I realize that I may lose some potential readers by titling this post as a targeted message to an audience as specific as “prophets,” but even if you read that and wondered what it meant, I’d encourage you to keep reading.
After all, we’ve all run into the people I’m going to be talking to, and my guess is it won’t be the last time.
Let’s start with an understanding: I personally believe in all things Holy Spirit: the empowering fire promised in Acts 2, the character-changing fruit produced in Galatians 5, and the ministry gifts left for the church by Jesus in Ephesians 4. So while we can all debate all day long about whether or not prophets exist today, I believe that the gift of prophecy is not only for today, but quite possibly has never been needed more than today.
Of course, as long as there are gifts, there will be people with them who forget that they aren’t the gift, and the sad reality is that it only takes a few of those self-appointed gifts to make the rest of us want to return the original gift!
If you’ve met a prophet who carried him or herself like that, then my guess is that you’re going to read these points and wish that they’d read them before you met them.
To those of you who are often used by God in the area of prophecy (and I have been, as well), may I offer these thoughts humbly and with a heart to help God’s gift through you bring Him the most glory possible.
Being a prophet doesn’t mean you get to be a jerk
I’ve met way too many mad prophets. Somehow they think smiling makes the message less intense, and yet we’re not called to mimic the Old Testament prophets in how we dress or how we speak to people. Even the Old Testament prophets who seemed angry were used by God to point people back to Him. Does God deliver hard truth and brutal messages to people? Absolutely. But we live on this side of the cross, and the redemption that the Old Testament prophets pointed toward in faith we can now point to in fact. To be honest, if we can point sinners to the cross where OUR sins were paid for and stay angry, we may have missed the point. Which brings me to my second observation.
[Tweet “If we can point sinners to the cross where OUR sins were paid for and stay angry, we may have missed the point.”]Uncovering sin doesn’t make us like God; covering sin does.
When I think of the many mad preachers and prophets that I’ve encountered (and I’ve been those, too), I always think about the woman caught in adultery. I picture that mad mob of religious leaders who were all too happy to drag a naked woman to Jesus (while leaving the naked man in the shadows). They were proud of themselves for revealing her sin and her filth and I’m sure they raised their stones with a sense of accomplishment. All they needed to finish doing “God’s work” was a green light from The One. Only Jesus didn’t give it. He joined them in revealing the woman’s sin and then used the moment to uncover the sin in the accusers. But He didn’t stop there, because God isn’t pleased with just uncovering sin. God’s plan has always been to cover the sinner. That’s why Jesus went to the cross. Which leads us to the third tip.
[Tweet “God isn’t pleased with just uncovering sin because God’s plan has always been to cover the sinner.”]It will cost us something to carry God’s message
Somewhere along the way in the course of modern church history, prophets turned into talking heads reading divine teleprompters. The goal was more the perfect delivery of the message rather than the purifying effect of the message and the end result of that was a message devoid of the power necessary to move people to the Father they so desperately needed. Jesus showed us the true intent of the Father. He didn’t come as a postal worker to deliver the mail with the good news. John 13:1 shows us a Savior who not only spoke of the Father’s redemptive love but also showed the disciples the full extent of that love. In short, Jesus lived the love of the Father and doing so actually cost Him His life. It will cost us something, too, because it always costs something to carry God’s message.
[Tweet “Jesus lived the love of the Father even when doing so would cost Him His life.”]When you and I are willing to pay the price, we’ll be ready to speak with the voice of the prophet. The better news? Others will be much more likely to hear it.
