Lone Prophets

Gene Redlin at Northern Gleaner has stumbled on the importance of prophetic teams. When several prophets function together, the anointing is multiplied, not added. The Holy Spirit loves to chop up a revelation into a jigsaw and give pieces to different people and then watch their excitement as they put it back together.

The other side of this is that we can often assume that we have the whole picture when we are only holding a piece of a jigsaw. The piece that we have might be pretty, but we need to get together with others to get the full picture. I suspect an unbelievably large number of people have been given partial messages by lone prophets.

The one-one man band was never part of God’s economy. The lone prophet (and the lone evangelist, and the lone pastor) should never have got past Pentecost. The big man syndrome is a curse on the church. God’s way is a big Holy Spirit working trough a whole lot of little men.

On the other hand, while there is strength in several prophets working together (1 Cor 14:29) there are also risks. I have seen a group of prophets get together and rark each other up in the flesh. The result is not a pretty sight.

God’s way is to bring a few prophets together with someone with a pastoral gifting and an evangelist being present as well. The latter two would help the prophets keep their feet on the ground. (I am not referring to a one-man band pastor. He would just try to control the whole set up).

There is a real safety in a balanced ministry. When several people with different giftings (that sometimes rub against each other) submit to each other in love, the anointing is multiplied even further. That is the next step up from a prophetic team.