When Jesus sent out His disciples He told them that there are two possible reactions to them preaching the gospel: either they would be received, or they would be rejected.
This is a fact, for God has given humanity freewill, and as such every one of us is free to accept or reject the prophetic Word of God. However whilst we do have this freedom, it must be acknowledged that with every exercise of our freewill, every decision and every action we take there is a consequence in the spiritual realm which alters the material world. And it is true in this case as well.
God has laid out in His Word the specific consequences for both receiving the prophetic Word and the rejecting of it. In fact, He holds the reception of His Word as so important that He has said :
“He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward…” Matthew 10:41
Why is the reception of a prophet so important to Him? And what is the prophet’s reward?
The Importance of the Prophetic
The prophet represents God. He goes forth from the presence of God and speaks what God has given him to speak. The prophet speaks the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not just speaking the Word, it is speaking it forth in the power of an anointing borne out of intimacy with Jesus Himself. The prophet is the ambassador of Christ in this world, and so the prophet and his message are inextricably linked. A true prophet cannot be separated from the message he brings.
We see this with Ezekiel. God had a message for Israel and He had His prophet to act out what he was proclaiming to Israel. He had to lie down for a certain number of days as a sign against rebellious Israel. (Ezekiel 4)
One cannot receive the prophet himself, whilst rejecting the message he brings. And vice versa is true.
Neither can the true prophet be separated from God. When God sends someone to speak forth His Word, then he/she is speaking it on God’s behalf. Rejection of the prophet and his message therefore is rejection of God and His Word.
“He who receives you receives me, and He who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” Matthew 10:40
The Way of the Flesh
The rejection of the Word of God is normal. What I mean by that is that it is the way of human flesh. The flesh always resists the Spirit. It always has and it always will. The flesh has its eyes blinded and its heart hardened.
“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14
I don’t know about you, but since I was born again I left behind “normal”. I don’t want the way of the flesh anymore, I am desperate for the way of the Spirit. As followers of Christ, we who are now living by the Spirit should be able to receive and hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church regardless of whether it is a message of encouragement/edification or whether it is a message of correction/reproof. You see, the Holy Spirit wants to work in us to conform us to the image of Christ and sometimes the old needs to be torn down first before the new can be built.
Rejection of the Prophetic Word
The consequence of the rejection of the prophetic Word is judgment and death.
This may sound harsh, but there is a spiritual principle at work here.
“For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” Galations 6:8
Because the Word of God is alive (Hebrews 4:12) when it is received it takes root in order to bring forth life, just like a little seed.
However when the Word of God is rejected, that place where life was meant to dwell becomes a vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum and something has to take that place. What enters in is corruption. When Christ is actively rejected after the Word has been preached, a new level of corruption enters into that individual/church/city.
Jesus told the disciples what action to take with those who reject them and their words:
“And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorra in the day of judgment than for that city!” Matthew 10:14, 15
The action of the shaking of dust from one’s feet is an act of judgment against that place.
“The Jews thought the land of Israel so peculiarly holy, that when they came home from any heathen country, they stopped at the borders and shook or wiped off the dust of it from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it. Therefore the action here enjoined was a lively intimation, that those Jews who had rejected the Gospel were holy no longer, but were on a level with heathens and idolaters.” John Wesley
Jesus brings Sodom and Gomorra into the picture as a picture of God’s judgment. It was an awful judgment of fire and brimstone against awful sin. Yet they were judged apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ – it had not been preached to them. How much more severely will God judge the place to which the gospel has been sent and rejected?
It is the same with us. Now that we are followers of Christ, partakers of the grace of God, born again from death into life, how much more should we be able to hear from God?
As the Parable of the Sower demonstrates, the result of that seed of the Word not being able to penetrate and take root is
– nothing. Fruitlessness, barrenness, lifelessness.
You see if God wants to speak something to you and me, then He wants us to have ears to hear it. There is always a purpose to God speaking – and that is to bring forth life. To close our hearts and our ears to Him is actually an act of disobedience. Remember Saul – he shut his ears to God’s instructions and because of his disobedience was rejected as king. Remember Lot’s wife. She was specifically told not to look back at Sodom. She did, and became a pillar of salt. Death entered in. Remember Adam and Eve. Specifically instructed not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned them of the consequence of disobedience : death.
“You shall not eat it….lest you die” Genesis 3:3
They ate it and death entered in.
Jesus Himself exhorts us to be able to hear. Over and again He says “He who has ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.”
