10 Reasons Why Prophets are Needed in the Local Church

10 Reasons Why Prophetic are Needed in the Local Church.

So, why are prophets needed in the local church?

Because local churches and church leaders desperately need the active anointing of prophets in their churches, in fact without a serious prophetic voice the local church cannot stand in its full destiny and potential. Without prophets in the local church the church will be limited in the expansion of God’s Kingdom.

Therefore, the local church and pastors need accountable, relational prophetic voices with a track record rooted into their churches to release the prophetic anointing and declare the living ‘now’ word of God.

A lot of the time the prophet is pushed to one side in favour of the ministry gifts that are deemed more important: the evangelist, the pastor and the teacher. But with the role of the prophet or even the apostolic, people don’t really understand, especially some of the strange supernatural happenings that follow their ministry.

But these people are vitally needed in the local church. The prophet is not just for a conference or a teaching/ training session; they are to be rooted and grown into local church and the local church desperately needs the prophetic.

Churches cannot be solely built upon the pastor; it needs the full five-fold ministry working together in unison. There is a reason why local church is built on the foundations of apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2.19-20), yet the other ministry gifts are placed into more importance. What you end up with is a 'teachy', pastoral and even evangelistic church but not the prophetic or apostolic or not its full extent.

The majority of mainstream churches (specifically in the UK) have elevated and welcomed the pastoral office and the teaching office they welcome the evangelistic office and church is then built on these ministries. So below I am going to give 10 reasons why are prophets needed in the local church.

10 Reasons Why Prophetic are Needed in the Local Church:

1. Prophets are needed in the local church because most of the time you cannot teach or pastor your way into a spiritual breakthrough, shift, change of season or even fresh revelation. Churches need the prophetic anointing because not everything can be taught, things can also be imparted or caught in order to bring acceleration into the church.

2. Prophets are needed in the local church because there needs to be ongoing revelatory shifts in churches an impartation of revelation and that is what the prophetic does. It calls things forth and into being (Ezekiel 37.1-14). It up roots and destroys, it builds and plants (Jeremiah 1.10). It makes a highway for God (Matthew 3.3) and brings God’s ‘now’ word into the hear-and-now to bring alignment, holiness, purpose and fruit into the local church.

3. Prophets are needed in the local church because at times, it is not good enough just to let prophetic people speak general prophetic revelation. But revelation needs to be spoken for the ‘hour’ you are in or entering into. For example, one could have general revelation about the glory cloud (Exodus 40.34) which is good, but what is needed is revelation for the ‘hour’, in other words where the glory cloud has moved onto ‘now’ (Numbers 9.17).

Jesus only done what he saw the Father doing (John 5.19); He had revelation for the ‘hour’. Jesus knew when the anointing was on him to move in healing (Luke 5.17) or when it was just resting on him (Matthew 9.20-22). When He recognised the anointing for healing it brought forth the manifest anointing of the ‘hour’ into the physical realm and people saw a tangible shift because He knew the ‘hour’ was for now and he moved in the ‘now’.

4. Prophets are needed in the local church because the prophetic will break open the door to the power of God and the supernatural to flow in local church.

5. Prophets are needed in the local church because the prophet will help in implementing, understanding and point to your church vision, because prophets understand the big picture and are future orientated. Prophets can help speak into and give guidance to the vision of the particular local church, they understand vision and can be the pastor’s greatest practical asset because they see their vision and they help leaders hear accurately what is on God’s heart for the church

6. Prophets are needed in the local church because they see dangers up ahead and warn the church of future problems or even attacks of the enemy. Prophets are needed because they see and discern spiritual issues that have been overlooked or not given attention by the pastor. They can warn of spiritual warfare issues up ahead or where sin is giving the enemy a foothold.

7. Prophets are needed in the local church because they help release vision in people of the church and call forth their callings in God.

8. Prophets are needed in the local church because the prophetic will rock the boat, it will shake apathy. Push the church forward. It will kick off low expectations. The prophetic will call for a higher standard both in terms of holiness and in the presence of God. The prophetic will shout death to both religiosity, hyper-grace, control and legalism. Prophets do not always fit or toe the party line; that is part of their calling (that is why understanding from both prophets and pastors are needed).

9. Prophets are needed in the local church because they can identify Jezebel (1 Kings 17) and its manoeuvrings against the pastor and the church.

10. Prophets are needed in the local church because they help to create a prophetic culture and an environment of the supernatural in the church. People within the local church start to develop hearing from God and a growth of a prophetic environment starts embedding itself within the whole church.

These ten reasons are why prophets are needed in the local church. Those with a strong accurate prophetic voice are desperately needed and need to be embedded into the local church working with leaders in the context of fellowship. Prophets cannot be just for the conference or training programmes. Local churches need to make space, allow, develop and commission those who carry the ‘now’ word of God in live amongst their churches.

Yes, they may need shaping, maturing and teaching, but they carry breakthrough, power and are anointed to see shifts in seasons and for local churches to grow and develop into all they can be they God; they need the prophets.