Span-07 Apostolic & Prophetic Foundations 4 of 8 — Art Katz

For this young man and his natural deportment before you and your people, unaffected and religious. May that characterize him throughout all his days and us all. Save us from professionalism and knowing how to do it.

Simply your men and women speaking out of our hearts in the occasions that are given. Even now, as we continue, we look to you to unfold your great heart, more jealous for this time than ever we could be.

You're not just speaking for today, you're speaking for the last day, for all our days. Speak Lord, for your servants are hearing. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Did you like that prayer? It was not my own.

I like when I hear God's prayers. Well, shall we continue with this one episode after another? From verse 17 of chapter 17. Now it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick.

And his sickness was so serious there was no breath left in him. What have I to do with you, oh man of God? Have you come to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son? So a crisis has come. Crisis of death.

Crisis Reveals What We Are

Suddenly and unexpectedly. You like crisis? Never pleasant, but always revealing. I'll give you a favorite phrase of mine. You can use it. Crisis reveals. An absolute crisis reveals absolutely. We are one thing when our circumstances are comfortable.

When we're in the company of the saints. Healthy, well fed, well clothed. But what are we when the unexpected comes? When crisis comes. Unexpectedly. Of an ultimate kind. What we are in that moment is what we are.

So it's interesting to observe Elijah here. He's taken absolutely by surprise. God had not spoken to him. He had no anticipation. It came to pass after these things. That the same lady who took him in, who suffered him and provided for him, has to suffer the penalty of losing her son?

What kind of appreciation is that? What kind of God is that? And Elijah cannot answer her. He himself is stunned and astonished. He prays to the Lord. In verse 20, he expresses this surprise. Oh Lord my God, have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge by killing her son?

I don't get it. What's the point of it? So this is an interesting moment. To see what a man will do. When something comes upon him unexpectedly, for what a man does then, how he responds then, is what the man himself is.

So what does he do? He said in verse 19, give me your son. So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, the prayer that we have just read, that even the prophet cannot understand.

But he's got to answer. You think we'll face situations like that? Or do you think we'll have it all nicely ordered? Have you seen these paint sets where you fill in the little outline with the number according to the color of the paint?

It's called painting by the numbers. And when you're finished you have a facsimile of the Lord's Supper, a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece. You do know Leonardo da Vinci? We're not going to be able to do this this way.

We're not going to be able to serve God this way and do it by the numbers. The last days will be filled with things that are unpredictable. Things that we could not have anticipated. Things that will hit us from the blind side.

And what comes forth in that moment, in our reaction or our response, is what we in fact are. In God. So what was Elijah? He was as bewildered as we are. He's almost accusing God. What, are you killing this son?

I don't understand this. So give me this son. And take the son in his arms up to the room where he dwells. And puts the son on his own bed. And stands at the edge of the bed. Takes a deep breath. And prays professionally.

Lord, I don't understand what you're doing. But I would appreciate, even now, you will turn this tragedy to the good. So as to honor your name. And to impress this gentile widow. That she might be saved.

I know that you're able. But I'm asking it of you. In Jesus' name. And nothing would have happened. This is an ultimate crisis. The kind toward which we ourselves are tending. It's a crisis unto death.

More than I'm able now to tell you. Israel's death. Maybe your own nation's. There'll be no light solution here. No good, facile, easy solution. The crisis is engineered for the prophet himself. What will he do?

And Elijah stretched himself out over the boy. Eyeball to eyeball, fingertip to fingertip. And cried out to God three times. It's one thing to read it. It's another thing to do it. When's the last time you've had a dead corpse on your bed?

How icky. When you sleep. When you sleep. A dead corpse in your place. How un-antiseptic. But that's what it requires. The crises of the last days will not be professionally handled. It's going to take more than well-meaning intentions.

The object of God is not only the recovery of the son. The recovery of the nation that he symbolizes. But the stretching of the prophet himself. I know what I'm talking about. It's not yet available for you.

