Tan: Celibacy

"The 1950s represent the decade of the evangelists; the 1960s the decade of the pastors; the 1970s the teachers, the 1980s the prophets and the 1990s the apostolic ministries. Each wave that God brings about is not supposed to end, but is supposed to continue through the decades. For example in the 1960s you should see the wave of both pastors and evangelists. The 1970s should have had 3 waves with an emphasis on the teaching ministry. In the 1980s we should have seen 4 major waves and in the 1990s we see all the five fold ministries. But we see there was a distinct continuation of the prophetic wave that started in the 1980s that will mature in the 90s and be associated together with the apostolic move to bring forth the return of Jesus.



Call to Celibacy



As we consider the life of Elijah, we consider the peculiarities that characterise the Elijah wave. In 1 Kings 17: 1 Elijah seemed to appear out of the blue. He had a dramatic beginning and a dramatic ending. We know from 2 Kings 2 how he was taken up into glory above. One of the major peculiarities of the prophetic move that does not apply individually is that many who are called to the prophetic move (those called to the office of a full-fledged prophet in the New Testament age) will at the same time receive a call to a single or celibate life. It is different from the call to the pastoral role because the Bible mentions that the pastor being the husband of one wife and the major portion of his work is in the counselling work. A prophet very seldom does counselling. In fact some prophets are not good at counselling at all and may appear to be brash and harsh. The counselling ministry takes patience and tolerance and a prophet is not called to that.