God Desires that All His People would be Prophets, God’s Spokesmen who Speak for God

God’s desire in both the Old and the New Testament was that His people would speak for Him; Moses expressed God’s desire when he said, Oh that all of God’s people would be prophets (Num. 11:29).

However, when we speak of the matter of being a prophet, many today think that to prophesy is to predict the future, and they would not consider themselves as being prophets.

However, being a prophet is not mainly to be one who speaks what the future holds but rather to speak for God and to speak God forth.

The first mention of the word prophet in the Bible is in Genesis, when Abimelech took Sarah whom Abraham said was his wife, and God spoke to this pagan king that Abraham was a prophet, so he shouldn’t touch his wife.

How much predicting did Abraham? He was a prophet of God because he knew God and spoke to God and for God, but did not do much foretelling.

Whenever God gains a person who knows Him and speaks for Him, even speaks Him forth, that person is a prophet, and God can be expressed through him.

The second mention of prophets in the Bible is in Num. 11:29.

The background here is that the people murmured again and again against Moses and Jehovah because of the lack of food and water, so Moses told God that he can’t handle all these murmurings by himself, he can’t face all these complaints…God told him to gather seventy from among the elders in Israel, bring them to the Tent of Meeting, and there God intended to place the Spirit that was upon Moses also upon the seventy.

And God did that, and when God’s Spirit was placed upon them, they all prophesied.

However, two of them remained in the camp, and the Spirit fell on them also and they prophesied; one young man saw this and reported it to Moses, and even Joshua said, Should we restrain them, for they are not here with us in the Tent of Meeting?

Then Moses reacted by saying, Are you jealous for me? Oh that all of God’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!

Moses uttered God’s desire to have all of His people as His spokesmen, those who know God and speak for God, even speak God forth, for God to be expressed and for His heart’s desire to be manifested and known.

Moses desired that all of God’s people would be prophets, and in the New Testament Paul also desired the same thing, for he discovered that prophesying builds up the church.

May the Lord remove any veils from our eyes that we may see how God desires that all His people would be prophets, what a prophet is, and how can we be prophets speaking for God and speaking God forth.

A Prophet is God’s Spokesman, one who speaks for God and speaks forth God into man

What is a prophet? According to the Bible, a prophet is not mainly one who predicts the future but one who speaks for another; for example, because Moses was slow of tongue, Aaron was his prophet, for he spoke for him (see Exo. 7:1-4; 4:16).

To prophesy is to speak for God and to speak God forth, making known what God’s heart and intentions are to others.

Our natural understanding is that a prophet is one who predicts or foretells something in the future; such a thought is not wrong but it is incomplete, for the basic thought is that a prophet speaks on behalf of God.

In the Bible a prophet doesn’t mainly foretell the future but rather speaks for God and speaks God forth into others.

Prophets are God’s spokesmen, for they speak for God and they speak forth God (see Isa. 1:1-2a; 6:8-9; Jer. 1:1-4; Ezek. 1:3; 2:1-7).

Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, they all spoke for God and spoke forth God; on one hand they did speak some things that were to happen in the future, but mainly what they did is communicate to God’s people what God wanted to speak to them.

A prophet is God’s spokesman, one who speaks for God and speaks forth God; a prophet is one sent by God to His people to function and act as God’s spokesman, speaking only what God wants him to speak.

God is hidden, but through the speaking of the prophets, God Himself and His intention are explained and made known to His people (Isa. 45:15; Eph. 1:9; 3:3-5).

Prophets are persons who contact God and receive God’s revelation directly, and then, being borne by the Spirit of God, they speak for God and speak forth God (2 Pet. 1:21).

God’s desire is that all of His people – both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament – would be prophets, God’s spokesmen who speak for God and speak forth God.

Our God is a speaking God; He created the universe by His speaking, and He brought forth the new creation by Himself as the Word of God who was embodied to become flesh and then become a life-giving Spirit.

As the speaking God, He desires to reproduce Himself in His people that they would be His speaking people.

Our natural concept of prophesying – which might have been tainted by the “Pentecostal movement”, is that we can’t all be prophets, for a prophet is one who predicts the future, so you need to be in a special condition and situation, and you need to have God’s Spirit to inspire you and tell you what to say to predict what will happen.

But to be a prophet is to be God’s spokesman, that is, to spend time with God, know God, and speak for God and speak forth God.

Thank You Lord for Your desire to have all Your people be prophets, the ones who know God and speak for God, even speak forth God into man. Amen, Lord, we want to know You, be infused with You, be filled with Your word, and be God’s spokesmen today. Unveil us to see and practice the real meaning of being a prophet. May we know the God who not only hides Himself but also reveals Himself in His word, and may we know Your intention and desire. Fill us with Your Word, Lord, and lead us by Your Spirit to speak God and speak forth God into man!

