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Prophetic Counsel In The Bible; Ref: Robert Holmes
Topic Started: Oct 29 2006, 12:59 PM (682 Views)
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Prophetic Counsel in the Bible
By Robert I Holmes
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What a wonderful thing it is to have an impression or a word in your heart from
the Lord confirmed by another witness! What a special thing it is to be
stretched and advised by those who have heard from God for you directly, or for
your church! There is a special place in the life of the church and the normal
believer for prophetic advise and counsel from mature leaders and ministry.
There is a role which prophetic ministry was designed for, which I feel is
largely neglected in many churches today, that is the role of prophetic counsel.
I believe one of the things on the Lord's agenda in the decade ahead is to
restore this sort of counsel to church leadership. As we see the Lord draw kings
and leaders of the nations to us, we shall then see "God dealing with the
leaders of the nations...some believers are now serving and will serve evil
kings, but the Lord is raising up court prophets to challenge them." (Lynn).

The concept of the Lord using his servants to counsel and actively assist
leaders in their decision making process is quite well supported in Scripture.
We have many examples in the Old and New Testaments of good, solid advise
received by leaders in times of doubt, rebellion, trouble, war, famine and
strife. Whilst there is no encompassing description of how seers, prophets and
advisers related to leaders, we do know they played a vital role. There is also
no conclusive evidence to determine if these prophetic men and women were
influenced by their relationship to the leaders. Sometimes they were
independent, and sometimes they were on stipend (salary). But, as we shall see,
prophets gave God's message to the leaders who sought it.

PROPHETIC COUNSEL IN THE OT

Prophets advised the leaders of the OT on issues ranging from battle strategy
and building plans to levitical trespasses and succession to the throne. In some
cases the advise came unsolicited, like Nathan rebuking David for his adultery
with Bathsheba. At other times the prophet was sought out by the king, as with
David seeking Nathan's advise on building the temple. Sometimes we find that the
prophets who were sought out by leaders, were independent. For example Ahijah
counselled Jeroboam, Micaiah counselled Jeshophat and Elijah counselled Jehu as
he planned to overthrow Omri as king. Others served the king as a 'seer'. One
author has defined that role in this way: "a Court prophet is one who is on
stipend as a member of the counsellors to the king" (Aune). The chronicler
lists, among some of their duties - keeping records for the king, advising him
on matters of state, leading worship and prophesying under the kings direction
(refer 2 Sam 24:11, 1 Chr 25:5, 2 Chr 35:15, 1 Chr 29:29 and 2 Chr 9:29).

Other kinds of counsel in the OT

Unfortunately we also see the leaders seeking counsel from other, less godly
sources too! Just as in our day many leaders look to prognosticators,
astrologers and psychics for their advise, so did many kings in the OT. For
example Ahab and Jezebel had a large number of prophets who served Baal on their
staff (1 Kings 18:19). Ahab and Jehoshaphat were falsely advised by the
"prophets of Israel" (who whilst not being labelled as false prophets had not
heard from God at all) to go to war (1 Kings 22:6). Pharoah had a revelatory
entourage, who were challenged by Moses (Exod 7:11) and Nebuchadnezzar also had
such an entourage, who were challenged by Daniel (Dan 2:5,6).

Unsolicited challenges

We find seers 'on staff' serving as David and Solomon's advisors, and we find
several other leaders actively seeking out God's servants for advise and
counsel. But there are also examples in the OT of prophets coming unbidden to
the leaders. They acted as independent witness for the Lord, to bring His word
at times when the king could not (or would not) hear for himself. For example
God was speaking to Nebuchadnezzar about his prideful sin, but the king could
not understand the message he heard. Insight was given to Daniel, who was able
to interpret the kings dreams and consequently rebuke him. (Dan 4:19-27). We
have already cited Nathan rebuking David, as Samuel rebuked Saul before him (eg
1 Sam 15:8).

The point is this, leadership may or may not have heard from God on a particular
matter for themselves. But sometimes the Lord needed to use an independent
witness to either correct the king's understanding, reveal a hidden heart
attitude, rebuke the king's sin or bring advise which the king was not seeking
from God, for himself.

PROPHETIC COUNSEL IN THE NT

Not surprisingly, the New Testament church leaders also benefited from prophetic
counsel. Whilst much of the evidence is anecdotal and sketchy, there are still
implications that the Lord continued to use his servants in this way. For
example in Antioch there were prophets and teachers (Acts 13:1). The council in
Jerusalem, made up of various leaders from at least two different cities, had
prophets among their number (Acts 11:27 & 15:32).