I'll just say this much. Save it for future times. The crisis of Israel in the last days already being formed, moving toward death. I predict it. The devastation of the present state of Israel and world Jewry brought to an ultimate crisis.

Unto death. Not only for its own sake. To experience the resurrection power of God. But also for the church's sake. For the church will stand over Israel. Now dead. Without hope. And what the church does is the key to Israel's restoration.

For however self-sufficient Jews are. However capable they are. They cannot provide their own salvation. God will bring them down and out. Mark my words. It's going to be painful to observe this. A nation left as good as dead.

Incapable of bringing its own answer. Contrary to everything we understand about Jews. In their own self-sufficiency. They will not be the agent of their own restoration. Someone else is appointed. You.

The gentile church. Or they will not be restored at all. Paul calls it a mystery. It's the ultimate mystery of the faith. That when Paul saw this in the book of Romans. That there's an issue even greater than Israel's restoration.

It is the transfiguration of the church itself. Compelled to that place. By the crisis that Israel presents. In its death. We may speak of this again. We talk about Ezekiel. Commanded to prophesy over the dead bones of Israel.

The prophet who is the son of man. Who cannot believe that those bones can live. It's beyond even his prophetic faith to believe it. Let alone to speak the word of resurrection. You prophesy to those bones.

Something that God himself could easily have done. But there's more than Israel at stake. It's the church at stake. Who's got to be brought to an ultimate place. Of prophetic stature. And authority. So much as even to speak for God.

As God. And in speaking raise the dead. That's the mystery. Israel and the church. Brought to a transcendent place. By the crisis of death itself. And that's what we see here. A church that will only stand at the bedside.

And keep the correct distance. And perform professionally. And clinically leaves the victim dead. Something more is required from the church itself. The prophetic church. Ultimate identification. With the dead boy.

Priestly Identification With the Victim

I have not preached this for years. You know where the last time was? South Africa. Before a white congregation of middle class charismatic Christians. Whose lifestyle is quite elevated. At the cost of the majority of the suppressed black people.

Living at that time in a system of apartheid. A white minority. Living comfortably and sumptuously. On the back of a subdued class. Of a black people. A formula for social violence and disaster. It may yet come.

This is my message. For South Africa's sake. You white Christians. Living in your advantage. Hoping that a lid will be kept on this social catastrophe. That it will not erupt in violence. In flames and conflagration.

That brings the whole nation down. And maybe you're thinking as I'm saying this. This brother is not just describing South Africa. He may well be describing my own nation. Its own condition. Its own possibility for the future.

For these conditions seem to prevail everywhere. So here was my message for them. You comfortable white Christians. Enjoying your services. Hoping that you will always continue to have that advantage.

This is what God is saying to you today. You need to lay yourself out. Upon and over. The bleeding black body. That undergirds your security and comfort. For only that identification will save the nation.

To feel the corpse. To touch the death. To identify with it. Is the key to God's answer. This is priestly identification. And the Hebrew priests of old never wore shoes. They were costumed from head to toe.

And all of the elaborate requirements of God. But they were barefooted. And had to be. They had to be on the same soil. The same ground. The same reality. Of the people for whom they interceded. They had to make themselves one.

The circumstance of the nation itself. Which Aaron wore on his own heart. The twelve tribes of Israel. But the feet on the ground. And Elijah is a priestly prophet. And identified himself with the victim.

Though he was a Gentile boy. And stretched himself out over the child three times. And cried out to the Lord. Oh Lord my God I pray let this child's soul come back to him. The Lord heard the voice of Elijah.

The soul came back to him. And he revived. There's crying and crying. Elijah's cry was not a cultural form. It was not the Hebraic culture. It came out of the depths of the man. It was a deep calling unto deep.

God hears that cry. So I'm a little concerned for you. I'm impressed on one hand. I'm concerned on the other. That your crying is so easy. So customary. I hear it in your prayers. In your responses. Even in what we have experienced in these days together.

