| Prophetic Counsel In The Bible; Ref: Robert Holmes | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 29 2006, 12:59 PM (682 Views) | |
| Stace4Jesus | Oct 29 2006, 12:59 PM Post #1 |
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Prophetic Counsel in the Bible By Robert I Holmes Article Source 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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2:24 PM Jul 11