PROPHETS

Amos 4:7 really bothers me: "Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets" - for the simple reason that nobody seems to know what God is doing until after He's finished. It's not necessary to reveal a result, a done deal, but where are the prophets to whom the LORD reveals what He is planning? And while we're at it, where are the ones who, like the men of Issachar, understand the times and know what should be done (1 Chronicles 12:32)?
 
Did the LORD stop revealing, or did we stop listening? Have we become so convinced that prophecy equals preaching only, or at most extends to a personal word for an individual, that we are not willing to accept that He can, and does, foretell the future? Was Agabus, who foretold events both corporate (Acts 11:28) and personal (Acts 21:10), just an aberration in the New Testament, almost the dying twitches of a pre-church curiosity? Or was he a natural part of the landscape of faith that we studiously avoid?
 
It is crucial not to be "of this world", but it is equally crucial to understand that we are "in the world" for a reason - not to facilitate withdrawal, but to actively be a part of God's strategy in human history. And to do that, we need to have at least some idea of what He's doing in our times, but the prophets are silent. Or probably deaf. Or both.
 
Yes, I know I might be one of those missing prophets. And that really scares me dumb.
 
 

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