We don't have this in North America. It's not my experience. The North Americans are much more reserved. It's a rare thing to evoke a cry out of them. But when the cry does come. It's an authentic cry.

So I'm concerned for you. That your cry be authentic. And not just the expression of the mode of your life. In keeping with the Latin temperament. Whatever the natural factors are. God heard the cry of Elijah.

He waited for it. He brought the release of his response. It came out of the deeps of the man. In fact it was God's own cry. That's what deep calling unto deep means. That the very deeps of Elijah was God.

Was compassion. Was priestly identification with victims. This is more than the prophet as the minister. Performing appropriately. This is where you cannot tell. Where the prophet ends. And God begins.

He's gone beyond us. It's beyond will meaning intention. It's beyond rendering good service. It's the place of union with very God himself. Where you cannot tell where the prophet ends. Where God begins.

Where the prophet's cry is God's cry. Where his authority is God's authority. Where he can say it shall not rain nor dew but according to my word. Because his word is God's word. The man has no life unto himself.

He's not some distinct entity other from and outside of God. Of the kind that we are. And our prayers show it. Lord if you help me in the way that I will go and give me understanding, words, anointing, then I will do for you.

That's nice. But it's not the ultimate thing to which God beckons us. No two independent entities where we obtain from God in order to do for God. You cannot tell where we end. God begins. Remember what I said about my prayer?

That wasn't my prayer. I just opened my mouth. It was God's own prayer. Am I over your head? Is this too idealistic? We've left the realm of practicality? These things are written for your admonition.

Union With God Through Death to Self

Upon whom the ends of the age have come. You're beautiful children. I'm going to take your photographs. And show my fellowship at home. Who they were praying for. Look at these precious children. Look at those faces.

It would be tragic for you to forsake and to give up what you are in yourself as an independent entity. Well-meaning. Self-conscious. Wanting to do for God. By God. Because he will help you. God says that's nice.

But I'm calling you to something more. Something ultimate. Because there's a crisis ahead for you. That you will not be able to meet on that basis. Only this basis. Of such union. With your nation. With Israel.

With God. But there's no resurrection. Resurrection is the ultimate thing. How many of you have noticed how many times today and yesterday I have used the word ultimate? You just wait two minutes. It will come again.

Ultimate crisis. Ultimate response. Ultimate faith. I'm waiting on the Lord. I don't know how to go further. I don't know how to express this. My heart knows. My spirit knows. But my mind and my mouth are waiting to catch up.

I'm walking very carefully. I don't want to miss this. Because to miss this will mean to lose Israel's restoration. And the hope for Guatemala. And Latin America. Through a prophetic church of the ultimate kind.

Who is not merely doing good for God. But identifies with the nation. As God. It has come to another place. Transcendent place. Beyond what is Pentecostal. Let alone evangelical. Beyond charismatic. It's the ultimate place.

Demonstrated here by Elijah. The place of union. With God himself. Where God gives answer. When he hears the cry. That is not just professional. Ministerial. Correct. But is his own cry. Of the deep calling unto deep.

When he has the man. Totally. Because it's a union that has come through death. You can't tell where Elijah ends. But he has ended. And if he has any life in him. Any ability in him. Any authority in him.

Any compassion in him. It's God. Are you in that place? Would you like to be? Do you believe that it's a possibility? That it's available? Such a union with Christ. That your life is no longer your own.

Your speaking. Your thoughts. Your steps. What you are. What you do. Totally his. The end of all ambition. All intention. For one's own self. Not just for carnal things. For spiritual things. It's death.

In order to obtain life. The life of God. That raises the dead. If I had any human thought about it. This would not be my subject today. I would humanly think. No way Lord. These children are too young.

They don't have sufficient history in God. To understand what you are saying. Now. Beyond what they can conceive. What their faith can understand. What their faith can desire. What their faith can appropriate.

But I'm compelled to say it. Because we're not going to have another occasion together. And the word that comes now. Has got to stand for the last day. When something suddenly will happen. For which you were not prepared.

