the prophet's reward many people have different ideas about the prophet's reward
some feel like the persecution that comes with the prophet is the reward well that wouldn't be
a reward because first of all a prophet receives the word of the lord as does any other minister
when he receives the word along with that comes a lot of persecution it's his
burden to bear it's not everybody else is to bear imagine god giving a prophet a word and
he's been through all kinds of warfare and trouble and then the people who receive that
word have to go through the same thing now it means whatever the prophet has gone through
in order to receive that word to give to the people and the people receive that word
and receiving that word in receiving that word they receive the prophet there's a reward that
comes with that it's the opposite to what the prophet went through whatever he experienced
whether it was attack in his life or a physical attack or whatever it is accusation the people
receive the exact opposite now if you read ecclesiastes chapter 3 and you read from verse one
you see the two different the two opposites there's a time to be born there's a time to die
and he speaks about war and a time for peace and so on that's ideas with the prophet the
prophet goes through war so that we can receive peace the people can receive peace
now when you receive the prophet it's really not receiving him as a person but what he carries he's
a representative of the lord god and therefore treat him as if you would treat the lord god in
terms of respect and the reason they persecuted the prophets and was spoken of so many times was
because they carried something that disagreed with what people believed what was presently happening
they couldn't understand the future that he carried now i'm going to read you something
to get you to understand that when you bless a prophet jesus even spoke about just a cup of water
is obviously something to do with providing for the profit in terms of financing supporting
looking after because it's the gift of god now i'm going to read you something in in hosea
chapter 12 many of you have heard me read this before in verse 10 i have spoken by the prophets
and have multiplied visions now if you read that you can go to any version of the bible read that
it means that when the prophet speaks the one thing that happens is multiplication baroness
begins to disintegrate disappear and multiplication or acceleration takes place
that's one of the rewards of the prophet so when you sow and you give
when there's a prophetic word bringing the presence of god to a people when you do that
you are attracting the reward that comes along with that word whatever he's prophesied will come
to pass in your life that's one of the rewards as well so multiplication is one of the rewards
of blessing the prophet giving the prophet and receiving him in the name of a prophet
remember something you can receive me in the name of kim the name of clement
that's not the same thing when you push aside that familiarity and you say i'm receiving this guy now
in the name of a prophet he's come with the word of the lord you don't worship me you don't do
anything like that you respect you honor you take care of the gift that god gives you so
he can bring upon your household multiplication acceleration remove all the things that are in
the way remember the woman that recognized that elisha was a prophet or a godly man and she says
to a husband i recognize and perceive that this is a godly man a prophet carry something and he
passes by here i'd like to make a room for him so that he can rest when he go when he comes into the
city and she was a notable woman she was well off financially and so she made this room they built
this room put a table a lamp put a bed there so he could sleep he could eat and they could feed him
now that was her gift that was her way of saying i'm going to take care of the prophet or more so
what he carries the word of the lord and she made this room and so when elisha would come
by he would go to the room and sleep and one day out of the blue he says to his servant
what does this woman need what does their household need he offers a few things he
says look i have influence with kings and leaders does she want me to go and approach a
king i believe about something for some special favor and her response to him is i am well off
i don't need any influence i don't need any authoritative figure to come and bless me
and that's all she answers and the servant comes to elijah and says to him however there is one
thing she does have need of her husband is old and she cannot have a child they have no children
so elisha then speaks a word and offers her the reward that comes from her taking care
of the profit and that is that she will have a child about this time next year
and of course we come to find out she has a boy a young boy and that's the prophet's reward
now i'm going to take a little further in other words the prophet gave her a promise
because that she was taking care of him and that promise then was her reward which she received
few years later that same promise the young boy dies and she comes to profit and says i told you
not to lie to me and she's and elisha goes to the room which is the place of her provision for him
and puts the and the boys on the bed so what she's really done is she said this was the promise god
gave me and this is the gift i gave the prophet this room this bed this lamp stand this table so
i'm going to lay my promise that the enemy is now attacked on my gift my offering and i bless the
prophet with and of course you know the story the prophet comes to the child lays on him and
the child comes back to life and so the prophet's reward takes it even further when you're attacked
that prophet's reward or presence is able to bring back that which the enemy attacks so it
comes back to life so there are many different ideas about the prophets reward but to me
it's whatever he carries in terms of the positive what he's fought for you can receive
and then of course there's the personal issue if there's something barren in your life
he will bring it to life and make you fruitful take that as the promise