LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Prophetic Ministry Today
The prophet's message of today consists of preaching Christ.
Roberto Sáez
"I tell you, among those born of woman there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (Luke 7:28)
The Prophetic Ministry in the Old Testament
This ministry was characterized by men that God separated for himself, so that they represented Him and made the people return to God's word. All of them were rejected and killed. Stephen's denunciation hit the target: "Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those that predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him." (Acts 7:52) It is the same thing that Jesus had denounced in the parable of the wicked tenants, and what Hebrews chapter 11 testifies to as it lists the accomplishments of those distinguished heroes of the faith, known for their faith and sufferings.
Our Lord Jesus Christ indicates that John is the greatest of all the prophets. This is confirmed by John's consecration, austerity and God's confirmation of his ministry. John was a man whose profile is a perfect model of a jar of clay that God can use. John marks the end of the prophetic age of the Old Testament, which was characterized by individuals in God's service. A new prophetic age opens in the New Testament, where the prophetic ministry appears as a team of disciples, endowed with diverse graces in God's word.
The spirit of the prophetic message of the Old Testament was to make the leaders and people return to God's law. We know that the law perfected nothing; nevertheless it served "... so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God... through the law we become conscious of sin." (Rom. 3:19, 20) We also know that "the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." (Rom. 8:7).
The Old Testament prophet's ministry served to demonstrate the moral corruption of the flesh. Notwithstanding the prophets' denunciations and the people's halfhearted repentance, they never achieved the righteous demands of the law. The people always returned to the rut of evil. This was due to the fact that the moral ruin of man is so great that however much one proposes to do the right thing before God, he cannot do it. His nature does not allow it.
Paul, mentioning Isaiah, says in Romans 10:21, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people." Disobedience is a seed of evil that is sealed off in man's heart and from there it cannot be removed until he experiences the regeneration that occurs through the preaching of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in power of the Holy Spirit. Then faith arises to yield itself to God. From that moment the transformation of an individual begins; he becomes a new creation (Galatians 2:20). Then and only then will he receive God's grace to obey and to walk in obedience before God with a new heart.
None of the Old Testament prophets -John included- could minister this grace. This is because the Holy Spirit had not yet come. Maybe Jesus was referring to this when he said that in the kingdom, the least would be greater than John. Do we realize the privilege and responsibility that we, the prophets of today, have? Today we possess the grace of the Holy Spirit to have regenerated hearts that are open to God.
The Prophetic Ministry in the New Testament
The prophetic ministry must be distinguished from the gift of prophecy; the Lord Jesus Christ constitutes the prophetic ministry, while the gift of prophecy is given by the Holy Spirit. The ministry is for few individuals, while the gift is given to many (or all) the saints. Paul exhorts to "Follow the way of love" but above all other gifts desire that of prophecy. (1 Cor.14:1)
Referring to the prophetic gift, we are told that, "He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church." (1 Cor.14:3). Prophecy convinces unbelievers who enter church meetings (1 Cor. 14:24-25), as well as instructs and exhorts all those present in the meeting. (1 Cor. 14:31) The prophetic gift consists of prophesying words of edification, exhortation, consolation, instruction and conviction to the saints on God's behalf.
The prophetic ministry comes after the apostolic ministry (Ephesians 4:11), and implies that it is very important in the edification of the church. In the beginning, the church in Antioch did not have elders (or pastors); only prophets and teachers. Amongst the prophets and teachers in Antioch, the Holy Spirit separated Barnabas and Saul for the work of the apostolic ministry. Judas and Silas were also prophets (Acts 15:32). In today's world, more importance has been given to pastors or elders than to prophets, which is a mistake. It is not mere coincidental detail that prophets are second in the list of the ministers of the word.
In Ephesians 3:5, Paul teaches that "which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets." This is very important, because it establishes a great difference between the content of the prophetic word in the Old and New Testaments. The prophets of today know something that the former prophets did not know: it is the unveiling of the revelation of the mystery hidden throughout the centuries and ages. This is the revelation that God gave about Christ and his church. This knowledge that God gave to the apostles and prophets is the most overwhelming grace and power that these ministers have for the edification of the saints.
