Warning About Prophetic Words

The word for a prophet in the Septuagint Greek version of the Old Testament and in the New Testament is the Greek word prophetes — a compound of the preposition pro and the word phemi.

We saw in the previous section that the preposition pro has varied meanings, but primarily, for our purposes, it means before. The word phemi means to say or to speak and its use in this compound word automatically alerts us to the fact that a prophetic gift is a saying or speaking or communicating gift.

Before the Lord and in Front of Others

But now we will also see that the preposition pro additionally means in front of, and it pictures a prophet’s role in front of people where he or she is to say, to speak, or to communicate to the intended audience. But the use of pro compounded with phemi emphatically tells us that real prophetic ministry eventually occurs in front of people where the divine insights a prophet receives are delivered to those whom God asks him or her to stand in front of.

Once a prophet has heard and understands God’s message and heart and has tasted and internalized that message himself, he is dispatched from his solitary place before God to stand in front of people to speak the message God has authorized him to speak as a mouthpiece for God.

Those who speak on behalf of God are required to study, pray, and prepare — and once preparation is complete, they must then depend on the anointing and inspiration of the Holy Spirit as they speak from their spirits and souls to convey what God has spoken to them or shown them. A prophet is a prophetic voice, and he must stand strong on the side of truth, even if the audience he is addressing does not agree with the truth he is commanded to speak.

Thus, every prophetic voice is to hear or see the message, meditate on it, memorize it, and deliver it just as God expects. Even if the message contains truths that are unpleasant to hear, difficult to consume, and painful to digest, God expects prophets to yield to Him and to deliver His message in the power of the Holy Spirit. If a God-called prophet is willing to fully embrace, fully obey, and fully deliver God’s message in the power of the Spirit with no mitigation — and if those who listen are willing to fully receive what God wants to communicate — powerful results will be forthcoming.

Think of the time when God sent Jonah to Nineveh to be His messenger on assignment to convert that heathen city. What happened there as the people received the word of the Lord was a powerful example of a holy outcome occurring from the message of a prophet — in this case, a prophet who didn’t even want to be there. Just imagine the magnitude of transformation that can occur when God’s messenger is faithful to follow and abide by the prophetic process.

It is of paramount importance that every prophet accept responsibility to speak God’s message clearly as God wants it to be communicated. And always remember that prophetic ministry never veers from the authoritative voice of the Scriptures. To make this important point about speaking correctly in front occurred unintentionally because ingredients were not inspected before adding them into the mix to make sure they were not tainted in some way. But food poisoning can typically be prevented. If the kitchen is made sanitary, if spoiled ingredients are removed from the mix, and if the menu is tested before being served, most cases of poisoning can be avoided.

In these last days when toxic spiritual influences abound, it is imperative that spiritual leaders remember that there is no one more prominent, noteworthy, or beloved in God’s eyes than His blood-bought people. Therefore, what His ministers — those He gives charge over the spiritual welfare of His people — offer the saints for their spiritual diet is of paramount importance.

There is no greater violation of duty that a spiritual leader could commit than to serve poisonous spiritual fare that produces a sickening or “fatal” result in Christ’s beloved Church. Hence, it is essential that spiritual leaders are willing to first sample the food they’re about to offer to know if its effects are going to be healthy or unhealthy.

As end-time leaders, every prophetic voice must provide safe spiritual meat to those seated around the table. And as mentioned previously, just as historical cupbearers not only tested solid food before it was eaten, those who stand in spiritual leadership must be willing to test not only the spiritual meat being offered to the people, but also the spiritual wine that people are being persuaded to drink.

Caution: Prophets Must Be Careful About What They Present in the Name of the Lord

I share the following biblical story to demonstrate the serious role of a prophet who stands in front of people to tell them he has a word from God that they need to consume.

In Second Kings 4:38-41, we read a remarkable story concerning a group of men who were studying under Elisha to be prophets. The Bible tells us that Elisha commanded these younger prophetic disciples to go into the field to collect ingredients to make stew, and one of the young prophets inadvertently gathered ingredients from a wild, poisonous vine that looked very similar to a vine that produced good fruit. Because he was unskilled at choosing ingredients, the young prophet unintentionally gathered deadly fruit and mixed it with other healthy vegetables in a pot of stew.

