Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
When God showed me one of the two offices I had been placed in was prophet, I went to the Bible and began looking at the work done by the prophets in the Bible so I would have a better understanding of that which prophets do. We have a great many examples of prophets in the Bible.
Is there a difference between Old Testament prophets and New Testament prophet?
Not really. Though everyone placed in the body of Christ has been given the Holy Spirit, some in the church commit sins and continue in sins. Often God will reveal those sins to a prophet and that prophet will have to speak of those sins, frequently openly before all.
A pastor once told me he was committing sin. He said people in his church group knew of his sin. Various people spoke to him about this sin. Then one day a man from his church group came in and spoke and the words spoken burned through the pastor. Pastor told me he believes this man to have been a prophet. (Possibly)
Nevertheless prophets deal with sin in the church.
Isaiah 1
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken,
I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know,My people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters:
they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger,
they are gone away backward.
David said: 12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it:
neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: 13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. 14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
God says ... Isaiah 1 ...
5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it;
but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
God punished them (they went into captivity and their enemies ruled over them) but even then they continued in their sins ...
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
Their enemies were put in charge of them and they were gone into captivity.
Isaiah, the prophet, speaks to them of this captivity and what they have done against God, even being chosen people of God.
Isaiah 1 ... 10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord:
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me;
I am weary to bear them.
God shows HIS prophets the sin of the people of God and they cry out against these sins in the congregation.
The prophets speak the heart of God.
In the NT church, the Holy Spirit speaks the heart of God. But often the people of God fail to hear the Holy Spirit speaking. If they heard the Holy Spirit on the matter, they would repent. But even as the people of God they shut their ears and hearts to the Holy Spirit and God often sends a prophet to the individuals in the NT Church to tell of that sin which the individual has taken into his heart and has continued to live in even while in the church.
When shown a sin of a person in the church, the prophet must speak. (If we see the sin, God is showing us their sin, and consequently we must speak.)
It doesn't mean the person will correct himself even after the prophet speaks. But the blood of that person is not on the hands of the prophet after he, the prophet, speaks.
Paul said ... 25 And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. 26 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. 27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Acts 20
By speaking the prophet frees himself from the blood of the person who sins in the congregation.
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Isaiah 1 ... 21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards:
they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
24 Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries,
and avenge me of mine enemies:
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And because of these sins of the people chosen by God, God says ...
Jeremiah 9 ...
1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them!
for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they know not me, saith the Lord.
4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth:
they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord.
7 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts,
Behold, I will melt them, and try them;
for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit:
one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth,
but in heart he layeth his wait.
9 Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord:
shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
So God grieves over His own people who live wrongly. The prophets of God correct the church and grieve. The Holy Spirit grieves.
Gal. 6 ... 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked:for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
II Cor. 6 ... 9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;
Certainly we all see sins of this world and are upset by sins of this world.
But what about sins in the church?
I Peter 4 ... 17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?