Over the last couple of months I have had a similar conversation with many different people about the difference between the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12 and the office of the prophet in Ephesians 4. When multiple people are asking same question, that is usually a reflection or a representation of many more people wondering the same thing. Clearly, there is a need for God to open our understanding in this area.

There are very specific distinctions between the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12 and the office of the prophet in Ephesians 4. For instance, the 1 Corinthians 12 gift is open to all. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 14:31 says all may prophesy; it is a gift that is not only open to all but we are all encouraged to earnestly and eagerly desire to do so. The gift of prophecy is given the scriptural "scaffolding" and a safety net of encouragement, comfort, and edification. Those rules keep people safe and tell us how we can each do our part as led by the Holy Spirit to build one another up in the Body.

However, if you impose that same scaffolding to the Ephesians 4 prophet, you will grossly limit what God is asking and needing the prophet to do and to be for the benefit of His church.

We are introduced to the office of the prophet in Genesis. Abraham is the first of many named and unnamed prophets, both men and women, in the Bible. God takes the office of the prophet and weaves him or her through the Old Testament and brings him into the New Testament--intact. God then adds to the prophets existing OT responsibilities:

• knowing times and seasons,

• being a watchman,

• having the ability to bring correction,

• to rip up and to plant, and

brings him into the church community and connects him to the other five-fold ministers in Ephesians 4.

The prophet is also specifically connected to the apostle to create the governmental foundation for the church. In addition, as part of the five-fold ministry, the prophet is called to equip and mature the saints for the work of the ministry. In that capacity, the prophet brings the voice of the Lord to the Body of Christ and opens the atmosphere so that everyone can connect and hear the Lord for themselves. The prophet is called to equip the ecclesia to have their own encounter with God.

They are never to be an intermediary, since Jesus broke down the dividing wall once and for all.

Question: Can someone who maturely operates in the 1 Corinthians 12 gift of prophecy "graduate" or "develop" into being a prophet?

Answer: No. God sovereignly chooses and calls those who He desires to be His prophets. Just like he did with the prophets in the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, just to name a few. There are many other biblical examples.

Question: Can a person be an Ephesians 4 prophet and not be able to delivering a 1 Corinthians 12 prophetic word?

Answer: Yes! But remember, the gift is available and open to all. The prophet can grow in their ability to personally minister to those around them just like everyone else in the Body.

Most churches today, IF they have a grid for the prophetic at all, it is mostly for personal ministry. So, most prophets learn how to do to prophesy since that may be the only acceptable outlet for their gift. They put themselves (knowingly or unknowingly) into a box to be obedient to their leadership and to stay in community. And since prophets are very comfortable working with the Trinity, they can learn and develop their ability to deliver a robust personal prophetic word.

The other side of this coin is that some prophets remove themselves from the church altogether (to the detriment of the Body of Christ) because they feel misunderstood, unseen, and because there is no space for them in some of their more extreme postures.

Prophets still have visions, act out (seemingly) strange prophetic acts, and can be the living embodiment of God's message to those around them. Many of today's churches do not understand what to do with this type of heavenly intel. As a result, they are not hearing the full voice or heart of the Lord. Or quite possibly, many are only hearing the encouraging, comfortable, and edifying messages, missing the full encounter with God that having a prophet in their midst will bring if that prophet were permitted and encouraged to grow, mature, and develop into the fullness of the gift and office that God has created them to be.

Needless to say, we need the gift of prophecy and the office of the prophet! We also need the fullness of what the five-fold ministry is called to do in our churches today.