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

The Transition from Old to New

Judah and Israel split from each other, the covenants of Abraham, Moses and David exerted significant influence on people's lives. Unfortunately the kings were not always devoted to maintaining God's laws, so corrupt practices were always at work. The prophets of the Old Covenant boldly denounced the sinful nations of Judah, Israel and their Gentile neighbors-not always an easy task. Graham Cooke writes that "prophets were sometimes a single voice speak ing a righteous word to a corrupt and rebellious nation. They were often hounded individuals, living lives of immense hardship as they shared the joys and often the bitterness of life with the people." 15 The Hebrew prophets heard the call of God for a very specific task, and they responded. Two-thirds of their message involved declaring the word of God to a people who had failed to obey His moral law. This eth ical preaching was interlaced with futuristic predictions about a coming Messiah and the age and Kingdom to come, as well as the future of Israel. Heathen nations were also addressed. Walter C. Kaiser Jr. points out that "the prophets exercised a surprisingly large ministry to the Gentile nations. Significant portions of their writings are given over to God's chal lenge to the heathen dominions to likewise return to the one true God, to his standards of righteousness and morality. Large sections of the major prophets' works deal with the Gentiles: Isaiah 13-23; Jeremiah 46-51; Ezekiel 25-32." 16 Apparently the prophets managed to get their messages to the nations by means of foreign ambassadors who came to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 27:3), staff officers who carried and read the prophets' words (Jeremiah 51:59-64) and, like Jonah, by going personally. In contrast to these national and international directives, which served as a protective against the abominations of the heathen and of Israel itself, New Testament prophecy is directed to the Church-to the body of believ ers in Christ Jesus who gathered in local assemblies. Whereas the Hebrew prophet was raised up in Israel during times of national crisis and polit ical upheaval, the early Church had regularly functioning prophets and people who prophesied to maintain the spiritual dynamism within local churches. In Old Testament times the whole world had comparatively few prophets at any given time, each functioning as an estranged mouthpiece for God. In contrast New Testament prophecy functioned regularly, weekly, in the thousands of Christian churches in many countries through a multitude of prophetic ministries whose objectives were to serve as vehi cles of individual and congregational inspiration, edification, consolation and exhortation. Old Testament prophets were involved with specific national and inter national events. They were part of a national state religion; their religion, ■ 148