The Prophecy Series
Some of the clearest examples of New Testament prophecy in the book of Acts show that prophetic ministry gives direction to the body of Christ, displays the Father’s heart, and helps us to do the Father’s business.
A pertinent example of God building through the prophetic utterances of Jeremiah is seen when God promises to bring the captives back from Babylon:
Jeremiah 24:3-7 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying…
When Jeremiah was called into prophetic ministry at a young age, he was given 6 charges:
Jeremiah 1:9-10 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
The basic tenor of prophecy is summed up in the aforementioned verse. To edify, exhort, and comfort can be simply caricatured as to lift up, build up, and cheer up. This is a good place to start when understanding the nature of prophecy as it should be practiced in our modern age. Edification, exhortation, and comfort are the baseline principles for the activity of prophecy.
Paul’s prayer gives us two distinct functions of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and both those functions are seen in prophetic ministry: to reveal God (the knowledge of him, Christ made known by the prophets) and to reveal mankind (eyes of your heart enlightened). True prophetic ministry always has these two core facets as the center point of prophecy: the revelation of the heart of God and the revelation of the heart of man.
One of the Hebrew words for vision is the word “mar’ah” (H4759). While it is most often translated as vision, it can also be translated as mirror. As a vision is one means by which we engage with revelation, taking the Hebrew word mar’ah into account, revelation can act as a mirror. What is the purpose of a mirror? To reflect back to you your own image.
What began as an appeal to love, kindness and compassion quickly descended into a threat. I was struck by how quickly the gate attendant changed the source of motivation. When an appeal to love does not work, we quickly descend into the madness of fear. While it is excusable for a gate attendant to use fear as a motivator, we do it in our Christian communities all the time.
Earlier, we referenced Revelation 19:10 in relation to Christ in the bosom of the Father. But let’s take it one step deeper. One of the most overlooked verses in regard to prophetic ministry is Revelation 19:10:
Much of what constitutes personal prophetic ministry and corporate prophetic utterances are conditional prophecies. Conditional prophecies are prophetic words that are dependent upon the people that receive them. There are, of course, prophetic words that are not conditional, but those tend to be more rare.
I watched a “prophet” on a well-known prophetic show share a word about the US president and specifically reference the infamous “Q” drop conspiracy ring as proof of the veracity of the prophecy. “Q” had mentioned the same thing two years prior to the prophecy, and, according to the prophet, the Lord was speaking the same thing that “Q” had said about the president.
“The Lord told me you have the heart of a lion.” ~ My Mother
I must have been 10 or 11 when my mother spoke those words to me. I have never forgotten that statement. It has been revisited a few times when others have said the same unwittingly to me.
Gregory the Great, the 6th century leader of the church in Rome (making him the most influential man in Christendom at the time), gives us the language we need to understand what is required of those who purport to speak on behalf of the Father. First, we ought not be quick to prophesy:
“…during the early years of our adolescence or youth we must abstain from prophecy, so that the plowshare of our tongue does not dare to cleave the land of another's heart. For as long as we are immature, it is our responsibility to contain ourselves, lest while we show tender virtues too swiftly, we lose them.”
John Cassian was an incredibly influential man in the 5th century. He traveled throughout Egypt learning the spiritual life from the Desert Fathers and Mothers near the end of the 4th century. Cassian chronicled their teachings in his two main works: the Conferences and the Institutes. The Institutes were a codification of what the desert monastics practiced and were written for the western church. The Conferences were a collection of conversations Cassian had with the monastic fathers in Egypt. Though the voice was the Desert Fathers, the pen was Cassian. What comes across is not the exact teaching of each Desert Father, but a reinterpretation for the western church.
The Apostolic Constitutions are a collection of eight works detailing early church life, structure, moral conduct, church discipline, and worship. The work was compiled and written between 350-400AD. It was considered a compilation of what had been handed down from the first century. Book eight begins by dealing with the nature of spiritual gifts. It drew some of its inspiration from the earlier Didache.
