The Vision of the Prophet
“Without Vision The People Perish”
One of the major premises of my study of the five fold ministry in the Church is that the five fold is not necessarily offices, but passions, or points of view. What passion drives a person in his love in and for the Church? Through what glasses does the believer see things? What is his vision?
Personal relationships were important to the evangelist, pastor/shepherd, and teacher for it was person-to-person ministry. An individual’s touch and influence on another human being proves to be life changing. The prophet also strives for that personal touch, not necessarily the human touch, but the intimacy with a personal loving God who has become their real best friend and the earthly living out of that relationship.
It is God’s desire to commune with His people, to dwell in their personal lives and hearts since their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and to be in the midst of the congregation. He developed a relationship with Moses where they became best friends. The relationship with Jesus, God who became flesh, with his Father in heaven is monumental in the way Jesus saw things, heard things, and did ministry. He looked to his Father, listened to His Voice, and was obedient to what he saw and heard. God wants that kind of intimacy with mankind, for He proved it can be done through His Son, Jesus.
Sin broke that intimacy between God and man, but God made a way for reconciliation, a way to right a wrong. He sent his Son Jesus to die for our sins, and make a wrong right. That is called “righteousness”!
The believer who is driven to develop that intimacy in the body of Christ is the prophet. The prophet not only wants to “see” God, but “hear” God, and “experience” God in his fullness. The “fullness” of Jesus Christ in a believer’s life is the ultimate relationship man can have with His God, and the prophet is driven toward that experience. Moments in personal Bible study, personal prayer, and personal worship drives the prophet to a closer relationship with his/her God. A prophet would love to just live in the heavenlies. Unfortunately that can also bring his or her demise, for then one can become no earthly good to God’s extension to the earth, the Church.
Instead of business meetings, board meetings, elder’s meetings, and annual conferences that birth and develop church policy, the five fold prophet longs for a time when the members of the body seek that personal intimate experience to see and hear from God to determine His Will for their own private life and the corporate Body life of the Church. The only requirement is “obedience” to what has been revealed. The prophet “sees” the need for the heavenly to bond with the earthly in unity that requires revelation and obedience.
Only in the last half a century has the Church again struggled with the role of the prophet in the body of Christ, but one thing is for certain: The Church needs the “vision”, the point of view, the passion of a prophet for intimacy with its creator, its head, Jesus Christ.
The evangelist “sees the needs” of the lost; the pastor/shepherd “sees the needs” of the newborn; and the teacher “sees the need” to make the written Word, the Bible, a Living Rhema Word in every believer’s daily life; and a prophet “sees the need” to bring spirituality to reality to see, hear, and through obedience “do” the Will of the Father in their own private life and the life of the Church.