And could not anticipate. And nothing that you learned in Bible school could prepare you. And the ball is in your court. You've got to deal with it. There's not some light answer. That if there's an answer at all.

When it comes. It's life saving. And reveals the glory of God. That's what we're going to face. Crises of that kind. For which only God has the wisdom. God has the answer. God has the authority. That he will not confer to us as a provision.

But will express himself. In us and through us. To his own glory. When he has the whole possession of the vessel. So you dear young ladies. Forget about getting married. Of course I know you don't think about it.

With the Lord. So I'm not asking too much. Or am I? You didn't have any thought for yourself. Did you? You didn't fantasize in minds eyes. Of what kind of man that would be. And when he would come. And what would be the circumstances of your life.

It's very natural to have such thoughts. It's even legitimate. Unless you have a particular call. Of an ultimate kind. Like Elijah. There's no future. No wedding. No marriage. No hope. You're dead to that.

You've given up right to yourself. Legitimate right. For which no one will ever criticize you. This is something freely given. God does not demand it. He waits to see if you're willing to offer it. Your whole life.

The future. Marriage. Family. Ministry. All. Because when he has a woman and a man like that. He has them totally. They have become the sons and the daughters of God. Like the prophet Jesus. Like the prophet Elijah.

They have no thought for themselves. No intention for themselves. Their life is his. Their prayers are his. Their cry is his. If I can say this. Not only is this what Israel needs. This is what Guatemala needs.

And every nation. My own nation. We're living 8 miles away from the Indian nation. The Chippewa tribe. The highest death rate in America. Drugs. Alcohol. On the road with violent death crashes. Drugs.

Bullets. Violent knives. Hopeless. Despairing. And they have been thinly inoculating with the gospel. And they can make a few phrases. But they don't stick. They don't endure. Their culture sucks them in again.

The power of it. Unto death. They've heard the gospel. But they've not heard. They know how to be saved. Step 1. Step 2. Step 3. We've made salvation a formula. And the entire nation is dying. 8 miles away from us.

The Gospel’s Cost for One Person

I think the day is coming. When this proud Jew. Is going to be brought to their death bed. To their death bed. No even more than that. Their death must be on my bed. The place of my comfort. My privacy.

My little haven. That a busy man of God deserves. That's not to be violated. It's sanctity and privacy must be maintained. After all he gives up himself continually. He has a right to such a place. If his life is still his own.

God is waiting for me to carry up. In my Jewish arms. That Indian boy. That symbol of a nation in death. And bring it into my dwelling. Put him on my bed. And not stand at the end of the bed. And pray correctly and ministerially.

But to prostrate myself. To stretch myself. For their sake. And exchange the life that is within me. For the death that is within me. Just for one. Is the key to the nation. Well God gave me a privilege.

Many years ago to go to Japan. To visit a movement that no longer exists. I saw the gospel. And the reality of the faith. That it will affect me forever. They were called the Tabernacle Movement. They were pilgrims and strangers sojourners in the earth.

When the Yom Kippur War took place in Israel. A sudden crisis of attack. Israel's death seemed imminent. Professor Teshima. The founder of the movement. With his long white beard. Charted a jet. And filled it with Japanese believers.

To fly to Israel. And to stand with them in their death. The whole motif of this movement. Was the poured out life. I've never seen anything like it. This man had such a beautiful wife. I had to physically turn my head away.

From gazing at her. She was radiant. What a beauty. Of course a man of that stature. Deserves a wife of that kind. One day I heard the story. Professor Teshima. Who had been only a Presbyterian lay preacher.

Was in flight from the American authorities. And was driven up to a mountain. And he had the mountaintop experience with God. The Lord called him to the original gospel movement. Showed him the cultural accretions.

The additions. That the gentile church has laid over its Hebraic origins. That needs to be ruthlessly stripped away. And he came down the mountain. With a vision for the faith. In its Hebraic and prophetic splendor.

