Prophets and Seers

I am blessed to know John Paul Jackson personally. I have been around him for several special events. Several years ago when I was still pastoring we had the privilege of hosting him in a special conference on prophecy. After serving as a pastor for thirty years, and being used of God in a small measure of prophetic grace, I have seen the flaky, the counterfeit, and the genuine.

I appreciate John Paul’s balanced teaching, his mature perspective on the prophetic ministry, and his gracious operation of his gift. I consider him to be a true prophet of God. As we see more such ministry by men and women, we will also see more of two things: candidates for this ministry and this office going through severe trials and fiery ordeals to refine their character; and the foundation of the church shifting toward its original base. If you happen to be around a prophet (or an apostle) being groomed by God, you may think you have never seen such a wilderness trail in all your life! God spares no expense, takes no shortcuts, and ignores cries of pain as He trains foundation ministries in His ways. They are a challenge to pastor and they need seasoned fathers in the faith to help equip them. Of course, in the end, it is only Jesus who can fully disciple and send forth His own prophets to His people.

Prophets are on the increase. They are one aspect of the ministry of Jesus that belongs in the church. They have a vital place in the world and an important role in the Church alongside the other five-fold Ascension gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11) The Lord once told me to bear witness to three things: Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone of the church, the Scriptures are the word which the Holy Spirit confirms with signs and wonders, and the restoration of contemporary apostles and prophets. Revelatory gifting is on the rise.

This particular article touches on one aspect of revelatory gifting, that is, "words of knowledge." This grace-gift from the Holy Spirit enables a believer to know information or details about someone that could only be revealed to them by God, something supernaturally known only by the Spirit. Getting insight from the Spirit is not all that strange. In the Bible, God speaks in dreams, visions, and by an inner "knowing" to His people all the time (and often to sinners as well). But we don’t usually recognize the source of information as being of the Lord.

What is new today is for leaders in the Body of Christ and members of the Church to begin learning how to handle prophetic gifting and the insight that God gives them in a mature and humble manner. Perhaps I should say "revelatory gifting," because the essence of being prophetic is hearing from God, not speaking for God. Everyone who knows Jesus can hear from God. Wisdom says don’t tell all you hear all the time. Sometimes God shows us things so we can intercede, or so we can continue loving someone without being surprised or offended at their sin, or so we can confidentially share our heavenly news-flash with leaders who are in position of responsibility and thus have the authority to do something about it.

Perhaps the greatest manifestation of revelatory gifting is yet to come to the Body of Christ. I believe it will reveal Christ in the Church and also outside the church walls to lost souls, for "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." (Revelation 19:10 NASB)

For example, when Jesus met the woman at the well in John 4, He knew by this gift in operation that she had been married five times. (It is interesting to note that Jesus had to first get His Twelve out of the way so He could evangelize this woman, since their prejudice against women and other ethnic groups had not yet fallen to the wayside like it did after Pentecost.) This divine knowledge about her life revealed by the Holy Spirit to Jesus uncovered her sin. Yet Jesus spoke the truth to her without condemnation in such a way that it broke down her resistance to knowing God and resulted in the salvation of her whole village.

When the gift of prophecy gets out of the church and into the streets, sinners won’t stand a chance! God’s truth ministered in love and humble wisdom will uncover the stumbling blocks that hinder peoples’ repentance and faith.

I believe the day will come when ordinary believers who are filled with the Holy Spirit and living in union with Jesus will manifest the word of knowledge in remarkable ways. It will become common in church for sin to be uncovered, not by ministers, but by ordinary disciples. In fact, the day will come when we will think that prophets who impress us with their words of knowledge today were mere children in the faith!

I am asking for this little gift to operate more in my life, the snippets of divine information that enable us to show people that God knows the details of their lives and truly cares for them. Twice, the Lord has given me peoples’ names. Once, it was to witness to a young waitress. Another time, it was to encourage me in a time of ministry overseas when I felt like I wasn’t hearing anything from God in my meetings. This little gift is needed more in the lives of Christians today.

