There are few people more confronting than an apoplectic apocalyptic — a Christian reacting badly when his or her view on End Time Events is questioned. Most Christians have strong views on coming events, which is understandable, given that our views on the future help us to prepare for the challenges it may present.
The spiritual gift of prophecy and the ministry gift of the Prophet are different in their regard to prophetic events. The spiritual gift is for “building up, stirring up and cheering up.” (1 Corinthians 14:3). Prophets, however, are ministry gifts — ‘mature people gifts’ who Jesus ‘sets’ in the body of Christ, i.e., the Church body.
Prophets are not limited to the Old Testament — the Apostle Paul writes that the church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets”; and since Jesus Christ is the “cornerstone” of the Church, prophets “built” on him are distinct from those in the Old Testament.
Genuine prophets are on a higher level than those who claim to be prophets, yet just seize on those spoken by genuine ministry gifts to the Church. A ministry gift speaks beyond local or national boundaries. Their acceptance is based on proven outcomes, much the same as healing ministries are proven so by the many sick people the Lord Jesus has made well or restored through them.
Prophets are not spiritual prognosticators who predict coming events through information received via the media. A doctor makes a prognosis, a forward knowledge, based on an assessment of a patient’s condition, or the effect of an existing medical condition on the patient’s health and well-being.
Prophets don’t do that but they speak words from God which address future events, and how that God’s people should prepare themselves in present time for future events (Acts 11:28 & 21:10).
Prophets don’t preoccupy themselves with dates and numbers — Agabus was no abacus! They hear from the Lord and then pass it on in words that people can understand — and not always from the King James Version of the Bible.
The prophet Elisha delivered a prophecy to the king of Israel that in twenty-four hours the starving residents in the city of Samaria would have all they could eat! (2 Kings 7:1) Elisha then did nothing whatever that might help bring his astonishing prophecy to pass. Nothing. Zero. Naught. Zilch. God worked outside his situation and circumstance to bring the prophecy to pass. God did it through the only logical (though somewhat fatalistic) possibility — left to four outcast lepers! While the four lepers stumbled through the night, Elisha would have slept soundly. We could well do with more ‘detached prophecies’ of this kind.
When a genuine prophet comes to town, Christians are inclined to get right with God before his meetings begin — “get sorted” as the English put it. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, back in the old days, a prophet might tell a king to get his house in order — an indication from God that the king would soon die. Better still would have been that the king kept his life in order and the prophet quiet.
The deacon turned evangelist Philip had four daughters who prophesied. (Was he relieved that his wife did not?) I’ve heard of Houses of Prayer but haven’t yet heard of a House of Prophecy. I get that opening your mouth and speaking while not understanding what you are saying would mark you as peculiar — if less so than speaking a language you’ve not learned.
The King James Version of 1 Peter 2:9 describes believers as “a peculiar people” — which those who don’t understand the scriptures think of us. Newer translations use “chosen” and the NKJV “His own special people” but longtime Pentecostals like me wear it as a badge of distinction.
Whatever.