The Past, Present, Future of the Prophet

There is a fascinating passage in Ephesians chapter four:

11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (~Ephesians 4:11-16 NIV)

The idea is that God places certain gifted individuals to sharpen and upgrade the rest of us. The outcomes in these relationships tend toward a dramatic increase in unity, knowledge, maturity and stability. We grow up to a point of love where we are no longer infants in our thinking or ability, but will come to a place of maturity and proper place in the world at large.

So, continuing with prophet (and their biblical examples of Samuel, Elijah, Elisha and Peter, James, Paul…) what can we say about this gift?

Henrietta Mears, in her famous book What the Bible is All About talks about prophets having a three-fold role in their prophetic voice.

​1. They talk about what God did in the past.
2. They talk about what God is doing now.
3. They talk about what God will do in the future.

In classical literature, the seer or sage is a mysterious figure, providing ominous portents of the future that almost always contain an element of malevolence or danger. Think, the witches in Macbeth here. Looking into the future is a compelling and scary business, not to be taken lightly. Partly because of our fascination with this, we attach to the “future speaking” role of the prophet with perhaps too much attention, while ignoring the other two critical pieces of their role.

In the Hebrew Bible, it most often sounded something like this:

Remember when God called Abraham? Remember when He called you out of Egypt? Remember when He fed you for a generation and then led you into the promised land? That same God is calling you today… to turn away from the not helpful activity you are engaged in and turn back to God and His word to You. He loves you dearly and doesn’t want you to reap the harvest that will come from the very bad seed, in the very bad field, where you are currently busy. And someday, God will come again, to make (in Tolkien’s phrase) everything sad come untrue. He will reset the scales and rule us with wisdom and justice forever.

Past. Present. Future. Cool isn’t it?

In thinking about this, I’d like to take the angle that we did before, of considering some things about the prophet we might not ordinarily know, and take a look at how best to support them in their gift. Let’s start here:

- The prophet gift, like apostle and evangelist and all the rest, is not a guarantee of character, or maturity or primary calling in regards to our own repentance and personal relationship with God. The reality is that, even a gifted individual can fail, can have serious issues of character or personality and is not, by default, any more capable or wise in handling the sin in their lives than you are in yours. They will react badly in response to trauma, and will need to grow out of that, just like anyone will. My point is that their gift is not a pass related to holiness or judgment.

So cut them some slack. They need grace just like the rest of us, in spite of the power of their gift and the doors that their gift will tend to open. They will need prayer, and friendship, and someone who can tell them to cut it out… just like the rest of us do.

- The prophet will prophecy to himself, maybe moreso than to others. That’s just the nature of spiritual gifts I think. The teacher learns more than anyone in their preparation, chasing down lines of thought and inquiry that never see the light of day in their public presentation. The blessing and curse of prophecy is the seeing of what God is doing before, during and after and it is a lens that will be pervasive to them, even outside of the specific role of MESSAGE TO BE DELIVERED WITH HOLY WEIGHT RIGHT NOW. 

So know, that when the prophet gets harsh with a group or with an individual… that they will tend to be even more harsh with themselves. They are speaking, not out of an entitled, condescending, holier than thou perspective - but from a place of urgency, knowing firsthand that if God’s perspective isn’t heeded, the consequences can be devestating.

- The prophet will seem like a contrarian, even when their message starts to resonate. Because of their “lens” as it were, they will have a really odd response to many situations. Yes, but… will come out of their mouths a lot and they will seem to disagree for the sake of disagreeing. It’s not that exactly. It’s more that they see, by their nature, what others will tend to miss - and they will want the full picture in play. Another piece of this is timing. The prophet will often see the next step, way before the next step is ready to deploy. So the frustration of waiting for a year, two years, sometimes more… until their context “catches up” with them can sometimes put a little edge on their communication.

Also, expect an eye roll and a careful blank look when the thing they have been saying for 30 months is suggested by someone else, and suddenly everyone starts clapping like seals and starts to jump onboard.
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So what do we do with our prophet here? Affirm them. Notice that they "called that one" quite some time ago and honor them for it. Also, when they start to speak in weird ways, ask probing questions to clarify what they are seeing but may have trouble expressing in an understandable way. Resist the urge to move on too quickly when they hit you with a non sequitur. Take the time to understand where they are leading… and if it isn’t time yet - think about how to prepare for the thing they are seeing downstream.

- The prophet will be lonely. Nathan poking at the king and Jeremiah in the rubble and Ezekiel taking shots at everyone is not the Dale Carnegie process for friends and influence. The nature of their role and speaking will alienate a lot of normal social connections that would otherwise be in play for them. They will need friends and they will need people to reach out to them more than you might think. Don’t assume that their vision and lightning like power in perspective will replace their need for simple community. 

Make a place for your prophets and let them know they are loved.

- Listen to them. They can be as wrong as anyone in terms of priority, emphasis, or saying a right thing in the wrong way as anyone else can. But very often, the nature of the prophet will have them trying to express an ineffable but critical idea to an audience that just doesn’t get it. When you get the spiritual sense that something is afoot - help them make the connection to the larger group. Understand the scope and limits of what they are saying and go with them. 

God uses this gift to shift the window, to further the horizon and to change perspective. Maybe more than any other gift, this one involves change, and discomfort and the cost of transition that often brings.

So lend them your ear and your heart and the depth of your understanding as much as possible - you’ll be glad you did.