A prophet's reward

Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. And anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he’s righteous will receive a righteous person’s reward.

-Matthew 10:41

These are my notes from Johnny Enlow on 12/17/21.

4 points:

1. There is a prophet.

2. There is a prophet's name: "because he is a prophet".

3. There is a prophet's reward.

4. The key word "receives".

We are still at a baby stage in the body of Christ in regards to prophetic culture and receiving prophecies.  We basically say, "was he right or was he wrong", and that is the extent of it.  We are not understanding the responsibility of the hearer of a prophetic word.  And at times we put all the responsibility for the fulfillment onto the prophet.

The heart of the Lord right now in regards to prophets who said that Trump would be re-elected and serve two terms is what this teaching is about.  We believe that even though Trump is not sitting in the White House in D.C. today, that he is called by God to be President, to be in a "presiding over" office on earth, more than anyone else.

The tension of what God told His prophets and what they told us and we believe, over and against what seems to have happened and has happened; that tension has caused a division of Christians against Christians and some of us have lost relationships over this.

When we "welcome a prophet because he is a prophet", we shamelessly identify with that prophet.

Reward has to to with a "risk and reward ratio".  The difference or advancement from being prophetic to becoming a prophet is that God has given you that reputation of a prophet.  We are not prophets because we call our selves that or print business cards, but because God makes us prophets.  You can't go to school to become a prophet or have someone impart that to you.  It is a gift from God.

Samuel is an example of a person that God established as a prophet.  God validates.

We have a distorted perception in the body of Christ today about how New Testament prophets function, believing that they must be 100% accurate to be authentic.

We could just say, "this is what I am hearing from the Lord and you can work out what it means".

Johnny said that the Lord told him: "Prophet's rewards are about to be given out".  

What is a reward?  There is a reward when you find something for somebody:  "Lost cat (dog, or wallet) --- REWARD".  Wanted posters in the wild west with a person and reward.  The reward is for when something is done and is over.  So when the Lord says that rewards are about to be handed out, He is saying that the test is about to be over.  That's good news.

There is risk in reward.  If you choose to walk in the prophetic, know that it is risky.

There are three categories of prophecies:

1. An immutable prophetic word.  Unchangeable.  An example would be Isaiah, 140 years before Cyrus showed up, he said Cyrus will do certain things.  Another Isaiah example are his prophecies of Christ's birth.  "The Messiah is coming."  Unconditional.

2. Conditional or changeable prophetic words.  The examples are Jonah and Jeremiah.  Jonah did not tell Nineveh there was a choice, but gave the word as if it was unconditional, yet judgement was averted because of their repentance.  Jonah was never called to look good, but to deliver the prophetic word.

Jeremiah prophecies judgement for 40 years and it never happens.  He is mocked and imprisoned.  We and heaven in his time see him as a prophet but his contemporaries did not.  God's agenda was not for Jeremiah to be esteemed, but for the people to repent.  

3. There is a prophetic word where you activate something when you speak.  Ezekiel and the valley of bones and Elijah calling fire from heaven.

The biggest, most important job of NT prophets is to spark a desire for you to hear from God for yourself and have a closer relationship with God.  

A person can only receive a prophet or prophetic word if they are prophetic.  

The primary test of a prophecy or a prophet is, does the word or that person lead you away from God?  A false prophet may seem to have true prophecies, while leading you away from God, and a true prophet may seem to have false prophecies while not leading you away from God.  Subjective accuracy is not the test.  God does not lie, but the word he gives a prophet may seem false or inaccurate to human perception when it is right on in God's eyes.  God actually allows false prophets who are accurate, but lead us away from Him, to test us.

Risk and reward are linked.  The greater the risk, the greater the reward.  The more you have lost by hanging on to what the Lord has said is your risk that will be linked to your reward.  You only get the reward by holding onto the prophecy / prophet(s) when it is risky.  Prophets who stayed with their Trump prophecies when they seemed to not come to pass have risked finances and reputation.  

False prophets are money motivated.  If you withdraw a prophecy that you said previously was true, so that you don't lose money, that makes you a false prophet.  (Recanting for financial reasons.)  We aren't judging these prophets.  This is something for the Lord to work out with them.

But the word today is that the Lord is getting ready to hand out rewards to the prophets and those who have stuck with the prophets and their prophecies while they have appeared not to or have not come to pass yet.

Think about Samuel and David.  Samuel had the reputation as a prophet: "None of his words fell to the ground."  Samuel told Saul he was through.  Samuel anointed David as king.  Saul refused to step down, delaying Samuel's prophecy.  And it was an additional 7 years after Saul died before David sat on the throne.

An enigma of the prophetic is the event / time correlation.  Johnny says that the bigger the event, the harder it is to predict the timing of when.  Think about Isaiah predicting Jesus birth.  Think about the Lord promising a baby to Abraham and Sarah.  The time or waiting wore them out and Sarah ending up laughing about it, when the fulfillment was a year away.

The prophetic word right now about Trump is, "Trump is not done".  The timing we don't know.

God is looking for faith.

There's a scripture that says, "Do my prophets no harm", and we want to do them harm because they don't give us both prophetic events and timing clearly enough.  But God almost never gives us both clearly at the same time.

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Don’t despise prophecies,

-1 Thessalonians 5:20