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

Christ's Continuing Voice in the Church

power to discern and resist satanic powers.While praying, Peter was given knowledge about God's plan and purpose for the Gentiles (Acts 10:9-16). The early Church had sudden and united insight from the Holy Spirit on how to apply Psalm 2:1-2 to their situation (Acts 4:23-31). What I describe here is not manifested as prophecy in a congregational meeting of the local church, but it does represent a way in which the voice of the Lord can come to us through the Spirit, so in that sense I call it prophetic.

Prophetic Ministry

The gift of prophecy. Certain gifted people function consistently in church with the charism or grace gift of prophecy. It is possible, as we saw in the last section, for any person to prophesy on occasion. 17 In fact a per son might prophesy once and never again.The grace gift of prophecy is, by contrast, a definite, resident enabling of God placed in the individual so that he or she may bring inspired edification, comfort and exhortation to God's people on a regular basis."Since we have gifts that differ accord ing to the grace given to us," wrote Paul, "let each exercise them accord ingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith" (Romans 12:6). Usually this gift does not include correction, new direction or predic tion.The gift of prophecy is given primarily for a function in the local church.The gift of a prophet (discussed in the next section) is usually a gift to the universal Church. In contrast to "the spirit of prophecy" manifested occasionally (and resulting from the benevolent influence of the Holy Spirit moving over a worshiping congregation), the gift of prophecy is the expression of a gift resident in a believer, 18 a sovereign gift of the Holy Spirit implanted in him or her. 19 The key text: "To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good....And to another prophecy....But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills" (1 Corinthians 12:7, 10-11).Each one of us is given a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, one of which is prophecy. There are varying degrees of maturity and experience within the prophetic ministers of the Church, just as there are with every other kind of ministry.The gift of prophecy often begins to manifest itself through various kinds of revelation such as spiritual impressions, visions and dreams.As this gift matures in the believer, it will become more recog nized and authorized in the church.Training and nurturing the individ ual enhances prophetic efficiency and causes the person with such a gift to be a profitable part of team ministry.Someone with the gift of prophecy ■ 186