Prophets – who needs them?

Prophets – who need them?

I don’t know how many of you reading this will know or understand very much about the prophetic. I daresay that those who watch God TV will know of Kim Clement, or Bob Jones, or Bobby Connors – all men with a profound prophetic ministry. I am told that even I have some prophetic gifting. So what about the prophetic ministry? Does the church need it? Do you need it?

To answer those questions, I refer you to the Christian’s workshop manual – the Bible a.k.a. the Word of God. Who were those weird guys Elijah and Elisha – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Amos, Joel and the rest of them?? And even more to the point, why was so much space given to them in Jewish and Christian Holy Writ??? I mean, somebody sometime must have thought their stories and writings worth preserving. I don’t want to put too much emphasis on this but between them they went around naked, one lay on his side for years, one was almost demented with depression, and the writer of Lamentations must have been the archetypal “misery guts”.

We have to remember that the prophetic utterances of these guys have proven accurate hundreds or even thousands of times. They really did appear to hear from God and when they spoke the whole world in which they lived listened. In fact they were so accurate that to dismiss their writings and gifting flies in the face of all known logic and statistical probability. Lets have a look at just two of their stories.

1 Kings 17:1 “Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” Elijah was talking to the King of Israel and if we follow the story through we find that indeed there was no rain for three and a half years! The point is that the prophet spoke out the prophecy and it happened exactly as he said it would.

Now turn with me to Isaiah 53:2-6 “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. “ Isaiah was talking about the crucifixion of Jesus in a passage read in virtually every church in the land at Easter as the story is told and retold.

So what is about a prophet that makes most churches recoil at the thought of ‘letting one loose’ in their church. Amos 3:7 says “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing
without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” So if we believe the Bible, as so many claim, ‘from cover to cover’, why are the churches so wary of prophets. Many operate in ALL the gifts of the Spirit except prophecy. Yet they react angrily at the prospect of a prophet in their midst. Certainly, there are bad prophets, even false ones, but Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:5 that “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy.” Again in verses 29-32 of the same chapter, Paul says “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.” So what is our problem with prophets then ??? We are to listen to them and use our own discernment to weigh up what the prophet says and to decide whether to receive or reject their words and their words are for the edification, instruction, and encouragement of all present.

As I said before, Amos 3:7 says “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing
without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” The prophets are with us to help us and to guide us and God has given us the gift of discernment by which to weigh their words. In these times – the end times I believe – the church needs prophets more than ever before.

Recent episodes have highlighted the necessity for the church to discern and publicly accept or reject the prophecy. Sadly the church remained very quiet and great damage was done to the validity of Gods church. Why? Because we are afraid or even ashamed to speak out on such matters for fear of appearing as foolish as the originator. Most churches and prophetic ministries remained conspicuously silent while allowing their flocks to suffer the mockery of those who would destroy or ridicule the church.

God has given us the prophets for our encouragement and to serve as warning givers too. Amos 3:7 says “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing
without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.”

Don’t mock nor ignore nor try to silence the prophet. Weigh his words and act accordingly.