Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

The Transition from Old to New

upon the Nazarene and knew at that instant that this was indeed the Christ. John baptized Jesus, telling his disciples that this was He of whom he had spoken (John 1:30). Finally, because he challenged King Herod's adultery, John was imprisoned and beheaded (Matthew 14:1-12). John the Baptist was a prophet indeed! Now we will consider Jesus, the Prophet.

Time for a Change

Throughout history God has chosen to work in time segments or dis pensations, operating according to the covenant relationship then in force with His people. This perspective gives sharper focus to the ministry of the prophets and sheds insight on any differences between the Old Tes tament, the New Testament and present-day prophets. 12 Jesus Christ came to fulfill and climax all that had gone on before and to open a new time period in which God's final salvation could be brought to mankind. He arrived on the human scene "when the proper time had fully come" (Galatians 4:4, Amplified). Jesus made an amazing state ment about the new arrangement God had initiated: Although John the Baptist was under the old order the greatest of prophets, the least under the new would be greater than John. Jesus' exact words: "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Matthew 11:11).13 John was called a prophet, even "one who is more than a prophet," because he was God's last special messenger sent to prepare the way of the Messiah, foretold in Malachi 3:1. John represented the best the old order could produce; he was its last representative. But how could anyone be greater than John the Baptist? As T. W. Man son says, "John set up a record of devotion and self-sacrifice not easy to be equaled, much less surpassed." Then he adds, "Where the least in the kingdom has the advantage is in what God does for him here and now." 14 The disciples of Jesus had no superior merit of their own that qualified them for this blessing and greatness, but they lived at the time when Jesus was bringing in the new age of salvation. F. F. Bruce makes this special emphasis: "It is not in moral stature or devotion or service, but in priv ilege, that those who are least in the kingdom of God are greater than John-greater not for what they do for God (in this John was unsur passed) but for what God does for them." 15 The launching of God's new era set in motion new factors that directly influenced, enlarged and enhanced prophetic activity. • 136