The Prophets of Today
The prophets of today, unlike the former ones, preach Christ as the life of God. They preach Christ as Lord and Savior. Their message is not the law but God's grace in Christ. Their message confronts the sinner with his need of salvation and grants him everything that God has done in Christ. That is, God grants the believer with all the power in Christ necessary to overcome the world, sin, flesh, and Satan. Their message contains all of Christ's teachings, which perfects man and makes him see himself in Christ, prepared for good works.
The prophet's message is one of faith and hope, because God does not want to condemn man, but to save him. It also contains an element of warning regarding the sentence of hell for those who reject the faith. Our message is positive, because it is affirmed in the life that God gives to the word of the gospel and because it has the power to completely save fallen mankind. The emphasis must not be in denouncing the evil of this world but in preaching Christ. When Christ enters the heart, evil comes out.
We have preached several times and several days in the fields, where many people were drunk at the meetings. We never touched the issue of alcoholism. We only preached Christ and the problem of drunkenness was resolved. Every Saturday we go to the Penitentiary Center (in Santiago, Chile) to visit the prisoners and we have never spoken about drugs or delinquency. We have preached Christ and many are those who have already been regenerated. According to the statistics of the International Prison Ministries, Christians have the best results amongst drug addicts, alcoholics and delinquent's recoveries and rehabilitation, throughout the world.
This does not mean that we should not have a critical attitude with regard to the sins of our nation, whether of social injustice or of lack of morals. Biblical prophecy indicates that evil will increase in the end times. We are therefore part of those living in the worst epoch in history regarding the manifestation of the mystery of iniquity in opposition to the mystery of godliness. Morality is relativized to the point at which there is no longer a definitive distinction between good and bad. Yet our message has to be a fundamentally positive message of faith and hope in a Christ who still wants to save.
With John's Profile
The prophets' mission for today's world needs men like John the Baptist. However, we are to be greater than he because of the content of our message and the results obtained in our service. John managed to make his generation change their thinking regarding the moral norms of God's Word. Undoubtedly this was something great. Yet we have to achieve not only the individual's repentance but also the regeneration of his or her heart, which is much more radical.
Are the people turning to Christ, touched by our message, or are they running from our legalism? Many prophets in today's Christianity preach against the trousers that women wear, the short hair, the short skirts, the makeup, etc., and at the same time preach messages of prosperity and material success.
Undoubtedly, the message of these prophets is less than Christ and the results of their service can readily be seen. When Christ is preached, the defective things fall away under their own weight. Evil is corrected by the force of new life. Christ in us is the hope of glory! We are not deceived, thinking that the world will conform to us. Rather the world laughs at Christians who dare to denounce its evil. For them, we are fanatical and ignorant. Nevertheless, God sends us to be a testimony, so that on that day they cannot say that God did not warn them of their eternal destiny.
The Type of Person That We Are
The great problem that we face today is the type of people that we are. We are clear with respect to the possibilities of our message and service, but this is not enough. It is necessary that the jar that God uses takes on profiles of men like John. God wants men and women who burn as torches for Christ, consumed by him, and who take the light (that is not their own) of Christ, who is within them. To achieve this, a mature church is needed, where Christ is formed in the fabric of corporate relations, in the life of community; where one learns to be corrected, supported, loved, forgiven and stimulated.
The church is the press, the 'Gethsemane' of the men and women of God; the place where the human character has to fall down to allow Christ to rise up. The world of today has not known prophets of John's stature, because the church is decadent. However, today the church is being restored and the Lord is raising up an army of prophets who will shake the entire world by giving up their lives, even to the point of death, if necessary, because of Jesus Christ's testimony. Without going too far back in history, last century, in a jail cell in China, a wrinkled paper was found under the pillow of a moribund prisoner. On it, written with trembling letters were the words, "I die for my faith in Jesus Christ." It was Watchman Nee's testimony.
Today's prophets, unlike the former ones, are being formed into an environment of corporate life of the church. They are not isolated shining stars, but men and women who have the support of a spiritual family who knows them. The reason why in the last century many great lights of Christianity fell was because they were solitary men, men without counterweight; they lacked spiritual counselors to be at their side.
We are on the verge of seeing a powerful move of God through today's prophets.