Earnestly Desiring the gift of prophecy[1]
1 cor 14:1-25
1 Corinthians 14:1-25 (ESV)
In this section of
scripture Paul commends to the Corinthians the benefit of prophecy over speaking
in tongues in corporate worship. It
is a wonderful section of scripture but for many of us, it is like watching the
superbowl today as the Steelers and the Seahawks play and not really knowing
much at all about football. We
would not be able to enjoy the Superbowl if we don’t’ understand the basic
elements of the football as well as the strengths, weaknesses and the key
players on either team. Similarly,
if we are to benefit from scriptures discussion of these two gifts we must
understand each of them, then we can obey Paul’s command to earnestly desire the
gift of prophecy.
We
must understand and earnestly desire the gift of NT prophecy for the good of our
church.
1.
Prophecy is A
non-canonical Speaking of a Revelation From God.
1
Corinthians 14:29-30 (ESV)
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and
let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to
another sitting there, let the first be silent.
“Paul is simply referring to something that God may suddenly bring to mind, or something that God may impress on someone’s consciousness in such a way that the person has a sense that it is from God. It may be that the thought brought to mind is surprisingly distinct from the person’s own train of thought, or that it is accompanied by a sense of vividness or urgency or persistence, or in some other way gives the person a rather clear sense that it is from the Lord.”
Wayne Grudem – (Systematic Theology, 1056)
First, we must realize that a prophecy is the speaking of a revelation from God. Now, that may sound kind of heavy and intimidating – “a revelation from God” sounds pretty presumptuous. Who would want to go around saying – “I have a revelation from God to share with you”. But that is indeed what a prophecy is, a sharing of a revelation from God. We must understand there are different levels of revelation from God. Then we can see where NT prophecy type revelations fit in.
1.1.
‘Revelation’ as
it used in the NT[2],[3]
“Christianity is a religion which rests on revelation.” – JI Packer
“We would never know God apart from His revelation of Himself. We can only know God if He chooses to reveal Himself.”
Brent Detwiler
God loves to reveal
himself. Thank God that he is a
revealing God, a speaking God. He
is a God who loves to show himself, to display his glory and invite all his
creation to the joy of sharing in the revelation of his glory. The very foundation for this passage and
all of scripture is the face that it is in the very nature of God to speak to us
through revelation.
1.1.1. General Revelation
God reveals himself to all people through what is called general revelation. That is the revelation through his creation. Check out Psalm 19:
Psalm
19:1-3 (ESV)
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky
above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and
night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there
words, whose voice is not heard.
That is one of the glories of living – that we get to enjoy the glory of God in his creation.
I loved my job as a scientist because I got to see the glory of God in creation. I got to probe the depths of that glory by studying the simplest atom – hydrogen. I could have spent my whole life exploring this atom and never figured it all out. Did you know that hydrogen has the ability to transport itself from one location to another without passing between the locations? It is called tunneling and hydrogen can do it. Who understands it? No one fully but it shows the unfathomable depths of God even in his creation.
Calvin says the following:
“Let us not be ashamed to take pious delight in the works
of God open and manifest in this most beautiful theatre” and “There is no spot
in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory.
You cannot in one glance survey this most beautiful system of the universe in
its wide expanse without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of
its brightness.” Jean Calvin (I, xiv, 20), (I, xi. 1).
Not only does general revelation display God’s glory, but it also gives us enough information to see what he is like and thus be accountable to him.
Romans
1:18-21 (ESV)
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them,
because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes,
namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever
since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are
without excuse
So we can know a lot about God through general revelation but we need something more to know some of the key specifics.
1.2.
Special
Revelation – the
Scriptures
You see, we need to
know more. Yes, we can see God’s
greatness and purity in his creation but we won’t find out how we can truly have
a relationship with him apart from something more. It is like coming into someones house
and looking at how they decorate and landscape. You can know a lot about them by all
that but you must hear their very words to really know what they are like. That is what the scriptures are. They are the very words of God whereby
we can know exactly what he thinks and what he thinks is important. Now, we don’t have time now to go into
all that the word of God is. But,
more importantly than anything, the word communicates to us who Jesus Christ is
and what that means for us.