In the 2nd century a man named Hermas recorded a series of visions. In these visions a heavenly figure appears to Hermas and makes himself known simply as the Shepherd. The Shepherd shares with Hermas things relating to nature of life in God and issues pertaining to the church. What followed was a series of ethical and moral lessons and instruction in the Christian life. Righteousness and repentance is heavily emphasized. It was instructive in the same way a work like Pilgrim’s Progress was in its day.
The Didache, otherwise known as the Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles, was an early church document that served as a series of instructions on spiritual and community life. The first part consists of juxtaposing the way of life with the way of death. The second part deals with specific practices within the church, the individual’s spiritual life (i.e. food, baptism, prayer, fasting, eucharist, etc...) and church governance. The Didache essentially functioned as a guide for new disciples to understand what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
In the first 500 years of church history, aberrant uses of the gifts of the Spirit did not serve as a reason to reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What we have seen happening in the history of Christianity, we have seen happening today. Just as in years past, the true mark of Christianity was not the rejection of the ministry of the Spirit wholesale, but the rejection of the aberrant practices. Let no man call what God intended for good an evil thing. Rather, the problem lies within the heart of people, not the gift itself. As we have said earlier in this series, the gift is the Spirit, it is not the ability to work great things. Let us never reject the Holy Spirit and His working the people of God.
Writing a couple hundred years after Palladius’ account of Valens, Isaac the Syrian, a 7th century Christian monk, recounts that there were many people in the history of the church that had accomplished great things through the exercise of spiritual gifts:
“From history, we see that many have performed astonishing miracles, have raised the dead, and have labored to return those who are erring to the straight path and the true Faith; they worked great miracles and by their efforts led many to knowledge of God.”
In the 5th century, a man named Palladius wrote the story of Valens, a monastic from Palestine. Valens was a well regarded monastic whose fervor for discipline had won him favor in the church. The story of is Valens’ is of his slow descent into pride.
“By virtue of the great hardship that he endured, he attained to the highest measure of ascesis but fell into pride, being so deluded by the demons that he thought angels were conversing with him and ministering to his every need.”
In the 2nd century, in an area known as Phygria (present-day Turkey), a man named Montanus had been recently converted to the Christian faith. Asterius Urbanas, who wrote about the Monastist movement, described Montanus as a man with “excessive lust of his soul after taking the lead”. Montanus wanted to be the leader. In meetings, Montanus would become overwhelmed by some spiritual influence and he would prophesy. Eventually, he drew a number of people away from the churches in Phygria and they began calling themselves The New Prophecy movement.
“If somebody appears to have received the gift of healing or revelation, a hand is not laid on him, for the facts of the matter will reveal whether he has spoken the truth.” The Apostolic Tradition
The “facts of the matter” simply meant was the thing true, right or accurate. That prophetic ministry was alive and well in the first few hundred years of the church is not a question up for debate.
Ephesians 4:12-14 …for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.
The second major misreading of Ephesians 4 is that the passage itself is mainly concerned with defining special gifts. What we tend to miss when reading the passage is Paul’s drive to speak of Christ and the ascension. While the purpose of 1 Corinthians 12 is focused on teaching what happens when the Holy Spirit is given to the church, and Romans 12 is concerned with how God gifts certain people to function within a community, Ephesians 4 is far more concerned with the nature of Christ and the ramifications of what He has accomplished.
The first thing that can be said about these gifts is that at no place in the history of Christianity has this list been referred to as five-fold ministry. Looking at these gifts as leadership positions is an invention of modern authors. Scripture does not treat them positionally and history does not as well. They are graces given to the body of Christ to affect the equipping of the saints. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
Each of us has been dealt a measure of faith and we ought to think of ourselves in terms of that faith that has been afforded to us. That faith has to do with how we all tie in together as members of one body, it specifically has to do with how we function as members of one another. These gifts are not about how the Holy Spirit moves through you and empowers you. These gifts are not as directly tied into the life of love and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (though our giftedness is always tied to that to some degree). They are tied into how you approach who you are.
