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

Definition of Christian Prophecy

Prophecy is insight that comes in a flash of inspiration provided by the Holy Spirit. God's thought is then proclaimed, usually in a more energetic way than common speech because of the overwhelming sense of God's presence and power. (Special enablement often accompanies prophetic manifestation.) Agabus the prophet's prediction of a famine (Acts 11:27-30) could have come only through divine insight, not by research or study. Once, as I laid my hands on a young ministerial candidate couple, not knowing their situation, I said they did not need to wait any longer; they could go. It turned out they were already planning to leave for Japan the following week; they had even purchased their tickets. This kind of personal confirmation, simple as it is, greatly blesses the peo ple involved, but clearly in the realm of the prophetic, not that of teach ing or preaching. Prophesying must not take precedence over teaching. Both of these indispensable gifts require the inspiration of the Spirit, and both cause the local Christian community to increase numerically and to grow healthy in sound doctrine. Prophecy works in tandem with preaching and teaching; teachers and prophets, for instance, worked together at Antioch (Acts 13:1). "Prophecy should be," says DavidSchoch, "a com plement to preaching." 19 The role of prophecy is to build up the local church; to personalize the great, stated truths of Scripture and make them real in a current, famil iar setting. These inspired prophetic utterances should not occupy as much congregational time as preaching and teaching, and they are to be sub ject to close scrutiny and evaluation. True prophecy does not contradict or replace Scripture, nor is it meant to take over the Church. Neither should prophecy be cast aside or considered insignificant.

Summary of Prophecy

Our discussion has shown that prophecy has nine essential aspects:

• Divinely originated: The spokesperson is a mouthpiece for God, declaring in human language a divine communique or message. • Immediate: Usually the prophecy is a "now word" that comes sud denly, abruptly, instantly, on the spot. • Spontaneous: The message is humanly unprompted, unbidden, unpremeditated, unplanned, unstudied, unrehearsed. • Spirit-inspired: The words originate with God and are empowered in their inception and delivery by the Holy Spirit. 167 ■