Series: Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gift
#12: The Gifts of Spiritual Roles – Prophet/Prophecy
Amos 7:7-17 and Jeremiah 20:7-9 (NLT)
By John Gill ~ August 27, 2023
I didn’t want to BE one! Although, deep down I already knew I WAS one.
In 1996, I had arranged to take a group from the church I was serving at the time to our United Methodist retreat center in Leesburg for a weekend event on “Exploring Your Spiritual Gifts.” As part of that retreat, of course we all completed a questionnaire to determine our gifts. When I was finished, I scored my spiritual gift inventory, and there it was, right at the tip-top of the list: “Prophet!”
Kim, the leader of our retreat, then asked us to group ourselves according to our top gift. Most groups had four or five people (gifts like, encourager, faith, servant, etc.). There were only two “prophets” in the entire group – and I was one of them! I wasn’t surprised about who the other person was, but – me?
After we had grouped ourselves, Kim asked us to sit in groups and discuss how we felt about having our particular gift. Most other groups seemed pleased with their gift. They felt affirmed and encouraged. The two of us “prophets” just looked at each other and agreed: we really didn’t WANT this gift! We had both read the scriptures well enough to know what happens to prophets: ostracized, ridiculed, persecuted – and worse! We felt like taking Josh Billings’ advice when he said, “Don’t ever prophesy; if you are wrong, nobody will forget it; and if you are right, no one will remember it.” Being a “prophet” is a thankless job!
“Prophecy” is a hard business: It’s never easy to speak the truth to those not wanting to hear the truth. So people turn against you, and make your life miserable.
In this series, I’ve told you that exercising your spiritual gift is supposed to bring you “joy,” – but not so for prophets. Being a prophet is more of a burden than a joy. It’s more of a curse than a blessing. And, I didn’t want any part of it!
But, there it was, right at the top of my list – “Prophet!” And, throughout the years since then, it is near the top in every inventory I have taken. It MUST be one of my spiritual gifts. And so, I had better get used to the idea and try to understand it a little better.
The Spiritual Gift of Prophecy is one of the most misunderstood of all the spiritual gifts. And that is because popular culture has tried to define for us what a “prophet” is. As it turns out, what the secular culture means by “prophecy” bears very little resemblance to what the Bible means by “prophecy.” So, to help us understand this gift, I’d like for us to look at what a prophet IS – and what it IS NOT.
First, let’s look at what a prophet IS NOT.
1. Contrary to what popular culture might assume, a prophet is NOT “a fortune-teller” (although, he or she MAY sometimes reveal the future).
When you ask the average “Joe” what a” prophet” is, he may say, “someone who foretells the future.” And he’d be right – up to a point. Speaking of the future may be ONE of the things a prophet might do – but not in the way that average Joe might assume. Calling the “Psychic Hotline” is NOT biblical prophecy! The primary role of a prophet is NOT to read palms or tea-leaves. Prophets are not just fortune-tellers.
2. Neither is a prophet a “prognosticator” (although he MAY have insight into the outcomes of trends).
Today, many companies, government agencies, - even church denominations consult “futurists” who have been trained to track the trends in society and forecast what our communities and the larger society may be like – next year, in five, ten, or twenty years. They are like meteorologists tracking hurricanes. They are experts in predicting what the weather may be for us in the future so we can prepare for the storm that is surely coming. Our Conference uses a service called MissionInsite that does just that for the United Methodist Church in Florida (by the way, our congregation can access that info as we plan, at no charge to us). These prognosticators serve a good purpose by helping us to anticipate the future so we can be prepared to meet its challenges. But, unlike biblical prophets, prognosticators do not call on us to CHANGE the future, but simply to adapt to the new reality that they believe is coming – to use a biblical metaphor – “to read the handwriting on the wall.”
Biblical-style prophets certainly do forecast trends, but rather than seeing the future outcome as a foregone conclusion, they call on us to “buck” the trend - to “repent” of the sin that is leading to our ruin, and live in more godly ways to change the outcome! They tell us to turn around and head in a new and righteous direction, and that if we do, our future will be transformed. The future they see is not a prediction, it’s a warning!
3. A prophet is NOT “a doomsday” predictor (although she or he often may be called on to deliver words of judgment).
Our family has enjoyed a number of summer road-trips throughout various regions of the United States. When we were driving through rural areas of the South, especially when we were on the back roads, we would see homemade signs nailed to trees or electric poles calling on passers-by to “REPENT” – because the end of the world was eminent. And they always seemed to have “irrefutable” evidence from the Bible or current events to “prove” that the end is near.
Early in my ministry, way back in 1988, some dooms-day preacher had calculated “Biblical Prophecies” – and declared that on one particular day in 1988, the end would come. His group printed up hundreds of thousands of booklets explaining his process of calculation, and calling on people to repent before it was too late. At that time, I was serving as the associate pastor of a large church in Leesburg, Florida. It seemed that the entire population of Leesburg had received and read this booklet, - and it was the talk of the town and our church. Well, I was scheduled to preach the week after THE END was to happen. I wondered if I should even bother to prepare a sermon! But I did. And I deliberately selected the text where Jesus says plainly that we cannot know the day or hour – and it is foolish to even try to predict. The point being, of course, that we should always be ready, whenever our End comes.
