Should Every Believer Be Prophetic?

In First Peter 4:11, Peter speaks of a sacrifice all believer-priests are to regularly offer in the new naos Temple of God.

Most miss what Peter meant because they don’t understand the context of the verse, but in that verse, Peter wrote, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.…”

The Greek word for “oracle” is logion, a word that was used in the original Greek language to describe a person who was a channel or a mouthpiece for the spirit realm, and thus called an oracle. Today we would call these individuals “mediums.”

• Herodotus used the word logion to depict anything uttered by an oracle. The word logion even depicted the geographical location where an oracle was known to regularly speak and to utter prophecies.

• Euripides used logion to picture a prophetic utterance. But he also noted that the word logion was very connected to sacrificial offerings because such offerings were given to gods or to the spirit realm to try to provoke the gods to speak.

Are All Believers to Be Prophetic?

You’ll see how this applies to every believer-priest today in just a moment, but first let me take you into the world of ancient oracles so you’ll understand Peter’s reason for using the word “oracle” in First Peter 4:11. In the First Century, the word “oracle” was well known, so Peter used it intentionally to convey an important message to us that would compel us to accept, as one of our priestly functions, to serve as a mouthpiece for God in the new naos Temple called the Church. This means to some degree that God intends for all believers to be prophetic.

The word “oracle” was mostly used in the pagan world, but before we see how they used it, let’s first go to the Hebrew language to see how the word “oracle” was also used among the Jews in ancient times. In Hebrew, the word “oracle” has the basic meaning to say or to speak, and it implies the verbal response of God or the place where God’s voice can be heard.

The manner in which the Jews received these forms of divine utterances varied greatly. That is why Hebrews 1:1 says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past….”

The words “divers manners” are a translation of the Greek word polutropos, a compound of polus and tropos. The Greek word polus means a great number or something that is multitudinous, plenteous, or numerous. The Greek word tropos means a way and even depicts twists and turns along the way — it therefore pictures something that is unconventional.

Compounded, the Greek word polutropos in Hebrews 1:1 carries the idea of God speaking in the past in a great number of unconventional ways. In the Old Testament, at times God spoke face-to-face, as with Moses; at other times by dreams and visions, as with Joseph; and at still other times by signs and tokens, as with Gideon and Barak. And sometimes God spoke through a mysterious system of communication, such as the Urim and Thummim. But the writer of Hebrews states that at long last, God is speaking clearest of all through His Son (see Hebrews 1:2).

In the New Testament, we find that the word “oracle” appears multiple times to describe how God communicated in the past. For example, we read in Romans 3:2 that there was a time when the “oracles” — the speaking voice of God through a number of unconventional ways — was entrusted to the Jews. At that time, God spoke through angels, prophets, thunder, clouds, lightning, and a long list of ways God unconventionally communicated in the past. But the word “oracle” even in Hebrew pictures a divine speaking or divine communication that somehow transpired supernaturally between God and His people.

Ancient Pagan Oracles

However, the word “oracle” was mostly used among pagans to depict various kinds of supernatural communication connected to some form of divination. To pagans, the word “oracle” usually signified an answer given through a medium who had yielded his or her voice to gods or to the spirit realm. This was so demonic that Early Church fathers wrote that such oracles were actually manifestations of demons speaking from the realm of the spirit.

Nevertheless, ancient pagans really believed oracles were channels or mouthpieces for gods and the spirit realm, and they revered mediums who yielded their voices so the gods and those spirits could speak through them. They believed gods and the spirit realm could be consulted through these mediums and that a seeker could receive counsel, direction, and mystical prophetic utterances by consulting one.

The most famous oracle in the ancient world was the Oracle at Delphi, a female priestess called the Pythia, who served as a channel or mouthpiece for the spirit realm at the Temple of Apollo. In that ancient city, there was a pagan shrine located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus above the Corinthian Gulf, so close to Corinth that a person standing on the slopes of Corinth would likely see the smoke billowing into the air across the bay where ancient Delphi was located on the side of that sacred mountain.

The word Pythia used to describe this female medium was from the Greek word puthon, which is the Greek word for a serpent and from which we derive the word “python.” An ancient legend said that the god Apollo killed a massive serpent at the site of Delphi, and that its decomposing body rotted in a crevasse on the slopes of Mount Parnassus where the Temple of Apollo was later constructed. Pagans believed this female medium, called the Pythia, was an oracle — that is, a medium, channel, or mouthpiece — for the spirit realm, but especially for Apollo. The Delphi site became famous and people journeyed there to consult with the medium. Pagans longed for communication with the spirit realm and spent enormous sums and traveled great distances to see this oracle, who was the most renowned in the pagan world.

