I thought you were using Eph. 4 as a text for apostles.
Not a bad question, looks to me like a bad answer on my part.
Maybe I should pay more attention, lol.
Prophets are those who have God’s spirit, and therefore they are able to speak for God, because He makes Himself known to them. The world never looks upon prophets as being successful or popular among the public, and therefore they are never invited to compete with others to endeavor to become the most outstanding citizens of the community. They are usually reproached and hardly ever swim with the stream, the current of the times, and that is why their path is seldom smooth or easy.
The measure of a prophet’s success is the measure of faithfulness before God as God’s spokesperson, and never measured by the degree their testimony, witnessing, or speaking of God’s Word is received by others. Because they reverence and respect God’s Word, they do not shrink in the face of danger, nor do they fear people or seek the praise of others. But from deep within their hearts, they seek the praise of God and His blessing. The prophets of the Old Testament were able to speak for God to make known the coming of Jesus Christ (who would be the only begotten Son of God) through the written Word they received from God. To understand the biblical way the word “prophet” is used in the Scriptures, it's always best to look at the first occurrence of the word, which is in Genesis and is used by God to tell the king to leave the man’s wife alone. “Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet” (Genesis 20:7).
This first occurrence of the word “prophet” shows us that it was used in a different way from the way we use it today, which is mostly used in our current English to indicate when one is to foretell future events. But in the Bible, it's used in connection with Abraham, who not only had a very pretty wife, but also never foretold anything in his life. In Exodus the same God calls Aaron Moses’s prophet, which takes us a step further and leads us to the question of how one could be another man’s prophet? The answer is found in Exodus, where God, who is referring to the same subject, tells Moses that Aaron “shall be thy spokesman” (Exodus 4:16). Therefore, the essential interpretation of the word “prophet” is a spokesperson who speaks for God, either by way of exhortation, instruction, reproof, warning, correction, reprobation, or judgment. Foretelling was only a very small part of their duties.
