Last week we kicked off PART II of our series with an introduction to God's Prophets. Over the next twelve weeks, we will be looking more closely at those whom God has called and equipped to be His mouthpieces in the earth.

God's prophets carry God's burdens. And God's burdens for His prophets, though lighter than our own, are weighty, continuous, and inescapable.

Walk into a Christian bookstore today, especially one in a large, indoor shopping mall, and what will you find? Aside from a small section of Bibles and reference materials, most of the non-fiction bookshelves will be brimming with material about individual Christian growth, devotional intimacy with God and how to deal with family, marital and personal problems. In the fiction section one will find all kinds of Christian romances, a few adventure stories, and a collection of apocalyptic, end-time thrillers.

But will you find much about God's work with the nations, kingdoms, cultures, and governments in the earth? If not, why not? Are those issues of less concern to Him? Or is it that His people are simply not hearing God's heart regarding these things?

Modern, western Christianity is primarily pastoral. For several generations, the American Church's main focus has been on individuals and their relationship to God. Evangelists win souls. Revivalists preach salvation and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Pastors care for their flocks. Even "prophetic" people behave pastorally when they minister to individual needs within a congregation. Emphasis generally focuses upon what God wants to do in us and for us or how He wants to release us to do the same things in and for others.

But prophets do not naturally think like pastors. Because God's prophets carry burdens for nations, they sometimes must labor to see the immediate pastoral needs of individuals. God's prophets carry His burden for the whole. God's prophets understand that God's plan and purpose extends beyond redeeming individuals, cleaning them up and getting them safely to heaven. To one with a prophetic call, God is not only a God of the individual, He is also a God who raises up and puts down kingdoms, who providentially directs the course of history and who calls nations as well as individuals into account for their deeds.

The Scriptures leave no doubt that God has a burden for the Church and for the nation of Israel. But beginning in chapter 13 of Isaiah, God begins to reveal His burden for the nations surrounding Israel - the heathen nations. "The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah, the son of Amoz did see." (Isaiah 13:1 KJV) Then in the chapters following, we learn of God's burden for Philistia (14:28-32),Moab (15:1-16:14), Damascus (17), Ethiopia (18), Egypt (19), Dumah or Edom (21:11-12), Arabia (21:13-17), and Tyre (23).

What insights can we gain from these passages? Simply this: that in addition to concerning Himself with individual souls, God also cares about nations, kingdoms, cultures, and governments.

Today, God's prophets are called to carry His burdens for the Philistias, the Moabs, and the Edoms of our generation. Walking in the prophetic can oftentimes be lonely as prophets struggle to help pastors, leaders, and sometimes even their closest friends, to see the "Burden of the Word of the Lord" for the nations, kingdoms, cultures, and governments of this world.

What about you? Do you carry the "Burden of the Word of the Lord?" Do you have a grasp of God's purpose with the nations? Do you understand that His message is not only for individual souls but for the nations as well? Do you think like a prophet?

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Next week, as we continue to explore the world of Prophets and Prophetic Words, we will be Defining the Word Prophet.