The Prophetic Ministry in The Church

And any person that has that desire to dictate and direct the lives of others, I’ll tell you frankly, is not motivated by the Holy Spirit. Because that is not the motivation of the Holy Spirit. I’ll tell you what such persons are in most cases, they’re witches. You might not like the statement, but it’s true. There are a lot of witches in prayer groups, exercising dominion over people, prophesying on them, giving them revelation, confusing them, and bringing them into bondage. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is what? Liberty, not bondage.

I spoke to a young couple last night. They’d been to a prayer group in this area where they got nothing but confusion. Eventually, they gave up. Different people had prophesied different things over them at different times till they thought, “Well, we don't know what to believe.” This whole thing is out of line with Scripture.

All right, let’s look now at a beautiful picture of the prophetic ministry in relationship to the church that’s given in the Old Testament, in the prophet Zechariah, the fourth chapter. Zechariah, you know, comes near the end. If you’re looking for him, you go backwards from the beginning, and from the end, then you’re not far away. Zechariah, that’s of the Old Testament, of course. Zechariah chapter 4, we’ll read verses 1 through 6, and then verses 11 through 14. We’ll miss out the middle bit. This is a vision that Zechariah had.

“The angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, ‘What seest thou?’”

“And I said, ‘I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.’”

“So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, ‘What are these, my lord?’ And the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, ‘Knowest thou not what these be?’ And I said, ‘No, my lord.’”

“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, ‘This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.’”

Then there’s a sort of something that’s not directly related to that, and we go on verse 11.

“Then answered I, and said unto him, the angel, ‘What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?’”

“And I answered again, and said unto him, ‘What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?’”

“And he answered me and said, ‘Knowest thou not what these be?’ And I said, ‘No, my lord.’”

“Then said he, ‘These are the two anointed ones,’ literally in Hebrew, ‘sons of oil,’ that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

Notice the phrase there, “stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” That’s the prophetic position and ministry. Now, keep your finger in Zechariah if you can, and just turn to Revelation, the 11th chapter for a moment, and we have a scriptural interpretation of these olive trees, these two anointed ones. Revelation chapter 11, verse 4, speaking about two prophets who are to come forth at the close of the age, the Revelator says,

“These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.”

In other words, it’s a direct reference to the prophecy of Zechariah. Verse 10 of Revelation 11,

“They that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.”

In other words, the olive trees are pictures of the prophetic ministry. So, we have the candlestick in the center, the olive tree, one on the right hand, one on the left, and out of the branches of the olive tree, a gold pipe directed into the bowl on top of the candlestick, discharging pure, fresh olive oil out of the olive trees into the bowl. Now, I have a little picture of that here, which I trust will help you to see it vividly. I think it’s rather a nice picture.

Now, here is the candlestick. It’s always a seven-branched candlestick, as you know, and everywhere in Scripture, I would venture to say, the candlestick is always a type of the church. This is interpreted in the first chapter of Revelation. You don't need to turn there. So, here is the church, typified throughout all ages by the candlestick. On either side, the prophetic ministry, discharging fresh olive oil into the central bowl. You see, by the laws of gravity, if these are hollow, whatever is here will flow down here until the level is the same in all the seven bowls. So, in order to burn brightly, the candlestick must be filled with what? Olive oil. What is olive oil a type of? Always in Scripture, invariably, the Holy Spirit.

So, out of these prophetic ministries, the church is continually replenished by the oil of fresh revelation, which causes the light of the church to continue burning brightly. If ever the oil supply is cut off, the light of the church must go out. Here is the relationship, therefore, of the prophetic ministry to the church as a whole. It is to bring continually fresh revelation. It’s to stand in the counsel of the Lord and to interpret to the church the present, immediate purposes of God that apply specifically to that time, that group, that situation.

You see, Proverbs 29:18 says this,

“Where there is no vision, the people perish,”

or get out of hand, or lose control, or are made naked. There are many different translations of that word. People cannot live in spiritual blessing and victory without direct vision. Now, I’m sure you understand. I’m not talking about something that supersedes or contradicts Scripture. I’m talking, in exactly the same terms as Charles spoke, the revelation out of Scripture that’s relevant to that particular age and situation. It says in the book of Samuel, in the days of Eli, when the little prophet Samuel was emerging, in those days there was no open vision. But they were a dead, cold, backslidden people because religion doesn't keep people alive. It’s only fresh oil that causes the church to burn continually with a bright flame. That fresh oil comes from the prophetic revelation appropriate to that situation and generation.

We cannot live on past revelations. What Wesley said was relevant to Wesley’s time. What Luther said was relevant to Luther’s time. But we cannot live today on Luther, Wesley, Finney, or any other person of the past. We must have our own direct, up-to-date, fresh oil being discharged continually into the church. This is the function of the prophetic ministry.