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Discipleship Focus:Prophet
- Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11. The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God. The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.
Paul opens this chapter talking about why people reject God – even
people who claim to be in God’s family!
But I really like where Paul takes this logic in the end. While the opening is about why people reject
God, the conclusion of this chapter is that we need to preach even harder. People need to hear God’s truth in their
life. That’s where the prophet comes
into play.
How will people repent if they don’t hear truth? How will people be able to hear truth if we
don’t go to them? How will we ever go to
them unless we understand the importance of their need? We need to value the truth-speakers – the prophets
– in our life. They are the ones who
tell us the hard message when we need to hear it. The prophets are the ones who tell it like it
needs to be told when it needs to be told.
There is another reason why we need to value the prophets. As Paul confesses at the end of this passage,
not everyone will listen. In fact, I’m
willing to bet in reality it is more like “few will listen.” The job of a prophet is not easy and it is
often thankless and often feels fruitless.
But God knows what this feels like.
After all, as Paul quotes from Isaiah, “All day long I have held out my
hands to a rebellious and disobedient people.”
Value your truth-speaker in your life. How beautiful are the feet who bring words
from God into your life!
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