UNDERSTANDING THE PROPHETIC MINISTRY—PART ONE

By ACHIKULIRE on The Maravi Post

It’s my sincere hope that most of us have read about the Biblical Prophets and of late, we happen to have been blessed with Prophets in our generation, the common ones I somehow follow closely being the Nigerian Prophet T.B Joshua and the Malawian Prophet Austin Liabunya.

To be blunt, what normally comes in the mind of many people when they hear about a Prophet and their Prophecies is that they are fake Prophets because Jesus warned us about them (Mark 13:22, 23), (cf. Matt 7:15-20).

But what many of us fail to understand is that the fact that false Prophets shall come does not mean that all Prophets will be fake or are fake. Just to reinforce this argument; it is undisputable fact that we do not stop using money when we hear that counterfeit money is in circulation. All we do is to jack up ourselves and be more careful. Anyway, “Of true Prophets Vs False Prophets,” will be a full topic for another day.

Back to our issue before hand, my honest observation is that when a Prophet opens his mouth; the reaction from members of the public is always negative. We ridicule them, we mock them and we insult them, castigate them, and embarrass them left, right and centre describing them as false Prophets.

However if I might ask the definition of a Prophet; I hope most of our responses might show that we have little knowledge about them for if we had enough knowledge about them (Prophets), we would not rush to castigate them and reduce them to non-entities just like we do.

It is against this background that I will dedicate this entry and few more entries to come to dissect and/or analyze to all and sundry the basic information about the Prophetic Ministry because I hope that it is the only way to understand Prophets and their job.

Without much ado, the million dollar question is; what is a Prophet or to put it in context; who is a Prophet?

There are at least two classical texts that demonstrate the usage of this term and its meaning in the biblical texts.

The first is Exodus 7:1-2 (cf. Exod 4:15-16 ): "Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh."

What could be clearer? A prophet is one who receives a word from God, just as Moses acted in the place of God in passing on the divine revelations he received from the Lord to his brother Aaron, now functioning as a prophet.

Moreover, a prophet is authorized to communicate this divine message to another. Thus Aaron was to function as Moses' mouthpiece.

The second classical text is Numbers 12:6-8:

"When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions; I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord."

In the case of Moses, vis-à-vis all other prophets, God would speak in direct conversation "face to face."

Other prophets would receive no less a revelation from God, but in their case, the means God would use to communicate his word would be the less direct, somewhat enigmatic form of dreams and visions.

To be more precise, a Prophet is a spokesperson for God. This is why it is undisputed fact that the Prophetic office is a very high office on earth. It’s superior to any office you can imagine on this earth, be it offices of the President’s of this World. These people (Prophets) are in a class of their own. They are just so very much blessed and gifted in a special way. They deserve to be respected!

So, Achikulire has a strong message to those of you who insult Prophets; be careful. Insulting Prophets is like insulting God. You can’t go scot free if you insult God and the same applies if you insult His Spokesperson(s); the Prophet(s).

Prophets are dangerous my brothers and sisters; one can even die or even invite a generational curse if you mess up with Prophets.

These people sit in a very high office. Speaking on behalf of God is not a joke my brothers and sisters! In my well considered opinion, I, Achikulire SC, would not encourage anyone to insult a Prophet. Its suicide to do so! And if you know you have been in this business of insulting Prophets. I encourage you to repent!

You need proof why it is dangerous to mess up with Prophets? Well, here we go with few cases!

But Elisha said to him, "Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money, or to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, flocks, herds, or menservants and maidservants? Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever." Then Gehazi went from Elisha's presence and he was leprous, as white as snow (2 Kings 5:26-27).

And sample this case below:

“Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. It happened as the man of God had said to the king: "About this time tomorrow, a seah of flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria." The officer had said to the man of God, "Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?" The man of God had replied, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!" And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died (2 Kings 7:17-20).

And this one too:

Prophet Elisha Mocked: 2 KINGS 2: 23—24

23 Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, young lads came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead!"

24 When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.

And lastly, understand carefully the straight forward words from Prophet Jeremiah below.

“Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people: "The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right. Be assured, however, that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing" (Jer 26:12-15).

So I, Achikulire emphasize that, surely, Prophets need not to be vilified but respected.