If you missed part 1 of this series, check it out here.
Now let me recap what we have learned so far about the New versus the Old Covenant and begin to apply it to the ministry of the prophet and prophetess. Jesus died to free us from sin, fulfill the Old Covenant (agreement), and inaugurate the new agreement. Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets when He died on the Cross. He didn’t do away with the office of the prophet in the New Testament, but He did change the role and/or duty of the prophet. Paul, for example, clarified this in the book of Ephesus when he wrote,
“He (Jesus) gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ,” (Ephesians 4:11-13).
OFFICE OF THE PROPHET
At this point I want to highlight two things from these passages: Number one, Jesus continued the office of the prophet in the New Testament. Notice that this office was given UNTIL the Body of Christ becomes a mature man. I don’t think we are there yet, do you? Secondly, we are beginning to see an entirely new prophetic role emerge from these scriptures. One of the New Testament prophet’s job descriptions, for example, is to equip the saints for ministry.
Okay, hang in there with me for another minute. I want us to look at two more portions of scripture together and see how these verses affect New Testament prophets and prophetesses. Check out what the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians;
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation,” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).
RECONCILIATION, NOT JUDGMENT
Did you notice anything in these passages that would relate to the ministry of the New Testament prophet? How about this for starters: we (all of us who are new creatures in Christ) have been given the ministry of reconciliation, NOT the ministry of judgment, that the prophets of the Old Testament were given! What is the ministry of reconciliation? NOT COUNTING PEOPLE’S TRESPASSES AGAINST THEM! Now that verse will destroy the ministry of a few prophets that I know.
Now lets ask ourselves the million-dollar question: what would happen if you took an Old Testament prophet and transferred him to the New Testament side of the cross? I am glad you asked that question because Malachi answered it for us four hundred years before Christ. He wrote:
“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse,” (Malachi 4:5-6).
RESTORATION
Notice when Elijah is going to return: “before the great and terrible day of the Lord.” In other words, he will return in the last days. And when Elijah returns what will he be doing? He will be reconciling families! Can you see the contrast between Elijah’s roles in the Old verses the New Covenant? In the Old Covenant he judged Israel and caused a three-and-a-half year famine to punish them for their sins, he called down fire, and he hacked 850 false prophets to death with a sword. But in the New Testament he restores the hearts of family members to one another. That’s right, Elijah was promoted from the ministry of judgment to the ministry of reconciliation through the Cross of Christ. Hopefully this revelation has transformed all of our ministries.
For more on this subject, check out my book The School of the P
rophets
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