Who Gets To Shape The Next Awakening? (1 Kings 13)

A leader can withstand open opposition and still fall to a private conversation. We pick up one of the most sobering passages in the Old Testament, 1 Kings 13, where a man of God delivers a true prophetic word, sets a corrupt system on notice, and even watches God confirm the message with undeniable signs. Then, after the “successful” part is over, he gets drawn into the one place he was told not to go, all because a respected voice claims spiritual authority he doesn’t actually have. 

We walk through the kingdom split, Jeroboam’s counterfeit worship, and the precise instructions God gives the prophet, then zoom in on the trap: an older prophet who wants to stay connected to the move of God and uses influence to pull the younger man off course. From there we talk plainly about discernment, church leadership, Christian obedience, and the difference between Holy Spirit led mentorship and control that disguises itself as “covering.” 

We also connect the pattern to today’s prophetic movement, platform pressure, and the post-2020 climate where fear can push people to outsource conviction. If you’re a younger believer with a real fire for Jesus, we want you protected, grounded in Scripture, and confident enough to be respectful and still say no. If you’re older, we want you encouraged to support what God is doing without hijacking it. 

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Transcript

Sponsor Parody On Bible College

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This episode of the Woe Foyo Podcast has been brought to you by Ichabod Seminary in Bible College. You're on fire for the Lord. The preacher calls you out during the altar call and announced to the whole congregation that you have a call on your life. Well, we hate to break it to you, but none of that matters unless you have the right theology. That's where we come in. We're Ichabod Seminary in Bible College. At Ichabods, we'll get you bogged down in Greek and Hebrew before you learn how to apply the word in English. Learn to appreciate the quagmire of theological debate. Discover how to excuse sin if the party committing it is viewed as oppressed or marginalized. Imagine the relief and fulfillment you'll deceive yourself into feeling as you learn to use homiletics to make the word say what you want instead of what God originally intended. Know true fulfillment by submitting your God-given gifts to denominational authority. Why heal the sick and prophesy when you can be in submission to your pastor? At Ichabod Seminary and Bible College, we'll educate the Holy Ghost right out of you. Remember, at Ichabod's, we do our part to help the glory depart. Amen.

Why This Story Won’t Let Go

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Bones and Mrs. Bones are just getting back from vacation. So we're going to put this episode out there due to some scheduling things, and uh we will be back in full force next week. I hate to do this, but I'm going to do this. We're going to go, and there has been a story that just never leaves me alone. Every time I see this, I see something new, and wanted to bring it out. And because Bones and I have lived this, uh, there was a point of time where we were kind of entering into the wilderness, and we had this guy. And uh Bones had no peace about it immediately. I just heard the word no. I was trying to be polite, and uh, Lord, what what's going on here? Because I was really just entering the wilderness. There was a lot of uncertainty in that time, and uh just flip open the Bible and it comes to this story, and I go, Well, there's my answer. So we are going to go to 1 Kings chapter 13. Now I saw some things as I was reading this for the umpteenth time, and yet I'm seeing new stuff in it. I'm seeing new context in it. Anyway, we'll

Jeroboam’s Altars And A Split Kingdom

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just start in. Here's a little setup. Uh, the kingdom has split. Uh Solomon has died. Rehoboam, his son, he's not easing up on any of the taxes, any of the forced labor, any of that. And he said he was going to double it, so the people revolt. And basically, you have Judah is the southern kingdom now, and then you have the northern kingdom, which is the other ten tribes of Israel, and of course you have the Levites going in and out uh amongst them. Jeroboam, uh the northern king, king of Israel, he gets concerned because he says they are going to leave when they go to Jerusalem to the temple to pray at these feasts, they're just going to stay there and I'm going to lose my kingdom. So he makes these two golden calves, not just one like in Exodus, but two of them. One of them is at Bethel. That brings us up to where we're at here in 13.1. By the way, Bethel means house of God. If you want to do some interesting study, look where else this happened. There's another, there's another Bethel in the Bible, if you go back to Genesis. Do your own homework, getting the word for yourself. 1 Kings 13, verse 1. And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, O altar, O altar, thus says the Lord. Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David, and on you he shall sacrifice the priest of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you. And he gave the sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord has spoken. Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out. So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, Arrest him. And then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. The altar was also split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. Then the king answered and said to the man of God, Please entreat the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. So the man of God entreated the Lord, so the king's hand was restored to him, and became as before. Then the king said to the man of God, Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward. Verse eight But the man of God said to the king, If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you, nor would I eat bread, nor drink water in this place. For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came. So he went another way and did not return

