There is a difference then between prayer and prophecy. Prayer is a priestly activity; prophecy is obviously a prophetic function. When we pray, we get the vision, when we prophecy, we deliver the vision or communicate it (it involves communion with God AND humanity). I often see things in prayer, but when i come to prophecy them, i have to translate what I saw into a language which can go “into” that person or situation. So there is something of interpretation in the role of the prophet.

Jesus as THE HIGH PRIEST ever lives to intercede for humanity; and yet He is also The Prophet, ever revealing the Mind and Will and being of God The Father! These parts of Himself are like brothers-not unlike Aaron and Moses represented this brotherhood between priesthood and prophecy!

“If we were each to shine into our actual identities-which God intended us to be-we would radiate so brightly, that the poem of the universe would be completed, and Christ would come, and the whole novel would be written and resonating in itself–let’s!”

Bethany. Where Jesus got His colt to ride into Jerusalem. Where His friend’s lived. Where His people from the north lived. Where people kept pilgrimaging to, over time, and stoping just before going in…

Where He rose His good friend from the dead. Where He prepared to go in on His final mission to Jerusalem. Where He symbolized His own death and resurrection beforehand by raising this friend, Lazarus, from the dead. Where He last saw His disciples before His great ascension…

Bethany–town of healing, town of the sick. Town where the leper Simon encountered true restoration. Town, where Jesus went to get away, but also to prepare. Town near the garden of gethsemane-garden where the 2nd Adam conversed with the Living God.

Town just out of view of jerusalem. Hidden haven town. Town of friendship. Town of retreat. Town on the holy mountain-the mount of Olives- near the holy city. Unassuming town. Town of the colt. Town of kindness. Town of familiarity. A place for pilgrims to stop after a long journey, just before going into the heart of God.

Where Jesus portended, signed, symbolized, Himself. Where He revealed, in the arena of friendship, all that was to come. Where Martha, another close friend, came from. Martha, who He showed Himself to after the resurrection. Martha, who couldn’t leave the tomb. Martha, who ran back and told the disciples, it was true. This little town which prepared and was a sign post of the whole mission.

Place of symbol. Place of healing. Place of miraculous. Place very close to the city. Place you stay just before the big mission. Off stage town, just before the big act town. Place in our life where we can just be. Not Hebron-not just Sabbath–but a town of rest with preparation and symbolic activity. Place of the micro, which prepares you for the macro. We need a Bethany to get to our Jerusalem.

These notes, which are not yet formed into an essay or collection, are taken from my study of the book of Daniel, and the nature of the prophet. I am interested in what God was symbolizing about Himself through the prophets, and also the spirituality of a prophet. My study of the book of Daniel is focusing on his personal spirituality more than the specific visions, and dreams, and words he saw. I am interested in how he walked with God, and how that relates to the “way of the prophets.” I want to start briefly with why Daniel is not usually included in the list of Jewish prophets. This is a loose ongoing study, so bear with me as we ramble along through some pretty cool turf!

The Jews didn’t believe Daniel was a prophet because his visions and future “words” weren’t primarily meant to be proclaimed into his generation, but for future generations.  Instead, this book of Daniel is more like overhearing one man’s spirituality. He wanted to know about the future, and also about how the heavenly realms interfaced with the worldly. This was what he “set his heart to gain understanding” about. He did however move in the way of the prophets. but because he did not primarily work as a spokesman for God, he is not included in the prophetic section of Torah.

We could say, however, that Daniel was a “cultural prophet”-in that He revealed God’s perception about the cultures he was a part of-even as he served within the power structures of these cultures. This is not unlike Esther for instance.

Daniel was a ruler within babylonian culture, and was specifically given rulership over the subculture of other “wise men”. So he was in an unusual position prophetically speaking. And so it may be true that his primary task in his generation was not being a spokesman for God, and yet, at the same time, his personal spirituality was clearly prophetic. God spoke to him symbolically, and gave him sight into the very nature of Reality–even while Daniel was also a practical day to day ruler over men. So we could call Daniel a practical mystic.

