Oct. 02, 2022

Prophesy…Please!  (2 October 2022)

Introduction - Prophecy was stressed by the Apostle Paul in his well known discussions in 1 & 2 Corinthians about what would make the church successful.  It is an amazing, overlooked key to personal peace and hope for all Christians.  

1 Cor 14:3 But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them, and comforts them.  NLT

What is prophecy? It is simply the act of speaking to people to strengthen, encourage and comfort them.  It  also encompasses other spiritual gifts like the Word of Wisdom , Word of Knowledge, Discerning of Spirits and the Gift of Prophecy.  The Gift of Prophecy probably involves the foretelling of future events, specifically, as well as general edification and strengthening.  We need to give prophecy to each other.  It is the food we live on.  It is the most powerful food you can eat, keeping you buoyed up in all circumstances, good and bad.  After the fall of man, we were conditioned to respond to bad news.  God’s good words are more powerful and able to lift us out of that state.  It is the main way which God lifts the human spirit.  By contrast, all people, including Christians, instinctively seek all kinds of ways to feel good — music, alcohol, drugs, even Christian disciplines like reading the Bible, worship, and intense prayer. None of them have the effect that prophecy does!  It is the main tool God uses to lift us.  Notice that Paul is addressing an assembly of people in this text.  This gift was meant to be used amongst Christians, from one to another or others.  If you are not in, or around the church you will not receive the benefits of it!

1 Corinthians 14:1 Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives—especially the ability to prophesy.

1 Cor 14:39, 40 - So, my dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But be sure that everything is done properly and in order.  NLT

Seek to prophesy!  Prophecy is not some odd, mysterious phenomenon known only to a few people.  Everyone in our gatherings can and should do it.  Many churches discourage this by ignoring it.  In most churches, the spiritual diet you get is almost entirely preaching, which is only part of our spiritual diet.  We should be seeking, learning how, and growing in our ability to prophesy.    

Romans 12:6  In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you, according to your faith. NLT

How do you begin to prophesy?  Start with a desire to edify someone else.  First think about others above your own needs.  You will then be seeking things to do or say to comfort or build them up.  Most early prophecy consists of simple affirmative statements like ,”God really loves you.” A good way to grow better at prophecy in is to practice with one of the companion gifts, the Word of Knowledge.  When you go to a store or restaurant, pray about the people you meet and ask God to show you something simple about their life.  In casual conversation, (not interrogation) you can discover whether or not they are married, have kids, which month they were born in, what city they are from, etc., and see how it lines up with what God has shown you.  The more confident you become, God will start using you to reveal convincing facts to people you don’t know, (birthdates, history, relatives, etc.)

God will progressively reveal His thoughts to you as you grow in faith.  This is not to expose sin, but is a powerful tool in convincing unbelievers that God is trying to reach them, as did Jesus with the woman at the well (John 4).  Usually, at first you just get mental impressions or feelings of pity or empathy or joy for someone.  These are followed by vivid dreams, sensations in your body using all of your senses, visitations by angels or the Lord (in a dream), and audible voices, 

Proverbs 14:4 Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest. NLT

We must expect to make some mistakes!  Amazingly, this will be by God’s design!  Our church needs to embrace the “dirty stall” principle.  It is natural for us to want everything ordered, neat, and predictable, including our spiritual lives.  God doesn’t think exactly like we do in this regard.  He prioritizes life.  Life, as it bursts forth on the earth, whether it be spiritual, plant, or animal, is usually messy.  It will be the same for spiritual things.  He can speak to us at any time, day or night.  He will probably use all of our senses to communicate.  In spite of our best efforts to be perfect and have everything perfectly ordered, we will only ever know in part and therefore prophesy in part.  Some of the things we say will be inaccurate or sometimes wrong (gasp).  Imagine how big-headed we’d get if everything we always said, every single time, always came true.  God causes this built-in inaccuracy to keep us humble, dependent on him, and to keep us from elevating gifted people excessively.  The Holy Spirit, as He spoke through Old Testament prophets, insured that they were 100% accurate.  The Old Testament prophets were usually sent to Kings and priests to warn and speak judgments into existence. Their words were often harsh, black-and-white products, followed by God’s execution of the judgment.   It is not so in the New Testament.  

Agabus, one of the few prophets mentioned in the New Testament, prophesied that the Jews would bind Paul’s hands and take him into custody.  In actual fact, the Gentiles captured Paul as he was being accosted by Jews and they, not the Jews, bound him.  The ministry of the New Testament prophet seems to be much more to the local congregation rather than to a nation or king as in the Old Testament.  

Here are a couple mistakes to avoid: 

1.  Prophesying choices for people which are their responsibility to make (whom to marry, where to live, which job to take, what to invest in, etc.)  

2.  Saying, “Thus saith the Lord”… before you prophesy.  Old Testament prophets did this, as did false prophets to identify which god they were speaking for.  We Christians prophesy within the church, so this identification is not needed.  Jesus never used it.  The only prophet who did use it  (Agabus) gave a basically true, but inaccurate, prophecy.  

Conclusion - There is much more to learn about this magnificently important gift.  We will actually spend a lifetime learning to use it.   Think of the amount of medical treatments for anxiety and depression it could displace.  We should be passionately, zealously, be seeking to use it.  The following story about Jacob wrestling with an angel to get a spiritual blessing is a great example of the fervency with which we should seek to prophesy.  In the process, Jacob developed a limp:

Genesis 32:24-32 This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. 25 When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 “What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.” 28“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” 29 “Please tell me your name,” Jacob said. “Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied? Then he blessed Jacob there.  Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip.  NLT

Jacob was commended by God, even though he sought by trickery to steal his brother’s birthright in an earlier story.  This is what God values in a person’s character.  He REALLY wants us to value spiritual gifts rather than being nit-picking perfectionists in behavior.  He likes people who take radical spiritual risks, even in misguided attempts, to do an exploit for him.  One of my favorite authors, Wolfgang Simpson, gives some good advice to the Christian, even as he overstates this admiration from God for the Jacob wannabes by saying, “Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t limp.”