A man introduced himself as a prophet and the pastor ridiculed him for it.

School of the Prophets and Pastors

A man introduced himself as a prophet and the pastor ridiculed him for it. The prophet had attended a school to become a prophet and the pastor had attended seminary to become a pastor. Each had to pay a fee for their education. The pastor went on to say that no school of the prophets should charge people money to become prophets. The prophet replied that no man or school can decide the ministry office of an individual but it does take money to run a school. The pastor was certain of his own calling but felt the prophet was being presumptuous of his. Both the prophet and the pastor felt a strong calling to the ministry. They both began preparing for it by attending schools that charged a tuition.

Bible college, seminary, and prophetic schools of ministry for advanced Christian education are different names for the same thing. A pastor that attends Bible college is no different than a prophet that attends a school for prophets. The school does not make a person a pastor or a prophet, it only helps to equip them for what God has called them to be.

The pastor who ridiculed the prophet said that he could not think of anywhere in the Bible where a prophet called himself a prophet. The prophet said. “Come to think of it, I can’t think of anywhere in the Bible that a pastor called himself a pastor.”

Pastor, senior pastor, associate pastor, we hear it all the time and we see it everywhere in print; the sign at the church, the church bulletin, business cards and web-sites. With every church there is a pastor that calls himself a pastor, but where are the prophets?

The office of a pastor is not superior to that of a prophet. Both are listed in the five anointing s of Christ in (Ephesians 4:11). If there are true pastors, there are true prophets. If there are false prophets, there are also false pastors. Self proclaimed prophets are not any more dangerous to the body of Christ than self appointed pastors. A pastor is in the position of a shepherd and capable of leading his flock astray. To lead innocent sheep away from the prophetic anointing of Christ is against the Word of God, and sometimes God calls upon the prophets to point that out.

It is vital to every calling of God, that the one called knows the office of his calling. Paul the apostle was a man that knew what he was called to be and how to stand in the authority of that call. He said “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me…” (2 Corinthians 13:3). He continually reiterated the fact that he was an apostle called by God and not by man.

Paul was constantly dealing with unbelief concerning his anointing in Christ, yet he never allowed it to detour him from what he was called to be. In the New Testament account, Paul knew who he was, and in the Old Testament, so did Elijah. Paul called himself an apostle of Christ, and Elijah called himself a prophet of the Lord (1 Kings 18:22).

When Ahab, the king over Israel had forsaken the commandments of the Lord, he said to Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” Prophets of the Lord have a long history of rejection because they are known to stir up and agitate a situation that God is about to judge.

Pastor Tilson Shumate