Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Comparing Prophecy in Both Testaments

places Jesus Himself as Prophet, Priest and King over the people of God. The message has shifted from the knowledge of sin through Moses to the knowledge of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. Fairbairn, in his clas sic work on prophecy, says, "The fundamental difference lies in this that in the Church there is the revelation of God's grace; and grace from its very nature is instinct with the spirit of prophecy." 7 Like discardable scaffolding used in the erection of a house, the old Mosaic system helped prepare the people of God for the new house called the Church. Now the scaffolding (which included a certain approach in prophecy) is no longer needed. The scaffolding actually fell the day Christ died, when the veil of the Temple was rent. Jesus had said to the Jews that "your house is being left to you desolate [abandoned and empty, TEV]" (Matthew 23:38). The old support structures were important in their time, but now we have the beautiful new house, the Church. Let's not drag back the old (Luke 5:36-38). The coming of Christ was the great watershed of prophetism. Previ ously every Old Testament prophet was subordinated to the revelation of Moses. Thank God for that superintending ministry that overshadowed and guided the prophets of old! But then Christ came as the prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22), fulfilling all that the prophets and Moses himself had foretold and hoped for. He was the very embodiment of the highest aspirations of those who would communicate with God; in fact, He was God manifest among humankind. Jesus came as the perfection of revelation, and His advent drew a crucial dividing line that has settled for ever the difference. Jesus was not only the subject and object of all prophecy; He was and is the origin and inherent energy of it (Revelation 19:10). The Hebrews of the Old Testament era lived in a time when the Holy Spirit was not in or upon each person all the time. They did not enjoy the continuing inner presence of the Holy Spirit that we Christians do. As Edersheim says, "Under the Old Testament, only the manifold influences of the Spirit were experienced, not His indwelling as the Paraclete." 8 Jesus Himself explained how it would be in the new era (in which we now live): "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:38-39). A new relationship between God and His people now exists. In Christ there is a new order. The Holy Spirit is available to all God's people and 145 ■ The Holy Spirit Is Now an Abiding Presence in Every Christian Believer