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

Mind: How Did Prophecy Come to a Prophet?

sions.And so it goes in the natural.So why should we think every reac tion to the dynamic Spirit will be subdued, restrained and uninteresting? This definition of ecstasy is given in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "Defined in a distinctively religious sense, an abnormal state of consciousness in which revelatory communications (both vision ary and auditory ) are believed to be received from supernatural beings. ...'Ecstasy' is a transliteration of the Greek noun ekstasis, derived from the verb existemi (or existano), the root meaning of which is 'displace,' 'stand apart from,' or 'put out of place."' The article finally settles on "the revelatory state of consciousness" 15 to describe in a positive way the prophetic consciousness. The Greek Old Testament uses ekstasis thirty times to translate eleven different Hebrew words, the majority of which are synonyms for "fear" or "terror." There is no single Hebrew word that describes the revelatory state, so these eleven Hebrew words are funneled into the one word of the Greek Old Testament.My conclusion, then, is that a precise defini tion for ecstasy is not possible. In the New Testament ekstasis is used seven times.In three of these pas sages it is appropriately translated "trance," and in the other four places the meaning is "amazement" or "astonishment." In a state of trance both Peter (Acts 10:10; 11:5) and Paul (Acts 22:17) "received direction and guidance from God.The experience included both visionary and audi tory components....Both of these instances ...lend support to the term [trance] as a legitimate descriptor of a visionary activity within the New Testament." 16 Were the prophets ecstatics? We know that supernatural activity is the process by which communication between God and mankind takes place. The prophets may or may not have been "ecstatic," but we do know they were used or possessed by the Holy Spirit.The following list of Old Tes tament expressions might be termed "ecstatic" in the sense that the prophecy came strongly and irresistibly to the prophet. (These expres sions can also fit at times under my heading of "Immediate Unction," but this is arbitrary.) • "The hand of the LORD" fell or was on someone (Ezekiel 3:14, 22; 8:1; 33:22; 37:1). • "The Spirit of God came upon" a certain one (Numbers 24:2; 1Samuel 10:10; 11:6; 19:20, 23; 2Chronicles 15:1; see Isaiah 61:1). • "The Spirit lifted me up" (Ezekiel 8:3; 11:1, 24; 43:5). • "The Spirit entered me" (Ezekiel 2:2; 3:24). • "The Spirit rested upon them" (Numbers 11:25-26). 83 ■