Real Prophets

This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience.... (1 Timothy 1:18-19)

There is something in this verse that catches my attention and compels me to think and pray about it more. It gets my attention partly because it is so foreign to the culture in which I grew up and still live. It is the whole idea of living around and recognizing what the Bible refers to as prophets that can have an impact on the life of the church and individuals personally.

In my church the idea of prophets operating in today's world is almost non-existent. The idea of prophets speaking truths and inspiring people with a vision for their future in the present sounds not only strange but even suspicious. We have no problem believing that prophets operated in previous generations and have an intellectual belief that someday in the future it may happen again. But there is a subtle but very strong resistance to embracing the idea that there may be people gifted with the ability to prophecy living among us today.

Much of this resistance is due to a serious misunderstanding and interpretation of the whole concept of the role of a prophet. Most people that I know think that a prophet is just someone who has visions from God foretelling compelling events of the future. There is so much intense emotion and prejudice associated with the very word that even discussions of what a real prophet should look or act like can become a minefield in itself. But in the past few years I have become acquainted with some other religious cultures that feel quite comfortable with the idea of prophets operating in their midst. Over time I have been interested to learn whatever God wishes to teach me about this subject through observing and listening to what they believe while remaining cautious and alert to the guidance of the Spirit in my heart.

As soon as I say something like this I am aware that there will be many in my religious tradition that would immediately throw up a red flag of warning and might assume that I am already on a slippery slope into being entrapped by deceptions of false religion. I am aware that I need to keep that warning in mind, but at the same time I have been learning, like Peter struggled to learn with the vision of the animal sheet, that my religion has a great deal of prejudice that prevents me from seeing others the way God views them. I have been coming to embrace the truth for many years that I need to relate to others through the glasses of heaven instead of the filters of my particular church's prejudice and that most of God's true children are not presently part of my denomination.

In addition, the total lack of real awareness of the presence of prophets in the church by “my people” alerts me that this is very likely a blind spot for us that we have been unwilling to face for a long time. We have usually reacted to this subject with standard, homogenized arguments that quickly suppress and shuts down any real exploration of the subject. But that does not mean that what we have long insisted is necessarily truth as heaven sees things.

As is often the case, it is much easier for me to discuss the problems associated with a subject than to dwell on the positive aspects of it. This is particularly true of this subject partly because of my almost total lack of any real knowledge or experience in this area. If I am to believe that there are indeed prophets among us gifted by God for the upbuilding of the church, I would like to be more aware of their presence and how to relate to them. But I personally do not have any such experience from which to draw from so it is foolish for me to speculate very much on something I know almost nothing about.

However, I do not want to remain in this ignorance any longer. While I am not willing to simply endorse everything taught by others as blanket truth on this subject, I am keenly aware that there will always be a glorious truth to be found anywhere there is seen a strong counterfeit. And since there is obviously a lot of counterfeit prophet activity going on in this world then it is important for me to seek God's perspective and guidance to learn how to discern what He is doing in this aspect of the Bible's teachings.

It seems unavoidable from this text that Paul is speaking of something that was prophesied for Timothy personally, not just some general application of Bible verses from the writings of the ancient prophets. It is also clear from other references in the New Testament that the idea of active prophets in the early church was considered something of a norm, not just something that happened in the past. So if we today want to experience the dynamics of that early group of believers that challenged the paradigms of the whole world, then it only seems logical that present-day prophets would need to be a very important part of the mix of gifts that God would have in our midst.

There are very clearly other places in the New Testament that spell out the various roles and gifts that God intends for the church to have in order to grow and thrive. The problem seems to be that we are only willing to focus on the ones that seem comfortable with us and that fit our current list of church offices while avoiding the ones that don't seem so obvious in our community. And this issue of present-day prophets is certainly one that doesn't seem to fit into our current paradigms. But that does not mean that they are not present in our midst, it simply means that we may be overlooking them, ignoring them or even worse yet, suppressing or opposing their ministries to the body of Christ.

A few years ago I learned a great deal about the need for generational blessing. It was a concept that I had never heard of before and was something I learned from teachers outside of my own denomination. But as they explained from the Bible the supporting information for their beliefs, I had to agree that this was a very important truth that I had never been aware of before. This teaching involves a number of peripheral ideas that are all related to it including the idea of present-day prophets that speak words of destiny over others, particularly children and youth, as they are inspired by the Spirit of God.

All of this has greatly enhanced my awareness of the issue of true identity and our perception of who we really are. I have also become aware that many, if not most of our problems in living the Christian life are rooted in our false assumptions about our true identity. What I am also sensing through much of what I have been learning about this is that one of the important roles of true prophets in the church is to speak to our hearts and relay insights from God to us about our true identity and our destiny as God wants us to perceive it.

Moving into this arena of thought about this subject is like opening the door into a very large hall that will take far more time than I have right now to explore. But I do not intend to close the door but to ask the Holy Spirit to be my guide to take me through the various insights and aspects of this subject so I will not be too confused or misled. I want to know the real truth about prophets and their role in my life personally. But just as importantly I want to begin to experience the transforming effects of the work of true prophets both in my own life and in the lives of my family and those around me. I want to live in the power of the blessing personally and to be used by God to introduce blessing into the lives and hearts of others. For I am coming to see that this is the main purpose of every true prophet.

Shipwrecked Faith

This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. (1 Timothy 1:18-19)

In looking over this chapter and in context with the rest of this book, it appears to me that Paul is highlighting the differences between his teachings and beliefs as opposed to others who disagree with what he believes is important for salvation. In the first chapter he describes in more detail some of the characteristics of people he believes are misguided. He then spends the rest of the book itemizing the things that he wants Timothy to focus on instead.

Paul was Timothy's mentor but more than that, Paul had very strong emotional attachments to Timothy whom he treated as a son. He appreciated the responsiveness of Timothy to his teachings, warnings and instructions and was keen to protect him from the many deceptions and allurements of both the world and counterfeit religion. Paul was himself intimately familiar with the power of external religion to suck people into its vortex of trying to impress God or change His mind about saving us and he was quick to speak out against its deceptive power over men's minds.

By contrast, in verse five he lays out the signs, the characteristics that will result when true teaching is used. Then at the end of the chapter in his specific instruction to Timothy he refers to these same things again, particularly faith and a good conscience. He then shares that to reject these things as being the most important aspects of good teaching will cause one to suffer shipwreck in regard to their faith.

It is interesting to notice that Paul uses this analogy of shipwreck. Paul himself was personally quite familiar with the experience of being shipwrecked. The intense emotions and trauma that one experiences during such a life-threatening event is never forgotten and burns itself vividly into one's memory. When experiencing a shipwreck it is extremely helpful to have already established a pattern of faith-based thinking, to have a secure trust in the power of God to save. But when facing death in such a situation it is also essential to have the peace that comes from knowing that one's destiny is secure whether one lives or dies. To have a faith that can surpass the intense fears involved in a shipwreck is to be wealthy in the things that count the most.

Paul was also painfully aware of people who had been close to him previously that had since been drawn away from their faith in Jesus by the subtle deceptions of counterfeit religion or other allurements of the world. He had seen fellow workers lose their way and fail to protect the purity of their conscience and become re-infected with the disease of sin. Paul remembered the insecurity and terror of others who had gone through shipwrecks with him and maybe even some who had lost their lives. The contrast between the peace and confidence that Paul had compared with the terror of his fellow passengers was a perfect analogy to highlight the differences between the peace and security of total, resting faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and the alternatives that demand additional righteousness in order to be saved.