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

4

MAKEUP: TRAITS THAT

CHARACTERIZED

A PROPHET

" . . . I sent to you through My servants the prophets."

2 Kings 17:13

DID YOU EVER watch your mother make cookies? After mixing the dough, she would roll it out flat so the cookie pieces could be cut out and arranged on the baking pan. I was fascinated as a boy by the cookie cutter-a metal form with design-shaped edges that enabled my mother to cut out the dough so the cookies would all look alike and bake uni formly in size and shape. Prophets in the Bible did not all come from the same spiritual "cookie cutter" ! That is, they did not share the same nature and personality. They did not speak and minister in the same style, nor were their prophecies consistently of the same type. They served different audiences in a vari ety of circumstances and places, and each seemed to have a very special form of the prophetic mantle for his or her calling. Yet in spite of great diversity, certain traits did characterize the prophets, traits we will emphasize in this chapter. A common bond of devotion and dedication, similar to that of a military unit, caused their differences to fade in the light of their primary calling. 53 ■