THE PROPHETIC MINISTRY

"Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying." (I Corinthians 14:1-5)

God is a personal God. He desires intimate fellowship with individuals more than a distant relationship with humanity as a race. When Adam and Eve were the entire race, God walked and talked with them. But ever since sin dulled human ears to hearing and human eyes to seeing God, He has not been able to communicate with everyone individually. The race as a whole does not desire His fellowship and is not sensitive enough to hear God's voice.

For this reason, God has had to find individuals with whom he can communicate personally, and then speak to the rest of the human race through them. Through the ages, God has raised special people called patriarchs and prophets to be His spokesmen to mankind. And in the fullness of time, God spoke to us in the person of Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-2), who was God Himself manifest in the flesh (I Tim. 3:16), the full and complete expression of God Himself (Col. 2:9).

Jesus was God's thoughts, words, principles, plans, and pattern of living manifested on earth. Though the Old Testament prophets had prophesied in part, often speaking words they did not fully comprehend, Jesus was more than a prophet. He was God manifested in the flesh. He was the brightest display of God's glory and the greatest expression of God.

Jesus tore the veil that kept us from seeing God and removed our dullness of hearing. He made the way for God to come and dwell personally within each individual. When a person is born again and baptized with the Holy Spirit, that person's body becomes a temple of God (I Cor. 6:19). Every born-again believer is then built together as a spiritual house where the fullness of God can dwell (Ep. 2:19-22).

Jesus was the firstborn, the prototype of a whole new creation who would become like Him, being conformed to His very image and likeness. His body, containing the fullness of the Godhead, was crucified, buried, resurrected, and is now the head of the church.

After Jesus ascended to heaven, the world was no longer able to see the fullness of God in the flesh. But Jesus sent His Spirit and the Spirit through His apostles wrote in the Bible the guidelines and standards by which God can be fully known and understood. Rightly understood the Scripture is sufficient to give us knowledge of all we need to be in our time of mortality and into eternity. The Bible is now the revelation of God, all the sacred writings the Church will ever need to do the will of God.

Through His Word and Spirit, God desires to walk and talk with us in an individual, personal, intimate relationship. Today not all believers understand how to recognize the voice of God. Even when they do recognize it, many do not know how to respond to it so that it can be fulfilled. In this way, as in many other ways, no individual is self-sufficient in his relationship with God; we all need the rest of the Body of Christ. So God has set within the Body the ministry of the prophet as a special voice; He has established the gift of prophecy as His voice in the midst of the church, and He has sent the spirit of prophecy to give testimony of Him throughout the world.

The coming of the Holy Spirit, the birth of the Church, and the writing of the Bible did not eliminate the need for the prophetic voice of God; in fact, it intensified that need. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached that the prophet Joel was speaking of the Church age when he proclaimed, "I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17). Paul emphasized that truth when he told the church at Corinth to "covet to prophesy" (I Cor. 14:39; Eph. 4:11).

God still wants the revelation of His will to be vocalized. So He has established the prophetic ministry as a voice of revelation and illumination which will reveal His will to the church and the world. He also uses this ministry to give specific instructions to individuals concerning His will for their lives.

The ministry of the prophet is not to bring about additions or subtractions to the Word of God. Any new additions accepted as infallibly inspired would be counterfeits, false documents which would contain delusions that lead to damnation. The prophet brings illumination and further specifics about that which has already been written. The gift of prophecy through the saints is to bring edification, exhortation, and comfort to the church (I Cor. 14:3).

The Holy Spirit whispering the thoughts of God within a believer’s heart is obviously God's divine order for communication. But what the individual has sensed in his spirit must be confirmed: God's counsel is that every word needs to be witnessed to and confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (II Cor. 13:1). This is a critical role that can be fulfilled by the prophetic voice.

Personal prophecy must never become a substitute for the individual's responsibility of hearing the voice of God for himself. Personal prophecy must not take the place of our duty to fast, pray, and seek God until we hear from heaven ourselves!

There are people who cannot hear, or will not take time to hear, what God wants to say to them. God will not force himself on us. When this is the case, God will use the voice of the prophet to speak to individuals or congregations. God's greatest desire is for us to take time to seek Him until our mind, emotions, and will are cleared sufficiently for Him to communicate His will to us clearly.

True prophecy, if not rightly understood or responded to, can cause confusion and wrong decisions among believers who are immature, uncommitted, or biblically uneducated. The havoc created by false prophecies, is much worse, requiring much counseling and time to resolve the resulting problems. The godly solution to the problems of personal prophecy is not to isolate the believer from it, nor to discourage them from seeking to hear from God personally. The church needs to train the church to discern what is true, and how to respond properly to the true word from God.