The prophetic voice of the Army

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 should do”. Being a “grass root-movement” the Salvation Army under the guidance of the Holy Spirit will be in a position to see, feel and interpret the spiritual, social and material needs found in our societies. To bring forth God’s solution to this knowledge both to our own people, the general public and to the municipal, regional and national authorities would be a definite way to fulfil a part of the prophetic calling upon our movement. This was true in William Booth’s time and it is true today.

• 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 is an excellent example (1.Cor. 1:7).  A chase for “Christ-likeness” and a strive to hear God’s voice and feel his heartbeat for our present world should be a joint venture without dropping to the conclusion that the one depend on the other. Only when we discover this, God can receive all the honour and the world will recognize our message as an authentic prophetic voice.

• 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)

ECUMENICAL FELLOWSHIP

ON SHALLOW OR DEEP LEVEL?

As most of the contributors to the officers´ magazine, I write from a context limited to experiences in my own territory and from what I hear, read and observe from other territories. The limitations are therefore of such a character that I probably should have let the whole subject rest until I had investigated the matter and could have come with profound facts resting on research found in approved dissertations or equivalent material.

When I despite the feeling of a shortcoming as far as facts go still write these words, it is due to a conviction that the question of unity in our church today, very much is a question of “yes” or “no” to God’s special visitation to cities and countries around the world.

The Salvation Army is a “popular” co-worker in ecumenical forums on international level, and I appreciate the fact that we are found in WCC, the Lausanne-treaty and take part in DAWN-conferences etc. Personally I enjoy the challenge I find as a member of “The Norwegian Theological Discussion Forum” where we discuss the papers published by WCC and where we in mutual respect try to find a common path of belief without compromising the doctrines of any of the participating churches.

I am also grateful for the fact that we over the recent years have seen that guest-speakers from other denominations have been given access to our pulpits in international and national SA-celebrations. This has definitely contributed to a broadening of our horizon as an Army of Salvation, without necessarily limiting “Army of Salvation” to our own church.

We move in the right direction, but I will still argue that this is ecumenical work on a rather shallow level. On international and national level, it is probably good that the situation remains as it is, but on the local level it must be an opening for a deeper fellowship among believers, and I think that we as ministers of the gospel, as pastors of His church – and He has only got one church, must be the front-liners in this venture. As a pastor in Oslo Temple, I do not only have 450 soldiers in my congregation – I have 500.000 in my parish, but I share this parish and church with a number of wonderful pastors. We have to see that this is the case, and that we can benefit enormously from a fellowship of mutual blessing and encouragement in our effort to reach our common goal – the evangelisation of our cities.

Does this have any practical inclinations?

I will come with a few suggestions – probably nothing new, but to keep them as a reminder for myself and may be some others:

24-7 on ecumenical level

It has been great to hear all the good news about the SA´s 24-7 initiative e.g. from Great Britain. Why not make it an ecumenical effort? In Oslo we are going to do this for the third time next January, and we are trying to get the Town hall for at least one prayer-celebration during the week. It deepens the spiritual fellowship and fruits have derived from it:

A weekly morning of intercession for the city (06 – 10 AM)

I do not think that our corps – at least not at this stage – could have managed to keep this going, but now it is possible to meet with the “prayer-people” from all the congregations, and it becomes less exhausting.

Prayer-shields

Our city is covered with prayer every hour of the day through the whole year. One congregation on its own can hardly do it.

Prayer-network

Monthly bulletins are spread through Internet where issues concerning our city are made subject for prayer. The network has contact with the municipal authorities, the police force i.e. We saw a prayer-victory last June when The World Bank had its summit in Oslo. Riots were expected, but the situation was made a subject of intercession, and the demonstrations were the most peaceful in the history of the bank.

Experiencing spiritual blessings together

It is good to come together with brothers and sisters from other churches and share stories from our different settings, but it is important that we also experience blessings together. This can be done through interdenominational campaigns conducted locally (do we dare to take part even when the main-speaker is controversial?) and participation on revival-conferences.

I was fortunate to be sent to the 9th “Catch the Fire”-Conference in Toronto last October. A benefactor decided that he should send 20 of the pastors and worship-leaders in the town to this conference. The unity we felt from sharing the same experience was enormous, and to meet with anointed tools like Dr. Heidi Baker from Mozambique, will be an encouragement we will carry with us as we try to fulfill God’s calling on us to reach our city. I was by the way surprised to be the only officer present – was it a coincident?

A fellowship of blessing

The group of pastors that I belong to has blessing as its main mission. We meet bi-weekly and pray for one another and for the ministries represented. We can share failures and victories and know that experiences shared are confined to the fellowship only.

What about interdenominational cell-groups?

When pastors can have fellowship in this way, why cannot our church-people have it also? I just raise the question for consideration. A musician working with our national Opera-orchestra, started a cell-group for professional musicians, and has seen many of his friends saved, but they go to different congregations to worship.

Interdenominational celebration-events

From time to time we know that the Salvation Army take part in worship together with other churches, and it always brings my heart joy to see “the unity in Christ” manifested in this way, and since this was one of his last prayers, I know that it also thrills my Lord (John 17:21). It also happens that such events include a celebration of the Eucharist, and very often I find that Salvationists remain in their seats and in a way demonstrate that we do not need this “means of grace”. Of course we don’t - we have already experienced the spiritual core of the Eucharist. But my heart sinks in me, why can’t we transfer the generous attitude for which our movement is so widely recognized and share in this fellowship with other believers on their terms? I can’t see that we in any way compromise our theological foundation by doing so, on the contrary we would be more in tune with the spirit of our army and take the ecumenical fellowship to a deeper level.

I believe we need this kind of unity to reach our cities for God. The author of “Prayer-evangelism” and “That none should perish” (and many more) Ed Silvoso, would through his experience of cities transformed by the gospel, testify to the fact that it always starts with a spirit of repentance, reconciliation and unity among the pastors in an area involved. I recommend his books. Let us go for an ecumenical fellowship on a deep level without loosing our mission, identity and character!

 Published in “The Officer” no. 1 - 2003