Pray to Prophesy

“Is Saul among the prophets, too?” (1 Samuel 19:19-24)

Take note here that Samuel the prophet and High Priest was hosting a School of the Prophets. In 2 Kings 2 we learn that Elijah later revived the academy for prophets. You have to understand that in Hebrew, the expression “son of” covers more territory than just literal progeny; “sons of the prophets” was a reference to the students in the prophets’ academy.

So what would be the curriculum of such an institution? You can look it up on the Net and get a lot of different answers, many of them vociferously denouncing each other. But it should be obvious if you first understand that Hebrew culture specifically, and the Ancient Near East (ANE) in general, presumed a heart-led awareness. Not that everyone lived by it, but that it was written into the very language of daily conversation with references to the heart rightly overruling the reason.

Once you accept the implications of that, you understand that moral discernment was the chief goal of all education, including the School of the Prophets. It was an in-depth study in soaking your mind in the revelation of God as a Person with a revealed moral character. This was hardly any different than training to for a staff position with any ANE feudal lord — you had to understand what the lord was like as a person and what it took to please him. A School of the Prophets would be founded on a curriculum of making sure your mind understood the ground rules of what God expected, and how He acted in human affairs on this earth.

Granted, that was a common expectation in Hebrew education as a whole. See Deuteronomy 6:6-9, and in that context, Jeremiah 31:33. The idea was not the literal memorization, but using that written expression of revelation as the gateway to a deeper moral awareness. Your brain can do only so much; it requires the backing of the heart where the fires of conviction burn. Inform the mind and it has some idea what to expect from your convictions. The School of the Prophets was a more concentrated form of this training, and included a lot of prophetic experiential lore, stuff that wasn’t written the Scripture.

One of the things you can discern from Scripture is that God doesn’t always enforce His Word as we might if it were our law. Most of the time, He grants people enough rope to hang themselves. If you don’t want to know Him, you don’t have to. He’ll let you pretend you understand from your human reason and walk pretty far down that path. So we read in 2 Chronicles that the Lord eventually enforced His commandment about sabbatical years on farming, but it was too late for the people to enjoy the blessing from that. That’s how God rules in this world. If you won’t listen to His prophets when they bring a word that provokes your heart, then you’ll face catastrophe in the long run. God is very patient.

Thus, we discover that prophecy as a calling is founded on knowing God’s moral character and His ways in general. On top of that, there must come a move of the Spirit to speak that truth to some audience. That’s something that comes entirely at God’s whim. That’s why Saul and his troops were overcome by the power of the Spirit. Do you suppose they took any joy in that powerful moment? Anyone can prophecy at the whim of God, but few are called to live the life of the prophet. There is a certain sense in which that preparatory study is required of everyone so that you can share in the full blessing should God choose to use you that way. We are all broken vessels, but the study of God’s truth heals the damage. If you absorb the healing truth, then you aren’t discarded once your usefulness has past. He keeps around the vessels He has healed.

This is what’s behind Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 14:5 that prophecy is a more desirable gift of the Spirit. He implies prophecy is also God’s preferred gift to give, if you dare to ask. Study for this gift, because all the others work better with that preparation.