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

Christ's Continuing Voice in the Church

The accuracy-conscious translators of the 1611 King James Version of the English Bible consistently translated the Greek verb prophetein as "to prophesy," not "to teach" or "preach." Many of the well-known trans lations have followed suit. As I mentioned in chapter 3, the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Jewish Scriptures redacted in the third and sec ond centuries B.C. by Jewish scholars and adopted by Greek-speaking Christians) consistently uses the various forms of prophetein when trans lating Hebrew words for "prophecy." The New Testament writers picked up the same Greek word (from pro, meaning "forth," and phemi, mean ing "to speak") and continued its use. This consistency of the same word in both Hebrew and Christian Scriptures illustrates its historic continu ity. Paul and his contemporaries apparently had few of our modern hang ups with words or experiences-or, I might add, with the prophecy and oracles in the Graeco-Roman world.11 Rather they saw themselves in the same continuing flow of prophetic activity as practiced by the Hebrew prophets. Prophecy is, as Barclay pointed out, forthtelling or speaking forth, but it is beyond the simple declaration of a lecture or sermon. Prophecy is not prepared oratory, a studied approach to a subject followed by a speech or presentation. It is not the delivery of a previously prepared sermon. 12 It is empowered delivery of a divine insight that comes in a flash (or as a "now-word") 13 to bring spiritual insight for that moment. The early Church realized there was a clear difference. Prophecy to them was "the communication of a word received direct from God, under the operation of the Holy Spirit." 14 J. Rodman Williams points out that "there is no 'scheduling' of prophecy: it just happens." 15 It is an immediate message of God to His people through a divinely anointed utterance. For example, when Reinhard Bonnke, the well-known German evan gelist who has led multiplied thousands to the Lord, was a boy, a woman prophesied that there was a lad in church that morning whom God would someday use mightily on the continent of Africa. Then, turning to young Reinhard, she said, "And you are that boy!" The rest is history. Paul is careful, when listing the offices and gifts of the Church, to dis tinguish between prophecy and teaching. 16 Only one conclusion seems plausible: Prophecy is not the same as preaching or teaching. Teachers and preachers work with material already known and make it relevant. Prophecy comes here and now, bypassing rational thinking in the sense that human ingenuity is needed. 17 Prophecy imparts in an ad hoc manner the express purpose of God for a current situation, whereas teaching and preaching communicate a researched understanding of God's principles for life, growth and service. 18 ■ 166