Apostles & Prophets: Their Roles in the Past, the Present, and the Last DaysSample

What Is an Authentic, Christ-Given Prophet?

The word “prophet” that is used in the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament and in the New Testament is a translation of the Greek word prophetes, which is a compound of pro and phemi, which is the preposition pro that is compounded with the word phemi.

The word phemi explicitly means to say, to speak, or to communicate and can also signify the shedding of light on a subject. Thus, this word tells us that when a prophet delivers a prophetic message, he gives light on the message God wishes to communicate. It also lets us know that a prophet is a speaking or saying ministry or one who is intended to communicate.

We find that the preposition pro means before, but when compounded with phemi, it becomes the word prophetes, which in its most basic sense means to speak before and it primarily tells us that a genuine prophet is to be before the Lord.

This pictures a prophet who stays before the Lord and sensitizes his spirit to hear the Lord’s voice so he can receive the message God intends for him to deliver.

The word phemi — the second part of the word prophetes — means that in addition to spending time before God, eventually a time comes when a prophet is dispatched to speak or to communicate God’s message. After he spends time seeking the face of God for clarification about the message God wants him to deliver, a true prophet will be dispatched to speak on behalf of God to a specific person or group of people. But his first task is to linger in God’s presence to ensure he correctly understands the exact message that God wants him to deliver to His people.

In Ezekiel 3:1-3, we see a scriptural precedence for this principle that God communicates first with his messengers before delivering a message through them to His people.

According to Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible, this passage was meant to demonstrate that God communicates with His messenger first. He then expects His prophets to fully digest every part of that word before imparting it to others.

Thus, we see that a prophet’s foremost occupation and function — before ever speaking to an audience of listeners — is to be before the Lord so he can prepare his spirit to hear whatever the Spirit of God would say to Him and to catch the movement of God’s Spirit.

Questions to Discuss:

Based upon the Greek meaning of the word “prophet,” can you see how important it is for this Christ-given gift to sit before the presence of the Lord and receive the word the Lord is speaking? What would happen if a prophet neglected this aspect of his or her divine calling?