Introduction - The Role of Apostles and Prophets

Ephesians 2:19 and 20 says,

Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone];

Before God began to restore the church and the Fivefold Ministry, the main ministries that were recognised were the Pastor and Evangelist. Prophets and Apostles were considered to have passed away.

But today God has fully restored all the members of the Fivefold Ministry, and the main leadership ministries amongst these five are still the Apostle and Prophet.

We were actively involved in helping to launch the new Prophetic Move at the turn of the last century, and also the subsequent launch of the new Apostolic Move at the turn of the new century.

Since then we have been training God's Prophets and Apostles and have seen many rise up into full ministry office with the right training and encouragement.

Much has happened since the first Prophetic and Apostolic Movements, and the Lord showed me in recent years that He was bringing two new waves to the Body of Christ, that would represent an updated and slightly different flavor of these ministries.

We started giving out teaching on these ministries at the beginning of this century, but many new things have come up and some things have changed in the way these ministries operate.

So it is time for some updated teachings on these two vital ministries and especially the role and function of these as Ministry Offices.

This book is my first attempt to update and present to you the latest revelation that God has given concerning the Apostle and Prophet. I trust it will drop some pieces in place for you and help you to understand what God is doing through the Apostles and Prophets of the End Times Church.

I hope it will also help you to understand your own role in these ministries if God has called you to this higher level.

In His Presence

Les D. Crause

July 2018

The New Testament Prophet

Chapter 01 - Clarifying the Prophetic Call

I want to start by sharing some Scriptures with you. Amos 3:7 and 8 says,

Surely the Lord God will do nothing unless he reveals his secrets to his servants the prophets.
The lion has roared, who will not fear? The Lord has spoken, who can but prophesy?

I am going to share now a fairly lengthy passage of Scripture which most of you know. It is from the book of Jeremiah 1:5 to 10. It says,

Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I set you apart, [and] I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! look, I cannot speak: for I [am] a child.
But the Lord [Yahweh] said to me, Do not say, I [am] a child: for you will go to all that I will send you, and you will speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of their faces: for I [am] with you to deliver you, says the Lord [Yahweh]
Then the Lord [Yahweh] put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord [Yahweh] said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant.

Not for New Testament Prophets

This passage from Jeremiah is probably the most well known one for most people who think they are called to be prophets. I have heard people telling me that God gave them this Scripture as confirmation of their calling.

I have also heard of prophets prophesying this over people to confirm that they are called to be prophets.

But let me tell you what I think of that. This passage from Jeremiah is not for the New Testament prophet. It has nothing to do with the New Testament prophet. In fact it is not even connected. So if you think this is your call, let it go.

That might seem like quite a death. But get used to it, because death is a way of life for the prophet.

So why is this not for the New Testament prophet? Let me explain.

Not Just for Prophetic

Firstly the Fivefold Prophet is not set apart only for the prophetic as Jeremiah said he was. The Prophetic Ministry can be carried out by every believer in the New Testament.

God does not have to set you apart specifically and give you alone the ability to prophesy. Every Christian and every Spirit-filled believer can do this.

The Prophetic Office is attained through a process of training, not through calling. Also you should have first functioned in some of the other ministries before you move into this higher level of the Prophetic Office.

When you qualify, you will be placed into Prophetic Office. Then after that you can still add more ministries and offices too if you wish.

So this idea that God called you from the womb to be a prophet doesn't hold water in the New Testament. Sorry, but let it go. I don't care if all the big names out there have taught it, it is nonsense.

No Calling to Nations

Secondly, a Fivefold Prophet is not called to the nations. You might say to me,

“Wow, God has called me as a prophet to the nations. Aren't I awesome? Aren't I going to be big?”

Let it die. God has not called you to the nations. Do you know what the word nations means in that verse? It has nothing to do with the nations of the world. There were only two groups that were known at that time. There was God's people and the rest.

God's people was the nation of Israel. The rest was everybody else. So when God told Jeremiah that He had called him to be a prophet to the nations, the direct translation there is to the Gentiles, other people and non-Jews.

It had nothing to do with ‘the nations', but people say,

“God has called me to be a prophet to the nations. I'm going to travel from country to country and say, ‘Thus says the Lord to you, France, God has a word for you.' ”

It is baloney! I can feel that I am hitting some deep archetypes here.

If you want to allegorize this, Israel stands for the church, God's people. That means that the nations are unbelievers.

God has not called the Fivefold Prophet, particularly in the Prophetic Office, to minister to unbelievers. He has called everybody to minister to unbelievers. You don't even need to be in ministry to minister to unbelievers.

Your unique calling in the Prophetic Office is to the church, not to the world. So there again, this whole passage falls down because it has nothing to do with the New Testament prophet.

Jesus gave the Fivefold Ministry as gifts to the church. Prophets who go round giving words for different nations or countries are not functioning in Prophetic Office.

I don't have to rattle off the names of all the so-called big ministries out there. You know who they are, and they are giving a prophetic word for this nation and that nation.

Some of the biggest names who tried this, got into hot water and had to be removed. They are no longer with us in this earth. You might have known some of them.

They always major on God's word to such-and-such a nation. God doesn't give words to nations because they are unbelievers. God gives words to His people.

If a prophet is to speak a word to a nation, He is going to speak a different kind of word. God doesn't speak to a nation. He speaks to individuals.

I'm not saying a prophet cannot speak a word relating to His country or the leaders of that country. But that word is not going to be a, “Thus says the Lord…” It is going to be a decree that says,

“I declare in the name of the Father, that this is going to happen.”

I as a prophet am not going to simply predict. I am going to make it happen. We will cover that shortly as we go on.

Definition of a Prophet

How do you define a prophet? The word prophet or prophesy has got a narrow meaning and has become thought of in a very narrow way today.

Spokesperson Not Predictor

When someone predicts the future, we call them a prophet. We call the guy who tells us whether it is going to rain or snow tomorrow the weather prophet, because he predicts the weather. And so we have this idea that the word prophet means to predict.

But there is a lot more to being a prophet than predicting the future. In fact, predicting the future is not really the role of the New Testament prophet, particularly someone in the Prophetic Office. It is not their role at all.

The prophet is God's spokesperson who speaks on behalf of God. If that is true, then we need to think about what God says. Because what God wants to say, He is going to say through the prophet.

If God wants to speak, He is going to use a human being to speak in the earth. God can speak from the heavenly realm, and when He wants to speak in the earth, He looks for a human channel to speak through.

Necessities for Being a Prophet

For those who are going to be used in this way by God, there are certain things that are absolutely necessary.

Firstly, the prophet had better know that he or she is speaking God's words and not their own. Secondly, they had better know how to speak these words correctly.

And thirdly, none of this comes naturally. Nobody just knows how to do this. You have to learn how to do it, which means you are will have to get taught how to do it.

You might say, “I am called to be a prophet. Here I go.”

“How do you know you are a prophet?”

“Because God showed me the Scripture from Jeremiah 1. He said He has called me to be a prophet to the nations. So I will put the title Prophet in front of my name and off we go.”

Sorry, but there is a lot more involved than that.