A Clear Word And Clear Boundaries

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by the way he came to Bethel. So he has his mission, he knows his mission. He knows what he's called to do, and he does it. Enter our scenario. Verse eleven. Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. And their father said to them, Which way did he go? For the sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah. Then he said to his son, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it, and went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am. Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread. And he said, I cannot return with you, nor go in with you, neither can I eat bread, nor drink water with you in this place. For I have been told by the word of the Lord, you shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came. Very clear instructions here. He said to him, I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. He was lying to him. So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water. Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back, and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God has commanded you. But you came back, ate bread, drank water in the place which the Lord said to you, Eat no bread and drink no water, your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. So it was, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse, and there men passed and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and towed it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. Now when the prophet who had brought him back by the way heard it, he said, It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion which has torn him and killed him according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to him. And as he spoke to his son, saying, Saddle up the donkey for me, so they saddled it. Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse, nor torn the donkey. And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn and bury him. Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother. So it was that after he had buried him that he spoke to his son, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried, lay my bones beside his bones, for the saying which he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar of Bethel, and all the shrines on the high places which are on the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass. I notice some different things here. You have somebody, and I'm going to put this in a little bit different context, and especially now that Bones and I are not in the uh state that we were in. We're not in that stage of life that we were

The Old Prophet’s Lie And A Trap

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in when this was first shown to me when the Lord spoke to me, you know, through the word, and let me know not to uh be part of that round table. Um said before, I got the distinct, I got the distinct impression that it was going to be some kind of round table with the one guy as the head. So I want to just put this out there for whoever's listening. One of the things that is highly encouraging to me as I'm looking is there are a number of young voices that are coming up. There is revival and more than revival. There's an awakening, there is something big happening with the youth. These youth that are up and coming are saying things that we've been saying on the Wo Foyo podcast and we're catching flack for in the church. Back when Bones and I were half our age. And guess what? They really are not pigeonholed into trying to get this thing to work in the traditional and institutional church setting. Okay. Uh doesn't mean they hate it, but they just realize that there's some trappings to it. And and one of the things that has been really refreshing in some of the voices I've been hearing is it's about relationship, relationship, relationship, relationship. They're going into dark places and talking about your relationship with Jesus Christ. They're talking to people who say they hate Jesus Christ. And they're still talking about, well, why do you say that? Um you have people evangelizing and and going into places that most people in the institutional church would be too afraid to go. Okay. And there will be a rebuttal. Well, they're called to go in there. Yes, they are. And if there's a place that that you're called to go into, go into it. However, I I would 100% say be aware if you have a weakness and if the Lord hasn't called you to go, then pray about that some more. Because the worst thing you can do is just rush on in on your own unction rather than the unction of the Holy Spirit. Uh you can get hemmed up pretty quick and find out you were doing it on your own pride and ego. Okay. On the other hand, be willing to go out there and make mistakes. So one of the things that really gets me is this this man has a true prophetic word. He has instructions, he has a mandate, and he has a clear mission that he is being obedient to. Not only that, but as he goes out on this clear mission that God has given him, it becomes very apparent that the Lord is with him and that it is bearing fruit. Two things. He speaks against the altar, and then

The Lion, The Donkey, And The Warning

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after the king, Jeroboam reaches out, says, seize him, the the hand becomes withered, and he can't even pull it back into him. Uh I've known a couple folks, uh, one guy was born that way. Um developmental disability. I seen another guy that was injured because a tire blew up on him, and and they they walked with with their hands kind of curled up. It withered up, could it couldn't bring it back to him. It was just kind of withered and shriveled. So if you ever seen it, I don't even have to really paint the visual. So that's sign one. Sign two is the altar he speaks against actually splits open. The ashes are poured out exactly like he says. Now, here's an interesting thing. I'm also seeing a parallel with this, and um Balaam, okay, because he says a thing that the Balaam says too. Um, and so it's it's almost like these two stories are layered on on top of one another, and and I believe they both happen. You know, the Bible says they happen, they happen. So here is this this prophet and the king want uh him to come back. Hey, I'll give you this. And he uses the same line that Balaam does. The man of God said, If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. For it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way you came. So he went another way, did not return by the way he came to Bethel. Balaam said, If you were to give me half your kingdom, uh to King Balak, he says, If you were to give me half your kingdom, I couldn't do it. So you have the same thing, even if you were, wouldn't do it. So you see this little parallel here, and you're about to see another one here in a second. So so here's the part that stuck out that I hadn't ever noticed before, and maybe the Lord just shows you things in context so you get it at the right time for what you need right now. That's probably what's happening here with me. But the old man goes, the old prophet goes and has his sons saddle up the old donkey, and he goes down to him, and the young man's taking

