Five-Fold Ministry: Role of Prophet

All parts of the body function under the Head, who is Christ. They function in relation to one another for the benefit of the body as a whole. Although each part is designed to work alongside the other, they rarely do. However, as the Lord prepares His bride for His return, He will restore the five-fold ministry, and the Bride will begin to prefer one another in love and humility.

One of the most controversial and misunderstood roles in the body of Christ today is the role of the prophet. In the five-fold ministry, the office of a prophet has been vastly misused, misunderstood, and even neglected in many cases.

There are different types of prophetic ministry and prophetic roles. Every believer who has the Holy Spirit living in them is called to prophesy according to the description in I Corinthians 14:3, where it says that prophecy is for the edification, exhortation, and comfort of the body. Every person is called to prophesy through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside them. In addition to this, there are also believers who have a gift of prophecy (I Cor. 12). However, within God’s plan for the structure of the church, there is also a specific place designed for those called to the office of prophet.

 

Someone must be called of God to be a prophet. There is literally a time when God calls them as a prophet or even a history of times when God spoke concerning this. Even after the call though, it may take years and decades for that person to grow, be trained, and develop the maturity to step into that role. After many years of going through this process, the person must then be acknowledged by the church as  a prophet. This is not something the prophetic person requests or seeks. It is something God ordains, brings to pass, and everyone around acknowledges it.

 

A prophet receives revelation from the Lord and is meant to give vision or restore vision to the people. Many times, a prophet is used to call someone into apostolic ministry and implant or confirm a vision in that person for the beginning of a new task or direction. However, the primary role of a prophetic voice is to call the people to return back to the original vision, and turn back to what God intended for them (repentance).

 

A prophetic voice restores holiness and the fear of the Lord element back into the church, calling them to turn when they are heading the wrong way, and encouraging them forward when they are headed the right way. Like Haggai and Zechariah in the days of Joshua and Zerubabbel, they are to encourage believers for the building of the Lord’s house (Ezra 5).

 

The prophet gives vision by helping the apostles and teachers understand the times and seasons. They also encourage and strengthen them behind the scenes. A prophet also works hand-in-hand with the teacher, who establishes sound doctrine. These two roles bring balance to each other even though they are typically the most opposite personalities.

 

Most people whose primary gifting is the prophetic are good at receiving revelation and seeing what is happening, but are not always as good at interpreting and applying the revelation. This is how team ministry comes into play where the apostles and teachers help interpret and apply the revelation. Teachers are also typically better communicators than prophets and can more clearly break-down the message for the average person to understand.

 

It is necessary that the prophet must not only grow in accuracy with what they prophesy, but they must also have the heart of the Lord behind the correct knowledge. An extremely accurate prophetic person who is cocky and arrogant is one of the most dangerous entities alive. On the contrary, an extremely accurate prophetic person who is a friend of God, knows His heart, and weeps when He weeps is one of the most valuable blessings to the body of Christ.

 

It is important that the prophetic person stays under submission to authority. This tends to be a weakness in prophetic people, because they can typically see things that other people cannot see. However, a prophetic person who properly submits words to leadership and goes to the Lord in prayer over those words is absolutely precious in the sight of the Lord.

 

We need to value the role of prophet in the body of Christ and learn how to properly cultivate the heart of a prophetic person. They must not be exalted above any other person in the body, but they must also not be neglected and shoved aside because no one knows what to do with them.

 

As leaders in the body of Christ, we must seek God’s heart on the restoration of the role of the prophet back into the church today. We need to ask him what this looks like in our current culture and learn to appreciate the way God has set-up systems of checks and balances within the structure of the five-fold ministry.