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

Definition of Christian Prophecy

An Anointed Word

We have noted that prophecy is more than a good religious thought. Nor is prophecy authentic just because it is spoken by an outstanding citizen or talented member of the congregation, however impressive. Prophecy is characterized by the inherent involvement ofthe Holy Spirit in the utterance. Prophecy is "anointed" because of the attendance of the Holy Spirit's presence with that spoken word. Samuel poured anoint ing oil over David, giving us a graphic symbol of God's overshadowing power; thus, the word anointed is often used by Spirit-filled people to describe the action or empowerment of the Holy Spirit. 9 The person speaking is prompted and moved on by the Spirit. The content and deliv ery of the message is divinely empowered, causing people to delight in what they hear. The message, if from God, has that unique, "bell-tone" quality that brings peace and assurance. Bible commentators and translators who work their way through 1 Cor inthians always find the discussion of tongues and prophecy in chap ters 12-14 a formidable challenge. I have known ministers who simply skip over these chapters while preaching through the book. What were those Corinthians actually doing when they prophesied? The differences between the Greek verbs show that to prophesy is not the same as to preach or to teach. Unfortunately the lack of personal experi ence or contemporary models causes the uninitiated student to fall back on his or her own (in)experience. Thus, prophecy is sometimes consid ered synonymous with the public proclamation of the Bible. Examples from six modern translations illustrate how the clear-cut Greek word for "prophecy" (propheteia) has been diluted: "the gift of preaching the word of God" (Phillips); "inspired preaching" (Goodspeed); "preaching the messages of God" (LB); "to speak God's Word" (Beck); "the gift of preach ing" (TCNT). A marginal note in Williams suggests the meaning is "speak ing new spiritual truths." William Barclay in his commentary on 1 Corinthians said: "This chap ter is very difficult to understand because it deals with a phenomenon which, for most of us, is outside our experience." His solution: to treat the gift of prophecy as "the gift of forthtelling the truth in such a way that all can understand it." 10 Eugene Peterson in The Message makes prophecy "the proclamation of his truth." Some of the Reformers, like Calvin, con sidered the office of teacher similar to that of prophet. These thoughts are good but inadequate to explain the phenomenon. 165 ■ Different from Public Address