Continuation part 5

INTRODUCTION TO THE MINISTRY AND GIFT OF A PROPHET

By Isaiah-Phillips Akintola

 

The formation of a prophetic sprit. john the Baptist, a true pattern

The thoughts, action, temperament and preference of a chosen one is processed into divine conformity, which might take years before the person is CERTIFIED as Gods prophet. This process is way beyond a person merely operating in the nine gifts of his or her renewed spirit. It is crucially important we make this differentiation.

The fact that a person or group operates in a prophetic gift does not at all make them a prophet.  If we make the mistake of trying to identify a prophet by merely seeking out the ability to prophesy, discern, give words of knowledge, words of wisdom, or even performance of miracles, signs and wonders, we may risk falling into great deception and also miss the true imprint-seal of Gods approved prophet.

While the {word] verbal gift of prophecy are highly important as one of the functions of the prophetic ministry; however, the mere function of a gift is not enough to validate the sacred office of a prophet according to the word of the Lord.

A very good example of this crucial point is John the Baptist. Our lord Jesus Christ who is the chief prophet, described John the Baptist as the greatest prophet who ever lived. Think about this for a moment; John is greater than all of the men and women called and seen to function in scripture as prophets. From Abraham to Ezekiel, from Jeremiah to Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha and all the rest. One should be highly curious to want to know what makes this man so significant in the call and function of a prophet.

Yet, if one merely examine the life of John the Baptist from a religious humanistic perceptional interpretation of qualification, he will be immediately disqualified as a servant of God, less than seeing him as the greatest prophet who ever lived. Yet, everything about his life, temperament, food, clothes behavior and words are the very symbol of a true prophet.

His life is an embodiment of the call, ministry and anointing of Elijah. John was cloth in the spirit of a prophetic word that was de declared 4 thousand years before his birth. The prophetic ministry transcends time, space and events. It lived in the future reality of what was spoken in the ancient time.

 This man, john, never perform one single miracle in terms of opening the eyes of the blind or raising the dead, except for the reason that he was a chosen forerunner, wired and configured by the heaven to go in the Spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord and make his path straight.

So, then the question I think we should start by asking is, who is a prophet, and what are the primary and secondary objective of a prophet? This question will help us to define and clarify 1). The calling of a prophet 2). The making of the prophet 3). The function of a prophet.

Before we further on in this discovery, let’s start with a simple definition of who a prophet is from john’s pattern of life existence. Basically, the prophet is Jehovah’s spokesman, sent as a forerunner to reflect, represent, and declare the father’s will, desire and counsel.  His entire life is a material for the construction and reconstruction of a highway in the earth that allows the voice of God into every aspect of human life.

 There are still other secondary definition and objectives of the prophet we are going to be considering in the cause of this note that will give better clarity and amplification to the life and ministry of a prophet.

For now however, lets continue to examine the nature of what I call a prophetic spirit. The prophetic spirit houses two major grace or anointing if you will, one is designed to destroy the activities of darkness in the earth while the second, is design to build or construct the eternal designed agenda and counsel of heaven in the earth. The prophetic spirit primarily seeks to bring the establishment of Gods kingdom and government to bear in every aspect of human life.

THE FORMATION OF A PROPHETIC SPIRIT

A person with a strong, matured prophetic spirit is one called, chosen, prepared, and commissioned by the lord himself, but must be identified and sent (commissioned) by the ecclesia to represent the eternal will, counsel and objective of heaven for his generation.

Regardless of how called and anointed a prophet is, there is a need that his grace and spirituality be generally recognized, but not necessarily accepted by all for him or her to be able to function within the framework of the corporate body, even though it is advised that he should develop the patience to wait until his mature prophetic character is seen by all.

Let’s go back to those three cardinal questions we lay down as direction in understanding who a prophet is. The first question deals with the call of a prophet. Ephesians chapter 4 gives us a clue why God needs a prophet and therefore, calls one to represent him. Maybe before we go further into this idea, I need to clarify a theological notion that may not be necessarily wrong but do hamper in some cases how most people approach, relate and receive the ministry of a prophet.

In my study and observation of this ministry, I have noticed that many tend to address the subject of the prophet and the prophetic function from the position of the fall. In other words, they see the starting point of this ministry from the day Adam fell in the Garden which then deals with the issue of redemption, reformation and the ultimate restoration of all things back to God. While the second viewpoint deals with the subject from the eternal creative realm of God, which in my opinion, is a better position of approaching not just the subject before us but the entire ministry of the Spirit to man.

If we approach the things of the Spirit in the eternal past into time and then the future, our understanding of God, creation and even redemption will make more spiritual sense to us. The prism of our approach to any subject both natural and spiritual is crucial if we are going to arrive at a more accurate answer or solution.

Therefore, that which is defined and viewed as the function of a prophet or the prophetic gift if you will, is part of a larger component within the spiritual structure in God. Meaning, the prophetic is first a spiritual state of existence within the life of the Spirit before it is seen a function of ministry.

This aspect of life in God can be viewed and described as his creative (nature) force. In genesis chapter one, we are immediately introduced to this character nature of God, which is responsible for both the housing and deployment of the father’s intent in his creative nature.