Throughout the thousands of years of history, countless “doomsday predictions” have come and gone – each predictor absolutely convinced he was right, but every one of them has been mistaken. They are wrong because they are not in the spirit of the biblical prophets. With apologies to Hal Lindsey, who has made a career out of being a “doomsday” predictor, and apologies to Timothy LaHaye and his “Left Behind” series of books on the End Times, the TRUE biblical-style prophets are NOT obsessed with pin-pointing the end OF the world. They are obsessed with pointing out the injustices IN the world – and calling us to change.
4. A prophet is NOT ALWAYS a weirdo (although he or she may appear to be eccentric).
Prophets seem to march to a different drummer. They tend to be “non-conformists” – they are not really concerned with what others may think of them. Often, they do or say odd or outlandish things to drive home their point. The Prophet Hosea literally took a prostitute as his wife to make a point about God’s love for his unfaithful people. The New Testament prophet, John the Baptist, lived in the wilderness, wore camel hair clothing, and ate locusts. The Prophet Isaiah walked among his people stark naked for three years to make his point. Others often got up in the face of the powerful and religious elite and acted out theatrical dramas filled with symbolic gestures, calling for justice, social reform, and a return to faithfulness to God.
Most of the true biblical-style prophets today don’t stand on the street corner with long hair, a robe and sandals, wearing a sandwich board that screams “Repent, the end is near!” Most prophets today look like ordinary folks like you and me. But, they still have a message to deliver, and they still call for justice, social reform, and a return to faithfulness to God.
So, that’s what a prophet is not – Not a fortune-teller, NOT a prognosticator, NOT a doomsday predictor, and Not (necessarily) a weirdo. So, now let us consider what true biblical-style prophets ARE:
Here is a definition I think I can agree with: “Prophets ARE persons called by God to speak the Truth of God to a particular time and situation.” Did you notice how different that view of prophecy is, compared to the “popular” view we’ve been considering? Let me clarify by making a couple of observations about this definition.
First, notice that biblical-style prophets speak more to their present generation than about the future. As a rule, they are more concerned about declaring the short-term consequences of sin than in predicting long-term future events.
Second, they address sin and unfaithfulness in their day, focusing their words on reforming their own generation. Whenever you look through the Old Testament, you notice that the preeminent concern of the prophets was about the sinfulness of Israel and Judah - or in the New Testament, the faithlessness of the church. But even on occasions when the prophets did have visions about “end-times,” they were primarily motivated out by their concern for their own generation, urging people to change their ways. Their prophecies would swing back and forth from, on one hand - delivering stern and urgent calls to repent and change direction,
and on the other - offering words of comfort and encouragement about the mercy God will show to those who heed the warning, and change.
A third observation: Prophets are, at one and the same time, perceptive concerning events and conditions taking place in the world around them, AND receptive to a divine revelation that speaks to those events and conditions. Like Amos and his vision of the plumb-line, they notice how far we are from God’s intention for our lives and our world – they name the divergence, and call for repentance and transformation. They look at the world through the lenses of the Kingdom of God.
Most people become so caught up in their own little lives that they often “can’t see the forest for the trees.” They can’t see the “big picture.” Prophets see the forest. They are aware of the grand-sweep of salvation history, and how we fit into God’s plan. Prophets are perceptive to current events and their meaning. Yet they also are receptive to divine revelation. They know God’s heart, and therefore are confident enough to boldly speak God’s word.
So, prophets are God’s mouthpiece, God’s agents in the world. They speak God’s Truth, even if it is hard to hear. It is just as John the Baptist is described in Luke’s Gospel. Luke writes: “He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” (Luke 3:4) Did you catch that phrase “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.” That what all the prophets in the Bible did – they “cried out.” And all of us prophets today must “cry out.” And, you will recall that Jesus held up John as the greatest of all the prophets – why? Because he cried out, “preparing the way” for the coming of God’s anointed One, who would usher in the Kingdom of God. The prophets only foresaw the coming of the Kingdom of God. John the Baptist declared that the Kingdom had finally arrived – in the person of Jesus!
So, that’s who the biblical prophets were. With all that being said, how might we summarize the role of prophets? A few other thoughts:
· Like the prophets of old, those called to the role of prophets today are also called from ordinary lives. Most of the biblical prophets were untrained, but God called them, anyway. (Amos was just a farmer, yet was tapped by God to be his prophet)
· Those gifted with prophecy are very often (like me) unwilling, even resistant to the call. It may even be that prophets are “always” resistant. (Jonah, you’ll recall, tried to run from God rather than prophesy, and as we read in our second lesson, Jeremiah even felt deceived by God when his prophesying led to persecution.)
