The word of the Lord is authenticated by signs, signs reinforce that God has really appeared to the prophet. More than any other ministry office, the prophet is under scrutiny and it should be, because authenticity is something the prophet will always have to fight. He or she is constantly battling rejection and despair and must not draw back from the place of their responsibility. The prophet must be absolutely gripped by the message they carry, their credentials aren’t denominational, their credentials are a deep compassion for humanity. They touch both the burden of the Lord and the burden of the people. When they act out the prophetic word or direct others to respond to a prophetic act, the atmosphere changes.
Euphemisms, metaphors and parables are their primary speech. Each of their words have been crafted with the ability to penetrate the spirit of the hearer. Their preaching emboldens a community to love God, and they refuse to pursue agendas and emotions that are counterproductive towards the first commandment. The prophet intentionally removes every religious substitute and awakens the Lord’s people to the raw presence of God. They are untamed from political leaders who use words and pressure to control their actions. Intensity and zeal are the two prominent characteristics that describe their ministry, these prophets create a hunger, a sense of God, and they probe the heart and provoke the mind. Never forgetting or overlooking what is important to the Lord, because the Father expresses His care and love by sending a prophet.
In this generation the prophets that the Lord is raising up will make God’s presence accessible to those who are thirsty for it. They will possess a relentless commitment to their calling even in times of heightened resistance, because to despise prophecy is to neglect its relevance in church culture.
The voices of our generation who are anointed by the spirit of prophecy will bring the prophetic word back into cultural relevance. Capturing the hearts and minds of entire regions and nations. Cleansing the social corruption and religious manipulation that permeates the spiritually complacent. Their oracles confront the struggles of the soul which dominates the narrative in the lives of many.
For without a prophet people seem to waver between hope and fear, suspended by the events of their past and present. Like the Lord, the prophet carries the people of God close to his heart, desperately wanting them to feel the emotions of God. They prophesy who He really is, this good Father who wants to be treated like a good Father. Because the Lord has put Himself at risk of being marginalized by His own children. The prophet Jeremiah best describes the emotions of God when he said.
“I myself said, “‘How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.” Jeremiah 3:19
What He is saying is, “I’m not loved, I’m not wanted, I’m not valued by My own children”. Yet even in all these feelings of rejection God keeps pursuing us through His word, by His boundless compassion and generous love. This is why our most fundamental duty is to fall down in deep adoration.