2
Timothy 3:14-16 (ESV)
14 But as for you, continue in what you have
learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15
and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
2
Peter 1:20-21 (ESV)
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy
of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no
prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they
were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The written word of
God is the very words of God, authoritative, infallible, reliable,
self-attesting, live giving and eternal. It is the revelation we need to
know what God thinks and requires.
It is fully sufficient for truth and by the power of the Spirit,
communicating to us, for life and godliness.
“Special revelation denotes the ways God makes Himself known with a clarity and fullness which far surpass general revelation. It is centered in the miracle of the incarnation and mediated through the God inspired words of the Bible.” - Bruce Milne[4]
Next, there is
subordinate revelation. Subordinate
means under another’s authority. In
other words, there is revelation from God that is under the authority of the
word of God but nevertheless important revelation from God. Check out the following
verses:
John
10:27 (ESV)
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me.
Revelation
3:20 (ESV)
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone
hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and
he with me.
Matthew
11:25 (ESV)
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and
understanding and revealed them to little children;
Matthew
16:17 (ESV)
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon
Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who
is in heaven.
Galatians
1:16 (ESV)
16 [God] was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order
that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with
anyone;
Philippians
3:15 (ESV)
15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and
if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.
Now, all these
revelations mentioned are extrabiblical, that is, they are not in the
bible. Yet, the very word of God
affirms them. Clearly, God speaks
beyond the bible but under the authority and framework of the bible. Some folks are uncomfortable calling
this revelation. They would prefer
the word ‘illumination.’ Check out what Richard Gaffin
says:
Often, too, what is seen as prophecy is actually a spontaneous, Spirit-worked application of Scripture, a more or less sudden grasp of the bearing that biblical teaching has on a particular situation or problem. All Christians need to be open to these more spontaneous workings of the Spirit.
Richard Gaffin,
as quoted in Wayne Grudem ST, Zondervan 1994, p. 1041 from Gaffin, Perspectives, p. 120
That is fine and very close to NT
prophecy, but why not use the biblical word ‘revelation’ or “prophecy” if we are
convinced the gifts have not ceased.
Regardless of the particular wording, this sort of revelation must occur
or you would not be here claiming you are a Christian. Nowhere in the bible does it have your
particular name. Nowhere in the
bible does it say specifically that Jesus Christ died and rose again for Paul
Buckley. Nowhere does it say Paul
Buckley is a Christian and saved from his sins. Yet, I can stand here and confidently
affirm this and you don’t call me a heretic. Why? Because you believe God is a living God
and a speaking God and he takes the truth of scripture and speaks specifically
to us about his atoning death and mercy and love for us and calls us to himself
and empowers us to believe what he says.
God most definitely speaks extrabiblically, you would not be a believer
otherwise. Yet, he always speaks
under the truth of the word of God – the bible. The bible is the vocabulary, the truths,
the content that he uses to communicate to us personally. One is objective and infallible, the
other is subjective and subordinate to the infallible word of God.
I hope you are
convinced from scripture itself that God is a speaking God who has revealed
himself in nature, specifically and infallibly in his word, and through
subordinate revelation as well. My
next desire is to help us understand how NT prophecy fits into all
this.
1.3.1. Distinguishing New Testament Prophecy
Many folks would
agree up to this point but then object, “Isn’t prophecy another category of
revelation on par with the very words of God? Isn’t that what was true in the Old
Testament?” Well, yes the OT
prophets spoke the very words of God, infallibly. We see this from scripture
itself.
Haggai
1:13 (ESV)
13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the
Lord’s message, “I am with you,
declares the Lord.”
1
Samuel 15:23 (ESV)
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word
of the Lord, he has also rejected
you from being king.”
Jeremiah
1:4 (ESV)
4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Never do we see the
OT prophets words treated as anything less than the very words of God to be
absolutely obeyed. For this reason,
the penalty for false prophecy was death.
Check out Deuteronomy 18:
Deuteronomy
18:20 (ESV)
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my
name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other
gods, that same prophet shall die.’
