The Roles of the Prophets

  We shall continue our series on how God communicates Himself or reveals Himself to humanity and today our attention would be on the Prophets, come with me as we see this together.

   After the fall, when God no longer spoke to humanity directly, He communicated with them through men and women whom the bible calls seers or prophets (1sam 9:9).The word prophet(in hebrew  nabi) means “one called by God”. The prophet is a person who proclaims Divine messages. These may relate to the past, the present or the future, and many consist of  exhortation, instruction, consolation, or prediction. The English word prophet come from the Greek prophetes, a combination of the preposition pro ,”for”,or “on behalf of” with the verb phemi “to speak”. Thus the idea being “to speak for”.

How does this text (exodus4:10-17) help us better understand the role of the prophets?

     Here Moses objects to God’s call for him to go to Egypt and confront  Pharaoh,claiming that he is “slow of speech and of a slow tongue”.(vs10).Even after God reminded Moses that he had made the mouth and would enable him to speak before Pharaoh,Moses still objected,how many of us today in our own little corner and way have consistently objected to doing the will of God giving excuses of our career or jobs, our children, our comfort,our discomfort,our education,allowing all of these things to make us deviate from the track, God is ever willing to make use of us as long as we empty our cups of  all the excuses and let him know where we are stuck just as he did in the case of Moses.Then God told Moses that he would send Aaron to go with him,  “he shall be your spokesman to the people,and you shall be to him as god.”(vs16).as  Moses was to be spokesperson for god ,so Aaron would spokesperson for Moses,thus a prophet speaks for someone.

     The prophet may speak to humankind on behalf of God , or vice versa. The primary task of a prophet is to declare the Divine will.Throughout the history or Isreal,the prophets main task was to guide gods people.Particularly during the time of monarchy,when the kings often “did that which was evil in the sight of the lord”(2kings 13:2),the prophetic institution was the guardian of the theocracy.The prophets upheld the law of God and taught it to the people.

     Today what we see all over the screens of our Tv’s and all that we hear on the radio are so called “prophets” who parade themselves as preachers of God’s word but who do not uphold the tenets of Gods law. Let those who are called to the work or being prophets do the job let no mediocre be involved in this institution that God has ordained for the purpose of His work, let the people beware also of this men who parade themselves as prophets when they are actually not, they are deceptive, and they have lured a lot of people into evil.

      Let the Akpa Chigozie Blog Newsletter come to your email every week to help renew your spiritual life.When you're torn apart,worn out and distracted by the world,take a moment to be inspired by stories of what God has done in the past with his people and be energised by news of how He is moving in dramatic ways around the world.Click on this link to subscribe to the Akpa Chigozie  Blog Newsletter today and experience an important part of sustainable Christian living.

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How does nature reveal God?(Psalm19:1-6)

     

image is coutesy birdswallpaper

The Bible tells us that the world God created was perfect in  every way(Gen 1:31).But scripture  also reveals that sin has altered the natural world(Gen 3:17,18).Prior to the fall,only beautiful useful plants were found upon the earth.God "never made a thorn,a thistle,or a tare.These are satan's work,the result of degeneration".Ellen  G White, Testimonies to the Church Vlo6 Page 186.Nevertheless,there is still great beauty in the changing of the leaves in autumn,in a vivid sunset,and in the opening of a rosebud on a sunny morning.

image is courtesy Teresa Kasner

       Bible writers often refer to the phenomina of nature as a revelation of Gods majesty and greatness(Psalm8&104).Consider the universe! on a clear night one can see with the naked eye thousands of stars.However,our Milky Way galaxy has about two hundred billion stars and thats only one galaxy several hundred billion galaxies that we now can see.Who knows how many more are beyond our telescope!
       Distances in the universe boggle  the mind:Apart from the sun,the nearest star to our earth,Alpha Centauri,is 4.28 light years away (one light year is the distance light travels in one year 5.9trillion miles).A spaceship travelling 100,00miles per hour would require about 29,000 years to get there.In contrast,our Milky Way has a diameter of 100,000 light years! The largest galaxy known thus far is Markarian,with diameter of 1.3million light years.