Youth Awakening And Relationship With Jesus

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a break underneath an oak tree. And he said, Are you the man of God? And he said, I am. And he says, he says to him, and he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread. And here's another thing. He says, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? So now there's a kingdom split. Back when the old back when the old prophet was in his heyday, the kingdom was united. The young man is coming from Judah, and the the old man is over there in Bethel. Now here's the thing. He's trying to coerce him to come in. He he he wants to be part of what's going on, he wants to be relevant, he wants to still be able to do it, you know. Um, I I've seen this a lot. A lot of times we don't want to recognize, and this applies to me and bones too. We don't want to recognize sometimes when the Lord's using you. We don't want to recognize when there's a younger generation coming up and we might not be involved. That's a little bit of an ego check right there, okay? Uh, and is there power in mentorship? I'm 100% for mentorship, I really am. But also, you got to understand that mentorship is directed by the Lord. Who's supposed to mentor who? That is directed by the Lord, and if you get hooked up with the wrong one, uh, just like let me make this personal. If you and I were to meet and um and I was to say, the Lord wants me to mentor you, and the Lord ain't said that to you, or you get a check in your spirit, you better run. You better run. Be obedient to God. Because I've I've met a lot of um ministers, preachers, prophets, apostles, they have the titles. Uh, some of them had the goods, a lot more of them didn't. Okay, but uh it's almost like they collect people. Like, yeah, I mentored this young man, I I mentored this young lady, and now they get to claim them. You know, it's kind of like that first Corinthians thing, you know, I'm of Paul, um, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Peter, I'm of Christ. You know, is Christ divided? No, it's all about Jesus. But consider that the young man, the young prophet comes from Judah, he's an outsider. And I would dare say that this old prophet is established enough that the young prophet probably knows who he is or has heard about him, because he convinces him to go by saying, Hey, an angel told me this. Well, here's the deal that the whole time these calves are getting built, the whole time that the that these new high places are springing up, the whole time things are going to pot, guess who's been the presiding authority over there spiritually? It's the old prophet. Now the new prophet comes in and he's seeing things a little bit differently. And now, after there has been fruit, now now the old prophet wants to take him under his wing. Just consider this though. If things got in the shape that they were in, over there in Bethel, over there in the kingdom of Israel, under the reign of Jeroboam, if this stuff is getting in the shape it is in, under that prophet's watch, and it's never recorded that the old prophet said anything against it, he knew it was the word of the Lord. He knew exactly it was the word of the Lord when the young prophet spoke it, but he never spoke it himself. Now, I want to say this especially if you got any younger people that are out there, again, mentorship has value, but be careful that you do not let the older generation steal your fire just to stay relevant, okay? Um, myself included, bones included. There's uh uh it could because we've been the we've been the young guys and we've been full of uh energy and and sometimes our own ego, and we've had the people waiting for our fires to burn out. Oh, he'll get over it and and and waiting to see us do that. And but you know what?

Mentorship, Ego, And Staying Relevant

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We're we're we're still here. Uh we had to go through a process for sure, uh, but we're still here. The fire's still there. Now, I recognize this thing. COVID happening with all the chaos that that presented. I I still say the bigger disease, uh the bigger pandemic was fear rather than souped-up flu. Also, with 2020, there was a presidential election. There were some people that that said things like uh uh Donald Trump is a two-term president. And um giving some words that were controversial. They were giving some words that were uh they looked like they missed it for about three years. It looks like they missed it, and in the grand scheme of things, that's really not that long. And all of a sudden, here it comes 2024, 2025, 2026, and now the the the people you know that have spoken these words, the ones that stuck to their guns are looking like the smartest man and the smartest woman in the room. Why? Because again, there something's wrong with the prophetic movement. Something we've just had too much stuff, we've had too many people depending on these words. And and they missed it. So we need to put you under the authority of these well-established people. The only problem is COVID and everything that led up to that was beginning, it was the spark of an awakening. And really, as they were like, we need to bring people under a good covering, what they were doing is they were trying to quell an awakening, whether they meant to or not. And it's the same thing here. The state and the comfort level and the complacency that the body of Christ here in the West had gotten into happened under the watch of the very people that you're wanting to put the younger generation under their covering because they have integrity. And you had a significant number, somewhere around 50%, maybe over 50%. You had a significant number of people because they were afraid of losing their platforms. I'll just go ahead and say it. Go issue apologies and said, no, I'm going to sit down and and and I'm going to get instructed in the right way to prophesy.

