CULTURE PROPHETS - REVISITED
      How Do I Recognize and Die to Culture Prophecy?

          NOTE A

          When we think of "culture", we tend to think of things outside of spiritual life. But our spirituality produces natural reflections which make a culture of their own—what we could call a "spiritual culture" (or perhaps religious culture). This is so for every church inhabited by mortals, even if it is Spirit-filled. By "natural reflections of spirituality," I mean all the things we uniquely engage and which spin off of our corporate devotion to God. It includes:

            - all the tangibles we use—buildings and church furniture, worship banners and paraphernalia, Christian T-shirts and jewelry, bumper stickers and worship CDs, even the Bible itself.
            - all the things we visibly practice—orders of service, ministry programs, church government procedures, and holiday observances with their traditions.
            - all the intangibles we come to regard and find personal esteem in, whether symbols like the cross, spiritual giftings, doctrinal lines of thought, the beauty of our music, or the indefinable natural corporate scent associated with our gatherings and conferences.

          This is all culture—perhaps of the most excellent kind—yet still culture, still "the world" by John's definition.


          Love for spiritual culture refers to our direct attraction to all the things associated with our worship. Because it is the most excellent kind of culture, spiritual culture is the easiest for devoted believers to be attracted to, the hardest for us to recognize for what it is (especially in Spirit-filled prophetic/worship arts-oriented churches), and the hardest for us to lose our direct love for. Nevertheless, the Scriptures are clear that this too we must "count as loss" (Phil 3:4-8).