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New Testament Prophets
There is no foundation other than Jesus. Are you building your life on an intimate relationship with Him?
Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
We must realize that we are in a great spiritual battle.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
We are in a battle spanning the ages of time. One main opponent we face is the religious spirit. It was the religious spirit that stirred men to reject Jesus and then to cry out for His crucifixion. It was the religious spirit that killed the apostles. And it was the religious spirit that stirred up men to throw Paul in jail. The spiritual conflict we are in today can be seen in Paul’s words to the Galatians. The enemy was drawing them toward a religious legalism and the apostle challenged them to reject that direction and to yield to the Holy Spirit and be led by Him (Galatians 3:1 - 5). To drive his point home, he drew their attention to the Scriptures – specifically, the story about Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac (Galatians 4:19 - 31). Ishmael, the son born according to the flesh persecuted Isaac, the one born according to the Spirit. What the Galatians needed to see was that they were experiencing the same conflict that Isaac had. And as it was then, so it is now. The religious spirit will always persecute those who desire to be free.
If you believe that God has called you to be a prophet, please recognize that if the enemy cannot keep you bound to some particular sin, then he will try to get you bound to a religious system. His purpose will be to either paralyze you from functioning or to misdirect you in your functioning into being defined by a system. Then as you succeed to some degree before others there, the result could very well be that you become something other than what God intended. The question then becomes, “How do you unveil the foundation of Christ so that He becomes central not only in individual lives but also in the corporate functioning of the church?” The very system itself will militate against such a result. Then the pressure to compromise can become very real. Spiritually gifted prophets who have been affected by a religious system must begin to transition to being prophets of Christ, with no agenda but Him. Such a change can be costly, as my friend Mike has discovered.
All of us today are facing some degree of internal struggle. While the world system is shaking and crumbling, and at the same time throwing at us pressure to conform, to “get with the program,” at the same time, many in the Church of Christ are facing a very similar pressure to conform. But the Church should be the last place where we have to face such an external controlling pressure.
At the same time, there must be accountability. Prophets must walk in submitted and accountable relationships with other five-fold ministries/elders at the local church level. There they can walk out the implications of Christ’s headship as it is revealed in the midst of diversity. God’s strategy is that submitted hearts would learn how to yield to each other so that the One who is both greater than each one and also greater than all combined can be made known through God’s miracle – a corporate body revealing one mind, even the mind of Christ. Prophets must make this transition or they will continue to function like Old Testament prophets in a New Testament era. But as they submit to the Lord in these things, they will discover who they are within the parameters of the apostolic vision laid out in the New Testament.
Keep in mind that God wants to reveal who He is in us and also who we are in Him. And the last thing the enemy wants is for us to know who we are in Christ. Again, God’s strategy is not to simply fill our heads with knowledge but to grant us clear understanding of who we are and what our equipping service to the body of Christ is. And the clearer we see, the greater freedom we will find.
In order to be free, you must, “trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5 - 6).
Once free, Paul wrote concerning the gospel,
of which I was made a minister (Greek, DIAKONOS – a servant, a waiter), according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus wants to make a proclamation of His manifold wisdom through His Church, through the likes of you and me. In other words, the body of Christ must become more than a theological idea. We must become a living demonstration of what God says we are – a living body expressing one mind. We have coined the term “body-ness” to describe when it is working, when many are all functioning together as one. It is truly miraculous and only God can produce it. But it is the goal to which He is bringing His people. Some in leadership are concerned about losing control of what occurs in the gatherings. But we know that if we all remain humble, and if we keep our hearts right, the love of God will control us. And He will teach us. Remember, He intends to make His wisdom known through His Church, not just through certain gifted leaders/prophets/apostles. Paul talks about such freedom in the Holy Spirit in 1Corinthians Chapter 14 but then concludes in verse 40 with the words, “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.”
Freedom and Order. God wants His people to experience both. And both are needed for proper understanding of His work among us. When Christ is more revealed among us as the foundation for both our individual and corporate lives, we will be able to see our way forward.
For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
(Colossians1:9 – 14)
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Man tends to build in God’s house with bricks (conformity and uniformity); God builds with living stones (unique diversity with each one personally fashioned by His hand yet integrated with others in connected accountability).
When Jesus died, the veil of the Temple was rent. We now no longer need somebody to go in before God in our place; we can all enter boldly into the very presence of God to receive His mercy and find the grace we need to help us in our times of need. Boldly! Not arrogantly, but confidently, every day. All the time. (1Peter 2:4 - 5)
Remember the word that I said to you, “A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”
In recent years, God has been shaking the nations and exposing the hearts of men (Haggai 2:7). It is a time of upheaval. If ever there was a time for the Church to come into her God–designed and God–purposed calling, it is now. We simply must cry out for the Lord Jesus to arise in His glory in our midst. How we need Him to be for us the stability of our times (Isaiah 33:6). In seeing Him in His rightful place among us, we will see how the body is to function and, specifically how the prophets and other ministries are to serve so that He can bring us, “to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). Amen.
Owen Carey
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