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Whatever, man.

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I'm going to get instructed. I'm going to submit to this this guy over here because he's going to be the head over this. And now you got like the prophetic review board

Prophetic Integrity After 2020 Upheaval

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over there for all these people that were hearing. And the people that stuck to their guns, the people that stuck to their guns look like geniuses now. And again, it's about Christ. It's not about personalities. But all those people that kowtowed, it exposed them for the cowards that they were at the time, at least regarding that situation. And if we're not careful, we we can all be a little bit cowardly in certain situations if we're not led by the Spirit and if we're getting into our own ego. And a lot of times the more bold people are when they get in their own egos is the more cowardly they get when it's exposed that it's their ego. And if you want a prime example, just go look at Peter. No. But what I am saying is the people that maintain their integrity, big difference. So let's get back to it. He kowtows to the older prophet. The word of the Lord comes, and he says, Well, you're you're gonna you're done, dude. He said, Thus says the Lord, because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, not kept the commandment which the which the Lord your God commanded you, but came back, ate bread, drank water, in a place where the Lord said to you, Eat no bread, drink no water, your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. So an interesting thing here, he's on the way back, he's on his donkey, and boom, there's a lion comes and just mauls him. Doesn't touch the donkey. Matter of fact, after it mauls him, it doesn't eat him. The report goes out, his sons tell the old prophet, and he goes back to get him because he still wants to be part of this move of God. But the lion hasn't touched the donkey, it hasn't touched the the man of God that that that he mauled. Not eating it. So this also reminds me of Balaam. Keep going, keep going, keep going. And the sad thing is here, Balaam's shown more grace to an extent uh than this young man of God is. But you still have that same thing with the donkey and with the threat. And this time the threat, there's no warning. Uh there's no angel with the flaming sword, just a lion. And here's the thing: the old man, the old prophet, he still recognizes the authority and the authenticity of what the young man of God, the young prophet spoke. So, well, I had a part of it. Yeah, your part of it is you got the dude killed. We need to be careful uh that in our state of life, especially us folks that are older, uh, is to recognize and appreciate the energy that's coming up and the true gifting that is coming up and the true hunger that is coming up in this younger generation. And we need to encourage that and be there for them without trying to circumvent what God is doing in them. We need to be there for mentorship when called upon. However, we don't need to be inserting ourselves in something that we were not called to do or something that they have to do for themselves. We are to be appreciative, we are to be encouraging, but we need, as our generation, as I'm someone that's 50 years old, uh, with this younger generation coming up that's on fire and that's seeing the fruit that it is, man. Again, be there for support when called upon, but let's make sure that we're not leading them astray by saying, praise God, behold, the Lord says, I'm going to do a new thing. Now let me show you the proper way to do

Obedience, Discernment, And Final Charge

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it. The fact that it's a new thing means it hasn't been done before. Therefore, we are not the experts on how to tell you how this new thing that the Lord's doing is going to be done. We're not. We're there to support, we're there to pray, we're there to intercede on behalf of. But we are not there to sabotage what's going on with this newer generation. So if you're one of the newer generations, if you're one of these newer breed that is being called, that's being called out and sent on a mission by God, sure, there is value in mentorship, but don't let that. And don't let folks that are wanting to interject themselves in into what you're called to do, uh, be very cautious about who you let in. Um, and again, if the Lord says for them to mentor you, then yes, absolutely. But if they're not called, do not let them sabotage what the Lord is doing. Be respectful, but be firm. Be loving, be Christ-like, but also realize that obedience to God is better than sacrifice, and rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft. So be obedient, be faithful, realize that this is coming. If you're uh one of the newer breed, if you're if you're one of the younger men or women of God, realize that this scenario is probably going to come to you. But also be in the word, see the patterns, and realize things for what they are. Most of all, most of all, most of all, maintain that relationship with Jesus and be obedient. Wofoyo. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at woefoyo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. For Bones and Myself, the Cecita, reminding you that if you're going to grow, you got a Woefo Yo. Get in the word for yourself.