Published in “The Officer” Jan/Feb 2004
It was impossible to
resist the challenge put forward in ”The Officer” in Sept. 2003 to write about
our movement’s prophetic ministry. There are various reasons for my personal
interest in the topic:
- The word of God has a definite appeal to: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy” (1. Cor. 14:1)
- Through history there has very often been a
prophetic period proceeding revivals and renewals.
- Since the reformation, we have had an ongoing
renaissance of the ministry-gifts listed in Eph. 4:11 – starting with the
pastoral and teaching gifts growing into the ministry of the great
evangelists, continuing into our own time where we on a broad base are
rediscovering the ministries of the prophet and the apostle.
- Moving on
to the personal level, God has used the prophetic word to keep me in line
with his will in my own ministry. I could have written a long testimony
(may be a whole book?) about how God generously has intervened on many
occasions through his own word and through people equipped with the gift
of the Spirit to prophecy.
- Further more I had a personal experience nine
years back that changed my personal ministry an added a new prophetic
dimension to it. I do not regret the blessing of that particular encounter
with God, but occasionally the anguish and burden following the prompting
to share a word, is of such a character that even the knowledge that it
might do some good is but a small encouragement in the internal battle. It
is impossible to enter into the sphere of the prophetic without realising
both its great potential for release and the incorporate danger of
manipulation. But it would be disastrous if a fear to fail should prevent
the gifts from being used in the church. Only a careful and ongoing
teaching on the prophetic can prepare both the deliverer and the receiver
of a message in such a way that misunderstandings can be prevented.
Because “we know in part and we prophesy in part” (1. Cor. 13:9)
- I have seen how the use of an external person
with a prophetic ministry in our corps has helped particularly the younger
generations to seek a deeper relationship with God and gain a more sincere
awareness of a calling to go and make disciples.
- I see that
the Army in many countries has a high sense of credibility in the
consciousness of the public, and therefore has a God-given opportunity and
therefore a responsibility to be a prophetic voice in the society.
A prophetic voice
Within our own
movement we will find different interpretations of a “prophetic voice”, and
they do not necessarily contradict one another. We e.g. understand it as
- a clear proclamation of the Word of God
I do not think that
anyone will argue against such an understanding. Our Bible contains the
prophetic word, and one may even suggest that the whole scripture is prophetic.
Therefore a call to Salvationists to raise the “prophetic voice” through a
conscious and sound proclamation of the Word of God would be very appropriate.
Seen in this context every preacher will in some way take part in a prophetic
ministry, and the receiver of the message may well experience it as a prophetic
word into his or her situation. The proclamation of the word of God has never
ceased in the history of our movement, but I need to constantly remind myself
of the enormous responsibility I have as a “minister of the Gospel” to be true
to its prophetic intention. May be if I always managed to do so, the Army would
have been one step closer to “find its prophetic voice once again”.
- a clear understanding of the present time
When we read about
the prophets in the Bible, one of their characteristics was the ability to
interpret their own time and in turn God’s way forward. In 1. Chron. 12: 32 we
read about the men of Issachar – ”who understood the times and knew what Israel
- an utterance of a prophetic word
Without entering into a long biblical exposition, I personally prefer to
make a distinction between a prophetic ministry and an utterance of a prophetic
word. I think that all believers should be encouraged and taught how to
prophesy (1. Cor. 14:1) through the Spirit, but this will not necessarily make
them prophets. When we discover the benefit of a prophetic message, how e.g. a
couple of words can solve a problem in a minute that would demand hours and
hours of pastoral counselling to solve, we very often realise how poor many of
our congregations are on spiritual gifts. May be one of the reasons can be the
fact that we are a “holiness-movement”. I love and encourage all good holiness
teaching and long to see more holiness both in my own life and in the life of
my corps. But very often a strive for perfection, gives us an obscure idea that
we have to be perfect before God can use us – particularly when we come to the
subject of spiritual gifts. But the gifts belong to the Spirit and are never
“lend” to anyone as a reward or in recognition of a “holy life”. Neither the
power of God nor the gifts of the Spirit are generated by our holy living, but
are merely given by grace – the church in Corinth
- an act or a word from a prophet
I believe that God rises up people with a special ministry as prophets
and that the SA has had and still will have more such people within its ranks.
These ministers are not always officially recognized, but they are there and
their gifting is obvious to many. I could have mentioned names from our
history, and many people would have agreed to the description, but the
recognition is not important at this stage. But I think it is important for us
to release such a ministry on all levels of the Army from to time to time,
either it be on corps, divisional or territorial level. Since we belong to a
universal church, I believe it could be edifying even to use the ministry of
non-Army prophets – as other denominations would gain from seeking the same
ministry from equipped people in our church.
“Is there no prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord
through him?”
(2. Kings 3:11)
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