And God SAID let us MAKE man in our image and likeness. The desire of God which is released through his (word) voice reveals the creative, prophetic nature of the father.

All the ascended ministry gifts handed to certain called and chosen vessel within the ecclesia for the perfecting of the saints, were all alive and functional within Christ as part of his normal life existence. The point is, before we ever had something called the ministry gifts, which includes the prophet’s office, they were all first a state of life in Christ. This is a very important point to note if we must truly understand who is a prophet.

The office of the prophet is first a valued standard of existence in the Spirit of Christ before it ever became a governmental administrative office given at the ascension of Christ to the church. We can further stress this point that the office of a prophet is that aspect in the Spirit of truth that makes known the fathers Essence, intent, passion, character, standard and the righteous requirements of the Lord in a consistent progressive manner. Having lay down this principle, we can then move on to another issue that reveals the character nature of the prophets according to Isaiah 11:2.

 Isaiah spoke about the components of the Spirit of the prophet in the context of his operational lifestyle. This was reveal in the light of what the lord was about to birth in the release of a powerful governmental leadership value in Israel. These characters embody the sevenfold Spirit of the Lord released upon any one called and chosen to function in the office of a prophet.

With this important principle in mind, we can confidently say that the prophet’s office is beyond the limited operation of some prophetic gifts; it is rather the expression of Gods life, manifesting through his complex multifaceted dimension of his (character-nature) Light through many ways and mains to demonstrate the lord’s approval or displeasure over situations and conditions of event within or beyond his geographical or territorial boundaries.

Going back to our definition from Ephesians chapter 4, we see that the prophet is one of the fivefold ascended ministry gift for the purpose of equipping, building and releasing the saints into their ordained place of functionality in life.

In other words, this (gifts) ministries we can say were officially released afresh after the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ back to his Father. Not that these ministries were not operational under the old covenant especially the office of the prophet, but they just could not bring any person into perfection according to the book of Hebrews.

 

THE PROPHETIC, AND THE PERFECTION OF THE BODY

Bringing (completeness) perfection to life and creation is one of the major reasons why the ascended ministry came into being. God desire everything and everyone to come into divine standard of living so that his will on earth through the church can come into ultimate perfection and fulfillment.

Like I said earlier, some of these ministry like that of the prophet were prominent under the old covenant but the completely lacked the redemptive anointing or capacity to reform and transform humans. Under the Old Testament, the prophetic could give sight and direction to Kings, raise the dead back to life, heal the sick, provide food for the needy, challenge evil forces of darkness, and even predict the future coming events but they lack the power and authority to transform the carnal deformity nature of man.

Therefore, the need for a change of testament was required and that could only be done through the death of Christ on the cross. The change of covenant brought a complete redefinition to all forms of ministry gifts in the Old Testament including that of the prophet’s ministry. This is a major turnaround in the order of the New Testament ministry gift.

This is why it is so highly important to always remember that the ascended ministry gifts were not some religious invention, or the idea of some intellectual knowledge; these ministries came out of the very life of Christ himself. They are the revelation of his light and nature for the healing, transformation and restoration of fallen human nature.

Therefore, to effectively and accurately define the prophetic ministry one must take into consideration the concept of what Christ meant when He said he will built his church. We need to understand the context of that statement in light of the prophet’s office or the prophetic gift. As Paul mentioned that the Primary ministry of the prophet is to build the church in accordance to the divine pattern of Christ.

We certainly know by now that the church is not some building built by bricks and stones. The church is a living spiritual organ of Christ character and nature walking within the various spheres of human existence. Church is who we are, and who we are is built to grow, develop and be productive unto the full reality of the stature of Christ image and likeness here on earth.

This directly mean that the primary function of the prophets office in the building of the church is to release sight, vision, strategic leadership direction, gift to faith, words of knowledge and words of wisdom, discernment, creative model, divine protocols, templates and blueprints, governmental strength, battle skill and strategy for the invasion of territories, building strong ethical moral values, administrative grace, kingdom doctrinal models, apostolic cultures and traditions, fostering an intense psalmist spirit, the injection of revelational principles and value standard of a strong apostolic culture.

Some of this spiritual quality and many more are innate in the ministry life of a prophet, and it is his duty to release these grace into the lives of individuals or organizations who have been taught to recognize, accept and appreciate the functional ministry of the prophetic. Unfortunately, not many pastors and spiritual leaders have the understanding of the true functional grace of the prophetic, so they don’t know how to prepare their people to truly benefit from the office of a prophet. Please note, I am not referring to charlatans who come in the name of a prophet to churches to emotionally arouse the people in other to raise money and promote self-agendas.

I am not referring to the so-called prophets who uses familiar spirit to speak what may sound true to the people but the source of their information and power is from the kingdom of darkness. I am referring to leaders who invites sound teaches into their houses to teach their people how to recognize and receive authentic ministry gifts which includes that of the prophetic office.

In other words, as the prophet is recognized as one of the foundational layers in the construction of the ecclesia, he is then able to adequately release into individuals or corporate leadership the spiritual framework that can better facilitate and enhance the initiative of kingdom assignment. The precise recognition and function of the ministry of the prophet is crucially important if we must build an accurate, all inclusive, effective productive kingdom center community initiatives.