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

Message: Various Ways of Prophetic Expression

asm that filled the prophets.Any good salesman who is sold on his prod uct and anxious to make a sale will speak with energy.Over and above this natural enthusiasm and authority, the prophets spoke as people touched by heavenly fire.

The Burden of the Lord

On occasion a prophet ignited by his divine insights would preface his message with a "messenger formula" 3 -an identifying phrase that would leave no doubt about whose word it was and whose authority he invoked. This was the style employed by ancient potentates who sent forth ambas sadors and messengers to speak in their behalf (see Ezra 1:2).For example: • "A man of God came to Eli and said to him, 'Thus says the LORD ..."' (1 Samuel 2:27). • "Listen to the words of the LORD.'Thus says the LORD of hosts ..."' (1 Samuel 15:1-2). • "Go and say to My servant David, 'Thus says the LORD . . ."' (2 Samuel 7:5). • "O altar, altar, thus says the LORD ..." (1 Kings 13:2). • "Thus says the Lord Goo of hosts ..." (Isaiah 22:15). • "Then the LORD said ..." (Isaiah 29:13). • "Therefore, prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord Goo ..."' (Ezekiel 38:14). • "Hear this word which the LORD has spoken against you ..." (Amos 3:1). • "The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying ..." (Jonah 1:1). Edersheim describes with keen insight the prophet, made bold by divine sanction, who brought a word of judgment against the spurious and false altar in Bethel.This epitomizes true prophetic authority: "It was a stranger who spoke, and, as we know him, a Judaean, 'a man of Elohim.' He had come 'in [so literally] the word of Jehovah' (1 Kings xiii.1)-not merely in charge of it, nor only in its constraining power, but as if the Word of Jeho vah itself had come, and this 'man of God' had been carried in it to deliver the message which he 'cried to the altar in the word of Jehovah' (ver.2)." 4 Authority is shown in another messenger formula used frequently by the prophets, expressed in the King James and the New King James Ver

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