The prophet's handbook

easily lapse into its original bondage to carnality. The cares of this world and the pride of life overtake it. Two words that are used in this passage show what ancient prophets did. Together they enlighten us on the functions of stationary prophets in today’s church, jointly giving us a sketch of this officer’s work in the modern church. The two words are alah and shamar. In this discussion, we concentrate on the Hebrew word shamar. It means “to guard.” Regarding the prophet, these definitions are a good guide for those who cover our churches with their prophetic mantles and mandates in the twenty-first century. Shamar clarifies their functional activities and responsibilities in local congregations. God’s Plan for the Church Prophet God intends that church prophets watch, guard, protect, fence in, patrol (heavenly and societal realms), war, pray, and intercede for their assigned churches. These responsibilities include their constant purview of Christian doctrinal and theological outpourings in their generation. Church prophets should not conduct their offices in a vacuum. They should be aware of new teachings and movements taking place around them so they can endorse or renounce them. In doing this, they spiritually and supernaturally guard the Lord’s church as long as it is on earth. Our description of the ministry of the contemporary prophet as taken from the book of Hosea involves the prophetic in all of these functions because of shamar’s meaning, as defined in the next section. Shamar Prophetics The word shamar means “to keep and guard safely; to preserve and protect.” Think about this prophetically to see how one so assigned achieves these in the church. Speculate on the probable duties, responsibilities, and position description needed to accomplish this as an official prophet. As a spiritual entity on earth, the church enjoys the bulk of what is performed or accomplished for it in the realm of the spirit. Such officiations are executed by the prophet, who uses mostly supernatural means, such as prayer vigils and intercessions, spiritual warfare, and divine revelations. By nature, prophets employ these tactics for modern interpretation and translation of the old to the new, or vice versa, for their local congregations. At first glance, the above spiritual duties seem pitiable and insignificant in comparison to human initiatives because they are essentially ethereal in context and nature. Further