Daniel’s future visions were obviously prophetic, so even if we weren’t to call him a prophet, he certainly was a prophetic person. Also his personal thirst for prophetic insights into his own times, and the future, did reveal a prophet’s heart and concern.

The Christian tradition has placed more emphasis on future telling or fore-telling as a sign of a prophet. But historically, prophets did much more than tell the future–they primarily revealed God’s heart and perception about things into their times, and into future generations who would study their writings and words. They also anointed kings, interpreted scripture, delivered messages, and performed many “spiritual stunts” intended to reveal the nature of the Kingdom of God, and God’s specific orientation towards a situation, city or place. Prophets, also often had priestly duties–Samuel is a good early example of the priestly functions of the prophet. These Levitical tasks were also part of the training at Elijah’s school of the prophets, not just levitating axe handles, although tricks are cool–take Elijah’s ascending exit for instance–not bad in terms of miraculous happenings.

But in general, the test of a prophet is less about did their prophecies come true, as-did their prophecies “bear fruits unto righteousness.” This of course is harder to measure than mere accuracy, but it does in fact go deeper and further in terms of its impact on humanity and the planet.

Prophets, the New Testament succinctly tells us: instruct, encourage and warn. They also comfort and console. Different ones had different aspects of this mission. There were also different “types” of prophets. Some were more meta-narrative prophets (ex. Isaiah)-putting their historical moment in the context of God’s overall flow of history. Others were more Rhema prophets (Nahum, Micah, Jonah etc), who carried a specific word for a specific situation. All in some way dealt with the revelation of the patterns of God, and how He perceives and relates to His own creation.

In the Jewish tradition again, there were writing and oral prophets. And this can be a good distinction; but many were both. Jesus would be seen, for instance as an oral prophet when you think about it. But He Himself was also the Word itself, and the fulfillment of all scriptures!

In terms of types of prophets, i would say there were also those who were more like sheer signs, or whose very lives were a foregrounded symbol of their message (Jeremiah, and in the NT, Paul). That is that their lives themselves were a symbol of what God was speaking into their times. David said he wished to become a living portent or symbol.

Another, concern in the spirituality of a prophet, was teaching people how to read and interpret symbolically.

God is symbolic and so are we, since we are made in His image. And, because He is One (or fully integrated in Himself), He is always communicating both symbolically and in other ways. If you think of the origin of prophecy as being IN Him; then you see that it is not disconnected from other aspects of His Being. He perceives and expresses. He communicates. But He also cares for His creations, and seeks to know and be known by them. If you look at the five fold gifts in the NT, you see all these aspects of God.

In some ways, God is our motivation for wanting to integrate our own symbolic with the rest of our lives! If He is one, and we are in His Image, and trying to become a clearer image of Him, then we should have our imaginations integrated with the rest of our identities! Anyways, back to these five aspects of God, and their delineation within the church. The church is also a symbol of God, and so these five aspects are named and distinguished, and symbolize specific parts of God.

We could ask what each of these five roles in the church symbolized:

Let’s say, in a general way, this:

The pastor symbolizes the part of God who cares for and feeds daily his creatures.

The prophet symbolizes the part of God which perceives and reveals His Own thoughts and heart to His creation.

The apostle symbolizes the part of God which is forming and restoring His Creation.

The evangelist, the part which is seeking after and saving or delivering His creation.

So we can see that the role of prophet has to do with God’s perception, and revealing or communicating both how God perceives the situation, and how He communicates into each situation. In this way, prophecy is representing the mind of God being expressed to the creation. How He sees or perceives and how He speaks or communicates. This is the study of the prophetic aspect of His Being.

So the prophet is interpreting Reality through the Eyes of God. This is always going to be a partial representation, for God is higher than His Creation. Still, God has chosen throughout history to continue to represent Himself through the prophets. He wants to be known, so He speaks through the Prophets.

There have always been those designated for this activity.

