Contributed
Prophet Mark McLean utters words of prophecy over the life of a man in a rural St. Andrew church.
Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
The word is spreading quietly going around that there is a new prophet in town and his name is Mark McLean.
Prophet McLean is a protégé of the Rev. Dr. Phillip Phinn, senior pastor of Word of Life Ministries International which meets in Hagley Park Plaza in St. Andrew.
Pastor Phinn describes him as one of the most awesome and accurate prophets in Jamaica.
Pastor Phinn's fame soared when last year he went public with the prediction that Portia Simpson Miller would be the next Prime Minister of Jamaica. But he was careful to say that other prophets local and foreign had made the same prediction.
One such local prophet was Mark McLean. Last December, Prophet McLean stood up in a meeting at Word of Life Ministries International and proclaimed that Mrs. Simpson Miller would be the next Prime Minister. He said, too, that K.D. Knight would resign as a minister of government.
And in an interview with this reporter, he said Senator Anthony Hylton will one day become Prime Minister.
Nation to fasting
The Lord, he said, wants Mrs. Simpson Miller to call the nation to seek Him by declaring a day of prayer and fasting.
He recounted how when Jonah of biblical fame delivered the prophecy warning of doom and destruction to Nineveh if they failed to repent, it was the king of that city that called a fast and urged the nation to repent and thereafter the judgement was averted.
He said if the Prime Minister calls the fast, she will be persecuted but God will back her. But if she fails to call the fast, he warned, the Jamaican dollar will soon trade at J$100 to US$1.
These days, Prophet McLean is getting a lot of overseas calls from persons he has never met who are calling from places he has never been. They seek him out to understand the mind of God concerning their business dealings, relationships and decisions related to their own personal growth and maturity.
Prophet Mark is happy to tell people what he senses God saying to him concerning them. But he is careful not to charge for that service. He stressed that "the prophet of God cannot charge for delivering the word of the Lord. It is the false prophet that does that." To charge for telling someone a word from the Lord, he said, is to put him in the same category as a psychic.
Citing biblical references, Prophet McLean stressed that those, like himself, who commit to full-time Christian ministry, especially in the proclamation of the word ought to given freewill gifts and offerings by the Christian community. But he does not go around worrying about money, he said, as the God who called him into ministry is perfectly capable of taking care of his needs.
In recent months, he has been travelling extensively, mainly in the United States. When he is in Chicago, he stays with Jamaican gospel music concert pianist, Huntley Brown. The two are close friends. Huntley has been exposing him to many pastors in the Chicago area.
Episodes of revelation
Friends of Prophet McLean cite many episodes how he is able to speak specifically to issues facing individuals and disclose things that he had no way of knowing - except it was supernaturally revealed
Huntley shared these episodes which took place in September:
"Prophet Mark called a lady forward. He said words to the effect 'I see you worked with the Huntley Brown Ministries, as a matter of fact, Huntley Brown invited you here and you have come a long distance'."
"I was very concerned because I had no clue who the lady was. Mark seemed sure I knew the lady but I didn't. I knew I had to clear this up right away so I said to the lady before everyone what's your name? She said Linda Lasota. I was not only shocked but very embarrassed. I had played earlier in the year at Linda's church, even had dinner at her home with my family (in April). Since that visit, we have been in contact by email. Travelling around the world I meet so many people that I forget what many look like. I had forgotten what Linda looked like. I was the one who emailed and invited her."
"He prophesied over many friends who were sceptics. After he was through, one said this had to be God because Mark gave him some personal information about a disease he had that only he and God knew about it. Not even his wife knew about it. He said he had not told her because he did not want to scare her."
"He prophesied over Rev. Dr. Carlton Arthurs, senior pastor of Wheaton Christian Center, and gave him information which Dr. Arthurs confirmed. Dr Arthurs was so impressed he asked Mark to talk to a couple who were waiting to be counselled by him. Mark agreed and prophesied over them.
"When he was through, Dr. Arthurs came and asked me to explain to the couple what had happened. I saw the lady crying and the husband having a shell-shocked look on his face. They confirmed that everything Mark said was true. I had to explain to the couple afterwards that Mark did not know them and that Dr. Arthurs had said nothing to him about them."
Prophesy to wife
Prophet McLean was at a service in Kingston where he was asked to prophesy over members of the congregation. He called out a female member of the congregation - someone he had never known before.
He prophesied that she was going to get a significant promotion on the job and that she was going to marry a minister of religion. Both prophecies came true. She got the promotion and indeed became the wife of a minister - she married the prophet himself.
He said when he left the meeting, the Lord spoke to him and told him that the young lady was to be his wife. He proposed on that January day in 2004 he took her out on a date. She did not give him an answer right away. But the answer did come, and in December 2004 they were married.
Prophet Mark McLean is today happily married to Neisha, a pharmacy manager, who is herself someone possessing prophetic giftings.
Early beginnings
Prophet McLean, 31, hails from Spanish Town, St. Catherine. He attended Friendship Primary School. Then family-related problems affected him and he was not allowed to pursue secondary education.
In hindsight, he looks back at that period when he missed out on secondary education as a time when he was under the curse of witchcraft. The spell, he said, was broken a few years ago by Prophet Andrew Scott, of Greater Works Fellowship on Red Hills Road, St. Andrew.
"I saw a dark shadow leave from me and I fell to the ground. When I got up I knew the curse was broken," said Prophet McLean.
Prophet McLean is now studying to get a United States high school diploma with the hope of going on to a bachelor's degree in theology and counselling. Already, he has done a number of courses offered by Dr. Phinn covering various aspects of prophetic ministry. Also, he has done studies through the theological training arm of Whole Life Ministries.
Promoting empowerment
An ordained minister, Prophet McLean in January formed his own para-church organisation, Ecclesiastic Ministries International, to promote his prophetic ministry and pursue socio-economic empowerment of poor and hurting persons.
In normal conversation, Prophet McLean stutters. But when he is giving a prophecy, much of this speech impediment disappears.
He became born-again at 17 and took up membership at Bethlehem Temple Evangelical Church of Christ in Spanish Town. It was while still a member at that church that he became aware of his prophetic giftings.
He stresses that though he is a prophet of God, he can make mistakes in his prophecy because he is human. When this happens, he said, it is not that God gave him erroneous information, but that he miscommunicated it. He said, for example, God can tell him that something will happen on December 29 and he thinks this will happen in 2006, when in fact the thing is set to take place on December 29, 2007.
In the prophetic community, there are at least three ways that prophets attest to getting revelation from God. The Lord, they say, reveals what will happen in dreams, visions, or in an audible voice.
Prophetic McLean said he is not strong on communicating revelation that come from dreams as he sometimes misinterprets this phenomenon. But he stressed he hears voices and sees a visions.
The visions, he said, have a 100 per cent accuracy rate. In a vision, he said, he sees something akin to a television screen and he just reads what is on that screen. When he is seeing a vision, he stressed, he does not miss.
Prophet Mark McLean may be reached at prophetmark2004@yahoo.com. His website is www.emionline.org.
Send feedback on Mind&Spirit to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com.
