Developing Prophets 2
(week 34/07)
Olubi Johnson
In our article last week we saw that God wants more Christians to develop into prophets because the harvest is plenty and the labourers are few.
This week we will see what the requirements of the prophetic office are and how to develop them.
So then what are the requirements of the prophetic office and how do you develop them?
A prophet is one who prophesies, preaches and teaches by revelation the mind or plan and purpose of God for the present and immediate future of the church: individually, locally or universally.
The purpose of the prophetic office is to equip God’s people with the necessary knowledge and understanding to prepare them (Luke 1.76-77) to walk in and ultimately fulfill the purpose of God for their future. The men of Issachar typify prophets:
1 Chronicles 12:32(NIV): 32 men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do…
So a prophet needs to be able to operate the gift of prophecy, preach and teach revelation knowledge from the Word, pray the prayer of intercession to birth prophetic revelation into physical manifestation like Daniel (Daniel 9.2-3).
So to grow and develop to be called into the prophetic office you must:
1. Develop the simple gift of prophecy: you start doing this with prophetic worship (1 Corinthians 14.15, 2 Timothy 1.6) with tongues and interpretation. All Christians can and should prophesy (1 Corinthians 14.1, 31) but not all are prophets yet. It is the 1st. stage in the development of the prophetic office.
2. Grow in revelation knowledge. All Christians can and should have some degree of revelation knowledge but this does not make them prophets yet. It is the 2nd.stage in the development of the prophetic office.
3. Become a watchman by deep (Psalms 42.7), regular intercession in the spirit (Romans 8.26, Ephesians 6.18, 1 Timothy 2. 1). All intercessors can and should become watchmen: those God reveals things that are coming in the future to. So they sound an alarm to the others who may not be seeing these things. All prophets are watchmen but not all watchmen may be prophets yet: it is the 3rd. stage in the development of the prophetic office.
4. Preach and teach by prophetic revelation (regular manifestation of the gifts of the Word of knowledge and Word of Wisdom) from the written Word. When this happens consistently then one has started operating in the prophetic office.
Now there are 4 kinds of prophets:
1.False prophets (Acts13.6-7): they are not born-again but have supernatural revelation and power from Satan by familiar and other spirits.
2. Corrupted prophets: originally called and anointed by God but corrupted their anointing usually through covetousness or rebellion, like Balaam (2 Peter 2.15-16) and Saul (1 Samuel 18.10).
3. Developed Prophets: Those currently standing in the prophetic office but not yet operating in the full measure of it. Majority if not all prophets on the earth today fall into this category.
4. Full Prophets: Those who will operate the prophetic office in the fullness of Christ, manifesting in fullness the combination of the governmental anointings of Joseph, Daniel and Elisha.
The purpose of God is for us to keep developing ourselves so as to grow into and manifest the fullness of the prophetic and apostolic offices in this 3rd. day to enforce the Kingdom of God (Matthew 11.12, Luke 11.2) upon the earth, so that gospel of Kingdom be preached to all tribes, tongues and kindreds so the King: the Lord Jesus can return (Matthew 24.14) in the rapture!
