Awareness

When Peter stood up to speak to the crowd gathered to see the "strange thing" happening in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, he reminded them of the word of the prophet Joel by saying, "this is that spoken by the prophet Joel".  (Acts 2:16-21)  The prophet Amos revealed a most significant action of "God's ways" in Amos 3:7 (NIV) ⁷ Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.  Peter also preached to the crowd gathered at the temple when the lame man was healed.  Acts 4:18-21 (NASB)¹⁸ But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. ¹⁹ Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; ²⁰ and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.   Jesus assured the continuation of the prophet's voice by giving to the church the ministry of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.  Some of the churches today acknowledge the need of, and the supply of, all five of these ministries, while others only acknowledge the ministry of the pastor.  In Jesus resided the full measure of the Holy Spirit and all five ministries.  In His ascension, He released the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to His Church and the fivefold ministry to bring the believers into maturity.  (Ephesians 4:11-13)

The New Covenant prophet has a ministry to the church to alert the church into awareness of the day in which they live and God's "present action" so that the church might remain in connection with the Head, even Jesus, our Lord.  We have wonderful teachers but the church needs the prophetic voice.  We are left to our own reactions, our own interpretations and our own opinions as well as our fears if we do not have that prophetic voice.  The Old Covenant prophet was also called a "seer".  The New Covenant prophet spoke as a seer but had a voice within the church community that kept the church alert to the action of God.  They were not allowed to sleep.  The church today needs to be awakened.  Who will declare "The Bridegoom comes!"?  The prophetic voice alerts, without the fear tactics of the world, the sounding of the trumpet and the call to alertness.  Pray that the hearts of the people will be open to hear the prophetic voice and pray that the prophet ministry be restored to your church community.