09/15/25 MY ROLE AS A PROPHET

09/15/25 MY ROLE AS A PROPHET

I have experienced a wide range of roles in my ministry call, including preaching (proclaiming), pastoring (which includes warning, comforting, teaching truth [Scriptural, doctrinal, practical, relational, historical, cultural]), correcting, reproving, instructing in righteousness, evangelizing, counseling, administrating, leading, interceding, envisioning, reconciling.

Early in my ministry I asked God to enable me to do the work of a prophet, specifically to cry aloud and spare not, as He directed Isaiah.
Isaiah 58:1
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

A preacher of the truth reproves the works of darkness on the personal and social and national levels. There is no such thing as preaching the gospel without exposing the wickedness of men and wicked government. I prefer exhorting individuals to righteousness, but I must also expose the vile corruption of society and wayward government.

This does not mean being a crude, unfeeling, ruthless hammer of judgment. There should not be any joy in the thought of people being lost, being ruined and going to hell. My job as a preacher or pastor is reconciliation through faith in the Lamb of God, slain for our transgressions and raised for our deliverance.

I much rather prefer proclaiming the riches and the glory of God, the mercy and grace of God and His salvation, than uttering the judgments of God, the horrors of hell, the filthiness of sin. Proclaiming the whole counsel of God includes the righteous judgment of God and the loving reconciliation of God through Christ.

God prefers to draw us to Himself through His blessings, but He will resort to driving people through His judgments, and then He will leave them to their evil devices if they do not turn from their wicked ways.
Being a faithful messenger of God includes being instant in season and out of season (when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient), planting and uprooting, building up and tearing down, judgment and mercy. 

Being a messenger of God means that I have encountered and taken a relentless hold of God. It also means that I must engage the Enemy of our souls and fight the good fight of faith, leading forward in battle and victory over Darkness and defeat.

As a pastor, as a preacher of the gospel, as a prophet of God, I want people to be drawn to a closer walk with God, but if they are not hearing and heeding the truth of victory, then I must pull back the curtain of God's righteous judgment against sin and sinners. This is the call, the ministry, the responsibility of every pastor. This is what every pastor, church, believer should be doing. But sadly, this isn't the reality today.