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

The Importance of Prophecy

I have never forgotten that prophetic preaching experience, for I felt lifted out of myself-enabled to blend with the thoughts of God and feel the needs of the people. I experienced both the joyful confidence of the Lord and the despairing souls of the people seeking help. I had an unc tion from God. Many of us who minister have experienced this prophetic touch on our preaching, and from time to time we should expect it. Perhaps this is why some feel that preaching and prophecy are actually the same, as some of the modern translations portray it. On the other hand, I contend (here and throughout the book) that we should also expect actual prophecy-that is, direct statements of God's immediate thoughts for a given situation and people, delivered under the impetus of the Holy Spirit. The prophetic anointing brings an electrify ing, edifying effect not achievable with ordinary preaching and teaching. Prophecy comes as a "now word," the present expression of a con temporary God who is truly present and concerned. The truths and prin ciples of the Scripture suddenly focus on a specific audience at a specific place at a specific time. This was brought home to me when a teenage girl told me after a prophetic service in her Oklahoma City church, "Although I've gone to church, I never realized before that God was really that inter ested in me." The members of a large Sunday school class were also affected strongly by prophecy during a special retreat: "They realized God intimately knew them. It was redemptive, life-bringing and freeing. The details prayed were just what they needed to hear." 2 Prophecy is not meant to replace or supersede the Bible, but when used properly it does make Bible truths more relatable by awakening people to realize God is interested in them, both now and in their future. The following account recalls the story of a message of God delivered by an angel. During that patriarchal time God's message was usually deliv ered by heavenly messengers (that is, angels) 3 rather than by human prophets. The angels became the prototype for the prophets yet to come in the times of Moses and Samuel. The anecdote illustrates the impact of God's voice on people, and therefore serves to introduce the nature of prophecy, using the first appearance of the angel of the Lord in the Bible. Prophecy, the voice of God in a given situation, had the same effect in churches of Bible days-and still does today. God dispatched a startling message to a distraught Bedouin woman. The Egyptian Hagar, servant to Abram's wife, Sarai, had been made the "Thou God Seest Me"

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