The Christian minister, as someone has pointed out, is a descendant not of the Greek orator, but of the Hebrew prophet. The differences between the orator and the prophet are many and radical, the chief being that the orator speaks for himself while the prophet speaks for God. The orator originates his message and is responsible to himself for its content. The prophet originates nothing but delivers the message he has received from God who alone is responsible for it, the prophet being responsible to God for its delivery only. The prophet must hear the message clearly and deliver it faithfully, and that is indeed a grave responsibility, but it is to God alone, not to men. (A.W.Tozer)

Can you see what Tozer is saying here? God does not speak through the orator. The orator has skills and he employs them. We in Christendom are awash with orators in the pulpit. So many would not miss a beat if they were not ministers, they would be motivational speakers. Their sermons, as good as they can be, would not be out of place at any time through the last 2000 years. Take a good preacher today, and let him go back in time a thousand years, and he would still be a good preacher and almost all of his sermons would be appropriate for the most part. Yet the prophet does not deliver a sermon, he delivers a message. I know that these two words have been used interchangeably, message-sermon. But they are not the same. Can a sermon speak to someone and therefore be a message? Yes. But a prophet does not deliver sermons he delivers messages which are appropriate to the time in which we live and the state in which we find ourselves. Now can these messages have application to a future generation? Of course. Broad and general applications, yet God speaks to each generation individually and He does so through prophets.

Is God speaking to us today? He is indeed. Is He giving us warnings from prophets from all over the world? He is indeed. Will we listen to the prophet? If history is anything to go by, we would have to say that the ears of the people will be closed to God and they will hate his messengers, it has always been so. Yet, as always, God has a remnant and they hear their Lord’s voice. If He tells them to flee to the hills, they will flee. If He instructs them to stand up and be heard they will stand up. If He says draw a line and hold it, they will hold the line. There is a fire in their bones and a sword in their hands. Through their veins runs molten truth and it melts everything else as it courses through their body and is the very beat of their heart.

I want to encourage you today oh remnant saint. You may live in a day and age of darkness but you walk in the light. You may be surrounded by lies and error but you are guided by the truth. You may be hated by the world and all those around you but you are loved by God. You may believe that all have forsaken God but God has a remnant who have not nor will bow the knee to the gods of this world. You may think you are all alone but you are not. God has His children everywhere, in every tribe and every tongue and every nation. And He speaks to them and they speak as they hear Him. They do not speak as an orator but a prophet and the word originates with God. Stand fast saint, the Bridegroom cometh.