Vision of a Woman and the Flying Basket
The Study of the Prophet Amos
The Mistakes of the Sons of the Prophets
I was sitting in a women’s conference with my eyes closed in worship when I saw a vision "Of a flying basket of fruit and a woman" carrying it in the prophetic window. "What could such a vision represent and mean?" I said to myself. As someone who has walked with Prophets such as "Nahum" and had a visitation of the "House of the Prophet Zechariah" I still wonder, "What more can I learn from God's Word from these visitations?"
I realize that not every Prophet is the same. For example, "Not every Prophet fought Jezebel" so I think it is important to get a bigger picture of the Life of a Prophet. However, we can make it clear that every Prophet did have resistance. In the New Testament the greatest Prophet is Christ Jesus, yet He is God. At the same time, "I realize not every Prophet lays on their side for 365 days and draws a Nation on a tablet, and prophesies against it." Or, "Not every Prophet comes up out of a whale of a stomach of a whale to prophecy against a Nation" or "Dances naked before a Nation." The study of Prophets can be exciting, as even "David overcame Goliath with five smooth stones."
So, when I hear someone say, "They are a Prophet" my immediate thought is, "How did you see Jesus?" along with a few pinpoints from below of my purpose of study.
My purpose of studying the Life of the Prophets is simple.
- How did God call them to be a Prophet?
- What set them out from the rest of the Prophets as part of his/her training that made them distinct?
- What background did the Prophet have before they were called?
- What was their greatest point of resistance?
- What was their commission from God, in one line?
- What was the outcome?
Secondly, my purpose of studying the Life of Prophets is to learn about the visions they had. What types of communication did they have with God? How did God speak to them to show judgement, or mercy? What was God's desire for a Nation when He chose them?
Here, the name Amos means: to carry the burden of the beast. His name is pronounced, "Ah-Mas" in our English language. At first glance you would say to yourself, "Every Prophet carries a burden for a Nation" yet, here we see the Prophet carries the burden of the beast. Covenant with God did not stop God's judgement, "Obedience to the Covenant" is was stopped God's judgement.
One of the characteristics I love about God is that He picks a Friend in the earth, "A Prophet" and He speaks to the Prophet how is going to judge the Nation for the purpose of "The Prophet to convince God NOT to judge a Nation." In today's Modern world it would be like "You calling a friend and saying I am upset over this or that and this is what I am going to do. I am really going to let them have it." If you look at the heart of God with Amos, "God approaches the Prophet the same way" and the Prophet responds, "I hear what you are saying but, let me convince you how much you love them. Let me convince you how much you care for them, etc."
God Called the Prophet Because:
- They rejected the Prophet of God
- They had slave trade (Amos 1:6-10)
- Sexual immorality (Same verses)
- A time of great, great, prosperity and Israel was lost in money. The rich got richer and the poor was oppressed. (Amos 4)
- Hatred against people of color (Amos 9:7-10)
**Israel would sin so greatly that it would cause a horrific earthquake --the worst it has ever seen two years after the Prophet speaks.
Amos 1:1 Here, Amos was chose by God in a time when Israel had a was going to have a worldwide horrific earthquake within a time period of two years in their future, and they did not know it. I have studied such conditions and most would say, "Oh God sent the earthquake as a sign of judgement" yet that could be further from the truth. Earthquakes come because a nation has sewn the life of sin and because of the sewing of sin in a Nation the land will reap what it has sewn. Now, with that being said, "Most would think that such dire conditions would be the end of the world."
The style of the approach of the Prophet Amos would describe the judgement to come as a Lion. If you have not got my studies on the Four Wind Prophets, that I began to teach about over 20 years ago "Please request information." However, for me I enjoy seeing how the Prophet describes the nature of God in His judgments because it describes the "Wind of God" in His nature. The Prophet did not say, "God would rise as a Lion" the Prophet said, "God was coming like a Lion." This type of description is the East Wind Nature of God. I also elaborate more on this in my book, "Four Winds of God: Breathe oh Breath of God" that I wrote many years ago as well.
My point of saying this is because understanding the Nature of God in His judgments speaks of His favor of God to His people as well. This is very important for the hearer of the Prophetic, because here the Spirit of a Prophet is subject to the Prophet. When one speaks, "Does one simply speak calamity? Or, does one show the way out of calamity by revealing the nature of God in what is proclaimed?" In today's world, "There are many handmaidens that is found in the Book of Acts 2 that prophecy words of encouragement" but very few are Prophets. Perhaps, that is why Social Media is full of them. I can surely understand why Paul said, "None of these men move me" in his writings about what others preached and proclaimed because he was more into one message, "Christ crucified and the message of Grace."
For a Prophet, "This is the stance" of focus as well. That is, "The ministry of the handmaiden and the young men who see visions" (Acts 2) is not greater than the ministry of the Prophet of a Nation. In today's world we have worldwide leaders who operate as a young man who see visions, and handmaidens who prophecy" and we do have a distinct few Prophets I have seen operate in my life span.
At the same time, "The ministry of the handmaiden and the young men who see visions" has been held higher in esteem then the ministry of the Prophet/Tess in the world and that is one of the reasons why the the Body of Christ is weak. Popular Social Media Streams and Yellow Journalism Magazines that are Christian, and Christian Editors who represent the handmaiden articles of writings have escalated this weakness in the Body of Christ. So much so, that when a Prophet does speak "Their voice is mere mockery" to the world because the 'young prophetic company who is a wild olive branch not yet engrafted into maturity' has made it that way.