· Even though we may be unwilling prophets, those gifted with prophecy have within their gut a compulsion to speak out. (As we read from our passage from Jeremiah, they have “a burning in the bones.” No matter how they may try, they cannot hold back.)
· They willingly put themselves at personal risk. (This goes with the job-description. Story: Mr. Golf in St. Augustine, stood against racism and the KKK, store burned, had to leave for the north for safety.)
· Not surprisingly, those who are prophetic often are unpopular or even persecuted. When prophets see injustice and speak out, it is often against powerful people and the accepted norms of our society that cause injustice. In the Book of First Kings, the Prophet Elijah confronted King Ahab for his sin, and Ahab greets him with these words: “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” (1 Kings 18:17).
Prophets are seen as troublemakers. People don’t want to hear the message, so they “shoot the messenger” – sometimes metaphorically, sometimes literally – We have seen this play out even in our lifetimes over and over - MLK Jr may be the most powerful illustration. He probably was the greatest prophet of the 20th century. It is fitting that tomorrow happens to be the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington and MLK, Jr.’s great “I have a dream” – speech: unquestioningly, the most prophet sermon of our lifetimes. And we know what happened to ML King, Jr. Yes, when Jesus said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,” he was speaking of the prophets among us.)
There are many examples of prophets among us todeay – within the religious community or in the larger society. It would be fascinating to take the time to name people you have observed speaking up for what is right in our community, our nation, and our world? Who are the Prophets of our time? In our community, the FAITH organization that Tomoka is a part of is a prophetic voice that is trying to right the wrongs we see in our community. Where else have you seen prophets standing up and voicing God’s truth?
Clearly, it is part of God’s plan that all people should be prepared to speak God’s truth – whether we have the “Spiritual Gift,” or not. In the book of the Prophet Joel (Joel 2:28-29; also Acts 2:17-18) Joel speaks for God when he says, “In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will
pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy.’”
So, in one sense, all Christians are prophetic - we all need to speak up for God when we see injustice and unfaithfulness, and urge people to come back to God. But, I feel certain that I am not the only “prophet” in the room this morning. So what is the role of those with the Spiritual Gift of the Prophet? Quickly, four things:
1. This Spiritual Gift of Prophecy is essential for the well-being of the church. (It is mentioned in the lists of spiritual gifts near the top. It is considered a major gift. The church needs folks with a prophetic gift to keep us moving in God’s direction as we strive for the Kingdom of God.)
2. The Spiritual Gift of Prophecy is also essential for the Church’s witness in the world. (Prophets within the church help the church speak to society on God’s behalf. They are our society’s moral conscience.( In the “Large Minutes,” John Wesley summarized his understanding of Methodism’s purpose: “What may we reasonably believe to be God’s design in raising up the Preachers called Methodists?... To reform the nation and, in particular the Church; to spread scriptural holiness over the land.” (My fellow “prophets” among us? - That is our prophetic role, as well.) Which leads to point 3.
3. Those with this gift hold both the church and society accountable to God’s word, speaking words of judgment when needed. (God’s word calls for justice and striving to make the church and our world reflect the ideal of the Kingdom of God. We hold up God’s plumb line to measure how “straight” our path is.)
4. Finally, those with the gift of prophet are also to speak words OTHER than judgment. (As I mentioned earlier, prophets both confronted and comforted. God’s word and God’s truth are not always judgement and wrath – prophets speak good news as well. In the Bible, prophets spoke also of grace and mercy and restoration. In Isaiah 50:4, Isaiah writes, “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” We are always to speak the truth – but do so with love.
So, do you think YOU may have the gift of being a prophet? If so, how does that realization make YOU feel?
Over the years, I have come to terms with being a “prophet.” I am aware that, to utilize my gift may very well make me unpopular with some folks for taking a stand on issues our society faces. It is inevitable that some people will not agree with what I might feel I need to say. Some may even reject or try to persecute me for speaking what I believe is God’s truth.
Yet, like Amos and Jeremiah in our scriptures today, I have no choice but to sometimes speak words of judgment from God – not out of animus or anger, but out of concern for those who may have strayed from the path God would have us go. That is what a prophet does.
But I am also thankful that God has also given me the tongue of a teacher and preacher, that I can also speak the word of God’s grace and mercy to those who are weary of wandering away from God. That is also what a prophet does. And so, I am resigned to being a prophet.
But, I still don’t “like” being a prophet – and I still don’t want this gift. But, I have no choice. I know how Jeremiah felt. For, if I say, “I’ll just keep my mouth shut,” I can’t do it. Why? Because (using Jeremiah’s own words ), God’s “word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in!”
Do you have a burning in your bones? Do you look at our world and see all the hurt and heartache caused by sin and rebellion against God, and feel a compulsion to speak a word of warning from the Lord? And, do you have the desire to speak God’s word of grace and mercy to those who are weary and need to know that God forgives and wants a relationship with them?
Do you have “a burning in Your bones?”
You do? Then watch out!
You may be a prophet, too!
© 2023 by John B. Gill, III