The activities of the prophets are to study, interpret, express. Put in simple terms the spirituality of a prophet, is to be coming to know God through listening to God, and being with Him, and then to express this knowing to the world. Moses on mount Sinai might be the clearest picture of this way of the prophet–he met with God, then delivered His Words to the people (twice in this case).

To be His mouthpiece requires this intimate knowing of God. So that we hear God in scriptures calling the prophets His Friends, or intimate mates. If one is speaking for someone else, it is assumed they know that other person very well. For this reason, the presence of God is often associated with the prophet. They are speaking from intimacy–God is with them. They are men of God. So things happen around them. You see this with Elijah, Elisha, and their whole company of prophets. God’s presence was on them so that thing happened around and through them.

Now back to Daniel.

In the book of Daniel, one is overhearing a prophet’s spirituality, even if we do not call daniel a prophet. A prophet is hungry to reveal the mind, heart and perception of God. Daniel was hungry for understanding. It is not clear if he was as hungry to communicate it; and yet, he did through his writings, which are still looked to as a map of our times, and future times. So in this way, it is hard not to see him as a prophet. Perhaps, not one into his times, but ours!

He poured over the other prophetic literature, and learned many times and dates from Jeremiah the prophet for instance. He also read the “books of wisdom” of those in his host culture. And it is sure that God revealed which parts were true and false in these tomes of ancient wisdom.

Daniel was also hungry for cultural understanding. He wanted to see the present in “full view” of what was happening in the angelic and spiritual dimensions–both in the present, and in the future. He studied and saw the interface of the heavenly governments with the worldly, and was able to interpret and counsel the worldly rulers from this fuller view of the nature of Reality. He saw the multi-dimensional nature of Reality, and could interpret the worldly dimension in view of the spiritual, heavenly ones.

God also spoke to Daniel through symbols. Just as God had asked Jeremiah, “what do you see?” And then told him the meaning of this image; so God often spoke to Daniel in dreams, visions and revelations. Understanding the nature of symbolic language is an essential to the prophet. For God is symbolic and communicates often through symbols. Learning to read the symbolic level of meaning even in scriptures is essential to the life of the prophet; and it is often the job of the prophet to also teach others how to read symbolically. The church has often fallen short in this area, revealing a poverty of the imagination which was not present in Daniel or The Prophets.

Other things the prophets symbolize about God:

What else do prophets themselves symbolize? We have said, that one is: the desire of God to be known and understood So, He tells His friends’ the prophets beforehand, so they can reveal it to others. In short, God tells His friends what He is thinking and feeling, and they go and express this to others. This intimacy is the basis of the prophet’s “way”. But more than this, prophet’s also symbolize the complexity of God’s perception.

When God looks at a single moment in history, He sees the entire flow of history, and how it is interacting in every dimension–earthly, heavenly etc. So His Vision is obviously complex. This is part of the mystery of God, and I think is why so many mysterious things seem to happen around prophets. It is part of God revealing His Own Complexity.

This does not mean that He is unattainable or unknowable, or entirely ineffable, or there would not be prophets at all. For in the NT, prophets are commanded to comfort, console, encourage etc-this could not be done if people could not understand and actually be encouraged! Still, there is something of God’s omniscience revealed by the symbol of the prophet–ie there is this mist on Moses’ mountain, and a glory so bright, it seers the eye etc. Samuel too is often seen coming down or going up to mountains to burn things etc; and I won’t start with the mysteries surround this ministries of Elijah and Elisha!–these are symbols of the mysterious rarefied exchange of the creature with His Creator. And there is indeed mystery in this communion!

So what else does the prophet symbolize? That God’s perception itself, even His Imagination, is worth loving and knowing. Not just His Words, but the complexity of interchange between them and His images, and His Feelings. He told Solomon that He would place both His Eyes, and His Heart forever at the temple! So not just His tablets representing His Thoughts, but also His Eyes of Perception, and His Heart of deepest Emotion etc…

Lastly, and most importantly, He wanted to symbolize His Son. For all the prophets “moved by the Spirit of Christ” within them, Paul writes, “leaned in (sought to know) about the death and resurrection and future glory of the Son!!!” And we know that the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of His Spirit. Ultimately, then the prophet was a sign pointing towards the One True Prophet, Jesus, The Christ; God’s only begotten Son, who came out from The Father…A prophet’s ministry is always pointing towards that end of revealing the Son of God, for this is the deepest revelation of who God is.