Amos had disciples that he trained in schools of Prophets. Elijah and Elisha had disciples that they trained in schools of Prophets. Yet, in each case, "The voices of the Sons of the Prophets were not greater" then the voice of the Prophet. In fact, they were told to hold their peace. (2 Kings 2) What has become of Modern Day Prophets? When they are heard and obeyed these voices can save a Nation. Yet, at the time that Amos was called by God to be a Prophet he blatantly tells the king Amaziah, "I was not of the schools of the Prophets, or a Prophet. I was a shepherd that tended the flock" (Amos 7:14) Truly, God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise. (1 Cor. 1:27)
Here, the Prophet Amos was not trained in institutions that were already set in the Bible. In today's world, "There are many who are like Amos" who are represented in that type of calling in God who see that the voices of the handmaidens and young men-who do see visions, are greater than the voice of the true few Prophets. It is in these times God keeps them humble and hidden and out of mainstream to keep them clean and pure from toxic esteemology.
At the same time, there are women Prophetess in the Holy Bible such as: Deborah (Judges 4), Huldah (2 Kings 22:14) and Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14) As well, there are many more Prophets in the Bible other than Enoch and Elijah, and Elisha. However, Moses was called a god. (Exodus 7:1--Before you write me, please know that is a 'small' g." As we study the Life of the Prophets we learn more about God's nature to His Prophets and the Nations.
1. How did God call the Prophet Amos?
Amos was a Shepherd in the southern part of Israel, called by God to the Northern part of Israel to prophecy. He was a farmer that tended the land as well. (He had the knowledge of the East Wind Prophet, but rose up out of the South Wind Prophet training and took it to the North to Prophecy. This is why it is always important to be who are you, where you are, wherever God takes you. *Get my book: Four Winds of God: Breathe oh Breath of God, and Formation of Prophecy: Four Winds of God in our Online School of Prayer Bookstore.)
Seer of Visions:
Visions of God's judgment on Israel
- Locusts (7.1–3)
- Fire (7.4–6)
- A plumb line (7.7–9)
- A basket of fruit (8.1–3)
- God beside the altar (9.1–4)
2. What set them out from the rest of the Prophets as part of his/her training that made them distinct?
Prophetic Enactments, Prophetic Singing
It was during that time, the Prophet had "Prophetic enactments" in front of his eyes that began to call him to a higher purpose in God. He saw a lion roar in the forest (Amos 3:4) As a Shepherd they are trained in battle to protect the sheep, yet "Amos used that as part of his prophecy." Why would a lion roar when there is no prey, "Just to be heard?"
He saw a bird fall from the sky directly into a snare, "Yet nobody was there to feed the snare and take the prey" and he used it as a means of prophecy.
He heard the overwhelming sounds of trumpets blowing in the sky, "Yet saw no trumpeters and the people were not afraid."
God would use the training of "Prophetic Enactments to teach him to prophecy to a Nation" but His style would be different than most all of the other Prophets, "Amos would sing his prophesies over a Nation."
Amos 5:8-9 *One example
Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name: That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
3. What background did the Prophet have before they were called?
Again, no training in the School of Prophets although he trained disciples. He was a Shepherd.
4. What was his greatest resistance?
Religious leaders
Amos 7:10-17
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.
Amos 7:12,13
Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court.
5. Commission of the Prophet Amos
To speak against the sins of the Nations of Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Moab.
'Thus says the Lord: "For three transgressions of Judah and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his statutes. But their lies have led them astray. after which their fathers walked So I will send a fire upon Judah and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem" ' (Amos 2:4-5)
Pray for the Nation
6. The Outcome There will be hope
"In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name," says the Lord who does this. "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land which I have given them," says the Lord your God.' (9:11-15)
In closing, "If you are called to be a Prophet fear not the faces of men. At the same time if you are in a place of obscurity God will still use you, strengthen the things that remain and pray for the Nation God has placed you. As well, be YOU--be distinct and different. Your office is greater than the "handmaiden and the young men" don't let them bring you to shame as the sons of the Prophets did to the Prophet Elijah in 2 Kings."
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Other Source of Teachings:
- Mistakes of the Sons of the Prophets: An allegorical look into 2 Kings 2. EBook, audio, and study notes. Refreshing, Uncompromising, Revelatory.
"We often look into the lives of the Major Prophets but what about the sons of the Prophets in training? What were their strengths? What were their weaknesses?"
Sister Lara takes you on an allegorical Bible Study in 2 Kings 2 and reveals to you the possibility of, "All the sons could prophecy the same day the supernatural event took place--but why did they miss what they prophesied?
All the sons could hear the voice of God on when the Major Prophet would be taken from their midst but why did they miss seeing what they prophesied?" Lastly, "All 50 of the sons of the Prophets were going the same way yet why were all of them wrong? What constitutes a real move of God and more!"
Purchase your Ebook copy today: $8.00 Electronic Email by using your paypal account and sending it SharingGodsDream@gmail.com
Or, order: Mistakes of the Sons of the Prophets "All in One Package" mp3, Ebook, Study Notes $15.99 by using your paypal account and sending it SharingGodsDream@gmail.com
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