God Desires that All His People would be Prophets, and we all can Prophesy one by one

Moses’ desire expressed in Num. 11:29 was that all the people of Israel would be prophets, those who spoke for God.

He had God’s heart, which is that not just one or a few would speak for God but that all of God’s people would be God’s spokesmen, those who prophesy for God.

This word in Num. 11:29 was a great prophecy uttered by Moses, and Paul in the New Testament agrees with him, for in 1 Cor. 14:31 we are told that we all can prophesy one by one, that all would learn and all would be encouraged.

The word that Moses spoke in Num. 11:29 was promoted by Paul in 1 Cor. 14, and it is fulfilled in God’s New Testament economy by the prophesying of the believers in the meetings of the church.

It is God’s desire that all His people would be prophets; Moses was one with God in the Old Testament to utter that desire, and Paul was also one with God in the New Testament to say this.

Paul promoted the matter of prophesying to the uttermost, calling it the top gift for the building up of the church.

We all can prophesy one by one; it is not just a few gifted ones that can prophesy, but every one of God’s children are qualified to speak for God.

It is likely that Paul’s concept came from Moses, because Paul – as one who understood the Old Testament – must have been familiar with what Moses said in Num. 11:29.

So we see that in both the Old and the New Testament God wants His people to be prophets, that is, He wants His people to speak for Him and speak Him forth.

However, both in the Old and in the New Testament we see that God’s people missed this; in the Old Testament the people asked Moses to speak for them, and in the New Testament age there’s a clergy-laity system in which some speak while others can’t.

But praise the Lord for His recovery – He wants to recover the function of all His people, and He desires that all His people would be prophets and speak to Him!

According to 1 Cor. 14:26, whenever the church comes together, each one of us has a psalm, a word, a hymn, a speaking, etc – not just those who went to a special seminary to be trained to speak, but each believer has something to speak to one another for building up.

In Eph. 4:11-16 we see that the ascended Christ gave gifts to men, and these gifts are for the perfecting of the saints unto the building up of the Body of Christ through the joints of the rich supply and the operation in the measure of each one part.

Brother Watchman Nee said that he is not worried about the fulfilment of John 3:16, but he is worried and concerned whether Eph. 4 can be fulfilled in this age, and how can 1 Cor. 14 be realised among us before the Lord’s return. Oh Lord Jesus!

We thank and praise the Lord that we can see and enter into the fulfilment of Eph. 4 and 1 Cor 14, for in the church life we don’t have a professional class of speakers but rather, every member of the Body is equipped, every member is learning to speak God’s word, and we all speak for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ.

This is not generally seen in Christianity, where the clergy-laity system in its many forms (like pastors, reverends, bishops, worship leaders, etc) is prevailing.

On one hand the Lord wants us to grow in life unto maturity, and on the other hand, He wants us to be in His word daily and fellowship with Him to have His instant and constant speaking so that whenever we meet and wherever we are we can be God’s spokesmen, those who prophesy.

So we need to fight the battle by being in the word of God; this word is our equipment, for we fight the enemy not with our ideas and thoughts but by the Word of God.

When the Lord was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He used the word to defeat the devil.

At the end in Rev. 19, in the greatest battle at Armageddon, the One riding on a white horse with a robe upon Him and a name written, The Word of God, he will engage with the enemy in spiritual battle by His word!

When we grow in life and speak for God, we will defeat the enemy! Amen!

Lord Jesus, we desire to grow in life unto maturity and also to speak for God, to speak forth God, so that we may be God’s spokesmen on earth today. Keep us in Your word, being infused with Your element and having Your instant and constant speaking. Lord, may Your word be our delight, our food, our joy, and also our sword and equipment to speak for God! Oh that all the people of God would be prophets, that God would put His Spirit upon them that they may speak for God and speak forth God into man!

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References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 3,”The Divine Speaking,” pp. 280-281, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 9, Moses Desiring That All Jehovah’s People Would Be Prophets.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The testimony and the prayer, / And all the fellowship we share, / The exercise of gifts, whate’er, / Should just exhibit Christ. (Hymns #864)
  # If we will speak, Christ will witness in the hearts of men. / If we will speak, Christ will witness in the hearts of men. / Tell every man, / Win all we can. / Through our speaking, Christ is speaking in the hearts of men! (Hymns #1294)
  # Our hearts are overflowing / To speak a goodly thing— / To tell what we’ve experienced / Of our exalted King. / Our tongues as pens are ready, / We’ve volumes here to “write”— / The glories of our Bridegroom, / Our Lord and our delight. (Hymns #1098)