The prophet's handbook

conclude the best way for them to learn is the hard way. Either by mutual decision or outright rebellion, the new prophet commits the first of many spiritual blunders. Then God’s fierce, pride-dissolving classes begin. Like Cain who committed a serious offense against God’s divine ordinances, your young prophets too must be severed from the flock. If not, they may choose to leave and start their ministry unhindered by you—their way. Also like Cain, they are marked by the Holy Spirit as rebels, even though they continue to be well-loved by God and their pastors. Think about Mark when Paul and Barnabas traveled together. Although it took years, the young minister finally got the message and submitted to Paul after all. The unfortunate part of it was the path he took to do so. It was tough, no doubt, and he wasted years only to end up right where he started. It is the same way with today’s hotheads. God’s invisible yet tangible mark mutes His favor on them for a time as they become fair game to the seductive and eventually brutalizing forces of darkness assigned by the Lord to facilitate their training. This spiritual analogy considers the Lord Jesus’ work on the cross, which promises that the young offender, once trained and humbled, will be restored to God’s useful service. The apostle Peter well understood this from what he said in 1 Peter 5:10. Hebrews 5 shows the Lord’s pattern as set by Jesus Christ Himself. It says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (verse 8). It is no different for those the Lord saves and grooms for His service. Jesus suffered rejection, mockery, scorn, assault, and isolation. This He did as God’s only begotten Son. How much more those who are truly stubborn. Veteran Prophets Discern Dissenters As wayward novice prophets embark upon their humility, submission, and obedience training, they venture into the Lord’s prophetic sphere and begin to circulate among the prophets. Seasoned prophets encountering such novices not only know these newcomers when they meet them, but they also discern the mark of the Lord on them. They understand why it is there. Having been on that route themselves, most of them are alert to the novices’ victimized tones used to explain why they are all alone against the world and the church. They hear the undertone of stubbornness in them as they are determined to carry out the prophetic in their own way because everyone before them “got it wrong.” Moreover, mature leaders sense independent prophets’ subtle contempt for authority, resistance to accountability, and delight in assaulting the established church and its ministers.