THE MINISTRY OF PROPHET
The Bible speaks
also of the Ministry of Prophecy, totally different and independent from the ‘word
of prophecy’ (Acts 21:9; 1Corinthians 14:1,3,5) which is a sporadic
manifestation of a prophetic phenomenon in the life of any believer.
The letter to
the Ephesians acknowledges the Ministry of Prophet as an independent occupation
in God’s service, the same as the ministry of Pastor, or Teacher (Ephesians
4:11), and also shows this ministerial office present in many other men (Acts
13:1; 21:10).
WHAT IS TO
BE A PROPHET
As unbelief and liturgical
worship entered the Church, all super natural manifestations started to cease,
from major ones, like prophecy and tongues, to lesser manifestations, like
wisdom and discernment of spirits.
The ministry of prophets
was reduced to announce the words of the Gospel, so those who did not receive
the gift because they did not believe it possible, started to console themselves
by teaching that to be ‘prophet’ was to be a preacher. But that is not what a biblical
PROPHET is.
A PROPHET is a
man that receives a certain number of gifts, that habilitate him to receive,
distinguish and interpret a divine message revealed to his spirit, directly by the
HOLY SPIRIT (2Peter 1:21)
PROPHETS:
See the future
(1Samuel 9:9;
Acts 13:18; 21:10-11).
Reprehend the
Church
(Isaiah 1:4; Jeremiah
1:5-10).
Encourage the
Church
(Matthew 3:11;
1Corinthians 14:3).
God has set up
Prophets in his church to prevent us primarily of events to come that can
threaten our existence or the existence of certain people, to a general or
personal level.
Also, to promote
repentance by revealing secret sins, to a general, local or personal level in
our lives.
Finally, to encourage
us, and comfort us, directly from God in an audible voice, to continue on with
our daily struggle and remain faithful to our LORD JESUS.
BE WARE OF
CERTAIN THINGS
Firstly, modern
Prophets cannot communicate new dogmatic or doctrinal revelation.
ALL WE NEED TO
KNOW for salvation has already BEEN REVEALED, and it is all written in the NT.
A man passing as a ‘prophet’ who tries to communicate new doctrine, like the
ones from the UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH or SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST church, or the
MORMON church, that add to the deposit of Revelation, are ANATHEMAS (Galatians
1:8) and should not be listened.
ALSO, any
revelation that a Prophet may communicate in the Name of God, must be first
checked and compared with the SCRIPTURES, and only after proving that none of
the message contradicts what has already been given to us, the we can consider
accepting it (1John4:1).
ULTIMATELY,
nobody is obliged to submit to any prophecy. It is a super natural
manifestation from God, but if in doubt, we do not need to support it or follow
it, since we are only commanded to follow the Bible, which has a testimony on
universal level, to be the revealed Word of God for us.
Omar Flores.
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