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Prophets Must Be Careful About What They Present in the Name of the Lord

As we saw yesterday, the word for a prophet in the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament and in the New Testament is the Greek word prophetes — a compound of the preposition pro and the word phemi. We learned that the preposition pro means before, and again, the word phemi means to say or to speak. The use of phemi in this compound word automatically alerts us to the fact that a prophetic gift is a saying or speaking or communicating gift.

But the preposition pro additionally means in front of, and it pictures a prophet’s role in front of people where he or she is to say, to speak, or to communicate to the intended audience. Once a prophet has heard and understands God’s message in his heart and has tasted and internalized that message himself, he is dispatched from his solitary place before God to stand in front of people to speak the message God has authorized him to speak as a mouthpiece for God.

Prophets also must be careful about what they present in the name of the Lord.

In Second Kings 4:38-41, we read a remarkable story about a group of men who were studying under Elisha to be prophets. The Bible says Elisha commanded these younger prophetic disciples to go into the field to collect ingredients to make stew, and one of the young prophets inadvertently gathered ingredients from a wild, poisonous vine that looked very similar to a vine that produced good fruit. Because he was unskilled at choosing ingredients, the young prophet unintentionally gathered deadly fruit and mixed it with other healthy vegetables in a pot of stew.

As a result of spiritual immaturity, a lack of experience, or insufficient knowledge, any spiritual leader may mingle poisonous influences into messages that would be otherwise beneficial to hearers. Some do it unintentionally because they are not mature enough to discern the sometimes subtle danger of certain spiritual ingredients. But every prophetic voice must remember that words have consequences.

A prophet should not stand in front of people to speak until God has clearly spoken and he has internalized the message himself. It is a prophet’s first occupation to be before the Lord. Only after waiting before the Lord is a prophet released to finally stand in front of people to speak God’s message.

Questions to Discuss:

From today’s lesson, can you see the dangers of a prophet mixing truth with error? Why must a prophet be careful to only speak the word of the Lord and to rightly discern that word before sharing it, and what are the consequences if a prophet fails in this regard?

We adapted this Plan from another resource. Learn more about Rick Renner’s book Apostles & Prophets: Their Roles in the Past, the Present, and the Last Days.