To the untrained eye, the fruit the young prophet collected looked delicious — but if ingested in large quantities, that wild fruit would result in violent vomiting, terrible ulcerations in the bowels, and finally death. An experienced gatherer would have known the difference between the healthy and the deadly fruit. But because of the young prophet’s inexperience in selecting ingredients, he accidentally selected the poisonous variety and mixed it into a pot full of otherwise good vegetables. This produced a deadly brew that could have proven fatal to those who consumed it.

When the young prophet returned with large quantities of this poisonous fruit, he shredded it into a large pot; then he mingled it together with meat cut into small pieces and the other vegetables. Finally, he put the pot on the fire to cook, and a stew began simmering that contained hidden death. There is no indication the young prophet intended to hurt anyone, but due to a lack of experience, He was simply incapable of selecting the correct ingredients.

Once the stew was ready, the young prophets poured it into basins and served the others. But Second Kings 4:40 (NKJV) says, “Then they served it to the men to eat. Now it happened, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, ‘Man of God, there is death in the pot!’ And they could not eat it.”

Those eating the stew recognized the bitter taste and knew it was deadly, so they cried out, “Death is in the pot!” To remedy the problem, Elisha said, “...Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot” (2 Kings 4:41).

The word “meal” in this verse refers to “wheat.” In Scripture, wheat is sometimes used to represent the Word of God. We can therefore see symbolically in this biblical account an example of how dangerous spiritual error can be that is insidiously mingled into a pot of otherwise good teaching. Those who mingle the poisonous ingredient into the mix may have done so inadvertently, as did the young prophet in this instance.

As a result of spiritual immaturity, a lack of experience, or insufficient knowledge, any spiritual leader may mingle poisonous influences into messages that would be otherwise beneficial to hearers. Some do it unintentionally because they are not mature enough to discern the sometimes subtle danger of certain spiritual ingredients. That was true of that inexperienced and perhaps very sincere disciple of Elisha, who did not understand that the ingredients he had chosen had bad long-term, even fatal consequences. Thus, he inadvertently prepared a deadly concoction.

To bring correction to the deadly brew, Elisha knew that they needed to add significant amounts of wheat to the stew to remedy the situation. This is symbolic of what happens when the Word of God is brought into a situation to counteract the effect of poisonous influences that are not healthy for consumption. When the “wheat” of the Word is injected in large doses into an otherwise dangerous situation, those life-giving words of truth have the power to nullify the poisonous spiritual influence and turn the situation around. The Word of God — scriptural truth injected into situations by the power of the Holy Spirit — can reverse any ill effect of spiritual poison, whether intentionally or unintentionally introduced, that has negatively impacted God’s people.

According to James 3:1, those with spiritual influence over others will be held accountable for what they say, what they endorse, and what they serve to saints who are gathered at their table. Those who speak prophetically in front of people must never forget the warning of those Spirit-inspired words in James 3:1: “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.”

The word “masters” is the Greek word didaskalos, and it is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word rabbi. But here, it actually carries the idea of a masterful revelator. It would definitely include any person who publicly stands in front of others to say he is called to deliver a revelatory or prophetic word from God. Speaking in front of people is so serious that James adds that such individuals “will receive the greater condemnation.”

The word “condemnation” is a form of the Greek word krima, and it depicts a verdict or judgment that results from a formal investigation. In this verse, the Holy Spirit forewarns those who claim to speak on behalf of God that they will ultimately be scrutinized by God Himself, who will watch to see if what they endorse or teach is correct and in agreement with the entire body of Scripture. That means every word, every phrase, and every nuance that is spoken in a public forum by a prophetic voice is significant to God. From the witness of this one scripture, we see it is so important for Christian leaders to always remember that words have consequences.

Like spiritual cupbearers, every prophetic voice must know with certainty that no tainted ingredients are being mixed into the pot that might bring eventual harm. They must be willing to sample the spiritual food and wine themselves to provide assurance to the saints gathered at the table that they can eat with a sense of safety. When God’s people “sit around the table” to listen to prophetic voices that stand in front of them to speak as a mouthpiece for God, they must understand that those prophets’ words have consequences and therefore they must stick closely to what they have been instructed to speak and make sure it is in agreement with the whole body of Scripture.

To be clear, a prophet should not stand in front of people to speak until God has clearly spoken and he has internalized the message himself. So we see again that a prophet’s first occupation is to be before the Lord to hear Him, to converse with Him, and to wait for the Spirit to move upon him to speak. Once God has spoken to his heart and given him a message, and once he has been released by the Spirit of God to speak, then finally he is to move into the next phase of his prophetic ministry in front of people to speak God’s message.