Now, not all OT
prophets wrote scripture, but all their words were treated as the very words of
God and thus absolutely authoritative.
But NT prophecy is fundamentally different than OT prophecy. Check out Joel 2 as quoted by
Peter:
Acts
2:16-18 (ESV)
16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet
Joel: 17 “ ‘And in the last days
it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and
female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall
prophesy.
The Spirit is to be
poured out on all flesh, all types of folks shall receive the Spirit and all
types will prophesy. This is very
different from OT prophecy. Now,
instead of a select few it is the multitude, perhaps even all. Correspondent to this is the
understanding that NT prophecy is of a broader distribution but lesser authority
than OT prophecy. We see evidence
of this in the way Paul treats the Corinthians. He says in 14:25 & 39 that he wants
them to earnestly desire to prophesy.
In 11:5 he talks about women doing the same. Now this is all to a church full of
charismaniacs. Do you think that if
Paul considered NT prophecy to be on par with the very words of God he would be
encouraging this type of activitly?
I don’t think so. I would be telling them not to think of saying “boo”
given their track record. Yet that
is not what he is doing. He is
encouraging them to prophesy!
We see evidence in
13:9-12 that this prophecy that takes place in the church age is fallible and
partial.
1
Corinthians 13:9-12 (ESV)
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in
part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in
part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
“the mirror imagery suggest both the indirectness and incompleteness in the knowledge that comes … what is seen or learned is only a glimpse of some reality … The expression ‘dimly’, in a puzzling way, indicates that what is seen or learned or the implications of what is revealed are often difficult to understand.”[5]
Wayne Grudem
Furthermore, we see
in various places in the NT that it is to be weighed or evaluated and
disregarded if not scriptural. We
never see this with OT prophets.
1
Corinthians 14:29 (ESV)
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and
let the others weigh what is said……
37 If anyone thinks that he is
a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to
you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this,
he is not recognized.
1
Thessalonians 5:19-21 (ESV)
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20
Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast
what is good.
NT prophecy is subordinate revelation not
the very words of God. The OT
prophet is more on par with the NT Apostles. They are the ones who wrote scripture
and spoke authoritatively, even over the NT prophets as 1 Cor. 14:37 clearly
indicates among other passages.
‘when Paul presupposes in 1 Cor. 14.30 that the gift of prophecy depends on a revelation, we are not limited to a form of authoritative revelation that threatens the finality of the canon. To argue in such a way is to confuse the terminology of Protestant systematic theology with the terminology of the Scripture writers.”[6]
D. A
We must realize that NT prophecy comes from a revelation from God but does not contain the very words of God. It is a report of something God brings to mind suddenly – a revelation – a subordinate revelation. And thus, it is reported through human words, it is a prophesy “in part”
Genuine prophetic revelation beings in the perfection of the Godhead. But it is there that perfect revelation begins and ends. Our reception of it, and the interpretation we bring to it, and the reporting we make from it – is subject to the full range of our limitations and falleness.
Bauer Evans
“Impartation is divine but reception, translation and transmission are all centered in sinners.”
Dave Harvey
Acts
21:10-14 (ESV)
10 While we were staying for many days, a prophet
named Agabus came down from
30
Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized
Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. 31
And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the
cohort that all
Agabus is a legitimate and gifted NT prophet. We see him in Acts 11 and 21. He accurately predicts a famine and then in Acts 21, predicts Paul’s capture. But it is helpful to look at what Agabus says and that fact that he actually misses on the details with this prophecy. First, he says that Paul will be bound by the Jews when in fact it is the Romans who bind him. Secondly, he says the Jews would hand him into the hands of the gentiles when in fact the Jews were beating him and trying to kill him, not hand him over to anyone. It was the Romans who rescued him from certain death. By OT standards, Agabus, one of the chief NT prophets, should be put to death. Check out what DA Carson says here:
“I can think of no reported OT prophet whose prophecies are so wrong in the details.”
D.A Carson.
Agabus heard a revelation from God but it got muddled up somewhat. We prophesy in part. Nevertheless, Agabus was faithful to go for it and deliver his understanding of the revelation.