Why doesn’t the Lord give more words of knowledge to more believers today? One reason is that as soon as we start getting revelation, we tend to get an exalted opinion of ourselves. We start to feel entitled to a title, and we think just because we heard some small secret revelation from God, we must be in the office of a prophet. Wrong! Hearing God is normal for all believers, a learned skill that can be cultivated, and is intended (at least to some measure or degree) for all of God’s children as we grow in faith and love and in the knowledge of the Lord.

Here are John Paul Jackson’s comments on revelatory gifting….

PROPHETS AND SEERS
By John Paul Jackson

Years ago, I considered anyone who had a revelatory gift to be a "prophet". I no longer believe this. Over the years, I have come into contact with many revelatory styles. I define these styles by the manner in which someone ministers, combined with their own God-given personalities.

During my 20-year tenure, I have observed many gifted revelatory people. I was delighted to discover how radically different they are from one another. Their differences are more than just a broad array of personalities or the way revelation is delivered. How a person receives revelation from God and the type of revelation they receive may vary from person to person. This makes for quite a potpourri of visual differences when watching how someone ministers or delivers a word from the Lord.

After reflecting on these various types and styles, I have come to understand that there are unique personalities as well as variations in the respective gifts of prophets and seers. Notice that I have not made a value statement, making one gift more valuable than another. Rather, they are two of many expressions within the revelatory arena.

Differences between prophets and seers seem to be more clearly distinguished in the Old Testament. However, the lack of distinction in the New Testament does not necessarily indicate they are the same. Instead, it may simply indicate the writers did not distinguish between prophets and seers, which may reflect a difference between the Hebrew and Greek mind-sets. The Greek language does not seem to recognize a difference between the two titles.

Since the Early Church, many believers in the West have failed to make a distinction between prophets and seers. At some point, the Church also stopped recognizing the title of a seer. In a similar way, they diminished the role of a prophet and failed to note the distinction between prophets and pastors, or even prophets and evangelists. Today, however, these perceptions are rapidly changing in many places around the world.

A STARTING POINT

As a starting point, I would like to suggest using the following three approaches. These steps will lay a biblical foundation for understanding these gifts. First, we need to approach the differences between prophets and seers through translating the original Hebrew words. Second, we need to approach the differences between prophets and seers by looking at the manner in which the titles are used. Third, we need to approach the differences between prophets and seers by looking at those who were given the titles and by trying to ascertain, whether or not their titles indicated differences in their respective functions.

WORD ORIGINS

Perhaps we should begin by looking at some of the Hebrew words translated in Scripture as "prophet" and "seer." The Strong's Concordance translates these as follows:

"SEER" Hebrew (7200, 7203, 2374, 2372)

-- Hebrew 7200: ra'ah, raw-aw'; to see, look, view; to realize, know, consider; to be selected; to become visible, appear, show oneself; to be seen; to cause to see, show; to be shown; to look at each other, meet with; a general word for visual perception.

-- Hebrew 7203: ro'eh, ro-eh'; a seer; vision.

-- Hebrew 2374: Chozeh, kho-zeh'; seer, one who receives a communication from God, with a possible focus that the message had a visual component; agreement.

-- Hebrew 2372: Chazah, khaw-zaw'; to see, to look, observe, gaze, by extension: to choose (one thing or another); to have visions, to prophesy.

"PROPHET" Hebrew (5030, 5012, 5197)

-- Hebrew 5030: nabiy', naw-bee'; a prophet (true or false).

-- Hebrew 5012: naba', naw-baw'; to prophesy, speak as a prophet; prophesy has its focus on encouraging or restoring covenant faithfulness, the telling of future events encourages obedience or warns against disobedience.

-- Hebrew 5197: nataph, naw-taf'; to pour down; gently fall, drip; to (drip words) preach, prophesy.

WORD USAGE

We also need to look at how the words are used. Many use the terms "seer" and "prophet" interchangeably. Furthermore, some believe that seers have not existed since the time of the Prophet Samuel (1150 B.C. - 1010 B.C.). They quote 1 Samuel 9:9: "(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: 'Come, let us go to the seer' for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer)".