One cannot be close to God without running into this core aspect of His concern. This One and only Son of God, who came as His Highest symbol–“the exact representation of His Likeness”–no one else in scripture is spoken of as being His Exact Symbol–but Jesus Christ! So all the prophets in this way were pre-symbols and symbolizers, of the Ultimate Symbol of God, Jesus Himself!

Ultimately, then Prophets are symbols pointing towards Christ. That has always been the spirit of prophecy. And this Spirit of Christ came to lead all men to know and love His Father, and enter His Kingdom, so you see the full circle of that symbol!

The highest aspect of The Father’s perception is focused on His Son; and that is the highest symbol of His Own Being, from which all of creation erupted! A true prophet should be ultimately pointing us towards this symbol. And all true prophets have and do. So, to be a prophet is to know this part of Jesus. And to speak from it. That is the core spirituality of the prophet as well. To know Jesus, The Prophet, who came to save the world, and revealed His Father to us who believe.

Very lastly, prophecy symbolizes that God is not aloof! That He is an interventionist, actively communicating with each of us. In short, prophecy proves God’s immanence. This is a God who is personally actively thinking, feeling, expressing towards each of us. And for many, this is too much to handle. If we have a more distant, aloof image of God, as over there, no longer living and active with His Creation, we will have a hard time with the spirit of prophecy still being active in any tangible way. That God could still be actively communicating is one of prophecies proofs of His existence. That the universe did not just shrink, and leave Him over there somewhere-but that He is having those thousands of thoughts towards us daily. That is what prophecy proves. In this way, prophecy is an argument for the existence of a personal God. And in this way it is evangelizing people towards Him.

So, if there is one thing the prophets symbolize about God is that He is an immanent, active, interventional, living God in personal relationship with His Creation to the point, even, of overexposure! He is not aloof. Instead, He is erupting with emotion, thoughts and actions, and words over each creature He has ever made. He is in no way a passive distant God, but one who is having a conversation, a real time dialogue with His Creatures and Creation. At times, it may appear to be a monologue, for one partner (us) is not always listening well; but He yearns for it to become a conversation which is altering the entire universe. To the point that He sends messengers to speak clearly for Him, so that we understand, and can enter this eternal dialogue.

A theology of the arts starts in the garden of Eden. God asked Adam and Eve to co-create with Him. He gave them domain (kratos=to help complete)–in giving them domain, He gave them freedom to create with Him—arrange things and even name things. He was not asking them to create from nothing; but to create with what He gave them to start with.

Creativity has to do with dominion. Part of what God asked them to do was to partner with Him by getting to know Him as He created. God brought the animals to Adam, and asked Him what he would name them–there was this pleasure in partnership from the beginning!

After the fall or rebellion of man, there came this necessity for a new creation. Jesus is the New Adam instilling the new creation in us. He came to restore the earth, but also to do what original man could not–to fully enjoy that creative communion with His Father!

As those invited into the Life of Christ, we are asked to enter into this creative communion once more. This radically effects our creativity! We are once again, able to create with Him, and enjoy that as a place of meeting Our God. Creativity is no longer off limits, but we have access to enter that play which God had with Adam before the fall. But even in a purer way. For Christ is the exact representation of The Father, so we can enter deeply into the wells of His Imagination!

The new creation is another way of looking at the arts. The Father started with His Son in making a new creation. In this creation, creativity was always used to reflect  The Father. And now we have become part of His new creation (2Cor5:17), so, we have “put on” His creativity and symbolic nature, and have full access to His Perception! For this reason, we can move into new levels of imaginative activity in Him! We can actually begin to move and dream in His Imagination!