There arises a curious thing when you begin to study scripture from the lens of what it tells you about the inter-relationship between the members of the Trinity. Some of the great theologians of history have reflected on this extensively.
The life of love was seen as intrinsic to spiritual giftedness. Throughout history, there have been many examples of those that appeared to be gifted, impacted many people, and then later, having fallen away, result hurt many more people than they helped. The wake of destruction left by gifted, yet hard and calloused people has left much devastation.
We have already spoken extensively about the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 (word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, different kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues) heretofore in this series. We made the case that what we refer to as spiritual gifts, the bible calls the manifestation of the Spirit. But can we say anything more about the purpose and usefulness of these activities?
As we come into the realization that God is not some distant God, but that He is near, and that He longs to speak, we begin to make room to hear His voice. And to hear His voice is to be transformed, it is to sense the in-breaking of His presence into our everyday, mundane lives. To hear His voice is to acknowledge the nearness of His heart.
Ezekiel carries a unique revelation about the work of redemption going forward from his time. Chapters 40-48 recount a significant vision wherein Ezekiel was shown the rebuilding of the temple of God and the eventual layout of the tribes of the Jewish nation.
When Scripture speaks of the presence of God or hearing His voice, the picture presented is never a distant voice hammering through the heavens, or the long descent of a condescending God visiting mankind. The picture is one of nearness. Heaven is nearer than you think.
In the beginning, the very first action of God is recorded as Him speaking. The entirety of the creation story in Genesis 1 is laced with the voice of God. If you are to take the Genesis story at face value, you would have to come away with a belief that the Being who created all is one who speaks. And then, on the sixth day, God creates man and woman in His image. How does He do this? By speaking.
Teresa of Avila, a contemporary of John of the Cross, and the Doctor of Prayer in the Catholic church, wrote extensively on how to hear the voice of God, mainly by looking at the effect the inner hearing would have on the heart. She echoes the sentiment of John of the Cross, that it requires maturity to weigh the voice of God.
In her seminal work, Interior Castles, Teresa has the soul moving through seven stages of purification. It is not until the sixth stage that she even begins talking about hearing the voice of God. Why? Because peace and quiet must settle into the inner life before the voice of God can be easily discerned.
The labor of the spiritual life (service, silence, solitude, prayer, etc…) over time settles the heart into extended quietude. AS we discipline ourselves to approach God, we set our mind (the form of our being) upon Him. The result of this focus is that peace begins to reign in the inner life. (see our course series on Preparing Your Heart)
'You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.’ Isaiah 26:3
Experiencing the voice of God sweeps us up in the grand narrative of Christian history. When God speaks, he forms and shapes the inner substance of our lives. Scripture and the historical writings of church history bear this out.
Theologians, mystical authors, devotional writers all share this common theme, when God speaks our inner reality is defined. Amma Sarah (4th century) called man, “a little world in himself,” and said that his inner life, “…contains all the elements which go to complete the universe.” If our inner life is a universe, then when God speaks the planets and stars take shape. His voice clarifies the rough edges of our interior.
The Lord was addressing deep insecurities in my life. Each morning His quiet whisper would assure my unsteady heart. As I read and studied scripture, I found myself identifying with the moments of deep insecurity those men and women experienced. The quiet whisper of God to Elijah became my new normal.
There was no earth-shattering revelation.
No incredible visitation.
No supernatural prophecies or visions.
It was just my heart resonating with the tenderness of His heart.
Throughout history God has moved upon mankind through the agency of visions, dreams, and strange events. Revelation, the in-breaking of something previously unknown, can become a common occurrence if we learn to pay attention.

Many times throughout the Old Testament we see prophetic words bringing significant blessing and prosperity. Take for instance the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah:
Ezra 6:14 So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built…