Many times throughout the Old Testament we see prophetic words bringing significant blessing and prosperity. Take for instance the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah:

Ezra 6:14 So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built…

Some of the clearest examples of New Testament prophecy in the book of Acts show that prophetic ministry gives direction to the body of Christ, displays the Father’s heart, and helps us to do the Father’s business.

A pertinent example of God building through the prophetic utterances of Jeremiah is seen when God promises to bring the captives back from Babylon:

Jeremiah 24:3-7 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying…

When Jeremiah was called into prophetic ministry at a young age, he was given 6 charges:

Jeremiah 1:9-10 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”

The basic tenor of prophecy is summed up in the aforementioned verse. To edify, exhort, and comfort can be simply caricatured as to lift up, build up, and cheer up. This is a good place to start when understanding the nature of prophecy as it should be practiced in our modern age. Edification, exhortation, and comfort are the baseline principles for the activity of prophecy. 

Paul’s prayer gives us two distinct functions of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and both those functions are seen in prophetic ministry: to reveal God (the knowledge of him, Christ made known by the prophets) and to reveal mankind (eyes of your heart enlightened). True prophetic ministry always has these two core facets as the center point of prophecy: the revelation of the heart of God and the revelation of the heart of man. 

One of the Hebrew words for vision is the word “mar’ah” (H4759). While it is most often translated as vision, it can also be translated as mirror. As a vision is one means by which we engage with revelation, taking the Hebrew word mar’ah into account, revelation can act as a mirror. What is the purpose of a mirror? To reflect back to you your own image.

What began as an appeal to love, kindness and compassion quickly descended into a threat. I was struck by how quickly the gate attendant changed the source of motivation. When an appeal to love does not work, we quickly descend into the madness of fear. While it is excusable for a gate attendant to use fear as a motivator, we do it in our Christian communities all the time.

Earlier, we referenced Revelation 19:10 in relation to Christ in the bosom of the Father. But let’s take it one step deeper. One of the most overlooked verses in regard to prophetic ministry is Revelation 19:10:

Much of what constitutes personal prophetic ministry and corporate prophetic utterances are conditional prophecies. Conditional prophecies are prophetic words that are dependent upon the people that receive them. There are, of course, prophetic words that are not conditional, but those tend to be more rare. 

I watched a “prophet” on a well-known prophetic show share a word about the US president and specifically reference the infamous “Q” drop conspiracy ring as proof of the veracity of the prophecy. “Q” had mentioned the same thing two years prior to the prophecy, and, according to the prophet, the Lord was speaking  the same thing that “Q” had said about the president. 

“The Lord told me you have the heart of a lion.” ~ My Mother

I must have been 10 or 11 when my mother spoke those words to me. I have never forgotten that statement. It has been revisited a few times when others have said the same unwittingly to me.

Gregory the Great, the 6th century leader of the church in Rome (making him the most influential man in Christendom at the time), gives us the language we need to understand what is required of those who purport to speak on behalf of the Father. First, we ought not be quick to prophesy:

“…during the early years of our adolescence or youth we must abstain from prophecy, so that the plowshare of our tongue does not dare to cleave the land of another's heart. For as long as we are immature, it is our responsibility to contain ourselves, lest while we show tender virtues too swiftly, we lose them.”

John Cassian was an incredibly influential man in the 5th century. He traveled throughout Egypt learning the spiritual life from the Desert Fathers and Mothers near the end of the 4th century. Cassian chronicled their teachings in his two main works: the Conferences and the Institutes. The Institutes were a codification of what the desert monastics practiced and were written for the western church. The Conferences were a collection of conversations Cassian had with the monastic fathers in Egypt. Though the voice was the Desert Fathers, the pen was Cassian. What comes across is not the exact teaching of each Desert Father, but a reinterpretation for the western church.

The Apostolic Constitutions are a collection of eight works detailing early church life, structure, moral conduct, church discipline, and worship. The work was compiled and written between 350-400AD. It was considered a compilation of what had been handed down from the first century. Book eight begins by dealing with the nature of spiritual gifts. It drew some of its inspiration from the earlier Didache.

In the 2nd century a man named Hermas recorded a series of visions. In these visions a heavenly figure appears to Hermas and makes himself known simply as the Shepherd. The Shepherd shares with Hermas things relating to nature of life in God and issues pertaining to the church. What followed was a series of ethical and moral lessons and instruction in the Christian life. Righteousness and repentance is heavily emphasized. It was instructive in the same way a work like Pilgrim’s Progress was in its day.

The Didache, otherwise known as the Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles, was an early church document that served as a series of instructions on spiritual and community life. The first part consists of juxtaposing the way of life with the way of death. The second part deals with specific practices within the church, the individual’s spiritual life (i.e. food, baptism, prayer, fasting, eucharist, etc...) and church governance. The Didache essentially functioned as a guide for new disciples to understand what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

In the first 500 years of church history, aberrant uses of the gifts of the Spirit did not serve as a reason to reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What we have seen happening in the history of Christianity, we have seen happening today. Just as in years past, the true mark of Christianity was not the rejection of the ministry of the Spirit wholesale, but the rejection of the aberrant practices. Let no man call what God intended for good an evil thing. Rather, the problem lies within the heart of people, not the gift itself. As we have said earlier in this series, the gift is the Spirit, it is not the ability to work great things. Let us never reject the Holy Spirit and His working the people of God.

Writing a couple hundred years after Palladius’ account of Valens, Isaac the Syrian, a 7th century Christian monk, recounts that there were many people in the history of the church that had accomplished great things through the exercise of spiritual gifts:

“From history, we see that many have performed astonishing miracles, have raised the dead, and have labored to return those who are erring to the straight path and the true Faith; they worked great miracles and by their efforts led many to knowledge of God.”

In the 5th century, a man named Palladius wrote the story of Valens, a monastic from Palestine. Valens was a well regarded monastic whose fervor for discipline had won him favor in the church. The story of is Valens’ is of his slow descent into pride.

“By virtue of the great hardship that he endured, he attained to the highest measure of ascesis but fell into pride, being so deluded by the demons that he thought angels were conversing with him and ministering to his every need.”