Modern-day prophets are all around us

“I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord.” John 1:23

I’m not sure how John the Baptist would fit into our society these days. Scripture says that he ate locusts and wild honey and dressed in hair shirts. Well, on second thought, he could definitely find followers who like hair shirts and honey. I’m just not sure of the bugs.

But that message of repentance- that’s a little harder to swallow, along with the bugs. Most followers of the Lord like leading others to a relationship with the Lord and maybe even embracing a lifestyle of prayer and good works. But repentance is a little tougher. That means I have to look into my own heart and see what needs to be changed.

I used to imagine John the Baptist to be like a street corner preacher- fire and brimstone teaching-kind of judgmental. When I was in college there were a few zealous guys who fancied themselves plaza preachers. The stood in the middle of the campus square, Bibles in hand, preaching a message of repentance and forgiveness. It was interesting and a little admirable. They weren’t particularly judgmental, but their preaching was challenging.

As I have shared in this column before, I spent a few years traveling with a band during college. We gave concerts in high schools and churches around the country and even went into Canada. (The limits of my world travel.) It was cool getting to know all these people of different faiths, ages and backgrounds.
Our concerts consisted of music, testimony and prayer teams. I love to sing as well, but my favorite part of a service like this is praying with people. I just love to listen to people’s concerns and pray with them to experience the Lord’s love healing their heart.

One time we prayed with this little girl who was severely disabled. She was 10, but she could only respond as an infant. She was at home, lying in a crib. Her parents asked us to come to their home after a concert to pray with them. I was sure that the Lord was going to heal this little one. I could feel the power of God in our prayer. But instead, a few weeks later, I got a phone call from her Mom that her daughter had died. She thanked us for praying with them and said how much the prayer time meant to their family.

I was devastated and disappointed. Why had God allowed that to happen? Why didn’t she get healed as I thought she would? I grew to understand a little about God’s plan and provision and the role of redemptive suffering in our lives. I came to a better understanding of how God could use situations like that family’s trial to influence good in the world. Praying with this little girl for healing inspired me to believe in eternal life more deeply. Even though she couldn’t utter a word, this little one was a prophet to me. In her life and death, she reminded me that the ultimate healing is in eternity. This truth about death and healing came alive for me:  “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelations 21:4)

Years later, I had another experience that reminded me of prophetic people and the call of St John the Baptist. On the morning of my 33rd birthday, I took a pregnancy test and was thrilled to discover that I was pregnant with our fourth child! My birthday is the week before Christmas. In the Advent season, the scriptural readings for that day are always focused on the Old Testament Messianic prophecies and the conception of St. John the Baptist. As I reflected that morning in prayer, I knew that the meditations of this day were even for the child within my womb. I knew this baby was to be a prophet like St. John the Baptist, who was “filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, bringing back many…to the Lord their God.“ (Luke 1:15-16)

These readings spoke so powerfully that day that I wrote in my journal about the positive pregnancy test and even wrote: “John?” in parenthesis as a possible name for this baby. As it turned out, we named Johanna for St. John the Baptist, believing that even from the womb the Lord called her to be a prophet who would bring many to Christ. Like the little child I prayed with in college, Johanna continues to be a prophetic voice in our midst that draws us closer to the Lord through her perseverance and faith in trials.

This week, my eldest son was also a prophetic voice for me, calling out from the busyness of daily life to remind me to focus on the things that really matter this Advent season. David really hates the cold. I mean really. I think going to college in Ohio really wrecked his love of winter.

One day he started to think about people who are homeless and he decided to do something for them. He published a photo essay to raise awareness of the struggles of the homeless in our community, especially during the holiday season, and to raise awareness of the work done by Maureen’s Haven to help them. Love Lane Kitchen in Mattituck will also be hosting a gallery of this work while taking donations for Maureen’s Haven this holiday season.

While we may never witness the likes of St. John the Baptist, dressed in a hair shirt (and eating bugs) and crying out for repentance, we are surrounded by prophetic voices. Through their words and with their lives, they speak the truth in love. If we pause this holiday season, we may recognize prophetic voices in our world and even in our own homes. The difficult child crying for attention, the elderly parent struggling to remember, the unloving spouse who needs our patience and our time, these may all be prophetic voices in our midst. They call us to pause and reflect, to look inward and ask ourselves if we have prepared the way for the Lord.

Eileen Benthal is a writer, speaker and wellness coach with a B.A. in Theology from Franciscan University. She and her husband Steve live in Jamesport and have four young adult children. Their youngest, Johanna, is a teenager with special needs. Eileen can be reached at FreeIndeedFreelance.com.