Today I have spent some time with the students in Bergen Bibelskole to talk about being a prophetic people.Obviously some of the things I shared caused a lot of questions and I allowed myself to be sidetracked into many discussions on related topics. One of my many weaknesses is that I like discussion and dialog in the class. I think that helps the students to think for themselves and come to a deeper understanding of the topic. The problem is that some people prefer to receive ready-made answers and opinions. I will not allow such people to die in their sin of passivity and laziness!

One of the hallmark of a prophetic people is purging the imaginations of people’s assumptions on how life is lived and what counts in life. The prophetic people will separate themselves from the cultures in which they live, returning to the path of simple faith and obedience. The prophetic people will humbly worship God in defiance of all that the world admires and rewards.

The prophets of God will train his people in discerning the difference between the ways of the world and the ways of the gospel. A prophetic people will keep themselves present to the Presence of God for their life to be a light in the darkness of the political corrects trends of a society dominated by materialism.

Too many people are accustomed to "fitting God" into their lives, or as we like to say, "making room for God". They view prophets being hard and easily dismiss them. The prophetic people do not bother much about the labels given them by the intolerant and secular humanists. The prophetic community represent a God that is far too large to fit into our lives. They will insist that if we want anything to do with God, we have to fit into him.

The prophets are not "reasonable", accommodating themselves to what makes sense to rationalists or the philosophers of this world. The prophets are not diplomatic, tactfully negotiating an agreement that allows the people of the world to have a "say" in the outcome. They present us with a reality far too big to be accounted for by human explanations and expectations. The prophetic community plunge us into mystery, immense and staggering! They make it impossible to evade God or make detours around God. For a prophet, God is more real than the next-door neighbour.

The prophets contend that everything, absolute everything, takes place in the presence of God. They insist that God has something to say about every aspect of our lives: the way we feel and act in the privacy of our hearts and homes, the way we make money and the way we spend it, the politics we embrace, the parties we support, the wars we fight, the catastrophes we endure, the entertainment we enjoy, the people we hurt and the people we help. Nothing is hidden from the eyes of God, nothing is exempt from the rule of God, nothing even escapes the purposes of God.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who dwells among his people!