Since I couldn't explain it any better, of course I just shelved it and lived with it. I knew God as amazing and powerful, but personal was something I was still learning.

When He spoke to me at age 25 (in 1976) saying, "I have called you to be a prophet..." I am thinking I am out of my mind. All I knew was that they were bold people who made a scene and often got persecuted and killed. That felt like an honor that I did not want!

Since I was mostly clueless as to what that meant - and you can try to argue with an overwhelming Presence if you want to! - I decided that it was best for me to find out what that meant.

On Christian television and radio and at different churches, I heard all kinds of stuff, but the source for me was going to be the Bible. THAT was a wise decision!

I looked up every word and reference to it on the computer and printed it out. What a help! Old Testament prophets and New Testament prophets are quite different.

Many want to think of prophets as psychics, and while many do have revelatory giftings, they are not all called to make a scene. They are called to do a work of revealing God. In Jesus, you have all the gifts.

In Old Testament times (read Hebrews 1) God spoke by prophets because He had not yet sent His Son - Jesus the Messiah, God who came in flesh form as an example for us, and who died for our sins. Now that He has, the work of prophets is different in many respects.

Today He speaks through His Son but He speaks to hearts because the veil was rent (or torn, that veiled the way to God), and He also still speaks through His ministers who minister His truths. In the book of John, Jesus said that His sheep "know His Voice."

In the New Testament, the Bible explains that there are five ministry calling gifts in Ephesians 4:11-16. There is the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. Some say there are really four as they consider the pastor and teacher one role. That is not a big point as much as it is understanding what it is that they are supposed to do.

In that same passage in Ephesians, their job description is given and I will get to more on that later in this article.

Before there were the unusual spokesmen who had signs and wonders following, to confirm their words, and there were priests and teachers, those who would minister the sacraments and teach the Scriptures (they called the Torah). Since the Bible is a history book, you can see the unfolding revelation of God through the different society times.

God still has messages and messengers and He has not decided to limit Himself to just what He did in the past. We still need those ministers - especially in a rebellious society - because when mankind is off track, all kinds of bad things happen. He asks for "reasonable service" and it should be reasonable and helpful!

If we did not obey traffic signals, we would have a lot more wrecks, as much as we hate waiting at the traffic stops. We have pastors all over the place (we are thankful for most of them) but sometimes society is off and sometimes the Church is off! When people do not respect God or His true servants, you can be sure that a shake up is coming.

Most of us know what a teacher and a pastor and an evangelist are. What still is fuzzy to most is what the apostle and prophet are. When a person is born again, the Presence of Christ comes to live inside of them. They are changed and they understand the expression - "Christ in me, the hope of glory." This life is not all there is! There is more and it's good! So if the gifts are in Jesus, they are also in us! We may do it different but we all should present Him some way.

The Spirit of Jesus through the Holy Spirit comes to give is revelation of God the Father. Now can we limit God? He is BIG! But He has a distinct personality and we cannot make Him who we want Him to be nor can we limit Him to what we don't want Him to be.

So He gave the gift of ministries to help people understand. Empire builders want to clone you or make you fit their world. If their outreach is only to make you a part of their "kingdom" then they are building their kingdom and not God's. We need local ministry but we also need trans-local ministries.

Two things are at work here. There is a message of God that is going out and there is the work of God that ministers to people. God wants His Family to be responsible. The message is that God loves us and that He is worthy of respect and thanks for all that He has done for us.

Sometimes the world is off - and you can see that in different places - and sometimes the church is off track. This is where the heart of the apostle and prophet are touched. They want to speak order and blessing and release. They want to see things set in order so that the ministry of the Holy Spirit to God's people can be received in fullness and purity.

Prophets will have messages from God for understanding God - things that touch their hearts in a passionate way that they feel strongly they must share with others. Apostles will have a heart for a lost world or a church out of order and they will want to set it in order by Spiritual logic. In doing that, the release of the Spirit comes and the gifts, presence and power of the Spirit comes and flows through everyone.

The Body of Christ was meant to work together. When they become dis-jointed, deceived, rejected, put down, inhibited, and shamed, certain ministry gifts will be stirred to minister to those lies that diminish who they really are. In the world, death wants to have the victory, but Jesus came to show that He is the Resurrection and the Life, and that He still can overcome the power of sickness, disease and death.

None of the ministry is to be a show off ministry for personal attention or gain. Good ministry will get attention, as will bad ministry, but the true job description of that five fold ministry is as it says in Ephesians 4:

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the Head-- Christ--
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles [or nations] walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart; (NKJ)

Ministers are here to improve us. Hungry hearts will seek more and find it if they are sincere and diligent. You can find fulfillment in life with God. There are struggles because we all are as babes in travail to be birthed into full life against the death that is working against us if we don't find our way. The birth will happen!

I like what I heard once: If you don't know for sure the way to Heaven, then you ARE LOST! Isn't is nice to seek and KNOW? It changes your whole life! God cares about you!!!

Ministers are just people with a calling to help others. It's a drive inside of them that is specially given. They just have different ways of ministering it. Prophets find different ways to share the messages that God is giving them, and it helps to know your Bible, because it will help you to discern the false prophets.

Prophets today are a groups of people just like pastors and teachers are. There are many. It's not so much in the name as it is in what they do. Do they help you to know God more? That is the point of any of the true gifts.

Do you want to know Jesus? Welcome Him into your heart. He will come.