Why? Because He knows that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. He says that seeing and hearing leads to understanding in the heart, conversion and healing. (see Matthew 13:14-15).
It Is Not Too Late
I want to encourage you that God is merciful It is not too late to hear Him.
I feel that there are some in the Body of Christ who have rejected a Word from the Lord because it didn’t sit well with their flesh. Perhaps it seemed too big, perhaps you felt inadequate to receive it. Perhaps it was a reproof against a specific sin you didn’t want to give up or didn’t know how to give up. This rejection of God’s Word has brought about a measure of death in your spiritual life and you are now stagnating.
Let me tell you that until this has been dealt with you will not move forward. If you have any controversy with God then it needs to be sorted today. Get in His presence and be honest with Him. Let go of pride, let go of inadequacy. Let go of Self altogether and just allow Him to minister to you. Confess your sin of disobedience and ask Him to open your ears. And then do what He tells you to do.
This is the way Life will flow again.
Reception of the Prophetic Word
“He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward….” Matthew 10:41
Wow – this is almost too amazing to believe! God cares so much about the reception of His Word and His messenger that whoever receives a prophet, because he is a prophet, shall receive the same reward a prophet receives.
Whilst this is amazing it is also quite logical. Considering that the rejection of God’s word is the norm of human flesh, then the one whom can receive it the Spirit of Life must already be working on in some measure. The one who can receive from God has not a hardened heart nor deafened ears. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet of God, is receiving the prophet as an ambassador of Christ. Therefore whoever is receiving a prophet ultimately receives God Himself.
“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent Me”
Once again from the Parable of the Sower: “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, some hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Matthew 13:23
When the seed of the Word is received in fertile soil, God is able to move and new life springs up as a consequence.
So What is the Prophet’s Reward?
Jesus said to His disciples “He who finds His life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39
This the reward of a prophet. One who goes forth and speaks the Word of God, not fearing man but fearing God. One who stands up against the forces of evil and declare God’s truth. One who loses his reputation for the sake of Christ. One who confesses Christ in the face of persecution and rejection. One who does not bow to the pressure of man. One who puts Christ before himself. This is a true prophet and this one will find eternal life because, for the sake of the gospel, he has laid down his temporary life in this world.
And the one who receives the prophet and his words will share in his reward of eternal life because he has received him. Because rather than resisting the prophetic Word in the flesh, he has heard by the Spirit.
Because in his humility he has identified with the prophet, God will identify him with the prophet’s reward.
This is a wonderful topic with much depth. I cannot cover it all in this one post but God willing I am going to write more on this. It needs to be stated that not all “prophets” are true prophets of God. There are many false prophets in the world whom we should not receive, nor receive their words.
Next post…. false prophets and testing the spirits
Grace and Truth 
June 25, 2015 at 4:24 am
Where should I look for an honest prophet?
June 25, 2015 at 4:47 am
That’s a good question. There are many dishonest, false ones around. I am not sure whether you are asking sincerely or if there’s a sarcastic tone to your question. If you’re sincere Leonard Ravenhill would be a good place to start.
June 25, 2015 at 4:51 pm
Excellent post.
Sometimes it is not merely the words of a prophet that are rejected by certain people, but the prophet’s lifestyle of obedience. But here is some more on a prophet’s words being rejected:
Back in 1989 I was attending an Assembly of God in Ames, Iowa. I stood up and gave a testimony on how I was delivered from many demons (I think it is one of the most beautiful and powerful testimonies that I have ever given—it really glorifies God). After I gave my testimony, the pastor (Gary Pilcher) jumped out of his seat, threw the assistant pastor out of the pulpit and told me in no uncertain terms that he did not like my testimony and that I should leave the teaching to him. (I didn’t think I was doing any teaching, I was just giving a testimony of the Holy Spirit’s powerful working in my life.)
Six months later I gave a similar testimony about how I was delivered from many demons (in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established). In my spirit, half of the congregation received my testimony, but the same pastor replied somewhat negatively—I don’t remember exactly what he said. Immediately, the Lord told me to take the shoes off of my feet, shake the dust off of my shoes and walk out of that church. I didn’t do it because I felt sorry for Pastor Pilcher. After the church service, I walked out the door and Pastor Pilcher followed me outside and spoke to me privately. Basically, what he said is that my testimony glorified Satan. When Gary Pilcher said that, he blasphemed the Holy Ghost; he will never get saved. A few years later, Gary Pilcher’s son died of cancer. The last I heard, Gary Pilcher was the assistant supervisor of the Assemblies of God in central Iowa: when you reject Christ for a living, you can really be promoted up the ladder in the world system of churchianity.
