A Response to Prophets: A Word of Caution

According to the Oxford American Dictionary, a prophet is one who is regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. Inspired they may be, but being a prophet hasn't always been a viable occupation. They have been, not all, but certainly some, arrested, tortured, and executed. Less dramatically, others, and probably most, have been shunned by dominant institutions, whether political, social, or religious. Knowing this, people who want to be a prophet, or regard themselves as one, are not only not surprised to run into people who don't like them, but they expect it, and some even thrive on it. This, of course, begs the question of whether or not a genuine prophet would thrive on confrontation. One thing is certain, whether genuine or not, they get people talking. Nonetheless, there is this idea that a prophet is infallible, whether genuine or not. That is, if one is labelled a prophet--in his own eyes or of his followers--then they are, by nature and virtue of their "office," inerrent. This mentality would put, in the eyes of their followers, and quite possibly in their own, such a person above a priest, bishop, or even pope, not to mention a government, who speaks out in contradiction to the prophet's words.

Obviously, this notion of infallibility is very divisive. You are either with that person and adhere to his message, or you don't. If you don't, and since the prophet is, by virtue of his office, infallible, then you are being deceived by either the spirit of the world, the spirit of the flesh, and/or the spirit of the devil, or a mix of all three. Certainly no one wants to be deceived, so this experience can be disheartening and confusing. It can be difficult to know where the truth is in all this, especially if it involves close friends or people whom we admire. So how can we know if the Spirit of God is, indeed, speaking to us through this person? St Paul ran into a similar progblem, and taught us to base our judgement on the presence of the following "fruits of the Spirit": "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22). These fruits act as markers for us, along with the gift of discernment of spirits, that tell us if the Spirit of God is present in a particular work or not. If he's not there, well, there are four options: the spirit of the world, the spirit of the flesh, the spirit of the devil, or a mix of all three.

Speaking of these external "markers," I don't know why this is, but some of these prophets that I've met look and act the same. Sure, I may not know them all that well, but I can know enough about them to know whether they are happy or sad, joyful or sorrowful. What I sometimes see are people who have no joy left. There is no peace in their eyes, only melancholy. They have become utterly sorrowful. What does that mean? Perhaps not too much--maybe I caught them on a bad day. Like I said, I may not know them too well, but sometimes I do know enough about them to know that the confident, strong, inspiring leader that I met 10 years ago, for example, isn't the same person telling me that the end is near--in fact, it is often quite the opposite. But my perception doesn't necessarily mean too much. Nonetheless, when I hear his/her message, the voice I hear in his admonitions is a melancholic one, not the voice of Isaiah nor Elijah--who were filled with a noticeable hope. In these guys, I really do not hear any hope, only doom and gloom. But, like I said earlier, I may be the one being deceived--certainly the followers would have me think so.