We are to declare forthrightly what God has spoken to our hearts. If we are hated or rejected or killed because of what we have stated, no harm has been done. If we hold back part of the counsel of God, much harm has been done. The blood of the listeners will be required at our hands in the Day of Christ.

God will deliver us, as He did Elijah and Elisha, if we perform His whole will fearlessly.

Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. (Jeremiah 1:9)

It is a good thing for the Christian to prepare himself in every way so that he may perform his Lord's will.

Also, in each ministry there must come a point at which God puts forth His hand and touches us. The churches and the world are waiting to feel and see the living Fire. We must be touched by the nail-pierced hand of Jesus Christ.

One touch from the Lord and we are changed eternally. We are transformed. We are healed. Our fiercest problems dissolve. Peace floods into our soul. What we have attempted to do for years is accomplished in a moment.

He is Christ, the Son of God. When our hour comes He stretches out His hand and touches our mouth, our heart, our emotions, our will, our mind. Then we are filled with the fiery Presence of Him who dwells between the Cherubim of Glory. Then we are ready to ride with Him in the chariots of Israel. Then the lightning flashes, the thunder rolls in our soul, and we are commissioned to announce the awful Words of the most high God.

Then people either will accept or reject the testimony, sealing their destiny for eternity.

See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. (Jeremiah 1:10)

This was a weighty charge to give a novice!

Notice that God must pull down before He can build and plant. Sometimes when we seek the Lord our problems increase. Why is that? It is because God is preparing to build and plant what we have desired. But first of all He must tear down and destroy what is hindering His work in our life. God often wounds before He heals.

Jeremiah's commission was both negative and positive. The prophet must declare what the Lord is speaking. Whether people say Amen, enjoying and approving what we are stating, or whether they seek to kill us, or merely ignore us—none of this must ever move us from doing the Lord's perfect will.

The prophets of the Scriptures were not popular. They were not administrators of large groups of worshipers. They were hated more often than not. They were threatened. They were abused and scorned. They were killed. It is no different today.

To be continued.