Prophets carry a great sense of spiritual authority. They enjoy rooting out, pulling down, and destroying all spiritual opposition that gets in the way of the plans and purpose of God. Moses said, “Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them.”
Christ set in the Church five distinct ascension gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. All of them are quite different, distinct and carry different graces needed to equip the born-again believer for effectiveness in life and ministry.
“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” (Ephesians 4:11)
All five ministry gifts are equally important. We need the apostle. He is a spiritual father, architect and builder. We need the soul winning evangelist that reminds us of reaching the lost. We need the pastor who counsels, nurtures and comforts, and the teacher to instruct, tutor and explain God’s Word and ways. And we need the Prophet, God’s voice of edification, exhortation and comfort. All five ascension gifts have decided graces on their lives that add something clear-cut to the born again believer.
CHOSEN VOICES
The prophetic ministry is quintessentially different from the other five-fold ascension gifts and the subject of this essay. They are especially different from the pastoral. Prophets like the other governmental ascension gifts of apostles and teachers are drafted into ministry by the sovereign will of Christ alone. No one can call you into the office of a prophet. Even with that said we don’t want to focus solely on the prophetic office but rather prophetic operations.
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
Prophets are chosen voices that God sets apart to speak on His behalf. Their ministries are different and distinct. Prophets know their purpose and ministry role. Like apostles they are sent ones, sent to speak the revealed will of Christ.
Prophets can be misunderstood because they are not always the most charismatic of the five-fold ascension gifts. They can be at times abrupt, direct, or even a bit brash. They will not tolerate religious games and view church politics as offensive and unproductive. Unfortunately they’re not always the best statesmen either. They sometimes speak the Word when it’s not religiously, culturally or socially correct to do so. It seems that prophets ignore public opinion even when it would be more palatable for their message. Oftentimes they are more concerned with “what saith the Spirit of God” regarding events than anything else. At other times they appear driven by the Holy Spirit and carry an intense sense of urgency in spirit. Since you are interested in prophetic operations be also interested in growing as a prophetic statesman. You are an ambassador for Christ and will need to learn diplomacy as well as prophetic accuracy.
There may be qualities about the prophet that may make some feel uncomfortable, yet there are other traits about the prophetic ministry gift that a prophet simply cannot avoid. As we learn about the prophet’s grace, his ministry will make more sense and become more accepted and embraced. Just the very nature of the prophet’s gift, for example, can come off as confrontational and bold when it may not be at all. It’s not that a prophet is intentionally bold and challenging, it’s because of the spiritual realm they walk in.
Once you understand the prophet’s ministry, gift, role, equipment and operation, you will be able to benefit from their calling. Only then, after you understand how it works can you truly draw from their gifting. In contrast, the pastor seems easier to love. It’s not true it just seems to be true because we are the most familiar with pastoral gifting. Everyone loves pastors and pastors love sheep. A pastor’s calling is to nurture, console and protect. You can bite him and he will take it but if you bite a prophet, watch-out, he might just bite you back.
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MYSTERY STEWARDS
The prophet’s gift comes alive during times of spiritual conflict, when the spiritual climate is hard, or things are out of order in the Spirit. Again, prophets are tuned into the spirit realm and focused on listening to the Holy Spirit. Because prophets are “stewards of the mysteries of God” (Ephesians 3:4-5) they approach the altar of God a bit different but always through prayer. Their heart’s cry is to receive revelation of the mind of Christ for the people. Where a pastor may take the needs of the people to God in prayer, the prophet will take the Word of the Lord to the people. Can you see the difference?
Often the young prophet does not make a good pastor because of the difference in gift roles. Prophets must work toward mercy and compassion where a pastor is already gifted with those qualities. This is not to say that prophets cannot pastor, they can. They just have to work on their people skills.
Historically, prophets have been traveling ministries because the Church did not relate to their gifting. Right now there are small groups of prophets throughout North America and they seem mostly to gather among themselves. Unfortunately many are not plugged in to any local church. This needs to change and with understanding of their gifting we can learn to benefit from their operations. Prophets are not called by God to be outside the local church, but have been given as foundation gifts to the Church (Ephesians 2:20). Because many churches closed their doors to the prophetic ministry God:
- Gathered them in prophetic companies where they were accepted.
- Sent them to pioneer and start new churches until the body of Christ was ready to receive their gift.
- Used them to start prophetic schools where emerging prophets were trained, confirmed, activated and released.
If you are a prophet that is not plugged into a local church it’s time to come out of your cave of isolation and find a good church. Your gifting is needed and the church is incomplete without you. Consider hooking up with a church that has an apostle as set man because apostles are better able to relate to your calling.
SPIRITUAL DETECTIVES
Prophets are spiritual detectives. Prophets, similar to apostles, deal with spiritual order, patterns and structure. They are foundational and minister to belief systems (Ephesians 2:20). When a prophet enters a room or when someone stands in front of him, for example, he or she detects if anything is out of order. That’s the revelation gifting going off within them.
Prophets are the most spiritually sensitive of all the five-fold ministry gifts. So if there is anything out of order in the church or out of order in your life, he will pick it up in the Spirit. It’s not suspicion. Suspicion comes out of the soul through carnal reasoning. It’s picked up in the realm of the Spirit. Suspicion is suspecting guilt, wrongs or harms with little or no supporting evidence. The prophetic gift has nothing to do with suspicion or carnal workings but manifest itself out of revelation from the Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament, the prophet was often referred to as a seer. This seeing ability is like drawing back a curtain and being able to see what is hidden behind it. One prophet said that being able to see prophetically was like pulling himself up on top of a wall and then looking on the other side.
“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:10)
All men have eyes but not all men can see. Prophets can see what others cannot. One can’t root out, pull down and destroy what cannot be seen. This is the reason God uses prophets to help us understand the spiritual warfare we battle. The word seer, ra’ah means a beholder of visions. In Israel the term seer was the title given a prophet (1 Samuel 9:9).
Prophets don’t just see they are also given spiritual guidance. Appointed as spiritual overseers of nations and territories, prophets receive divine guidance. Divine guidance to nations and territories, for example, is a high-level operation of the prophetic gift. The pastor seldom receives that function simply because he doesn’t need it, but a prophet surely does. It’s a wonderful operation because it declares God’s will for the nations. All nations need to be able to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say to it. When God speaks hope and faith comes alive to those that have an ear to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the churches. Prophetic operations release:
- Hope
- Purpose
- Life
- Warnings
- Guidance.
Prophetic guidance points the way, directs on course, offers biblical instruction, and provides spiritual insight.
(C) Jonas Clark Ministries
Next we will review: Moving from logos to rhema, the authority of the prophet and 12 prophetic functions. Want to learn more about prophetic ministry? Check out, Next Level Prophetic Ministry Training Mega Kit.
