The
Inspirational Gifts – Part 2
Memory Verse: “But
everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement
and comfort.” (1 Cor. 12:3. NIV.)
We want to look closely at
the source of true prophecy and its purpose in the life of the individual
believer and the Church in general.
In our last lesson we had said that
prophecy could come from the human spirit (a liar), the devil (as in 1 Kings 22 when King
Ahab was persuaded to go to Ramoth Gilead where he met his death), or from God
Himself. Remember we defined
prophecy as essentially the gift of being able to reveal God’s mind,
speak God’s word, “Thus says the Lord”, concerning any situation, past, present
or future. In this lesson we want to focus on God as the source of true prophecy.
What comes from Him has eternal value.
From 1 Cor. 14:1-12 we read
earlier, we can see that
Remember that from Eph. 5:25-27 we learn
that the purpose of the Lord’s death and resurrection was to present the Church
to Himself as “a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish,
but holy and blameless.” It is because prophecy, speaking God’s mind to people,
contributes directly to achieving this purpose that we find the Apostle
recommending this gift highly, 1 Cor. 14:1,12 & 39.
It should however be noted that
none of these verses condemns the gift of speaking in tongues. The tongues
speaker speaks to God and edifies himself. The prophet speaks to the Church and
edifies the Church. And when tongue speaking is accompanied with
interpretation, the Church is also edified, 1 Cor. 14:5, 26-28.
Lesson Outline 1: The Divine Source of Prophecy
Prophecy from God, i.e. speaking
God’s mind, comes in three different ways:
q
Through the gift of prophecy.
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Through the office of a prophet.
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Through the Scriptures.
Can you think of examples from the
Scriptures?
Ever heard of Prophets Joel,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc?
But there are also many examples,
both in the days of the Bible and down to our time, who have the gift of
prophecy but are not designated as Prophets. For instance, we do not normally
refer to Paul as a Prophet, yet he certainly exercised that gift in Acts
27:9-10; 21-26 when he talked of the impending shipwreck.
And what he said did come to pass,
Acts 27:27-44.
Similarly there are indeed Pastors
today who do prophesy yet they are not designated as Prophets but simply as
Pastors. This brings us to the third type of divine source of prophecy, which
is through the Scriptures.
The rampart idol worship that was
fully supported and encouraged by King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, fully satisfied the condition God gave for
withdrawing the gift of rainfall. So Elijah on this occasion spoke the mind of
God, based on what God had previously stated in the Scriptures.
In confessing, “The LORD – He is
God. The LORD – He is God”, the people had finally turned back to God, for
before then, they were not too sure whether Baal or the LORD was God. See 1 Kings
18:21, 38-39.
The passage ends with an account
of a very heavy rainfall, 1 Kings 18:40-45. This should not really
surprise us because when we read 2Chron. 7:13-14, written
probably some two hundred years or so before this incident, we can see they
satisfied God’s condition for drought to end and rain to follow.
The majority of the true prophets
of our days are those who speak the mind of God as contained in the Scriptures.
Our God is not in the habit of changing His mind, Num. 23:19. On the
contrary, He watches over His word to make sure it is fulfilled, Jer. 1:12
Lesson Outline 2: The Purpose of Prophecy
What are these, according to 1 Cor.
14:3, 24-25?
Summary: When the source of prophecy is
divine, it certainly has divine value because it serves the purpose of building
up, encouraging, comforting and warning believers. As for unbelievers, it warns
them of their need to urgently repent or face God’s judgment.