Francis Shaeffer places Christ Lordship over the whole man as his foundation for looking at the arts. He is saying two things: Christ is Lord over ALL of Reality; and that Christ is Lord over every part of man–body, soul, imagination, his symbolic functions etc.. His Lordship starts with us, and then extends out through us into culture, or better yet onto cities and naitons, and our planet.

Full redemption of the whole person includes the full funtioning of the imagination or symbol maker of man; as this is healed, man is able to partner with Christ in His Perception, creating healed images of Reality; this becomes part of partnering with Christ in His Restoration! And we then get to participate in God’s healing of His Own symbolic expression in creating the earth and humanity!

Trying to just be relevant to culture or the world is not enough. We want to be restorers of our planet with Him! If relevancy is your foundational stone, you are going to stay lateral; but if Christ Lordship over the WHOLE of man including his image maker or symbolic function; and then through this healing, allowing us to partner with HIM in healing the symbolic level or imagination of the planet, there you have something deeper to start from.

God made the whole man; and the whole man is under redemption. Then He gave man dominion or lordship through HIM, the new Adam!–and this Lordship extends into 1)the arts or creative parts of ourselves 2) to the arts or creative realm in culture or cities or nations. We have a responsibility as those “in Him” to carry His Imagination into our culture, and be restorers of its imagination. As we allow Him to heal our own creativity, we are then able to enter in and be healers in our culture’s imagination! How thrilling, and what a great context and purpose for the arts! For we then can start to be projectors of heaven’s images onto earth.

Heaven’s images of our cities, nations and even our entire planet are meant to be in His likeness! “For we are His workmanship (his art, his poems) created in Christ Jesus..” (Ephesian 2:10) God made earth and humanity to express Himself. In this sense, the entire creation is just that–a creation, a piece of art made to express the Artist, who is God, the Creator! That is the ultimate context for our own creativity!

We were given dominion or rulership over the earth; we are then, once in HIM, asked to partner with Him in ruling the symbolic dimension, as well as the other parts of cities, nations and the whole earth–this is part of knowing Christ in His Rulership or dominion of the earth. His Lordship in the arts, means HIS IMAGES being projected onto cities and places and people–not the enemy’s. For too long the enemy has projected his images onto cities and people, Jesus will have HIS images placed on them, for we were made “in His Image” and meant to be signs or symbols pointing towards God!  As we, like David, become “living portents or symbols, we can also start to heal the imagnination of our cites, our nations, and of our planet!

Our friend Mike Ramsey in his recent newsletter challenged us again in talking about the prostitutionalization of the arts. Specifically, he is working in the art school world; but his comments could be applied out to the whole entertainment and arts worlds.

In the book of Joshua, the first city that is to be conquered was Jericho. The method of attack was a symbolic action. Symbol preceeds and illuminates general action, as God likes to communicate symbolically what He is up to before He just does it! Many artist are being called or stirred to “go in” now and start marching around Jericho. The levites–the symbolizers come in before the main armies, to prepare a way symbolically. We believe that this is exactly how God is working now, using the arts to go in a retrieve lands which are God’s, and prepare a way for His Kingdom, and even the general church, when it is unified, to enter and dwell in the land.

Recall also that Jericho was guarded by prostitution–you see Rehab living in its walls, but also that the ways of prostitution covered this city. So one of the first true enemies to displace in “the land” was prostitution.

Now it seems obvious, that the ways of prostitution are largely what the entertainment and arts worlds  are under, or “guarded by”. People and talent becoming products to sell and buy; but also, the sexual perversity that comes as a visible fruit of prostitution. It is easy to see both in the current state of the entertainment industry.

Prostitution is not just buying sex, but is also the way of enslaving others for your own pleasure or ends. You see that it is opposed to God’s way of gift giving–God gives us to one another as in marriage, which itself is the opposite of prostitution, and is often used to fight it–even on a personal level; conversely, prostitution takes whatever it wishes, and is therefore not able to receive it from His Hands or in His Way. When we prostitute, we are either using or being used–and many artist feel caught up in both!

