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

The Importance of Prophecy

The underlying, basic question is this: How does God speak to His peo ple? Christians hear God's voice through His written Word, the Bible. God also uses counselors, circumstances, impressions, answered prayer, even human conscience. Most Christians experience such guidance at one time or another. In Bible days prophecy stood as probably the most usual way of hearing God's voice. Prophets and prophecy were an important part of God's Old Testament agenda as well as of Christ's agenda for the early Church. A refreshing contemporary realization of this ancient biblical prac tice is now taking place, with many churches discovering that prophecy can be a wonderful and meaningful enhancement of today's Church life. In both New Testament times and in the contemporary Church, prophecy refers to an inspired spoken message that God brings to a per son or a group of people through a Spirit-filled Christian. The spokesper son is empowered spiritually to declare to a given audience words that have been imparted by divine revelation. This is a supernatural or mirac ulous happening-a divine communique! The fact that leading magazines and journals carry articles on this sub ject, and that popular writers devote time to the subject, indicates a con tinuing concern and curiosity by Christian readers. 2 As one religious ana lyst puts it, "Currently there is a fashionable interest in prophecy." 3 This new (or is it just updated?) attitude is reflected in the more than three dozen contemporary books on spiritual gifts in my library-a mere sam pling of the total literature available. Coming from a wide range of denominational backgrounds, many of these modern authors believe that the phenomenon called prophecy exists in today's Church. Well-written and thought-provoking books from unexpected sources and publishers challenge traditional assump tions about the need for and importance of prophecy in today's Church. 4 Some feel so strongly about the prophetic renewal that they declare the Church is in an authentic "prophetic movement" today. 5 F. F. Bruce summarizes the situation well: "The prophetic ministry probably receives greater recognition in today's Church than it has enjoyed for a long time." 6 The academic community also has experienced a heightened interest in prophecy. Reputable scholars have produced more than a dozen sig nificant books during the past twenty years.7 In addition, a great deal of in-depth, specialized material on prophecy is found in the monographs of the rather exclusive journals produced by theological seminaries, Bible societies and publishing houses. More than one hundred of these schol arly articles contain insights of interest here. 8

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