However, this is a shortsighted point of view and creates a dilemma: Why does Scripture continue to make a distinction between prophets and seers after the era of Samuel?

I believe that seers and prophets continue to "co-exist" throughout Scripture. Both Gad, the seer, and Nathan, the prophet, served in King David's court (2 Samuel 24:4; 1 Chronicles 29:29). Asaph, the seer, and Isaiah, the prophet, were also contemporaries during King Hezekiah's reign (2 Chronicles 29:30; 2 Kings 20:1).

Therefore, I believe that 1 Samuel 9:9 implies that Samuel moved from functioning as a seer to functioning as a prophet. Or, more likely that Samuel fulfilled both the functions of a seer and a prophet!

In addition, there seems to be a difference even between those who functioned as "seers". In 1 Chronicles 29:29, the word "seer" is used twice, but it is not the same Hebrew word. "Now the acts of Kind David, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Samuel the seer (7200), in the book of Nathan the prophet (5030), and in the book of Gad the seer (2374)" (1 Chronicles 29:29). Perhaps this indicates a difference in how Samuel and Gad received revelation from God.

Samuel had a wide variety of revelatory experiences, perhaps broader than Gad's. Samuel was gifted in visions, knowings, and dreams. He transcended time and geographic locality to watch events that were occurring simultaneously outside of his immediate geographic location. He knew who was coming to his door before the person arrived. He even predicted weather patterns (1 Samuel 12:17).

In contrast, Gad's revelatory gift was not as well documented. It is possible that he walked in the same level of prophetic gifting as Samuel, but there is no record of this. Scripture indicates that he carried the Lord's rebuke to David for numbering Israel (2 Samuel 24:11-13). He also helped arrange Levitical music (2 Chronicles 9:25), and apparently wrote a history book about David's reign (1 Chronicles 29:29).

Did people go to a seer more than to a prophet? It seemed to be common practice for the people of Israel to look to the seers for direction (1 Samuel 9:6-9). It was also common for them to bring the seer an offering for his livelihood (1 Samuel 9:7). There are also several instances where people went to the prophet for wisdom and direction from God.

In conclusion, prophets and seers still function today, as they did in biblical times. In fact we are seeing a worldwide renaissance in these types of revelatory gifts. Next month, I will offer deeper insights on these dynamic, re-emerging, and mysterious revelatory gifts.

To learn more about prophets and seers, please see John Paul Jackson's 6-tape series, PROPHETIC REFORMATION. You can order it online at http://www.streamsministries.com. Or, by calling our office toll-free (U.S. and Canada): 1-888-441-8080.

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13. QUESTIONS FOR JOHN PAUL JACKSON

QUESTION: Is humility and meekness the same thing?

JOHN PAUL JACKSON: Humility and meekness go hand in hand. Meekness is often overlooked because our focus is more often on trying to be humble. Meekness involves how you respond to others when they think that you are wrong. Meekness is how you lead others when they are totally dependent on you. But the best example of meekness is giving up the right to rule and the right to be right. Daily, the Lord is taking me to a place where I am learning that I don't have a right to be right. This is an attribute that I hope to see the Church grow in. The secret to growing in meekness involves giving up your need to be right. We don't have to be right. We do have to be broken.

QUESTION: I have been facing difficult trials lately. My friends have told me to be encouraged these difficulties are a good sign. Can you explain this to me?

JOHN PAUL JACKSON: Your friends are telling you the truth. This principle is one that is discussed in The Art of Hearing God classes. The depth of your battle is proportionate to the coming anointing you will receive from God. Anointing is basically spiritual influence in a natural world. Therefore, the battle we face actually predicts the coming influence we will walk in after the battle has concluded. What we tend to focus on, however, is the difficulty of the battle. The battle that we overcome creates stronger character that allows us to become better leaders. Therefore, if you don't quit, you win.

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