The Pythia at Delphi postured herself astride a three-pronged, three-legged altar that sat directly inside the Temple of Apollo — on the same kind of altar that typically would have been used for offering burnt sacrifices to the gods. As she sat astride the three-pronged, three-legged metal altar, she gave herself as a living sacrifice to the gods and the spirits so they would speak through her. As she yielded to these invisible forces, she uttered riddles with supernatural answers to those who had come to her for divine counsel and prophetic direction.

The Oracle at Delphi became so legendary that seekers traveled days, weeks, and even months to reach Delphi to seek guidance. This included notable seekers, such as Croesus, king of Lydia, who resided in the city of Sardis and came to ask the oracle if he should cross the river to attack Persia. The medium mystically answered in a riddle: “If you cross the river, a great empire will be destroyed.” King Croesus took it as a divine signal to proceed with the invasion, but the great empire that was destroyed was his own.

It is interesting that in Acts 16:16, we read of a girl who had a spirit of divination. Talking about the apostle Paul and his companions, that verse says, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us….” The word “divination” is the Greek word puthon, which is the same word used to describe the female medium at Delphi. It is entirely possible this girl with a spirit of divination in Philippi was considered to be an oracle in her community. Paul eventually cast that spirit out of her, but before she was freed, she had brought great gain to her masters because people paid enormous sums of money for her services as a medium.

Other oracles could be found in various places in the ancient world, including Thebes, Tegyra, Boeotia, Phocis, Thessaly, and Delos. In Anatolia, oracles could be found at Patara, Branchidae, Claros, and Grynium. But no oracle anywhere in the pagan world was as revered as the Oracle of Delphi. In fact, even the name Delphi is important, for it is the Greek word for a woman’s womb, and it was used to describe the city of Delphi because Greek-speaking peoples believed it was the central spiritual womb for all Greek religions. As such, the temples that were scattered up and down the slopes of Mount Parnassus at Delphi were filled with nonstop burnt offerings — sacrifices that swirled and wafted into the air above the peak of the city.

I realize all this talk of oracles seems dark, but the idea of an oracle was common in both the Jewish and pagan worlds. So when Peter said, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God…” (1 Peter 4:11), he was using a word that was well known both to Jews and Greeks. To both, the word “oracle” described some kind of divine communication associated with a person or a place where sacrificial offerings were made so that divine communication could occur. Peter used this word intentionally to describe the need for believer-priests to likewise become yielded vessels through which the Holy Spirit could speak and work in line with God’s spoken and written Word.

Just as oracles in the past gave themselves as living sacrifices to the spirit realm, by using the word “oracles,” Peter calls on each of us to yield ourselves at the altar of God and to consecrate ourselves as living sacrifices for God Himself to use. Doing this may mean sacrificing personal comfort and surrendering whatever else that may be required so you can yield to the Holy Spirit without the hindrance or distraction of the flesh.

Pagan oracles were completely surrendered, yielded individuals who gave themselves entirely as full-time vessels to become a mouthpiece for the spirit realm. Peter — knowing full well the customary usage of this word — used “oracles” to communicate the responsibility of believer-priests in the new naos Temple of God to possess a willingness to surrender to the Holy Spirit so that He and His gifts can operate through us to strengthen the Church and bless humanity.

In the past, an oracle was a person or place where divine communication occurred, and seekers had to travel great distances to the remote locations where these oracles could be found. But today every believer-priest has become an oracle because he is indwelled by the Holy Spirit. That means wherever we are, we can be a channel or mouthpiece through whom the Holy Spirit can speak. But to be an instrument the Holy Spirit can use, we must daily climb onto the altar of surrender to give ourselves as living sacrifices to God, yielding to the Holy Spirit’s control in every area of our lives so we can be an instrument God can use to help bring answers, direction, and assistance to others.

Doing this kind of yielding as a believer-priest may mean sacrificing your personal comfort zone to yield to the Holy Spirit and to say or do what He instructs you. But as ancient oracles were completely surrendered, yielded individuals who gave themselves entirely as full-time vessels to become a mouthpiece for the spirit realm, Peter communicates that every believer-priest is to offer up himself in the naos Temple of God as a living sacrifice that the Holy Spirit and His gifts can operate through.

In these pages, we’ve seen a small sampling of the “spiritual sacrifices” that every believer in the new naos Temple is to offer up to God. But the fivefold ministry gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher are given to assist and equip all believer-priests in this naos Temple to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God by Christ Jesus.

Again, as the first and second Temples in Jerusalem overflowed with priests who were continually offering up sacrifices and assisting others in offering up theirs — with smoke and incense filling the atmosphere and ascending upward to Heaven — the Church today is to be a dwelling place for God, a Temple, that’s filled with believer-priests who are occupied with carrying out priestly functions and responsibilities.