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TALKING
ABOUT PROPHETS
4
TALKING ABOUT PROPHETS
Chapter
HOW
DO I KNOW THAT I AM
AN PROPHET OF GOD? The Bible tells us that: we
are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10)
The amplified Bible says: that God has beforehand prepared those works for us. Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. (Heb 3:1,2) We are called partakers of the heavenly calling. What does that mean? What is our heavenly calling? What are those works which God has beforehand prepared for us to do? In most churches the pastor does it all and the members of his church pay him to do that. They also contribute towards the upkeep of the building where they come together every Sunday and most of the time also two days in the week. They expect to be fed and after that they go home. At the end of the week they come back to be charged up again, have another spiritual meal to see them through the next week. I once heard a pastor say, If you go to a restaurant, you pay for your food, so you should give money to the church, because you get fed here. He did not say, If you do not like the food that is available , go to another restaurant. He also did not say, if there is something wrong with the food, you complain and demand your money back, or you get up and leave the restaurant. I wonder what would happen , if we would really do this. I have sat in meetings many times, where I had a real problem to stay awake while the pastor was preaching. He was dishing up old stale warmed up food or preaching someone else’s message. I actually once sat in a meeting where the pastor was preaching from something he had read in the Readers Digest. I do not say this to be nasty to the preachers, but I wonder what would happen if the people would get up and walk out when this happens. But ofcourse this is not the way church should be. God never meant it to be like that. The building is not the church, we are the church! Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Out of our belly flows a river of living waters and when we get together and each one contributes, each one’s river flows, we all feed each other and that way we are partakers of the heavenly calling. We are the storehouse when we get together, not the churchbuilding. There are three chapters in the New Testament that speak about gifts. The first one is Romans 12 and this chapter is about what are called the motivational gifts. Those are the gifts , talents or abilities that God assigned to us even before we were born. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in they book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (Ps 139:16) Before the world was made, God had this book and our names were written in there and also His plan and purpose for our lives. The Bible tells us so. God knew what talents we would need to do the works which He had beforehand prepared for us to do. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. (1 Cor 12:6) When God has called you to be a prophet, you will become aware of the fact that you have certain abilities which others do not have. You are able to be in touch with the supernatural. That ability was given to you from birth, so when you do not commit your life to Christ, that talent will be used by the enemy and instead of the Holy Spirit you will then be inhabited by a familiar spirit, who will make use of that ability. You will also discover that God has given you other talents as well to go with this ability to touch the supernatural. You may have a musical talent as well or you may have leadership qualities or a teaching talent. There are 7 motivational gifts: Prophecy (the ability to touch the supernatural), teaching, exhortation/encouragement, ruling (leadership qualities), serving, giving and mercy. I have seen how people were taught on those gifts and there is even a test one can do to determine which gifts you are strong in, but the application of this teaching has not been good. People have taken it and put themselves and others in boxes. I have heard someone say, I do not have a gift of serving, I am a leader. Actually I did the test myselof, together with my husband. He is very mercy motivated and a real server at heart and my strongest gifts were prophecy and teaching. Our junior pastor at that time, looked at the result of our test, laughed and said, Only God could have put the two of you together! You see, it does not work like that. First of all , all those motivational gifts together are the character of Jesus, so if you lack in any of those gifts, you should develop them or let the Lord develop them in you, because the Word says that we are being conformed to the image of God’s dear Son (Rom 8:29). You will still have a distinct flavor, those gifts that the Lord gave you before you were born, will always be the strongest gifts in you , because you need them for whatever the Lord has called you to be or do. Secondly, I have seen that all the chapters about the gifts, need to be read as a whole. When you do that you will find that all the chapters end with the message that we should love and respect each other and esteem our brother higher than ourselves. Those gifts are given to help us recognise each other and walk in unity with each other. Christ..from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Not everybody is called to be a prophet. Every believer can prophecy by the gift of prophecy, at times. This gift we find in 1Cor 12. The gifts in that chapter are called the gifts of the Spirit. Now these are the diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. (1 Cor 12:4) Gifts of the Spirit, that is what they are called, they are not ours. The only Gift we have is the Holy Spirit, Who lives inside of us. He is as it were the Foreman Who has a toolbox full of tools (gifts) and when we are sent to do something, He gives us the tools we need to do the job. They are never ours. When God calls you to be a prophet He gives you certain motivational gifts which enable you to function as a prophet and then when He sends you to do something, He gives you the tools you need with the function . I believe that is what Nicodemus meant, when he said to Jesus, For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him (John 3:34) Other translations say that God gives to the man He has sent, the full measure of the Spirit (all the right gifts to do the job whereunto he is sent). So when you are not sent, you are just God’s precious child. Valuable to Him, even when you are not running around doing things, but just spending time in His Presence. What a wonderful rest to be in. Could this be the rest the Bible speaks about in Heb 4? We do not have to walk around all the time, making sure everybody knows we are a prophet. It is the people around you that will see that you are a Prophet of God. But we still have not answered the question, How do you know that you are a prophet? The Bible tells us how you know: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. (Number 12:6) God Himself will call you and you will know. He might call you in a vision or speak to you in a dream and even call you in an audible voice like He did with Samuel. He will make Himself known unto you. I can remember how God spoke to me 33 years ago. Right from the beginning He came to me in a dream and gave me many dreams and visions and He also revealed Himself to me through His Word. The scripture in Numbers was the first one He gave to me, concerning my calling and I knew what He was talking about, because I had experienced it. In those days we went to a Pentecostal church and nearly every Sunday, when the pastor invited people to testify, I had something to share about either a dream or a vision which I had had that week. The pastor would smile at me and say, Thank you sister, once again the Lord has confirmed my message through you. This happened quite often. But prophesying came only later on as I grew up in the things of the Lord and was taught about the ways and gifts of the Spirit. Shortly after the Lord spoke to me through the scripture in Numbers, a visiting evangelist, who later became my spiritual father , pastor Arthur Nipper, prophesied over me and the Lord said, I will shew you things and you will tell the people. This was for me a confirmation that God had really called me in this ministry. Since then there have been many prophecies , confirming to me that God had indeed called me to be His mouthpiece every now and then as He wills, and function as a prophetess. The last gifts are mentioned in Ephesians chapter 4. The gifts from our Lord to His Body. And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:11-13). Again the endresult should be that we come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. So these gifts are from the Lord to His Body. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord (1 Cor 12:5) Jesus Himself is our Apostle, Prophet, Teacher, Evangelist and Shepherd. He is our example and it is from Himself that He poured out those gifts into the Body of Christ so that they can prepare the saints for the ministry whereunto God has called them. To bring them to maturity, so they can take their rightful place in the Body of Christ and start ministering there. When we mature in our ministry we receive an apostolic mantle from the Lord and then we will be able to reproduce in others, what we have. |
