Prophetic

[nina2]

"There were once specific "schools" which the young people who were perceived as being gifted and righteous enough to become prophets attended.

These students were referred to as "sons of prophets" (see 1 Kings 20:35, 2 Kings 2:3 for example), which is to say that they were prophets' disciples. And they would advance in their coursework, going from class to class, grade to grade, much the way young people do today.

But their curriculum was decidedly different. For not only did they study texts; among other things, they also studied from their master-prophet how to allow the emanation from above to seep into their beings.

They also learned to determine the difference between vague "senses" of something or another and actual communication with the Divine.

Do you agree with that?

Do you believe that the prophetic experience can be "induced" so to speak and "refined" through training?

Or is it a gift that spontaneously manifests and we should just accept it as such?

[stillfocused]

There must be training...yet, that training is nothing like we would expect.

[anointedteacher]

Yes... You can be gifted to sing, and take voice lesson. I Samuel had the company of the prophet... these guys were in training. It was the School of Prophets....

AT

[giantsdodie]

Yes you can train and mentor someone in that area the same way you could train and mentor someone called to be a pastor or evangelist.

However what you cannot do is give someone something they have not been equipped by GOD to do. You cannot make someone prophecy who doesnt have the gift and you cant make someone a prophet who GOD has not called to be a prophet.

Our church has a prophetic workshop which has a two fold purpose. To teach people the diffeence between real and flase prophecy and to educate people who have a prophetic gift or anointing the proper place of prophecy.

You can definitely refine their gift through training and mentoring.

However the most important thing you can ever help a prophetic person with ( and actually any saint ) is their CHARACTER and their relationship with GOD. That will impact that person more than anything.

[nina2]

I read this a series titled The Prophetic Experience, based on a broader work of Ramchal.

It does refer to the schools of prophets that AT mentioned also, and describes the training of the disciples under, literally, master prophets. At one point, this is one of the things spoken of:

"But don't ever imagine that prophets were simply inscrutable mystics who set themselves apart from society and only communed with the Divine their whole lives long. For despite the subtle, quiet, and cosmic nature of their preparations the prophets were indeed very much of this world and could in fact be said to have been the portals through which heaven and earth met. (Though that's not to deny the decidedly mystical and enlightening nature of the prophetic experience per se.)

Prophets clearly had to be careful about what they perceived and expressed, and about what was affecting their encounters with both the Divine (from whom they received their inspiration) and with their audiences."

For a long time, I was not aware of the fact that the prophets of the Old Testament where trained in their gift. Probably because, in what we have, we read how they were called, and then go into the prophecies.

There was a long period of time, in Christianity, when there was no prophecy of that kind. Then, in more recent times, it reappeared and now, for lack of a better way to say it, it seems - to me - that we are used to it... And also, that our expectations from a prophet are often wrong.

Plus, there is also the fact that I am the kind who goes quiet as soon as I hear "Thus says the Lord", and I am really "all ears". It is hard for me to understand that God's people would not be silent when God speaks.....

So, I am curious about our present days prophets, how they "become", because just the word "Prophet" is already so powerful. But then, I also wonder if we, God's people, have not become too casual about this gift and its purpose.