It is our heart, that artist enter more fully their true context for living, as well as creating. And that they are then able to be “sent in” by God to combat the ways of prostitution guarding the gates of the arts world. Currently, the arts are being recovered by God as part of an overarching restoration of His Own symbolic function. When the symbolic is healed, you will see that things will begin to symbolize what they truly mean again.

In the garden, each tree symbolized the specific things which God had chosen to have them mean. You see that our ability to read what things symbolized was broken by the fall in the garden. But this is not a permanent state. Part of God restoring the arts, is about our larger relation to the creation and meaning. As we see already in the church, The Spirit of God is starting to restore the church’s understanding even of history itself, and this will continue until the restoration of His Symbolic is complete.

As you see in fashion, the enemy is at work placing false associations on everything from a woman’s body, to a child’s smile. Oswald Chambers called this “false associations”, and the enemy is vigilant in the art world teaching and assigning these false associations constantly. So that it is difficult to check out at the grocery store without seeing a false image of motherhood or womanhood in general. This is land which must be recovered. And it is not a task which the church has been able to do up til this point.

But as we see artist arising , not just making fresh and inventive work, but also teaching again what things are meant to be connected with, we see the emergence of not only a new aesthetic, but a more whole understanding. This is the start of the restoration of the symbolic on the earth, and the prophetic movement is also a part of this restoration. We are excited to be a part of displacing the ways of prostitution with His Ways! And to do so as artist, and symbolizers!

I want just to simply name the spiritual seasons, so we can locate ourselves. The way this was taught to me is unique, but the basics are an eternal pattern of growth. I see spiritual development as stages of knowing different parts of Christ. First, Christ as Deliverer; then as Teacher/ Rabbi; then as Son/ King. This final stage moves more and more into The Fatherhood of God.

The first season has to do with birthing. We are born out from under slavery, so that this first season is about knowing Jesus as Deliverer. As blind slaves, God knew us, but we did not know Him. When we are liberated by whatever means we came to know Christ, we first encounter Him as a deliverer or liberator. This is a very dependent moment in our journey, which is modeled by Moses coming into Egypt to free those in slavery under some form of oppression. This is the early church.

The second phase of spiritual development, seen in the wilderness and the Medieval Church is receiving the law or teachings of God. God must rebuild our foundations, to do this, we must be in some sort of wilderness or place in between where we were slaves, and where we are going–our promised land. This in-between space is a place of knowing Christ as The Teacher–giver of the law or ways of God. The knowledge of God enters us, and we begin to know His ways. This is many ways is all preparation for inheriting the promised land.

Here, in this third phase–i might call it the Galatians 4:1 phase, we come to see Jesus as King over the land–as Lord. And we start to experience our own kingship or lordship with Him. But also we start to know Him as the true Son who is given His Inheritance. We come to know His Rulership, and Power, Majesty and Might. This third phase is about occupying, possesing and cultivating our inheritance–the pleasant lines of our inheritances! This is the phase that some of the current church is just now entering. It is a time of retrieving the treasures and bounty unto The Son, and it is the time of knowing Him in His Labour and Suffering, as well as His Glory.

We are each meant to occupy our own uniquely shaped “lands” on earth. And it is His enjoyment when we press on into His Life so that we begin to allow His Kingdom to come in the dimensions of our particular domains! This is part of truly moving into our individual and collective callings as followers of Christ, and participators in the Divine Nature (as Peter put it)! But there is also a process of maturation into Him, for growth is an aspect of who God is–God makes things which mature and grow and reproduce. Our goal is to be fully in the season of growth He is leading us into! If we are not growing, we are not in the Living God!

These three stages are just broad strokes on a much more subtly painted canvas, but they offer a general map of spiritual development in terms of the unique parts of Christ we are getting to enter and know, and then reflect out onto the earth. Knowing what stage we are in, and also where we will be going helps keep hope alive, but also tells us which food to be eating in our hour!