Modern Day Prophets?

Over the next few blogs I would like to focus on an aspect of Biblical teaching that is too often glossed over, relegated to ancient insignificance, or distorted by modern day caricatures. The name "prophet" sounds so unreachable for us that we consign its activity in our post-modern world to either wild-eyed preachers on street corners or leaders of false religions like "The Prophet Joseph Smith" in Mormonism or "The Prophet Muhammad" in the religion of Islam.

However, the Bible informs us that this gifting is for His people in every age. This was not so during the time leading up to Jesus Christ. Before the dawn of the new age the anointing for various spiritual areas of leadership was confined to a select few. So much so, that these exceptional figures stood out like giants on the landscape of Israel's history. Prophets, priests, and kings made up the select group of people empowered to serve their generation. Men like Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah are just a few of well known prophets of that period. Too often we tend to carry this exceptionality into our own times. Men like Charles Finney, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and Pat Robertson represent modern day prophets to many of us.

However, in and throughout the Tanakh, or Old Testament, there are intimations of a coming time when, the Messiah himself, will transfer a prophetic anointing from himself to a group of people who represent His Body in this earth. He called the extension of Himself, the Church, and through them He would bring His convicting message and wonder working power to this earth. Even as the holy anointing oil was placed on the head of Aaron, and worked its way down his beard, and unto the extremities of the hem of his robe (see Psalm 133:2); so to, the anointing that rested on Jesus as Messiah is everflowing, through the power of the Holy Spirit, down upon the Body of Christ, His Church.

The maiden voyage of this prophetic intimation is found in Numbers when Moses was overwhelmed with his responsibility of carrying the spiritual burden, of the millions of people he was leading, through the Sinai peninsula. The people, with characteristic crabbiness, had complained about their limited diet of manna. Moses knew that the people's attitude could cause another outbreak of judgment from God. He knew he needed to intercede, again, for God's mercy.

This led to some what of a breakdown for Moses, before God, regarding his ability to stand in the gap for God's people. He cried out to God for relief and God answered his request. He instructed Moses to bring seventy well-respected leaders to His Tent for a transfer of God's power to these men so they could assist Moses in his spiritual work. As these 70 stood around the Tent the Scripture declares, God came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. But they didn't continue; it was a onetime event (Numbers 11:25 - The Message).

In this one verse rest the pattern of anointing for prophetic leadership embedded throughout the text of Scripture. First, there is the transfer of anointing from the one to the many. In this case from Moses to the seventy elders empowered to spiritually lead the thousands of Israelites through the desert. Second, there is the sign-gift of prophetic speech authenticating each leaders right to convey God's revelation to their generation. Third, and finally, there is the service component, in which the burden of the one is disseminated to the many so that Israel would be better served to bring honor to God.

Let me leave you with this final observation regarding this maiden voyage for prophetic empowerment. When one of the young men gave a report of two of the elders prophesying who had failed to show up at the Tent, Joshua was incensed and reported his displeasure to Moses. Moses, the first prophet, responded with, what I believe to be, the original prophesy of a coming age in which the Messiah would anoint a company of prophets (His Church) to carry out his world wide evangelistic strategy. He said, Would that all God's people were prophets. Would that God would put his Spirit on all of them (v. 29). Stay tuned!