Abraham a Prophet

Abraham was the first person in the Bible ever mentioned as a prophet. He had pawned his wife off as his sister to protect himself in a city in which he felt threatened. He thought that if he told everybody Sarah was his sister (evidently he didn't think he was really lying - she was a half sister), nobody would kill him to take her away from him; for after all she was beautiful, although she was barren. As a result his wife ended up in the palace with an unknown man who had not yet consummated the relationship. He had a dream warning him not to touch her, but give her back to her husband Abraham who "is a prophet" and who would pray for him.

Being a prophet is intimately tied to prayer. Abraham pleaded with the Lord that He would save wicked cities (Sodom and Gomorrah) convincing the Lord to spare the cities if only 10 people in the cities were righteous - unfortunately in the end, there weren't enough to save the cities.

Moses was considered the greatest of prophets until the time of Jesus. Several times he saved the people of Israel by praying for them when God wanted to destroy the nation. Moses put his life on the line telling God that if he destroyed the Israelis, God could take his name (ie: Moses' name) out of the book of life. Time and time again, even when the people wanted to kill Moses, he stood up for them protecting them from God's wrath by praying for them.

God told Jeremiah 3 times to stop praying for the people because God wanted to pour out his anger on them. Jeremiah disobeyed God, in fact, if he had obeyed God and quit praying he not only would have neglected his responsibility as a prophet, I believe that God would have been angry with him.

In Ezekiel the false prophets did not warn the people and did not strengthen the walls of protection against God's wrath through prayer and supplication. Instead they whitewashed the walls with messages of peace, when there was no peace.

The prophets' responsibility was to stand as the lawyers defending their clients (God's people who were guilty and ready to be sentenced). They did this by praying for the people and standing up for the people and identifying with the people being on their side, never saying "Lord they have sinned," but rather "Lord WE have sinned."

Let's be like prophets standing up for the church when it errs and seeking God's mercy rather than condemnation.
Let's be more like Christ who defends the church and who is on God's right hand pleading for the church.
Let's not be like the enemy who "accuses the brethren" night and day.