Of Kings and Prophets: Understanding Your Role in Natural Authority and Spiritual Power is by Mark Rutland, published by Charisma House in 2021.
A correction first
The search description Google has been showing for this page described a different book entirely, God’s Prophetic Voice. That was our error, not Google’s, and it meant anyone finding us through search was reading a summary of something they were not going to get. Fixed.
What the book argues
Rutland’s subject is the relationship between two kinds of power: the natural authority a person holds by position, and the spiritual authority that has no organizational chart behind it. His case studies are the Old Testament prophets who spoke to kings, and his point is that these confrontations were never abstract. Nathan had to walk into a room and say it to David’s face.
He extends that to the present, arguing that God places people near those who hold worldly authority, in business, education, entertainment, and politics, and that the enemy does the same. The practical thrust is about how a person with real influence should carry it, and how someone advising a powerful person should tell the truth without either flattering or grandstanding.
Who wrote it
Mark Rutland has been a megachurch pastor and the president of two universities, and now runs the National Institute of Christian Leadership and Global Servants. So the material on advising powerful people and on holding institutional authority comes from someone who has done both, which is the book’s strongest quality.
The tradition, stated plainly
Charisma House is a charismatic publisher and this is a charismatic book. It assumes prophetic ministry is active today. Called to Better does not treat that as a problem; we hold that the gifts of the Spirit remain active, and we do not flag a book for assuming so.
Two things are still worth naming. First, the argument that God strategically positions his people near the top of business, education, entertainment, and politics runs close to the “seven mountains” thinking that circulates in some charismatic streams. Rutland does not present it as a program for taking over institutions, but the vocabulary is adjacent, and readers who have encountered that teaching will recognize it.
Second, this is not a prosperity book. We judge these titles by what the book actually teaches rather than by the publisher’s catalog, and there is nothing here promising wealth or health in exchange for faith. It is about authority and how to carry it.
What we removed
The old review invented an FAQ and claimed the book is structured for group discussion. We could not verify that. Gone.
Where we land
Genuinely useful if you hold real authority over other people, at work or in a church, and want to think about how to hold it without being corrupted by it. Less useful if you do not, since much of the book assumes you are either in the room or advising someone who is.
Of Kings and Prophets by Mark Rutland on Amazon