CONCLUSION on Prophets
The ministry of a prophet in our present age has the distinction ofbeing a vocal utterance of reiteration of the already recordedScriptures, as opposed to the ministry of the Old Testament andearly apostolic age prophets.Their ministry was a ministry of both future and prophetic revelations.
However, when the canon was closed, there was no longer needed any further New revelations from God! In the Old Testament, God had spoken through His prophets, and in the New Testament, he spoke through His Son Jesus Christ who was the Divine incarnation of God Himself!
Those who witnessed the ministryof Jesus Christ recorded those events for all future believer's toread and examine for themselves. John stated that fact in 1 John 1:1-4. "That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life; (For the life was manifested and we have seen and bearwitness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may befull."
When Jesus ascended to heaven, He sent the Comforter (John 14:16) to abide with them forever and bring to their remembrance everything(John 14:26) they had seen, heard, and experienced of Jesus during His presence among them. They were to accurately record everything for all future believers. After the death of the last apostle, all revelatory prophecy was completed. The ministry of all future prophets was to take the already recorded message inspired by God and expound it, or preach and teach it to the body of Christ. One of the ministries of the indwelling Holy Spirit from that time to now, was to illuminate the recorded revelations in order to reveal Christ and glorify Him!
The sole purpose of the gift of prophecy was a communication gift given by God to edify the church,and bring souls into the kingdom.The gift of prophecy is being confused today, in part of the church, between the gifts of the words of knowledge and wisdom. The revelatory aspect of these two gifts have not ceased with the revelatory aspect of the gift of prophecy, because those two giftsare still given by God, on occasion, for the ministry to the body of Christ.
These gifts, when used for "body ministry" are usually used to reveal certain present and future things in certain peoples lives which, after revealed to them, will turn them closer to God, and are given to correct them.
The readers might ask why those functions of the gifts would benecessary, seeing that all of the answer to man's problems are recorded in the Bible already for anyone's correction, reproof and instruction in doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16).
However, the fact remains, not everyone is born with the same mental capabilities to understand it. Also, the fact remains that even though a believer has come to salvation through Christ by faith through God's grace, his understanding may be completely undeveloped, and unable to even be able to know how to study scripture for a period.
That's why Paul instructed the Roman Church, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."(Romans 12:2)
So, there may be times when some of god's children need the gift of the word of knowledge ministered to them for their edification. As far as ministering those gifts by the gifted recipient, I feel it is much safer and generates much less pridewhen the phrase "I feel led of the Lord to tell you" rather than tosay, "The Lord told me to tell you", or rattle off the message endedby "Thus saith the Lord".
Naturally, there are many false prophets who are deceived Christians who think they have the gift of prophecy, when they do not. The only safe way to test the prophets is to test them by the authenticity and doctrinal content of their ties to even read the Bible, much less study it and understand the messages in order to see if they line up with the Bible.
Before we can do that, we must know the word of God! And, the only way we can know it is, is to follow Paul's instruction: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the wordof truth." (2 Timothy 2:15) "Beloved, believe not every Spirit, buttry the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophet sare gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1)
THE END
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