The wages of sin (rejecting a prophet’s testimony) is death—spiritual death and physical death. Touch not my anointed, do my prophets no harm.
“New Testament Circumcision”
https://hitchhikeamerica.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/new-testament-circumcision/
“Josephus on John the Baptist”
https://hitchhikeamerica.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/josephus-on-john-the-baptist/
June 25, 2015 at 10:24 pm
I think you are absolutely right when you say “Sometimes it is not merely the words of a prophet that are rejected by certain people, but the prophet’s lifestyle of obedience”. It can be a lonely path as the Lord calls those whom He would use to be His mouthpiece to a greater level of consecration. This can be misunderstood by people, even Christians. But ultimately God will honour His servants as He says in Psalm 91, even if it’s after their death. Tozer said this about Leonard Ravenhill (I believe both Tozer and Ravenhill were true prophets of God):
“To such men as this, the church owes a debt too heavy to pay. The curious thing is that she seldom tries to pay him while he lives. Rather, the next generation builds his sepulchre and writes his biography – as if instinctively and awkwardly to discharge an obligation the previous generation to a large extent ignored.”
I think the story you have shared is very sad and I am so sorry to hear what happened, the whole thing.
God bless
Pingback: The Importance of the Prophetic | The Road
June 26, 2015 at 1:47 am
That is a very true statement by Tozer about prophets like Ravenhill. Here is another great quote:
“Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.”
–Fyodor Dostoyevsky
July 9, 2015 at 6:32 pm
This is from my High Plains Drifter blog:
[4 July 2015]
Earlier today I got a ride from Lewiston to Grangeville, Idaho. I walked out of Grangeville about a half mile and this car pulled over to give me a ride. It was an older couple. They knew some friends of mine that lived in the Kooskia neighborhood. They said that they could drop me off at my friends’ place.
As we were driving down the road, the husband told me about a vision that an ex-Muslim had from the Lord. He had been a dyed-in-the-wool Muslim for a number of years and then he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. He had been in hiding because he had a lot of death threats from his Muslim family.
Here is the ex-Muslim’s vision:
He saw the Lord in all of His glory. Then he saw George Washington kneeling before the Lord. George Washington was pleading with the Lord and said, “Please don’t let the wicked take over my country [the United States].”
The Lord replied, “I will not let the wicked take over your country, but I will have to destroy it first.”
July 11, 2015 at 4:42 am
Yes, wow. That reminds me of Haggai 2:7 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.”
There is a shaking coming and I would think especially for the USA. The thing is with America is that it had so much light. Your country was established, generally, on godly principles, whereas Australia, for example, was not. (Although of course Australia is ripe for judgment as well.) Therefore “to whom much is given much will be required”.
Thank you for sharing this. It is my earnest prayer that the Western church will “Arise and shine” and get off her comfortable bed of luxury and be about her Master’s business. She’s grown fat and sluggish and a shaking to bring about a state of leanness may just be what she needs.
God bless Tim 🙂
July 21, 2015 at 5:15 pm
Here is something that I thought you would like to read:
https://lannononsamuel.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/a-biblical-definition-of-a-prophet/
July 22, 2015 at 6:18 am
You are right. It’s profound, thank you for sharing that with me 🙂 I have followed his blog
January 25, 2017 at 1:07 pm
awesome teaching
January 26, 2017 at 12:40 am
Thank you Miriam. Blessings,
Belinda
October 6, 2017 at 1:57 pm
I really enjoyed your article. Thank you I thought a prophet’s reward might be Spirital blessings or gifts, but being a prophet is a gift.
October 6, 2017 at 9:02 pm
Thanks Lynda, God bless you.
Belinda 😀
February 27, 2018 at 4:28 pm
Gods message through you has strengthened and educated me. Thankyou
June 13, 2018 at 11:13 am
I shared your link to other Born Again believers.
Bless God for your obedience to His Will.
I also shared this with them…because 2 witnesses of God will be coming, but before that many False Prophets will appear.
[13/06 6:47 pm] Charles Toh: Prophets are Prophets, they have with them the gift of Prophecy.
Holy Prophets are those God calls by *Name*
They bring God’s current messages.
When Holy Prophets fall, they are mostly disobedient to God… They move from Holy Prophets to become False Prophets.
