Ho Ho Ho just as lively as always! Merry Christmas!
1Corinthians 14:37 If any man think himself to be a prophet,
STRONGS G4396 (for the word prophet):
προφήτης, προφήτου, ὁ (προφημι, to speak forth, speak out; hence, properly, 'one who speaks forth'; see πρό, d. α.), the Sept. for נָבִיא (which comes from the same root as, 'to divulge,' 'make known,' 'announce' (cf. Fleischer in Delitzsch, Com. ü. d. Gen, 4te Aufl., p. 551f), therefore properly, equivalent to interpreter,
Exodus 7:1, cf.
4:16; hence, an interpreter or spokesman for God; one through whom God speaks; cf. especially Bleek, Einl. in d. A. T. 4te Aufl., p. 309 (B. D. under the word and references there; especially also Day's note on Oehler's O. T. Theol. § 161, and Winers Grammar, Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, p. 389 (note on Lect. ii.))), one who speaks forth by divine inspiration;
I. In Greek writings from Aeschylus, Herodotus, and Pindar down:
1. an interpreter of oracles (whether uttered by the gods or the μάντεις), or of other hidden things.
2. a foreteller, soothsayer, seer.
II. In the N. T.
1. one who, moved by the Spirit of God and hence, his organ or spokesman, solemnly declares to men what he has received by inspiration, especially future events, and in particular such as relate to the cause and kingdom of God and to human salvation. The title is applied to
a. the O. T. prophets — and with allusion to their age, life, death, deeds:
b. John the Baptist, the herald of Jesus the Messiah:
Matthew 21:26;
Mark 6:15;
Mark 11:32;
Luke 1:76;
Luke 20:6, whom Jesus declares to be greater than the O. T. prophets, because in him the hope of the Jews respecting Elijah as the forerunner of the Messiah was fulfilled:
Matthew 11:9-11,
14 (cf.
Matthew 17:11,
12;
Mark 9:12f);
Luke 7:28 (R G T Tr brackets).
c. That illustrious prophet whom the Jews (apparently on the ground of
Deuteronomy 18:15) expected to arise just before the Messiah's advent:
John 1:21,
25;
John 7:40. those two illustrious prophets, the one Elijah, the other Enoch or Moses (but compare the commentaries; e. g. Stuart, commentary vol. ii, p. 219f), who according to the writer of the Apocalypse will publicly appear shortly before the visible return of Christ from heaven:
Revelation 11:10 (cf. 3).
d. the Messiah:
Acts 3:22,
23;
Acts 7:37, after
Deuteronomy 18:15; Jesus the Messiah, inasmuch as he is about to fulfil the expectation respecting this Messiah,
Matthew 21:11;
John 6:14.
e. universally, a man filled with the Spirit of God, who by God's authority and command in words of weight pleads the cause of God and urges the salvation of men:
Matthew 21:46;
Luke 13:33;
Luke 24:19;
John 7:52; in the proverb that a prophet is without honor in his own country,
Matthew 13:57;
Mark 6:4;
Luke 4:24;
John 4:44.
f. The prophets that appeared in the apostolic age among the Christians:
Matthew 10:41;
Matthew 23:34;
Acts 15:32;
1 Corinthians 14:29,
37;
Revelation 22:6,
9;
g. Prophets both of the Old Testament and of the New Testament are grouped together under the name προφῆται in
Revelation 11:18;
Revelation 16:6;
Revelation 18:24.
2. a poet (because poets were believed to sing under divine inspiration): so of Epimenides,
Titus 1:12.
Jesus said that we are His witnesses. As a witness of the Lord you can consider yourself a spokesman. But remember James warning, "be not many teachers of the ways of God, knowing that we shall received the greater condemnation".