By Steve

So what of this "prophetic voice" I speak about?
Last week I wrote about speaking up and letting your voice be heard. But I am speaking of something more than simply sharing your opinions, concerns and passions...I am speaking of something I call the prophetic voice. Not everyone will appreciate this, but they never have.

In the scriptures, we see that priests and prophets were often at odds. Priests focussed on regularity and traditions. They had credentials, upheld order, wore special clothing and gave them selves a "scent of holiness" with perfumed oils. But what happened when the people (the people the priests were leading) began "going through the motions" with spiritual half-heartedness? When their hearts and minds are unengaged? When ritual faithfulness blinded or numbed them to the very real needs that surrounded them and the social injustices that followed? Answer...a prophet would arise. They would speak unashamedly about the disgust God had with external religious observance without sincerity, without compassion for others, without recognizing what God was doing around them and how they should get involved (read Isaiah 1:1-17)

They had no credentials, special clothing or perfume. What they had was a self-authenticating passion and unavoidable moral substance. Often their purpose was to disrupt the status quo, so a prophets life was disturbing, unruly and sometimes shocking (Consider why the prophet Hosea married a prostitute or how the prophet Ezekiel staged a protest in the nude). Of course the priests, the one's to keep order, were not real pleased with these disruptive prophets.

As hard as the priest worked to help people in religion, it was the prophet that helped people really get at the heart of God. It is no different today. We need prophets, people who will use their prophetic voice to help people connect to the heart of God...to follow the way of Jesus...to wake people up to what is going on all around us and what it might be that God (not politics, military, finance etc) might want us to do about.

You don't need credentials, but a passion. As you see what goes on, as you listen to God...respond, speak up, react. Not just because you have an idea. Not because you want to be disruptive. Not just because you're mad. But because God might have something to say through you for others. It may be a new idea. It might be disruptive. It might make others mad. That's nothing new. But if it is from God, a prophetic voice, it needs to be heard.