REVISED
The question must be raised,
The question is why some of the Christian congregations only accept and allow certain prophets and prophetess to move freely among the congregation. I believe prophets and prophetess should be in every Christian congregation in America. Jesus at the time he went back to heaven made very direct gifts to the church. Those gifts are enumerated in Ephesians 4:11 (KJV) “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” You would think that if Jesus went to the trouble of identifying the five-fold ministry that church leaders would be doing all they could to receive an apostle, a prophet (prophetess), an evangelist, a pastor, and a teacher into the local ministry.
When proper relationship and accountability is established, a prophet and/or a prophetess could be one of the best friends of a local pastor and the ministry team. Pastors and other local church leaders are not in the perfect will of God when they fail to use all the team members given them by the Jesus the Head of the Church. Church leadership should be designed to use all the team members of the five-fold ministry. Is it that the pastor only model does not want to share authority and responsibility for the leadership of the local congregation? Without the whole team involved in ministry the body of Christ does not get all the spiritual guidance designed by Jesus for our growth and maturity.
Whether in the traditional or non-traditional setting prophets and prophetess need to be free to use the gift given by the Holy Spirit so that they may work out their salvation with fear and trembling. The beauty of the gifts from God for a full prophet or full prophetess is that some can see the past, present, and the future. When a prophet or prophetess is a seer, they are at the highest level of the office that man, or woman may obtain. All prophets and prophetess are not equipped the same by God; God being sovereign selects who and what and whom He chooses to act on His behalf. This is how the Lord moves according to: Amos 3:7 (NLT) 7 Indeed, the Sovereign LORD never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets.
A true prophet or prophetess of God will never prophesy a word that is contrary to God’s Holy Bible. There is no confusion in the heavenly kingdom; the kingdom of God is the primary kingdom that we must operate in on this earth, even when it is different from the kingdom of man or the Devil. We must learn to trust God and believe in and operate in His kingdom. We are citizens of heaven and are temporarily here on this earth; earth is not our home.
There are only two kinds of prophet and prophetess either good = obeying the spirit of God or false = obeying the spirit of Satan. There is not an in between. Prophet and prophetess walk in the light or in darkness; Isaiah says it best in Isaiah 8:19-20 (KJV) “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? [20] To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” The point of emphasis is, if a prophet or prophetess has behavior like Balaam, he or she is an instrument of Satan that person is of no value to the body of Christ.
Prophets and prophetess are encouraged to be careful not to give a word from their own spirit or flesh because people who get a word are expecting that word to be directly from the Lord. Hopefully, most pastors teach about I Corinthians 12 and 14 which is functionality of prophets and prophetess and how they should operate in the local body. The gifted must be guided by the Holy Spirit and remain under authority when operating in the local assembly.
The primary focus of this article is for the church world to incorporate the use of prophets and prophetess in all aspects of ministry when possible to ensure spiritual maturity in the Lord. One irrefutable claim is that Jesus said that when He comes back to catch the bride away, He would be coming back for a complete church – one without sport or wrinkle or any such thing! Where are the missing prophets and prophetess?
How can the church leadership be complete if there are no prophets and prophetess?