And the Lord began with him. He came to a leper colony. Because the Presbyterians wouldn't touch him. The conventional church societies wouldn't touch him. His vision was so threatening. Against all that is established.

But they welcomed him in a leper colony. And they had a barrier around the pulpit. A barrier. To protect the speaker from the congregation. With their sores and their running sores. And their fingers that are stubbed.

And their ears that fall off. And their sores. You know Professor Teshima did? He climbed over the barricade. And came down in the midst of the congregation. And embraced and kissed the lepers. And they were healed.

That's how he began. And I said well what about his wife? What a beauty. What an ethereal spiritual woman. Oh don't you know about the cats? No. She was a prostitute. She was a concubine. She had been sold as a girl to other men.

And when Professor Teshima began to preach his message. She used to mock him in the congregation. She came to the meetings to mock him. Because she had syphilis. Venereal disease. That was eating her face and her beauty.

She was a piece of death. Mocking the man. Speaking about resurrection life. And the Lord said to him. He complained. He said look this woman is making my life a misery. It's like a lie to find out. What do you want to do kill this boy?

I don't understand this. The Lord said marry her. And he did. She went speechless. She was astonished. That a man of that stature. He was a fool of men. I have not seen his like anywhere. He took me to the palace hotel for lunch.

And ordered the lunch off of the French menu. Have you tried Vichyssois? What's that? I'm from Brooklyn, New York. I've never heard of it. He said you'll like it. It's a cold potato soup. How did he know that?

Because he had a breadth of culture. This wasn't your little man walking on eggshells. So spiritual that if the wrong wind blows, he's going to dissipate away. Fool of men. None of this pseudo spirituality.

Mind, soul, spirit, body. As we say in Yiddish, a mensch. Full person. As comfortable in the palace hotel as in the leper colony. A man for all seasons. A man whose very life is a sacrament. He called me to his hotel room one morning.

Brother Ott, do you have a watch? Of course I do. I had forgotten. I had given my watch away last night to my Japanese interpreter, who himself was such a man. Saved from a mental breakdown. Nervous breakdown.

As a frustrated and failed Pentecostal preacher. And brought to glorious life. Under Professor Tashima's tutelage. I was sitting with him in the conference in Tokyo. Everybody had the text in Japanese and Hebrew.

And you think I'm bad? Professor Tashima could speak for three hours. You couldn't hear the pin drop. And at a certain moment, he stopped himself. And he called on my interpreter. And he began publicly to bawl him out.

For falling asleep while he was speaking. You couldn't blame the man. I kept him up late in the night talking. Because our conversation was fellowship. Life. And I found out later what had happened. And the brother stood up.

Before hundreds of people. With his head down. And he received Professor Tashima's rebuke. I said to him that night, but I didn't think that you were sleeping. He said, I wasn't, Art. I was so moved by what Professor Tashima was saying.

That my head fell down. And he thought I was sleeping. I said, well why then didn't you correct him? Oh no. I needed that rebuke. That's the faith. So you married this woman? Yes. And she was healed in union with the man of God.

And she became the beauty that you see today. Whose appearance was ravaged by disease. She was healed by the love of the man. Who was obedient to God. To marry her. In her syphilis. In her venereal disease.

I said, oh. Now wait a minute. Don't you realize you could have contracted her disease? And been killed by it? And it would have been the end of your ministry? What? Oh, Art he said. Very quietly. If you don't do it for one.

You do it for no one. One. We Americans are so numerically minded. How many came to the meetings? How many decisions were made? How many tracts were distributed? It blew my mind. He was willing for one.

In a ministry that would affect Israel. And Japan. And Japanese in California and Chicago. It was spreading the world. Willing to risk that for one? You'll not risk it for one. You have nothing for any.

Elijah’s Resurrection Faith and the Prophetic Church

Elijah took the one son. And laid him upon his bed. And prostrated himself over that one. It was God praying. It was more than a man could have conceived. It was deep calling and fatigue. In an ultimate crisis of death.

