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

Channels of Prophetic Expression in the Church

"This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My peo ple. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will for give their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." 8 Jeremiah 31:33-34 Other, more obvious expressions of prophecy were certainly part of the New Testament Church, but the classification and explanation of those man ifestations vary. "For most scholars," explains Christopher Forbes, "early Christian prophecy, like Gaul under the Romans, is divided into three parts." • Wandering Christian prophets, traveling from place to place • Resident Christian prophets within the congregations • Christians not considered prophets who occasionally prophesied in church services "For many scholars," Forbes continues, "a correct description of early Christian prophecy has been a matter of finding the correct mix of these three forms, or arranging them in a broad chronological sequence." 9 These three classifications seem reasonable and acceptable at first, but several problems present themselves. The threefold breakdown does not provide a sufficiently broad or practical format for the actual function of prophecy in the local church, nor does it sufficiently coordinate with Scrip ture's discussion of the subject. (I will address the question of wandering prophets later in the chapter.) My solution is to suggest (as we have been discussing) six channels of prophetic expression. These are practical, functional, biblical and field tested. The first channel, "Prophetic Presence," has just been presented. The sixth, "Prophetic Scripture," no longer occurs. And the fifth, "Prophetic Outreach," describes the practical application of prophetic expression in reaching out to the lost secular community. This is one important facet of power evangelism that accelerates.church growth worldwide. 1 0 This leaves three broad categories that make up the kinds of prophecy given in the congregational setting:

• The spirit of prophecy: opportunity for all • The gift of prophecy: ministry for some • The office of prophet: calling for a few 11

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