That is important to understand, because in the last days, you need to know which Holy Prophets are Fallen… And become False Prophets…
(That’s why we are to be Watching Always )
[13/06 6:49 pm] Charles Toh: I teach you a secret, before they come God will already reveal them, His Holy Prophets. To watchers.
If you are sleeping… You wouldn’t know the difference between Holy, False and the Devil
God Bless You.
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.
Numbers 6:24-27 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/num.6.24-27.KJV
June 13, 2018 at 10:43 pm
Amen. Thanks for your encouragement Charles. God bless
July 23, 2018 at 9:23 pm
Shalom, our dear Prophet, I can’t thank God enough for the blessings and peace my household and I have been enjoying since I discovered your prayers and especially this house cleansing prayer. We thank JEHOVAH GOD the creator of Heaven and Earth and its fullness for your anointing and for using you as a vessel of the word which is the sword of the Spirit to bless those privileged to come across your good evangelism. Your prayers and evangelism have brought a lot of peace to my household it has also given us confidence and emboldens our faith in ALMIGHTY YAHWEH the OMNIPOTENT OWNER of all souls, Indeed you are anointed and highly favor and Our GOD is awesome and mighty to be praised. Amen and Amen I have been trying to sow a seed of encouragement into your ministry I have not been successful it and I do not have a PayPal account, I would appreciate a link that would enable me to pitch in my widow’s mite. Thank you.
July 24, 2018 at 11:17 am
Hi, im not sure if this comment is meant for me or not… if it is, I am not a prophet. If it isn’t meant for me then I would advise not to particularly trust anyone who calls themself one. Please Don’t be hasty in giving money to self-proclaimed prophets.
If you are looking to give to a godly ministry that helps the believers in Israel then this is a good one:
https://mountmoriah.org.uk
(100% if the money received goes straight to the believers in Israel.)
God bless,
Belinda
June 4, 2020 at 7:30 am
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, you are a true child of God there’s so much l can say regarding this Mainly that I know God was speaking directly to me! you see l have struggled with an issue/ thorn in the flesh for many years being introduced to it at a young age by my parents/ grandparents nevertheless l always felt and knew Gods calling on my life as a child and can clearly identify as an adult one of my gifts being that of prophecy, I’m in love with God/ Jesus and He spoke to and called me to steward over a ministry where l live called (No More Desolate) ln the beginning I didnt realize how importantly powerful this Ministry was referring to and speaking this to me first! because God wanted to bring me out of just that DESOLATION ISOLATION AND BONDAGE I’VE BEEN IN FOR SO SO LONG! satan stole one of my sons lives in 2008 and just recently stole another one in May 2020 because I have made a conscious decision that no matter what the enemy throws my way I WILL SERVE MY LORD! l. humbly ask for your prayers and to please stay connected with me if God wills it to be so, l need a powerful source connection in the earth realm because due to all the firey trials And refinement, at times l feel burned out and go thru mentally which comes in different forms in many of us I’ve experienced YEARS of depression and social isolating myself from ppl even my grandchildren and have struggles with simply being able to communicate with ppl on basic and normal levels and also other close relatives, and what adds to my bonds is them judging me based on outer appearance. Of what their own natural understanding and perspectives are of me as tho I’m purposely not wanting to have anything to do with them, when l so desperatelty want them in my life, yet l just can’t seem to be able to make that connection with them, l know l shoulldnt ask God as l have why did He make me this way I just dont understand it and its such an aweful feeling to have, but l also must be honest with myself ti say that after reading your post l must admit in all honesty that l believe some of the issues I struggle with is a result of something that God want me to TOTALLY surrender and give up! I can. Truly relate to brother Apostle Paul concerning finding himself doing the very thing that he dosent want to do ect… And concerning the death of my beloved sons my shared testimony. Is that I’ve always heard that Jesus Christ is the prince of peace, I’ve read it in the bible and I always believed it tobe true, but my TESTIMONY IS NOW MY REALITY that I AM NOW WALKING IN THAT PEACE THAT SURPASSES ( ALL HUMAN UNDERSTANDING EVEN MY VERY OWN!!) Gods peace and comfort is AMAZING and at this very moment l decree and declare that GOD HAS FREED ME FROM THAT THING THAT I’VE WRESTLED WITH MOST OF MY LIFE! AND GOD USED YOU AND YOU POSTING YOUR MSG/ LINK AS PART OF HIS PROCESS FOR MY LIFE AT HIS APPOINTED TIME AND SEASON!! To God be ALL THE GLORY!!!!!!