A prophet has 2 distinct functions:
1. Then unction of a prophet was to call repeople and the nation back to the ways of God, according to Deuteronomy 18:15-18 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”
17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.
The covenant of the Old Testament blessed faithful obedience and disciplined disobedience.
2. The prophet sometimes would deliver predictive messages, including those about the coming Messiah. People with the gift of prophecy may not be prophets but they are the mouthpieces to the people using the gifts of the spirit.
The prophets of old were like the expository preachers of today…shouting the word of God to the people. Since the time of Moses God has used prophets as his Voice and witness to the people through their mouths and ministries.
“People who self proclaim the title of pope should be taken with caution for the life of a prophet is indescribably difficult. Think of Isaiah. God instructed him to discard his outer garments and sandals then walk naked around the city for 3 years as a visual sign to the people of Israel of the coming captivity of Egypt and Cush and Israel if they chose to align themselves with those nations.
Isaiah 20:1-4 (NIV)
A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush
In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— 2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.
3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,[a] 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame.
Imagine God saying to you, ‘Your people are stiff necked ad selfish. They are not getting the message. I want you to take off the suit and tie. In fact, take everything off and walk the halls of your church disrobed for 3 years as a sign to the members.’”
I believe in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit convicts personally but the pastors have lost the prophet’s mentality of correction and holding people to the word. There is too much compromise to hold people in the church no matter their sin.
God has spoken to me several times in this new portion of our ministry not to be moved by what we do not see. We asked us to leave everything we know and love. Our ministries. Our friends. Our church. Our families. Our dog. He sent us to Europe and though I have felt guilty about having fun in this new adventure I know we are to walk and pray. We both had expectations of what this would look like and it DOES NOT. Again I hear “Do not be moved by what you do not see.” There are small insights to the result of prayer. No more abortions on Guam. Result. More and more revivals starting. Small groups that LOVE God. But these are few and far between.
We are missing church. We are missing christian connections. People we love and who love us are not good about communicating and unlike Mike, neither am I.
As we walk I see each step reverberating throughout the heavenlies changing the atmosphere. Setting things in place. Shaking the plans of the enemy. Canceling assignments. There is nothing I can see. I just KNOW. “Don’t be moved by what you do not see.”
We have suffered a feeling of disconnection, isolation. We have been under attack over and over…physically, emotionally, and even more spiritually…these things make me know even more that we are moving in what he said…..
Go, leave everything and go…I will show you where to walk. Go. I will show you where. Be ready to move when I speak. Go.
And so we pack again….to go. It looks so fun on FB, and don’t get me wrong, it is….but even fun can be exhausting and hard. So many questions in the spiritually bankrupt atmosphere we live in….Questions asked and floating to heaven but the answers I hear are “GO, walk where I show you. I will give you the nations where you walk. DO not be moved by what you do not see.”
This is the scripture that as been given to us by several people that I know hear from God:
Isaiah 42 (NIV)
The Servant of the Lord
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.
2 He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
3 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;
4 he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”
5 This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
8 “I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another
or my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have taken place,
and new things I declare;
before they spring into being
I announce them to you.”
Song of Praise to the Lord
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
11 Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;
let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout from the mountaintops.
12 Let them give glory to the Lord
and proclaim his praise in the islands.
13 The Lord will march out like a champion,
like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
with a shout he will raise the battle cry
and will triumph over his enemies.
14 “For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
I cry out, I gasp and pant.
15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.
16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.
17 But those who trust in idols,
who say to images, ‘You are our gods,’
will be turned back in utter shame.
Israel Blind and Deaf
18 “Hear, you deaf;
look, you blind, and see!
19 Who is blind but my servant,
and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
blind like the servant of the Lord?
20 You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
your ears are open, but you do not listen.”
21 It pleased the Lord
for the sake of his righteousness
to make his law great and glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and looted,
all of them trapped in pits
or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
with no one to say, “Send them back.”
23 Which of you will listen to this
or pay close attention in time to come?
24 Who handed Jacob over to become loot,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord,
against whom we have sinned?
For they would not follow his ways;
they did not obey his law.
25 So he poured out on them his burning anger,
the violence of war.
It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand;
it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.