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

A Profile of the Ancient Hebrew Prophet

people to prophetic ministry. We will address the call of the prophet in the next chapter, but for this discussion on the makeup of a prophet, we can say that Scripture indicates a qualified yes to the above questions. Some prophets were called from birth, such as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-5) and John the Baptist (Luke 1:15-16). Other prophets had unique personal experiences with God. Amos, for instance, made it clear that he was not the son of a prophet or of any professional group of pro phets, but was called by God while tending his flocks (Amos 7:14-15). Bible scholars generally feel that "the prophetic gift was not heredi tary." 14 I concur with this conclusion in the sense that each prophet must know God and His voice in a personal and genuine way. Even so, we must not overlook the references strongly indicating that the prophetic anoint ing sometimes runs in and abides on families. Families are often involved in the same secular businesses, and children through exposure and inher ited talents sometimes follow the same line of endeavor as their parents. So it is not strange to find the following fourteen families participating in prophecy: • Abraham and his grandson Jacob (Genesis 20:7; 48:14-21; 49) • Moses and his brother Aaron (Exodus 4:14-16; Deuteronomy 18:15; 34:10) and their sister Miriam (Exodus 15:20) • David and his son Solomon (Proverbs 1:1; Song of Solomon; Acts 2:30) • Samuel and his grandson Heman (1 Chronicles 25:1) • Heman and his sons (1 Chronicles 25:1, 5) • Asaph and his sons (1 Chronicles 25:2) • Jeduthun and his sons (1 Chronicles 25:1-3) • Oded and his son Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:8) • Hanani and his son Jehu (2 Chronicles 16:7; 19:2) • Iddo and his grandson Zechariah (Zechariah 1:1) • Zechariah and his son Jahaziel, a great-grandson of Asaph (2 Chron icles 20:14) • Isaiah and his sons (Isaiah 7:3; 8:3, 18) • Zacharias and his son John the Baptist (Luke 1:67, 76) • Philip and his four daughters (Acts 21) If a son or daughter is spiritually sensitive to and has a high respect for a parent's prophetic gifting, that child will likely have the parent's gifting imparted to him or her. The above references enforce this con cept. Philip's house in New Testament times was certainly blessed by the

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