The prophet's handbook

Chapter 12

A History of What God Expected from His Prophets

In this chapter you will learn historically what God expected from His prophets. It covers:

Prophetic potency The prophet as God’s thinker Authority Leadership authority figures Responding to authority figures and peers Prophetic Potency

If knowledge is power, then understanding is its potency. Once you understand the purpose of a thing, you gain a greater respect for it and appreciate its values. Hopefully this will be true with your understanding of the ministry of the prophets. For example, there are a lot of presumptions associated with this office. If it is true that power corrupts (or can cause corruption), then here is one office that would most likely bring about such corruption. Innate to mission and consistent with its purpose and requirements are powers, authority, skill, and abilities that can prove intoxicating to the frail ego. Power is a heady tonic on its own; how much more tempting is it to be able to live, roam, and move (almost independently) about the supernatural? In the prophetic, an unstable person can easily stumble and be induced to sin. For these reasons, the office of the prophet is certainly not the call of the foolish, naive, prideful, or self-centered. In their control, God’s power is perverted and put to evil use. The Bible’s record of Israel’s first king, Saul, is a good example of this. Saul was obviously prophetic, because he could not seem to ignore the institution.