Would You Respond Positively to a Prophetic Word?

Many professing Christians say they believe that scripture is the word of God and yet somehow they “Cherry-Pick” the scriptures they like and avoid the parts they don’t like. This attitude of rejecting certain scriptures and embracing others ends up twisting our concepts about God and ourselves and can make our Christian faith either powerless or, at the worst, a counterfeit faith.

In 1 Corinthians Paul the apostle states that we as followers of Christ should desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. This is one of the positive verses and chapters that many in the body of Christ either ignore or come up with some reason why it doesn’t apply to them or this time in church history. Paul makes it very clear in this whole chapter that of “All” the spiritual gifts an individual can receive from the Holy Spirit, the ability to prophesy should be the “Number One” spiritual gift individuals should desire.

1 Corinthians 14:1

Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 

What’s crazy is all believers know they should desire to love others like Jesus told us to, yet few believers either know or understand that Paul said or implied that to act in love is best done through the ministry of the gift of prophecy when assembling together as the church. Why? Because when the Holy Spirit is free to impart through his people prophetically the body becomes edified and equipped.

Now to be clear, God spoke through the prophet Joel that when the Holy Spirit is poured out on ALL flesh, meaning believers, we will be given the ability to prophesy and receive dreams from God. Joel prophesied that this enablement would be given to average people not just those with the gift or office of a prophet.

Joel 2:28-29

It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

 For the average Jewish person to even imagine this would be possible was mind blowing because in the past only kings, priests and prophets could get or receive prophetic words and with rare exceptions only a few other people could also be given this rare gift. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, used the passage in Joel to illustrate that God was indeed pouring out his spirit as predicted, and he was doing it now!

Consider also that Paul’s word about individuals being able to prophesy was written at least 20 years after Peter spoke during Pentecost. That means this gifting was not for the launching of the church as some theologians have said, but was for the ongoing equipping of the church. Isn’t it amazing how intellectuals in the body of Christ can explain away scripture mandates so the body of Christ won’t feel insecure about living without the power of God through the Holy Spirit? If Satan can’t get us to reject Christ he will find a way to rip the power of the Holy Spirit from us by twisting scripture and history.

When I got saved in 1969, there was a great controversy about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Many believed that speaking in tongues and prophecy were only needed until the church was established, and were done away with when the first apostle died. If you were a baptist, you were told they ended, but if you were a Pentecostal you were taught the Holy Spirit was still giving these gifts to all who would believe. The baptists were told if a person spoke in tongues then they were labeled as heretics and being used of the devil. This tactic sounds much like the democrats calling republicans racist to deflect their own bigotry doesn’t it.

Today, many baptists now embrace tongues and prophecy as legitimate gifts, even if they don’t practice them. This is contrary to what they were taught for hundreds of years. Why? Because the Pentecostal and charismatic churches around the turn of the century were growing leaps and bounds, while the baptists were stuck in a religious spirit like the Pharisees of old. This fast moving church growth was due in large part to the out pouring of the Holy Spirit on people that believed scripture more than any previous religious tradition.   

Whether we are receptive or resistant to what God put in his word determines, in a large part, whether we reap the blessing of his word and the principles therein. If we are judgmental about the gift of prophecy or the person giving such a word, the power of that word is ruined, convincing us it was not from God. How amazing that our unbelief can kill our life in the Spirit and deny us God’s power.

On the other hand when we are open to God using common people like us with the gift of prophecy because of the book of Joel, the book of Acts and 1 Corinthians 14, we receive the power that God’s word promises. We “Activate” by faith the potential, and the Holy Spirit releases power from God’s word to us. Our belief and faith becomes the catalyst to make the word of God produce the fruit God intended all along.

Let me give a caution here about receiving a prophetic word from someone. We need to discern if a word really is from God or just a well meaning believer who is trying to learn to prophesy. Paul and John  wrote about testing spiritual things and not being gullible. Our discernment first comes from the scripture we know and secondly the counsel of the Holy Spirit. 

Let me also say the local church needs to crate a safe place where the people of God can learn how to operate in the Holy Spirit and prophesy. In the Old Testament the senior prophets had what was called Schools of the Prophets to train up-and-coming prophets on how to operate in a prophetic ministry safely and accurately. We may feel called to such a ministry, but it still takes training to handle it correctly. The gift of prophecy can be imparted on a person just by entering into a group or school of prophets, even though that person may never have prophesied before. This is exactly what happened in the book of 1 Samuel.

1 Samuel 19:19-21

Word came to Saul: “David is in Naioth at Ramah”; so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul’s men, and they also prophesied. Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. 

This brings me back to my title for this article of “Would We Respond Positively To A Prophetic Word” because our receptiveness or lack thereof will determine if God fulfills the word he releases. Without faith God is not pleased with us, our words or actions, and if God is not pleased neither will he release the blessing he intended to give through a prophetic word. This is why in a crowd of people some receive and some do not.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

There was an event in the Old Testament in which the prophet  Elijah was sent to a receive food from a widow who was just about to have her last meal with her son and then die for lack of food. Jesus spoke about this woman hundreds of years later in the gospels because it illustrated that even a non-Jewish widow was blessed because of receiving a prophetic word from a man of God. Jesus did this to confirm the that person and event actually happened when a miracle was released. Both Elijah and the widow had to walk in faith that the prophetic word was indeed from God. Elijah trusted that God’s word was true, even though he was sent to a non-believing gentile woman who was in great need.  The gentile widow had to believe this prophet from the Jewish people. God always tests our true belief verses our pretend belief.

1 Kings 17:8-9

Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 

We need prophetic ministry from regular believers and not those so called prophets that just want money and notoriety. We also need to verify that the person being prophetic has a good track record of prophetic ministry and not some non credible believer. Often people can be manipulated through speakers without even realizing it, so we need to be careful and verify lest it ruin our faith in real prophecy from the Holy Spirit.

You and I will never receive prophetic words for ourselves and others if we don’t trust the Holy Spirit to deliver. If we do stretch our faith and believe God we will be able to deliver what Paul said our prophetic ministry should produce. There are three thing a prophetic word should accomplish. They are to “Strengthen, Encourage and Comfort” because a God-sent word always helps the church and the believer become healthier and more able to stand for Christ in a dark world.

1 Corinthians 14:3

But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 

Questions:

1) Do you believe scripture or church tradition about your ability to give or receive a prophetic word? Your answer reflects on believing God or man more.

2) Have you asked the Holy Spirit to empower you to be prophetic? Your faith will determine the outcomes

Trusting God to use me in spite of any weakness in me,

Pastor Dale