or manifestations, more than He,
Himself, we are headed down the same track of those carnally obsessed lost
souls Paul spoke of in Romans. They chose to exchange the worship of creation
for the worship of the Creator!
Until we have truly grasped and realized the height, the width, the depth, and
the breadth of God’s love let’s not settle for focusing on anything less than
that. If, as we journey with God, He sovereignly causes phenomena to happen
and releases paradigm shaking revelation then let’s grow in our sense of
amazement and wonder of His goodness. But to digress from seeking Him and
allowing Him to lead us and guide us as He sees fit is a demonic digression.
What’s being built- the Kingdom of God, or the empires of man?
Earlier this year (I won’t say when, or where) I spoke at a conference with two
other speakers. One of the speakers took one of the night sessions and spoke 3
hours and mentioned the Lord Jesus twice in passing. The Bible was never once
referred to. His whole message, and his whole ministry I suspect, is all about…
his ministry. God wants to heal us of all woundedness, but there is such a thing
as a Godly brokenness which David sang about in Psalm 51.16 & 17: “You do
not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, You will not despise”. This ‘godly brokenness of David’s is evident in his
prayer in Psalm 27: “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.”
Jesus’ whole ministry on earth was to restore people to a vital relationship with
the Father. (John 17.3). His protein, what nourished Him, was to do the will of
the Father. He was so fixated on pleasing the Father He walked away when
the crowd wanted to crown Him- it simply wasn’t the Father’s time. Too many
ministries today, however, run to any opportunity at all of being crowned before
men.
Speaking for myself, I love to tell testimonies of God healing, delivering, and
revealing Himself to people. And I thoroughly enjoy the privilege of being able
to be part of the process. But there is a huge difference between telling stories
in such a way that glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as opposed
to glorifying me, myself, and I. Much of the self-promotion being done today on
websites, book covers, and presentations is at the very least self aggrandizement
and at worst demonic in that it, again, deemphasizes the wonder of Jesus. And
what seems to be a bigger problem is the willingness of many Charismatics
to chase after ministries that are preoccupied with themselves. After nearly
sixty years of the countless moral failings of supposed giants of faith with midget sized
character the Charismatic and Pentecostal church is still hungering for the next
hero. This speaks volumes of our lack of discernment due to a lack of experience
with the real thing- Jesus. At the very least let’s take hold of Paul’s wisdom
regarding reputation; “For it is not he who commends himself that is approved,
but he whom the Lord commends.” (2 Cor. 10.18) Let’s live and breath for the
commendation that comes from God. That commendation is often far from the
conference crowd.