“It seems
therefore that the best solution is to say that Agabus had a revelation from the
HS concerning what would happen next to Paul in
Wayne Grudem
I don’t know
about you, but I have done the same many times, yet I want to continue to step
out.
Anonymous example with Dave V.
What does this all
tell us? Well, prophecy is partial
and fallible but derives from a revelation from God. Let us therefore earnestly desire this
gift in obedience to scripture but all the while be people of the
scriptures. The scriptures are the
infallible guide for all subordinate revelation, be it prophecy or teaching or
whatever. Let us saturate our minds
and hearts with the scriptures, that we might give them their rightful
place. Let us see how precious is
the word of God and meditate o nit day and night. Let us fill our thoughts and words with
the very word of God. Surely this
will guide us in our understanding and speaking of subordinate revelation. Let us prophesy but let the vocabulary
or our words, the context of our words, the framework and flavor of our words be
the very words of God revealed clearly, objectively and faultlessly in
scripture.
“If the gift of prophecy begins to be used in your church, place even more emphasis on he vastly superior value of the Scripture as the place where Christians can always go to hear the voice of the living God. Prophecy is a valuable gift, but is in Scripture that God speaks to us his very words today.”[7]
Wayne Grudem
2.
Conclusion to
Part A.
Prophecy is the speaking of non-canonical subordinate revelation.
It is subordinate
It is fallible and partial
It must be weighed.
It is to be earnestly desired.
3.
Prophecy is for
the good of God’s people
The question follows, “Why seek this gift then, if the very words of God written for us from scripture are so fantastic.” Good question, one that naturally follows from the truth of the greatness of God’s word, the bible. First, the bible itself tells us to earnestly desire to prophesy right in 1 Cor. 14:39 – we have to deal with that. Additionally, the picture of NT prophecy is a very favorable one, it is a gift that edifies, encourages and consoles. It is a gift that has tremendous power to reach those who do not yet believe. And, it is a gift that serves as a positive sign and blessing of the very presence of God amidst his people.
3.1.
Prophecy edifies,
encourages and consoles
1
Corinthians 14:1-25 (ESV)
3 On the other hand,
the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement
and consolation. 4
The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who
prophesies builds up the church.
Paul want the Corinthians to see the limitations of the gift of tongues in being able to edify others. As we covered last week, if folks don’t know what you are saying they can not benefit directly. So Paul recommends prophesy. NT prophesy has the power to do three wonderful things for God’s people. It builds, it encourages, it consoles. Consider some examples from scripture.
Acts
15:32-33 (ESV)
32 And Judas and Silas, who were themselves
prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words. 33
And after they had spent some time, they were sent off in peace by the
brothers to those who had sent them.
Here we have prophecy acting to build up God’s people. First,
we have Judas and Silas, prophets, encouraging and strengthening the church in
Now, I recognize this is speculation on my part, but given
what we know of NT prophecy and what we see in the word, something like this
probably was occurring. Can you
imagine what it would have been like for the believers at
I
remember watching my good friend S.D. and his wife S. receive great
encouragement through the prophetic ministry of a brother who didn’t know
them. You see, S.. had pastored in
a very problematic church some years early and had to resign because of
politics. He and S. were
considering pastoring again with some trepidation. This brother spoke directly to that and
the doubt and discouragement that still lingered without having any prior
knowledge of their situation. You could see the impact on them at the thought
that God knew their situation and cared about it. The brother then spoke great
encouragement by speaking of the faithfulness of God and his sense of how God
would restore them to ministry.
Today, my brother S. serves as a senior pastor of a thriving church in
Furthermore, we see in the life of Timothy how NT prophecy functioned. Apparently, Timothy was like you and me, he needed encouragement. He was tempted to shrink back it be timid perhaps. Paul reminds him of the prophecies given over his life, perhaps at the point of his ordination/commission as an elder. We don’t know exactly what was said but it probably was something specific about his call and the ways God would use him. I am sure that the prophetic words he received encouraged him greatly at the time. We see here that after many years they continue to serve an encouraging function.
1
Timothy 1:18 (ESV)
18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my
child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them
you may wage the good warfare,
1
Timothy 4:14 (ESV)
14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was
given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on
you.
