Ephesians 4:11-13 “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, (12) for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, (13) till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
And so we come to God’s leading of the new covenant saints through the office of the prophet. You will find that there is not one place in the New Testament, where it is mentioned that the saints ever went to any prophet for guidance. Neither is there any instruction given in the New Testament, where the saints are told to seek guidance through prophets. The reason for this is not because there are no prophets in the New Testament church, because clearly there are prophets in the church today. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see that our Lord Jesus has placed five main ministry gifts in His church. The reason He put them there, was to bring His church to a full state of maturity in Him. The church has not yet reached that state of maturity and so each one of these gifts are still available to the church today. One of the five ministry gifts listed is the office of the prophet. But I want you to notice, that whereas under the old covenant, there was only the one ministry gift of the prophet, under the new covenant there are five main ministry gifts, of which the prophet is just one. We do not have time in this teaching to examine each one, but suffice it to say that each ministry gift has a different role to play in the body of Christ. And so the ministry of the prophet under the new covenant also has a specific role to play in the church.
Acts 21:3-4 “When we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload her cargo. (4) And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem.”
Under the old covenant, we saw that one of the primary roles that the prophet fulfilled was in giving guidance to the saints. Under the new covenant this is no longer the case however. Firstly, and this is the main reason, because as we have already stated, every saint has the same Holy Spirit residing on the inside of them that the prophet has. And so under the new covenant God leads each of His children directly through His Spirit in them, because He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him. The second reason is because prophets under the new covenant very seldom, if ever, hear the audible voice of the Lord. You will recall that we saw that all old covenant prophets only heard the audible voice of the Lord when they gave guidance to the saints, and that they just repeated what they heard. The old covenant prophets could not misinterpret what the Lord said, because they simply repeated what the Lord said. Under the new covenant, the prophets no longer hear the audible voice of the Lord. When they have a word of knowledge or word of wisdom from the Lord, that word comes through their spirits where the Holy Spirit is residing. The prophets today, speak out what they “sense” the Holy Spirit is saying. And so because the vessel is imperfect, it is very possible that the prophet may misinterpret what he or she “senses”, and the word given is then not entirely accurate. In the light of that comment, let us examine the example quoted above of a prophetic word of guidance given to Paul the apostle, for this passage declares that the saints in Tyre told Paul through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem.
Acts 19:21 “When these things were accomplished, Paul purposed in the Spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome.”
When Paul received this prophetic word from the disciples in Tyre, he was on route to Jerusalem. When you read the rest of this account in the book of Acts, you will see that Paul ignored this particular word given to him and he continued on his journey to Jerusalem. And yet the scripture plainly tells us that “they told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem”. So was Paul being disobedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit? The answer to that question is a resounding no. In fact Paul was actually being obedient to the Holy Spirit by continuing his journey to Jerusalem, as this was the will of the Holy Spirit for him. Let me explain why I said that by giving you the background to this account. When Paul’s ministry time in Ephesus was drawing to a close, the Lord instructed Paul to go to Jerusalem (long before he ever got to Tyre). Not only that, but the Lord had also told Paul that he would go on to Rome after he had been in Jerusalem. This truth is revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, for notice in this passage that it states that Paul “purposed in the Spirit”. In other words Paul was being led by the Holy Spirit to take this course of action.
Romans 15:25-31 “But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. … (30) Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me, (31) that I may be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints.”
The apostle Paul wrote his letter to the church at Rome before he left Ephesus. And so as revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture, before Paul set out on his journey to Jerusalem he asked the saints in Rome to pray for him, for he knew in his spirit that difficulties would await him when he finally got to Jerusalem.
Acts 20:22-23 “And see, now I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there, (23) except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.”
But it also went further than that however, because in the above quoted passage of scripture we see that in every church that Paul stopped at on his way to Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit also told Paul through the prophets in those churches, to expect chains and tribulations when he got to Jerusalem. The context of this passage is that Paul had stopped off at the town of Miletus (before he got to Tyre) and was relating to the elders there what had happened to him as he journeyed to Jerusalem. It is against this background that Paul heard the word given to him by the disciples in Tyre. And so the reason that Paul ignored the word spoken to him by the disciples in Tyre is because Paul understood that prophetic words given were not always accurate. For he understood that prophetic words under the new covenant, are given by prophets “sensing” in their spirits, what the Holy Spirit is saying. Paul understood that the vessels were imperfect, and as a result, not always did the prophet speak the word of the Lord accurately. In the case of Tyre, the prophets had heard correctly from the Lord that Paul would incur tribulation in Jerusalem. But instead of preparing him for what was to come (as other prophets in other towns had done) these prophets had then put their own interpretation on what the Holy Spirit was saying, and tried to persuade Paul to not go because of the tribulation awaiting him. And so we see that because Paul knew how to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in his own spirit (which all believers under the new covenant can and should do) he could discern which prophetic words given to him were accurate, and which weren’t. And as a consequence, he knew which prophetic words should be obeyed and which words could be ignored.
Michael E.B. Maher
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