Discerning The Prophets
In his gospel, Luke talks about the prophet Simeon and the prophetess Anna. (Luke, Chapter 2). They spent almost all their lives in the temple getting to know God. Each of them recognized the baby Jesus as the Messiah and believed. Upon seeing Jesus, they felt fulfilled and ready to depart this world.
Bruce Larson related the following story about three sisters in Lansing, Michigan. They had removed their clothes, smeared their bodies with mustard, and were riding around town in a stolen van. Apparently, they fancied themselves some sort of prophetesses. They told the police they were reading the Bible when the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Having read that Adam and Eve were naked in the garden of Eden, they discarded their clothes. Then they read the passage that likens faith to a grain of mustard seed and lathered their bodies with mustard. The stolen van seems to have had no biblical explanation. It would seem these three sisters were filled with something other than the Holy Spirit.
Obviously the three sisters were not prophetesses. A prophet may speak harsh words, truths painful to hear but sane. Sometimes the prophets accompanied their prophecies with physical demonstrations. However, they earned the right to speak for the Lord before their prophetic demonstrations. Such was the case for Simeon and Anna.
Sometimes prophets spoke futuristically, but their main purpose was to speak of man’s sins, false values, and unloving behavior. They were not fortune tellers but forth tellers. When you understand the work of a prophet, you realize all Christians should be prophets. The authenticity of a prophet is determined by their relationship to God. The aged couple Zechariah and Elizabeth were reported as being “upright in the sight of God” (Luke 1:6), and God blessed them.
Before we experiment with our prophetic prowess, we should ask, “How is my relationship with God? Do I have the right to prophesy? Is my message from God or just something I want to say?” Jesus said it this way, “Before you note the speck in your brother’s eye, cleanse the log from your own eye.”