Many members of the body receive similar encouragement from prophetic words. Many denominations that may not acknowledge NT prophecy as currently orperating nevertheless insist that any pastor have a sense of God’s call. This is really the same thing. How important it is when God calls us to some task, a task that will have it’s challenges and disappointments, that we have a sense of his call. No, the call is nothing in comparison to our call in Christ to be his own. Nevertheless, it still helps tremendously. I can tell you quite frankly that pastoring is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. At the same time, it is the most thrilling and rewarding thing I have ever done. But oh, how I need to be reminded that God has called me and not me. How I need to be reminded by all those prophetic words, both my own impressions and those of others, both those spoken and those held closely that he is the one doing all this and calling me. I remember many helpful words. Let me share one with you that helped greatly. I had just been at the SGM Pastors college with Peg and the kids. We had just left a church home we dearly loved and were seeking how God would lead us. This word came along side a process that involved many factors but nevertheless served to encourage and affirm what many already sensed. Besides, it reported things as only God would know.
“The Lord showed me that you are like Abraham. And I believe he would call you back in your memory to a time where there was a restlessness in your heart. Although He had planted you in a place for a time, there was a restlessness in your spirit and I just see you pacing and praying and looking up at the sky and going, ‘Lord, I feel like I’m home but why do I sense this restlessness in me?..And I believe that at that time the Lord spoke to you about your future and you believed him just like Abraham did. And he said he was going to take you to another place and you said ‘I believe you Lord, I believe you Lord, here I am, send me…”
Given by J.W. at
Words like that have been a great source of strength for me as we have faced the joys and anguish of pouring out our hearts in the dear church home he has formed and is prospering.
Prophetic words are not always of the form of personal prophecy that includes details of someone’s past. My experience is that the majority of revelations from God for the purpose of prophesy come by the sudden reminded or a scripture or truth from scripture for someone. It might be something like what we experience in church. We are all worshipping together and suddenly the Lord quickens a passage to you. Perhaps its something about fixing your eyes on Jesus and the sense that some in the congregation are fixing their eyes elsewhere. That is NT prophecy and no less valid. Some might say, of course that applies to someone, what is so special about that. But, when you’re the person who is there that Sunday and knows that God is speaking to you directly, you don’t see it that way. You realize that God knows your situation and cares about you and wants to speak to you for your good. There are many times this happens. It happens at times in sermons as well as during our sharing time. I have had people respond to me after a message as if I had talked to their closest friend in my preparation. That is God himself speaking according to his eternal truth. So, don’t feel like you need to cite what someone said in private in order for it to be a real prophetic word. If God quickens a scripture or truth to you and you have that sense that he wants you to share, go for it and trust the results to him. We are not called to perform but to love and serve. Let us seek to take full advantage of this gift God has given for upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
3.2.
Prophecy is a
sign of God’s favor
1
Corinthians 14:1-25 (ESV)
21 In the Law it is written, “By people
of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people,
and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22 Thus
tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a
sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 If, therefore, the
whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or
unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted
by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart
are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that
God is really among you.
An important corrolary to the function of prophecy is what it says about his people. NT prophecy is a sign of God’s blessing and favor on his church. Take a look with me at 1 Cor. 14:21-25. Here Paul is contrasting the sign factor for tongues verse prophecy. He quotes Isaiah 28:11-12 where the unintelligible language of the invading Assyrians was a sign of God’s judgement and rejection of his rebellious people. As we saw last week, tongues are the anti-evangelism gift because they cause people who don’t’ understand their function to mock and miss out on God’s blessing. Therefore, we must require interpretation and seek gifts that are intelligible. Prophecy, an intelligible gift, is a sign as well. It is a sign to the unbeliever and believer alike of God’s blessing on believers. It is a gift that proclaims – the living speaking revealing God is active in this local church! Take a look at verse 24 and 25. The outsider realizes as a result of prophecy that God himself must be in the midst of these people. Talk about church growth methods!! This is the sort of visitor ministry we want to have. Isn’t that what many believers are desperately seeking for? Isn’t it what those God is drawing are searching for? They are searching for a church home where the living God himself is present, present to speak and bless and receive worship. That is the sign of a healthy church – the active presence and blessing of God. This blessing comes through the right function of NT prophecy in all its forms. Are you searching for such a church? May we be a church who actively and desperately seek the voice of our awesome and wonderful God! May we be a people who actively desire the spiritual gift of prophecy!
