- "Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts,
- especially to prophecy" - 1 Cor. 14:1
- The Lord has restored the gift of prophecy to the church! The
happenings in Acts 2 were the start of the return of something very
precious to the Body of Christ. Unfortunately this very precious gift
became stifled and clothed with religious rags, reducing it's full
luster to sackcloth-like splendor. Spiritual spontaneity made way for
religious rigidity encasing the power of prophecy in shackles of
shallowness. The Lord never changes and yet specializes in the
unpredictable. His Word is established forever yet stays full of
surprises to the diligent student. The contents of a true prophetic word
similarly cannot be predicted. It is spontaneous, surprisingly true to
Scripture and powerfully delivered through a yielded vessel.
- As a Church we are to pursue love and desire gifts. Too many times
we've pursued gifts and desired love! We want to major in the minors!
Prophecy, like all spiritual gifts rests on the foundation of character,
flowing from your personal relationship with God. Love is the pillar
that will carry the weight of the gift. Love molds your character as you
respond to it in relationship. It allows you to be shaped and makes you
the person God intended you to be. To be loved by Creator God is to be
formed by His powerful hand. We are simple clay in majestic Hands. It is
from this platform of love that true prophecy is launched.
- One word from God sets destiny alight! One word from God breaks
through restrictive boundaries to set people free. A word from God
reveals to heal. A word from God drives out foggy clutter from the
spiritual horizon to leave a crystal like clarity over the direction of
divine destiny in your life. It creates an Eden-like place in your heart
that facilitates divine fellowship and interaction.
- A. Prophecy comforts
- God has the ability to comfort us in more ways than one. The usual
picture we see in our hearts when we speak about comfort is of one
individual embracing another assuming a consoling role because of some
distress experienced by the former. This is certainly an evident part of
true comfort, but not the only facet thereof. The literal meaning of the
word comfort in 1 Cor. 14:3 according to Vines is: "a speaking closely
to anyone". It carries the idea of encouragement on an intimate level.
The Lord has a way to speak to us with exact words only our own heart
can fully understand. Many times, while praying over someone, a
sensitive vessel will yield to words flowing from his or her spirit and
without realizing the full impact these specific words will have a
tremendous penetrating power to reach deep into the heart of someone to
speak very closely to them. That is true comfort and that is the nature
of true prophetic utterance.
- B. Prophecy exhorts
- Exhortation in the literal meaning of the biblical term in 1 Cor
14:3 means "to call to the side / to call near / to summon". This is a
very interesting word choice to define prophecy. How wonderful to know
that one of the great characteristics of true prophetic utterance is a
calling to closeness with God. Prophecy will never alienate you from the
presence of the Lord. It exhorts you to come closer; to step nearer to
the One who loves you the most. This is the driving force of the
prophetic utterance. Throughout the Word God spoke through His prophets
exhorting His people to draw near. Sometimes He used even harsh words
for this purpose. True prophecy is far more than a "pat-on-the-back",
mushy, sponge like flattery. It directs you to return to the place you
belong: to the very presence of the Lord. It is a direct summons from
the Holy Spirit to draw near to God!
- C. Prophecy edifies
- The Lord builds up in minutes what the enemy has been tearing down
over many years! And He builds with His Words! Edification literally
means "the act of building". Prophecy contains spiritual building
materials essential to the construction of the dwelling place of God in
our lives. Our words as imperfect, emotional beings many times cause
destruction rather than construction, but the words of God over us build
us up to the edifice He takes pleasure in and abides in. A construction
zone is not a clean, sterile environment. It happens in the midst of
rubble, dust and inconvenience. It takes time to take shape and often
exposes frustration and impatience. Prophecy cuts into the fabric of our
lives and constructs in the midst of emotional trauma and psychological
rubble. Sometimes it kicks up religious dust particles that obscures
vision and cause spiritual allergy symptoms to temporarily hamper our
life-serenity.
- D. Prophecy confirms
- New Testament prophetic utterance serves to confirm the Word, plans
and purposes of God in our lives. It's startling in accuracy,
penetrating in power and persuasive in character. It has been said that
prophecy will never surprise you with something totally new you were
previously unaware of. Although there is some merit in this statement, I
have to say that the Word of God, which never changes and is always the
same, has surprised me many times. When reading it generically it
becomes predictable and mechanical. The true impact of God's Word is
when logos becomes rhema. When well known verses jumps out at your
heart, engulfing modern circumstance with a "now" answer from an ancient
writing. When God's voice carries those very verses to your spirit's ear
to hear what you have not been hearing, and to your spirit eye, to see
what you have not been seeing. My point is that God's word is never old,
always new and filled with awesome surprises pertaining to our current
circumstances. Prophecy always confirms the Word of God! Always, but it
can contain the same surprises we find in the Word itself.
- E. Prophecy creates
- Every creative act of God in the beginning was the result of an
utterance, the sounding of His voice, calling that which is not as if
they were. The creative process of God is activated by the words He
speaks. What He says is. As crown of His creation and beings in His very
image, we too must speak things into being. We must prophecy over our
lives to activate the creative power of the Holy Spirit in us. Our words
must align us with the Word and purposes of God. We utter words bigger
than our thoughts, greater than our emotions, larger than our abilities.
We release into the creative atmosphere created in us by the Holy
Spirit, prophetic utterance, calling the things that are not as if they
are. The words we speak have a definite impact in shaping our lives in
the presence of the Lord.
