Advent-ure 2020 December 18: Prophet (Speaking Truth)

Jesus set a great example for us - He was empowered by God's Spirit and spoke His truth.  We have the 
Spirit of God inside of us, who will help us to speak the right words - God's words - at the right time to the right people. 2nd Corinthians 4, regarding the light of Christ, states:
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
8 We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--
10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

We are essentially containers for the presence of God.  He makes Himself known to us and calls us to make Him known to the world around us, as His ambassadors. The effective Christian is one who yields to the presence of the Spirit and doesn't attempt to live a holy life without the Holy Spirit; that is an impossibility.  Scripture foretold a great "Prophet" who was to come, and we can know and experience His presence to govern what we say, so that we represent Him in the way He intends.

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We are continuing our 25-day journey on Faith Radio, concentrating on the names of Jesus, which we find throughout the Scriptures. Today, Day 18, the name is "Prophet," and we go to chapter 18 of the book of Deuteronomy, which quotes the words of Moses...
15 "The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,
16 according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.'
17 And the Lord said to me: 'What they have spoken is good.
18 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

Jesus came to speak the words of God; in fact, He is called the Word who became flesh - the embodiment of the truth of God.  Because Jesus is in us, He empowers us to speak His truth and to put it on display, to live it out.

There's a comedian who makes a living with his words...and he is also called to speak God's words as a pastor, to proclaim His truth.  The Christian Post published an article recently on Kel Mitchell - it said:

Even though he didn’t have a blueprint for how he would simultaneously navigate being a pastor and working in the entertainment industry successfully, the '90s pop culture icon — known for “All That,” Nickelodeon’s longest-running live-action series that ran from 1994 to 2005 and was recently rebooted, as well as popular spinoff “Kenan & Kel” — said he took the leap of faith into spiritual leadership last year, trusting that God's plan would work just fine.

He has also landed a new show on MTV called, Deliciousness, "in which he will be commenting on 'food blunders' and other culinary disasters."

Just over a year ago, he announced that he was licensed as a minister and would be the youth pastor at Spirit Food Christian Center in Los Angeles. The Post reported:

The actor, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised on the South Side, explained that even though answering the call to be a pastor was not an easy one, he was relieved when God showed him how he could live out his faith in both the church and the entertainment worlds.

“When you put Him in everything in your life, He helps you navigate and make the decisions in your life …. When I started to do that, doors started opening up in my life and it would be the things where God would go, ‘OK, yeah, go speak to this youth group, go speak to these children. Go speak even though you might not feel like speaking.’

And, Kel desires to be faithful in his church ministry, as well as being a light in the entertainment industry, he says: “It’s been miraculous to see the things that have happened within me answering that call, on both sides in my life — in my church and then also in the entertainment business where now when I go on set, I usually, I go on there, saying, ‘Who can I pray with? Why am I here? Who can I talk to about the Lord?'"

Even during the COVID pandemic, Mitchell says he has seen God use him:

“It has been awesome. Even during this pandemic seeing people within the entertainment business that I’ve known for years that are now knowing about my call, they are now calling me up and going, ‘Man, I need some prayer,’ or they are opening up about certain things that are going on in their life and it was just like, wow. I had no idea that that was even going on, but it’s been beautiful to connect to them in that way and connect them to the Lord and at the end of it all it’s really what it’s all about,” he said.

Mitchell is concerned about the mental health of people and admits, "This is spiritual warfare that’s going on. We have to realize that we’re all spirits. We have to look through the whole skin and anything — titles and all that stuff — and just really pull everything back and being transparent about it and understand that we’re all spiritual. And the thing about it is that we need to respond in love like our Lord and Savior..."

As we consider Kel Mitchell's life as a entertainer and a pastor, you do recognize that he's living in two different worlds.  That's our story, as well - we do have our belonging and service in the local church, but we are prepared and equipped to function in this world.  We have to get things in the proper order and understand God's ability to enable you to navigate your calling.  We are ambassadors for Christ first, and our involvement in the local church can help to prepare us for what we face in the world at large.  Faith Radio, as a support to the local church, can help you in that pursuit.

Each of us is placed into the Church, but we live in the world - and in all things, we can always speak truth.  The Bible helps us to see ourselves as vessels to be filled with the Spirit and reflect the power of God.