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

Mission: What Was a Prophet?

7. A response by the audience is expected:

• Acceptance, rejection, neglect will occur; or • Repentance, commitment, reaffirmation will take place.

The Two Kinds of Prophecy

Webster's Dictionary clearly states the two English meanings of prophecy:

1. The inspired declaration of divine will and purpose; and 2. A prediction of something to come.

These two functions have been given the two terms forthtelling and foretelling.

Forthtelling

Usually the prophet was forthtelling-speaking forth God's voice in contemporary situations for immediate applications. Like the lawyer act ing as a mouthpiece for his client, the prophet spoke for God and His interests. Sometimes the form of speech was that of a herald speaking forth the will or decree of the king. Invariably it meant bringing forth the mind of God through inspired speech. To think of prophecy as predictive foretelling alone gives just a partial view of what the prophetic ministry properly embraces. This statement by C. Douglas Weaver summarizes forthtelling: "The prophet serves as God's mouthpiece, and his message functions as the word of God to and for particular constituencies. This word is a forth telling of God's will, and a call of restoration to that will. " 22 Foretelling/predictive prophecy is supernatural and miraculous. This is the way the Bible presents the nature of prophecy. Some modern crit ics assume that prediction of the distant future is impossible and thus reduce the miraculous element to a minimum. They leave us with a Bible robbed of its own integrity and bereft of its glorious messianic prophe cies. What an unfortunate approach to both Scripture and Christianity! Prophecy and miracles still remain as two great pillars of Christian truth and evidence. The Bible itself points to the fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus claimed that He fulfilled the predictions of the prophets. The early 47 ■ Foretelling