I believe this is what makes the difference between good preaching and great preaching. When we not only hear good truth but actually hear the living God himself through preaching, it makes all the difference. Check out what Martyn Lloyd-Jones says:
“Oh, there is preaching and preaching! What is the test of preaching? I will tell you; it is power!.. And that was the sort of preaching you had from the protestant reformers.’… ‘It was prophetic preaching, not priestly preaching. What we have today is what I would call priestly. Very nice, very quiet, very ornate, sentences turned beautifully, prepared carefrully. That is not prophetic preaching’ – DMLJ as quoted by Sargent, The Sacred Anointing, p. 280
We want to hear the voice of the Lord in our midst. That is what makes us different from all the other people of the earth – God is in our midst! Let us not despise this wonderful blessing of God’s voice in our midst through the many means of grace he gives us, especially the gift of NT prophecy!
3.3.
Prophecy is used
evangelisitically.
24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
According to this blessing and sign of God’s presence and voice in our midst is the evangelisitic function of the gift of NT prophecy. God grants revelation to his people and sometimes that revelation is about somebody in our midst who needs to know the Lord. This passage describes such a situation. Look in verse 24 and 25. The outsider comes into the midst of the congregation and they are practicing wise NT prophesy. He is convicted by all, he is called to account by all. How does this happen? Well, the secrets of his heart are disclosed in the context of NT prophecy. The Lord speaks through the prophesy to expose the persons needs and sins and God’s call to them is also given. It is not just information that is shared but the sense of God’s presence as well. We see this in the ministry of Jesus in a very significant and powerful way. In John 4 the women at the well meets Jesus. Let’s look at the dialogue:
John 4:1-42
Similiarly, we can be used of God in a like manner. Listen to how our friend Charles Spurgeon operated this way.
While preaching in the hall, on one occasion, I deliberately pointed to a man in the midst of the crowd, and said, ‘There is a man sitting there, who is a shoemaker; he keeps his shop open on Sundays, it was open last Sabbath morning, he took ninepence, and there was fourpence profit out of it, his soul is sold to Satan for fourpence!’
A city missionary, when going on his rounds, met with this man, and seeing that he was reading one of my sermons, he asked the question, ‘Do you know Mr. Spurgeon?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the man, ‘I have every reason to know him, I have been to hear him; and, under his preaching, by God’s grace I have become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Shall I tell you how it happened? I went to the Music Hall, and took my seat in the middle of the place; Mr. Spurgeon looked at me as if he knew me, and in his sermon he pointed to me, and he told the congregation that I was a shoemaker, and that I kept my shop open on Sundays; and I did, sir. I should not have minded that; but he also said that I took ninepence the Sunday before, and that there was fourpence profit out of it. I did take ninepence that day, and fourpence was just the profit; but how he should know that, I could not tell. Then it struck me that it was God who had spoken to my soul through him, so I shut up my shop the next Sunday. At first, I was afraid to go again to hear him, lest he should tell the people more about me; but afterwards I went, and the Lord met with me, and saved my soul.’
I could tell as many as a dozen similar cases in which I pointed at somebody in the hall without having the slightest knowledge of the person, or any idea that what I said was right, except that I believed I was moved by the Spirit to say it…And not only so, but I have known many instances in which the thoughts of men have been revealed from the pulpit."
(From the autobiography of Spurgeon, quoted in "The Gift of Prophecy" by Wayne Grudem, p.356-7)
I have a childhood friend who came to the Lord through a prophetic word. He attended a small group meeting and one of the guys in the group shared something to the effect that someone in the room had been going through a particular struggle and had asked God for help in a certain way and that God was calling him. Well it described my friend to a tee and he put his faith in Christ that day.
On another occasion Peg and I were at an Alpha retreat and one of the ladies in