The Prophet, part 8!

1st of February

Part 8

This will be the last part of this theme, at least now. I do not believe that I have covered everything there is to say about the prophet, but I will close this for the time being.

I did mention some of the problems of the prophets in the Old Covenant. They announced judgment over sin and idol-worship and that was not and still is not very popular. Prophets did and will still experience quite a lot ofrejection. A prophet sees, hears and reveals things that others don’t. They might understand things that are hidden, maybe behind a nice surface. They have gotten spiritual eyes just like X-rays. They might look far ahead and might even prophesy about events that will take place long after his death, but they might be called false prophets in the meantime. I have seen quite a few examples in my own church where prophets have come to prophesy certain changes in the church, but these were not so popular and they were never invited back. I find this quite sad since many of us experienced the truth in what they said. Some of them are well established and might not need the acceptance of one particular church and in our church they do not invite new ones. I will mention what could happen to new ones. They might finally dare to stand up and say:” So says the Lord,” but for some reason or the other, they are ridiculed or criticized. They really need some encouraging leaders in order to continue then. I do not believe that you always have to say: “So says the Lord”, but one needs to be clear about when you have a sermon and when you prophesy. I know that I can be in the middle of teaching or preaching, and then I get a prophetic word or message. Once a Bible-school student came and asked me if I had prophesied over him. I had, but had not been clear enough.

I experienced quite a lot of rejection and took it personally. I did not understand that it had a lot to do with the prophetic anointing. It was very comforting to me when I read that this was quite common. I had started to examine myself in an unhealthy way, always looking for mistakes and I got depressed. I say to you who might do the same. Stop. It is important that a message comes in the right spirit and you can always ask the Holy Spirit for correction, but if God doesn’t say that you should correct anything, leave it. Most people will experience rejection at one time or the other, and that does not mean that they are prophets, but rejection is quite common for prophets. You might remember Jesus when He couldn’t do so much in Nazareth, His home-town. If rejection becomes a problem for you, ask for help. You might need healing and deliverance and a lot of encouragement. Do not isolate yourself in order to protect yourself. God has promised to protect you.

We can read in psalm 105:15: “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no harm” That does not mean that we cannot point out sin in their lives, but if you criticize an anointed message from the Lord, you criticize God.

You can look up Eph.2:20 and there we read: “You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” Here we see that the church is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets. If they are lacking, there is no foundation even if we have to remember that Jesus is the most important One. I believe that the apostle and the prophet should work together. It continues to say that the whole temple should be fitted together into a holy temple, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

I will close the theme about the prophet by writing about the apostle and how the two of them should work together.

The twelve disciples were called apostles. They were special since they were with Jesus, the best teacher. Paul was maybe the most important one after the disciples. Many hundreds of years later came men like Martin Luther and John Wesley.

An apostle start something that will last for a long time, long after his death. Both he and the prophet see into the future and that is one of several reasons why they fit so well together.

The apostle should help the church to function properly without confusion and chaos. The apostle and the prophet are a builder and an architect. They are supposed to build a church consisting of the fivefold ministries and the nine gifts of the Spirit. It shouldn’t be too much of one nor the other. That creates an unbalance. The Apostle activates the gifts in the other ministries. He is described as a thumb on a hand. A thumb can touch all the other fingers. He can therefore flow in the other ministries as well. The prophet is symbolized by the forefinger. He describes the spiritual conditions and points at the way out. The middle finger represents the evangelist, the ring finger the shepherd and the little finger represents the teacher. They are all important and dependant on each other.

An apostle is a pioneer. He constantly wants to enter into new areas and he is considered to be like a general. He often takes initiative and we often think about him as one who starts new churches. The apostle is not supposed to be in one place for too long, but moves from one place to another. He doesn’t need to be restless since he has a purpose for moving.

He is watching over the Teaching. It should be according to the Word of God.

The prophet’s spiritual vision is more clear and precise, but the apostle can grab hold of what the prophet sees and he comes up with a solution. God never points at a problem without having a solution.

Both the apostle and the prophet are supposed to establish and restore. The devil hates this. I believe this is the reason why these two meet more resistance, but they also have a stronger anointing to brake through. I, myself, am a member of a church with an apostolic anointing and I miss that when I come to some other churches. When an apostle and a prophet speaks, something is happening in the spirit- realm. Others might say the same, but the effect is not the same. When one of these speaks, it can have an effect over an entire nation or an area. It is the anointing that brakes the yoke and these two ministries carry this anointing. The devil looses power and territory when the apostle and the prophet are in function.

The Word says that they together build a foundation, but the devil has often made a division between them. If a church is built mainly on the apostolic, it will often starts somthing new and one is founded in the Word of God, but one will not know what the Spirit wants to tell the church to-day. If a church is mainly founded on the prophetic, you will often have a church with lots of revelations and emotions, but not necessarily based on the Word of God. i have watched quite a few unhealthy manifestations on television. This can come from the flesh or be demonic. In the USA they have recently stared an organization, combining the prophetic with the apostolic. It seems to be very good and it has made me happy. I have earlier written about “Balance in the body of Christ.” This might also reduce the competition between them. I know that there are times when one wonders who gathers the most people or who is the most spectacular. I do believe that God looks at these tendencies as an abomination. We are just vessels in His hand.

Do you remember what the prophet is? He is a spokesman, a messenger, a seer, a forefinger, a visionary and he has dreams and revelations from the Lord. He can look into the future as well as in the present. I have also experienced that the prophet has revealed things from the past. The prophet will meet resistance and he must therefore be close to the Lord and be in a process of constant cleansing in order to become holy.

GOD BLESS THE PROPHET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mother Else