WHO WILL HEAR MY GRIEF? - Readers' Comments
From The Caring Heart with Dr. Joyce from Spokane Washington

By Steve - 26 May 2012

When we demand justice and denounce victimization, we are speaking with a prophetic voice. Prophets are crucial for the defense of vulnerable individuals and, I believe, prophets are answering the call to serve God.

Further, answering the call to prophesy can give our lives meaning and direction. In contrast to those whose lives focus on material accumulations and sensual pleasures and whose greatest spiritual needs remain unsatisfied, prophets can experience a profound degree of joy.

However, prophesy usually comes at a cost, because prophets are rarely popular. Speaking truth to power means telling people what they don't want to hear. When we speak truth to tyrants, we do so at great peril - most of these prophets are tortured and killed. When we speak to people in general - in the case of animal issues it is nearly all of humanity, not just power elites, who act as brutal tyrants - we find ourselves unpopular.

If there is a silver lining to the cloud, as prophets go, I'd rather be relatively unpopular than tortured and killed!

However exalted or miserable our paths might be, we don't really have a choice. Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin" (Mark 3:28-29).

To my understanding, Jesus is saying that if we reject what comes from the Holy Spirit - which I think is our call to prophesy - we so impoverish our lives that we cannot have a sense of forgiveness and communion with the divine.

I discuss prophesy in much greater detail in the chapter "Christian Faith and Prophetic Witness" of Guided by the Faith of Christ.

Steve

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