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

A Profile of the Ancient Hebrew Prophet

of spiritual inspiration resists exact definition." 2 Let's keep his good advice in mind. More important than our ability to grasp and analyze the psychology of how it all worked is the simple faith to accept that it did happen-that is, to believe that God exists, that He does speak to people and that peo ple were actually used in Bible times to be His mouthpiece to others. Lit tle detail is offered about the way in which it happens, but the entire Bible records that a large, diverse group of people in a variety of circumstances did experience such a call and that they did prophesy.

Revelation: How Did It Come?

Both the call to be a prophet and the performance of that call required divine revelation. The prophet had to perceive the voice (that is, the word) of God, which somehow involved a supernatural happening-a divine impartation, an unveiling, a revealing-of God's thoughts to that prophet. This sacred communication came in one or all of four ways:

• An audible voice • A mental picture (vision) • An immediate unction • An ecstatic experience

In each case of getting the message and giving it out to the people, there was an attendant or overriding "unction," or empowerment, of the Holy Spirit. On page 75 I have summarized in a chart the four ways in which God's thoughts came.

An Audible Voice

The expression and the word of the LORD came to appears some 135 times in Hebrew Scripture. 3 Twenty-three people are mentioned as hav ing received such a word. On most of these occasions the prophet heard a clear, discernible voice (either internal or external), so clear it could be quoted. The expression appears with a regularity suggesting an experi ence that was accepted and appreciated among God's people. The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel 49 times, Jeremiah 44 times and Isaiah three times, according to the actual biblical record. The voice of God spoke to eight of the minor prophets, as well as to Abraham, Samuel, Nathan, Gad, Solomon, Shemiah, an unnamed man of God, an old ■ 74