Only God will suffice. And the glory of it. Is when he will suffice to a man. Who has no life for himself. He will prostrate himself over death. In his own bed. And cry. Really cry. Not the Latin kind.

The prophetic kind. God's own cry. To bring God's own answer. So I don't know how to pray for you. I love your cries. I love that broken tremor in your prayers. With to God we had it at home. Our people are so antiseptic and formal and stiff.

I love that resonance. I have only one fear. That it be authentic. And not imitative. Or a mode of religious expression. A deep calling and fatigue. May we not reflect our culture. Even our religious culture.

But only him. With whom we are in union. When we are dead to our culture. Our future. Our hopes for marriage. Our hopes for ministry. We have given it all of him. We have no life for ourselves. It's his.

For his purpose. It's for this that the nations wait. And for which reason God has given this word. That your faith might grow. By the hearing of it. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the word of God.

Not a message that Art thought to speak. Who would have said, no it's not appropriate. They're too young. There's no way that they can understand this. Because when you're young you love your life. You want to be established in your life.

You want to be recognized in your life. That you're a minister. That you have credentials. That you've learned how to do it. It's natural. But to be called at your age now. Before you can even enjoy that.

To forsake that. To forfeit that. To give that up in death. That you might come in union with another. Even God. And pray his prayers. And speak his words. That's the Elijah ministry. It's beyond sincerity.

It's beyond good intentions. It's beyond ministerial ability. Union with God. You cannot tell where Elijah ends. Where God begins. So Lord. This is insanity. This is going too far. We wanted to learn our lessons.

We wanted to become competent ministers. To learn how to do it. That we could serve you. Intelligently. Sincerely. But this. This is too much. This is beyond. We love Guatemala. We love our nation. We love Israel.

But not that much. Can't we keep our life? And have it also? And still serve you? Respectably? Not in the last days. Not in the last days. When I'm bringing nations to death. That can only be raised up.

By men and women of the resurrection. Who have no life unto themselves. They have prostrated themselves. And stretched themselves out. Over death. So Lord. I leave this word with you. I can't expect these children to understand.

Let alone to desire it. To have the faith to obtain it. While they're so young. So beautiful. So impressive in themselves. That you're asking for that sacrifice? To break that alabaster box? To pour out that expensive perfume?

In a once and for all way? That cannot be taken back again? That the house might be filled with your fragrance? Even the fragrance of Christ? I can't ask that of them. But if there's so much as one. Who is able now.

To hear. To understand. And is willing. To forfeit everything. Not only the precious perfume. The box itself. The handsome chisel box. Irretrievably smashed. And poured out at your feet. That your house should not only be correct.

But fragrant. With the knowledge of you. You're calling deep unto deep. And we want to answer from that place. We don't trust ourselves. We have cried too easily already. Moaned too many times. Sighed too often.

We don't even trust our own response. Lest it not be authentic. Only the expected thing. The religious thing. That satisfies. That is cathartic. Gives us a kind of an emotional release. Seems to be deep.

But leaves us unchanged. Lord now. In this historic moment. May there be a cry. Coming out of the deep. Of men and women in this room. That is not a culture. Not an affectation. Not an instinctive response.

Out of their deeps. To your deep. They're saying yes. Now once and for all. I forfeit my life. My hopes for the future. For ministry. For marriage. I have no intention for myself. I have no life for myself.

Only union. With you. That alone raises the dead. I'm settling it now. Hear my cry. Take me. For yourself. And crisis reveals. An absolute crisis reveals absolutely. That what will be revealed in that moment.

Is not some correct well intending minister. But very Christ himself. That's the prophetic call. And you've heard it. Thank you Lord. Bless these children. Seal your word. Let it be historic. Something transacting.

In the quiet of this room. In a moment of time. That will affect all things. Life to the end. We thank you. For the privilege of the call. The availability of your life. That we might say with Paul. The full truth.

For us to live. Is Christ. Thank you Lord. And we can hear your prayers. Speak your prayers. Speak your words. Do your works. And all the glory. Is to you.