Who were the prophets and do they still exist today? Edmund Heddle unpacks some key aspects of this vital ministry and gifting...

To the man in the street a prophet is someone who predicts the future, and to prophesy is to foretell some happening; a view which is shared in many cases by the man in the pew. It is true that the prophets of the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, do foretell what is to happen, but this predictive element forms only part of their message. They are primarily forthtellers!

Exodus 4:10-16 records an instructive incident that reveals the nature of the prophet's ministry. God had told Moses to go to Pharaoh to demand the release of the children of Israel from the slavery in which they were held. Moses, however, excuses himself (even after the encouragement of miraculous signs) on the ground of his lack of eloquence. God is displeased at Moses' refusal, but suggests that his brother Aaron, a good speaker, should take his place. According to Exodus 7:1, Aaron became Moses' 'prophet' and Moses is told:

You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth...He shall speak for you...He shall be a mouth for you. (Ex 4:15-16).

From this passage it is seen that a prophet is to be a mouth for God, a spokesman, whose task is to listen to what God is saying and to pass on that message.

How do prophets hear from God?

If a prophet is God's mouthpiece, how is he to hear what God wants him to pass on? The essential preparation is shown clearly in Numbers 11:16-17 and 24-30. Moses had reached a point where the burden of dealing with the people of God was more than he could cope with on his own. So God tells him to assemble seventy elders at the tent of meeting with the object of providing him with assistance.

Then God said, "I will take some of the Spirit which is upon you and put it on them." When this was done and the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. This was also true for two of their number who had not accompanied the others to the tent of meeting, but who were found prophesying in the camp. Prophesying is only possible when the Spirit of God has come upon God's man.

Prophesying is only possible when the Spirit of God has come upon God's servant."

Moses' servant, Joshua, thought his master would be upset that the two who had gone to the tent of meeting were prophesying and he presumed to ask Moses to silence them! Moses' magnanimous reply indicated that he had no desire to limit the number of prophets; instead he said, "I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!"

Who gets to prophesy?

This desire of Moses for the universalising of prophecy was years later taken up by the prophet Joel as he foretold the day when as a result of the outpouring of God's Spirit, the whole people of God would become a prophetic people.

And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. You sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants [literally 'slaves'] I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29)

These words of Joel were quoted by Peter as he sought to explain the happenings of the Day of Pentecost, just a few weeks after Jesus had returned to heaven. With the descent of the Spirit a new age had dawned, for this universalising of the prophetic potentiality constituted the greatest difference between Old and New Testament prophecy.

No longer was prophecy limited to certain individuals among God's people; instead both men and women, old and young and those without worldly status were alike able to prophesy. The New Testament makes it clear that not all of the Lord's people would have the ministry of a prophet (1 Cor 12:29) but all were able, and were encouraged, to prophesy. (1 Cor 14:1, 5).

The greatest difference between Old and New Testament prophecy is that since Pentecost, the gift of prophecy has been made available for all believers."

How does prophesying actually happen?

As well as showing the absolute necessity of the Spirit coming upon a man if he is to prophesy, the Old Testament has much more to teach about the process of prophesying.

The prophets of old were men who stood in the Lord's council, shared his secrets, were sent with his message and declared it with their words, actions and lives."

• The prophets of the Old Testament were men who stood in the Lord's council. (Jer 23:18, 22) They were granted the privilege of an audience with the Lord God himself. They were men in touch with the Throne and the whole quality of their revelations was dependent upon this fundamental relationship.
• The prophets were men who shared the Lord's secrets (Amos 3:7). Amos uses here a word that describes people in a close deliberation and what is shared at such times. He clearly believed that the Almighty shared with his prophets what he was going to do: a fact which is evident from a word from God concerning Abraham and the impending judgment of Sodom, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" (Gen 18:17)
• The prophets were men sent with the Lord's message (Amos 7:14-15). Amos said, "I was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son...but the Lord said to me 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel'." So this shepherd from Judah was sent to prophesy to the Northern Kingdom. God not only gives his word to his prophets, he also directs them as to who is to be their audience.
• The prophets were men who spoke the Lord's message in the Lord's words (Deut 18:18; Jer 1:9). When the young Jeremiah complained that he was not old or mature enough for the prophetic calling, God promised to give him the very words he was to speak. He was given an 'instructed tongue' (Isa 50:4).
• The prophets were men who showed the Lord's message by visual aids (Isa 20:2-3; Jer 13:1-11; 19:1-15). In order to illustrate and enforce their message, prophets were told to perform unusual actions, like burying a new waistbelt or smashing a pottery vessel before a crowd. Others got their message over by the use of vivid parables or word pictures. Micah stripped naked (Mic 1:8) in order to show the shame and degradation that would come upon the city unless the people repented.
• The prophets were men whose lives constituted part of their message. Hosea finds himself married to a prostitute; Ezekiel is forbidden to mourn when his wife suddenly died and Jeremiah is forbidden to marry at all. In this way the prophets were enabled to feel in their own experience the sufferings of the God, whose prophetic message they were responsible to communicate.

How did prophetic ministries begin?

As well as describing the process of prophesying, the Old Testament gives some insight into how the prophets received their word from God.

A study of the opening verses of the sixteen prophetic books of the Old Testament will divide up the prophets into those who saw the message in vision and those to whom the spoken word of the Lord came.

As it stands, this last statement can be misleading as the word translated 'came' is part of the verb 'to be' and might be better translated 'the word of the Lord became a living reality to' the prophet. It would appear that the first group had a direct encounter with what they were to say, whereas the second group experienced the message coming into focus in their minds as they considered a situation under the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

What about today?

In ways like these, men called by God, on whom the Spirit had fallen, became a 'mouth for God' in their generation. Today, as never before, there are homes, communities and nations that desperately need to hear what God in his love is yearning to say to them. Nothing, therefore, could be more important than the recovery of the ministry of prophecy today.

First published in Prophecy Today, March/April 1985, Vol. 1 No. 1.