How God communicated In the Beginning

image is courtesy Mark Mallet

    This series started some days ago with our first post which explains the medium through
which heaven reveals God and communicates with humanity read it up here Heavens Means of Communication.
    Today we are taking a step to better understanding this series,to do this we have to take a conscious retrace back to the origin,the Beginning and through this retrace we can by Gods grace find answers to our nagging question which is,How does God reveal/communicate Himself with humanity?.
     In the Garden of Eden God spoke with Adam and Eve face to face(Gen3:8). However,after that fateful day,when they blatantly disobeyed their Lord,they no longer were allowed to enjoy His presence(Gen3:23,24),as they were chased out of the Garden of Eden,and their face to face communion/communication with God ended.We must therefore take thoughts for ourselves as sin is a great thing that seperates us from Gods presence as the more we dwell in sin the deeper and faster we loose contact with our creator,as His creatures we must therefore keep distances from sin so as to keep our communion with  God.
     What do the the following texts(Gen32:30,Exo33:11,Judges6:22) tell us about face to face encounters with God?.When we look at those texts we would see that at different occasions, some persons had epressions like "I have seen the Angel of the Lord  face to face".Frequently the Old Testament identifies the Angel of God or the Angel of the Lord with God Himself.Jacob refers to God and the Angel in the same way(Gen48:16);the Angel of the Lord appears to Moses in the burning bush,yet,it is God who speak to him(Exo3:2);the Angel who appeared to Gideon is identified with God(Judges6:11).In all of this text we find out that God appears to humanity,but whenever God manifested Himself to human beings in a bodily form,it was always in a humanlike manifestation.
      In John1:18 John says "No man hath seen God at any time,the only begotten son,which is in the bossom of the Father,He had declared Him".The Divine Being,therefore,Who appeared to the people in the Old Testament must have been Jesus not the Father.Ellen G White tells us that "after the transgression of Adam,the Lord spoke no longer directly to man;the human race was given into the hands of Christ,and all communication came through Him to the world.It was Christ who gave the law on Mount Sinai".Fundamentals of Christian Education pg237.238.As Christians we must strife on daily basis to live a life free from sin so that our dear Lord can commune with us.Next week we would look at How God Communicates with us through Nature.
       Let the Akpa Chigozie Blog Newsletter come to your email every week to help renew your spiritual life.When you're torn apart,worn out and distracted by the world,take a moment to be inspired by stories of what God has done in the past with his people and be energised by news of how He is moving in dramatic ways around the world.Click on this link to subscribe to the Akpa Chigozie  Blog Newsletter today and experience an important part of sustainable Christian living.
         Please if you love what you've read on this page don't hesitate to share it to your friends and loved ones as well,God bless as you use the share button to do so.Dont forget you can also comment by clicking on the Post a comment link.


        Till we talk again
         Remain blessed.

Heaven's Means of Communication

image is courtesy emergingyouth

Text for the day:Hebrews 1:1,2
      For many years and through all of history,the question has been on virtually everyones lips,How does God communicate/reveal Himself to His people?,but the answer is,does He really have a medium,an avenue of revealing Himself and passing down information to the human race? or is our God mute.This questions are very important as they would lead us to getting answers from the word of God and the reality of God's communicative medium with humanity.
      Yes! God has means of communicating and in this post we would find out those mediums through which our God reveals Himself.There are two basic ways in which God has revealed Himself to humanity:Generally and Special revelation.General revelation is God's revelation of Himself to all people t,rom1:20). God's  revelation through nature and conscience(psalm19:1,rom1:20).God revelation through the prophets as recorded in scripture,especially His revelation through Jesus Christ,is special revelation.Through this means God appeared to the Old testament patriachs and prophets in order to make His will known.
       He revealed His power and purpose through Isreal's history(manna from heaven,red sea departing to give dry land,a pillar of cloud at night,the destruction of pharaoh and his army etc.).

image is courtesy supernatural life

Then,later,He sent His only begotten Son,Who, in the garb of humanity,revealed the Father in a unique and powerful way.
          In the coming days we would be looking at both types of revelation as it have to do with our christian journey.The coming posts at a glance:What is general and special revelation?,What can nature teach us about God?,What can it not teach us?,How does the revelation through Jesus Christ differ from God's other revelations?,so join me as we go through Gods word together.
          Let the Akpa Chigozie Blog Newsletter come to your email every week to help renew your spiritual life.When you're torn apart,worn out and distracted by the world,take a moment to be inspired by stories of what God has done in the past with his people and be energised by news of how He is moving in dramatic ways around the world.Click on this link to subscribe to the Akpa Chigozie  Blog Newsletter today and experience an important part of sustainable Christian living.
         Please if you love what you've read on this page don't hesitate to share it to your friends and loved ones as well,God bless as you use the share button to do so.Dont forget you can also comment by using the comment link.


Till we talk again
Remain blessed.