The Lord sent prophetic counsel from Jerusalem to Antioch to warn the leaders
there of impending famine (Acts 11:28). This advise was acted upon by the
leaders at Antioch. We find Agabus the prophet travelling from Judea to Caesarea
to warn Paul of his impending fate in Jerusalem (Acts 21:11). It would appear
that Paul had already been prophetically warned by the disciples at his previous
stop over (Acts 21:4).

What role are prophets supposed to play?

The benefits of 'Body' prophetic ministry are obvious, with believers being
exhorted, encouraged and comforted. The benefits of releasing the prophet among
the brethren are also fairly obvious- building up the saints for the work of
ministry. But what roles have really been released to date? Some commentators
have evaluated Scripture and found no less than 15 roles or functions of the
prophetic office (Sandford). But there is, I believe, a divine mandate for
counsel and advise from prophets to leadership (whomever they may be) which the
church at large is missing out on.

This advise, as we have seen, may be solicited, or may come as the prophet is
prompted to come to the leadership. The message may be previously known (and
therefore confirming) or completely new to them. Some have said that the
prophet's role must only be the former of these two. This view is widely held
because of abuses of 'personal' and 'directive' prophecy over recent years. One
author comments "NT prophets...do not guide a church, but rather confirm
direction or guidance already received by the church or a believer" (Tan).

Such a view however, flies in the face of Biblical evidence. Many of the
instructions given by prophetic counsellors came either unsolicited, or
addressed issues which were new to the hearer. Some examples include Elisha
prophesying the outcome of a war to the kings of Edom and Israel (2 Ki 3:12-16).
This message was solicited, but the resulting answer from the Lord was not yet
known to the kings. Isaiah counselled King Hezekiah about his longevity, as
message which, up until then, was unknown to the king (2 Ki 20:4). In the NT
some disciples prophesied to Paul about his future in Jerusalem- (Acts 21:4 &
11) and Agabus prophesied drought in Judea (Acts 11:28,29). So we can and should
expect God's servants to bring new messages, at times unsolicited by leadership!

Divine mysteries and understanding

New Testament prophets should be sought out for advise. They can ably pray for
God's guidance on issues of church government, personal direction and many other
issues. More generally Paul advises us to test whatever the prophet counsels (1
Thess 5:21). Why should we be surprised to find that some are gifted in
revelatory insight more than others? God has distributed the gifts to all
according to His mandate and wants each one to do their part in bringing the
Body to maturity, to the fullness of the stature of Christ.

One could argue that prophets are more likely candidates to receive
understanding on divine mysteries, or kingdom direction. "If I have the gift of
prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith
that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Cor 13:2). Paul
seems to imply that the prophetic gift, developed to it's ultimate refinement,
would extend to having understanding of all mysteries and all knowledge. This
will never be the case, as he makes clear (1 Cor 13:9) until Christ returns. But
his point is that knowing all mysteries, and having supernatural knowledge of
events in the kingdom (if only partially) is part of the function of prophets.

Mysteries in this passage are defined as "the secret thoughts, plans and
dispensations of God which are hidden from human reason...and must be revealed
to those God intends to use to share it" (Grudem). Often (but not exclusively)
we find that these individuals are the prophets, as Scripture says: "Surely the
Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the
prophets." (Amos 3:7)

CONCLUSION

As we make ourselves available to the Lord, for Him to move among us, He will
surely bring this divine counsel back to us. He is already restoring prophetic
counsel to the leaders of nations. Prophesies predicting "being brought before
nations" and "kings of the earth coming to the church" are numerous. Paul Cain,
for example, has been brought before the last two presidents of the United
States. Past presidents have attended strategic church meetings this century. In
our own nation prophets have sent advise to parliamentarians and prime ministers
for at least the last 60 years!

However, the advisory role of the prophet to leaders of the church is also
vital. This reliance should not be overstated however. Once we open the door to
their counsel and advise, we may begin to rely on them to hear from God for us.
This is clearly not God's intention. We have each been given the deposit of the
Holy Spirit, and are to hear God for ourselves! He desires a personal
relationship with all His children. He desires each of His children to draw near
to Him. We should not therefore rely upon the faith or hearing of another to
develop this personal interaction. Yet the role of adviser and counsellor for
the prophet has been sadly neglected by most church elders, leaders and pastors
today. As Jesus pointed out "Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a
prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward." (Mat
10:41)

REFERENCES

David Aune, Prophecy in early Christianity, pg 84,88,217.
Wayne Grudem, The gift of prophecy, Ch 4.
Charles Lynn, Grace Ministries report, Summer 1993
John Sandford, The Elijah task. "Foundations and functions of the prophet". 1992
Peter Tan, The anointing of the Holy Spirit, pg 2.


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