PROPHECY - All The Bible Teaches About
And Paul the Apostle speaks of the comfort that he is able to give to the Corinthians, calling God, "the God of all comforts," who comforts us with the comfort wherewith we are able to comfort others. There used to be a little lady in Huntington Beach by the name of Mother Berg and she had this gift of comfort. She had a radio broadcast and she always began the broadcast with the words "God is on the throne, you do not have to worry. We sometimes think that things are out of hand but we need to be reminded and comforted by the fact that God understands.
God is in control. God is on the throne. There is a comfort we receive from knowing that God is in control. Now the gift of prophecy in the New Testament was exercised by a man named Agabus. And it seems like Agabus exercised the gift in more of a prophetic way. We are told in Acts And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: And the next day we that were of Paul's company departed, and came unto Caesarea: That is one of the seven who was chosen to wait the tables earlier in the book of Acts when a dispute arose over the administration of the church's welfare.
And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. And so in both cases, we find that Agabus prophesies; that is, his gift was exercised in a predictive nature. It seemed to be one of the ministries in the church, the ministry of prophets or a man who had the prophetic gift.
And so in Antioch there were certain prophets plural and teachers such as: Barnabas, Simeon, Lucias, Minain, and Saul. So these men, it seems, all possessed that gift of prophecy. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. By the fact that in the previous verse it mentions these men with the gift of prophecy, I have no doubt that there was a prophetic utterance whereby God directed them to separate Paul and Barnabas for a special ministry.
And so, when they had fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and the Holy Spirit sent them forth and they began the first missionary journey, taking the gospel into Cypress and then on over into Asia Minor. So it was, no doubt, through the exercise of this gift of prophecy that the Holy Spirit spoke and directed the activities of the early church. When Paul was writing to Timothy, he told him not to neglect the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery [or the elders]. So when Timothy came before the elders, they laid hands on him and there was a word of prophecy that indicated the gifts that the Lord was giving Timothy, in order to fulfill his ministry.
And so, prophecy played a very important part in the direction of the early church. It defined for them just what gifts God was imparting to them. Now in the New Testament there are certain rules regarding the exercise of the gift of prophecy. There was one rule that seemed to apply only to women, when they prayed or prophesied. Remember Philip's four daughters did prophesy. The promise in the last days, saith the Lord, "And your sons and daughters shall prophesy"-shall speak forth the word of God Joel 2: There is no prohibition whatsoever for a woman exercising the gift of prophecy and speaking forth the Word of God.
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The only prohibition was to the Corinthian church and that is where Paul said if a woman prays or prophesies with her head uncovered she dishonors her husband. And so, he suggested that the women cover their heads. But then he went on to say that they did not have any such rule in all the churches. It seemed to be dealing with a local situation in Corinth. As Paul was speaking to them about chain of command; how the wife is in subjection to the husband, the husband to the Lord, and the Lord unto the Father.
So if a woman would pray or prophesy with her head uncovered she dishonors her husband. What is he talking about? The city of Corinth was an extremely wicked city.
Why God uses prophets
In fact it was associated with total debauchery. And to say that a person lived like a Corinthian would say that the person was just a debauched person, reveling in drunkenness and partying. It was known for being an extremely wicked city. It was basically a seaport, where east met west. Because the ships coming from the east with the goods for Rome would come to Corinth, the ships would be unloaded and the goods carried across the two-mile isthmus there, and then loaded on to ships going to Rome.
So it was a seaport that had a bunch of sailors passing through and the place was just wild. At the top of the hill above Corinth, there on the Acropolis was this huge temple to Aphrodite-the female goddess of love. In the evening a thousand of the priestesses of Aphrodite would come down into the city and they were prostitutes. And thus they would fill the city and prostitution was rampant there in Corinth. These prostitutes would not wear veils in order that they might be identified.
And so, an unveiled woman was thought to be a prostitute, and thus, she was approachable by a man. Whereas the women Paul was addressing would generally and customarily wear veils. So Paul is saying if a woman prays or prophesies and does not have a veil it is sort of dishonoring to her husband. But again, we do not have any such custom in all the churches. But it was one that Paul did apply to the women in Corinth-if they were to exercise publicly the gift of prophecy in church. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
Now the second rule for prophecy is that the services are to be conducted decently and in order. God is not the author of confusion. And the services ought to be conducted with a mind towards the response or the reaction of an unbeliever. Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. Many times in the Pentecostal circles, prophecies or utterances are made ostensibly in the name of the Lord. They have a tendency to begin a prophecy by saying, "Thus saith the Lord. Well, did the Lord really say it?
Is it in keeping with what God has said? We are to judge prophecy. You are not just to accept it. If I come up to you and say, "Brother, the Lord has been showing me something about you. He wants you to go to Africa as a missionary.
Bible Prophecy
Is this bearing witness with your heart? Now it is interesting, I have often had people come up to me and say, "Chuck, it seems to me that the Lord has been speaking to me and you should do this or that. And it comes as more or less a confirmation. Now I have other people who come to me and say, "You know the Lord said this. I do not accept that. With a "Thus saith the Lord, you have been leading the people astray The Scripture asks the question, 'Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ who has died, yea rather has risen again, and is even at the right hand of the Father making intercession. I came to save" John So if someone comes to me with some terrible condemnation, I shrug it off. Jesus did not come to condemn me. He came to save me. So the prophesying in the church is to be judged. And then he said, "If anything be revealed to another that is sitting by, let the first hold his peace" 1 Corinthians In other words, do things orderly. And there is room for others. It is interesting that many times as a person is speaking, the Spirit will begin to amplify, in my own mind, the things that are said.
He will be giving me illustrations or amplifying what is said. Sometimes if it is a guest speaker and the Lord has spoken to my heart and amplified certain parts, I will get up afterwards and expound on this one point and amplify it as the Spirit had amplified it to my own heart.
So let the first hold his peace. You do not all get up and start prophesying at once. It would be mass confusion. But you may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted. So the prophecy was used as a teaching method. We are not studying the tongues yet, but let me just say that tongues was never used as a teaching tool in the church.
Because the gift of tongues is not addressed to man, it is addressed to God. Howbeit in the Spirit he is speaking unto God divine secrets. But prophecy can be used for instruction in the church. The gift of prophecy is for learning, that all may be comforted. Make note of that because I have had people say, "Well, I just had to say it. The spirit of the prophet is subject unto the prophet.
The Spirit of God does not take over control and make you like a robot and force you to do things. We will get to that more emphatically when we get to the subject of tongues. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. Now, in the exercise of the gift of prophecy we are told that we are to do it according to our proportion of faith. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.
Now I believe that all of the gifts of God are exercised-received and exercised-by faith. You have a thought or an inspiration that comes into your mind. And you believe that it is an inspired thought of the Holy Spirit. And you wish to share that thought, then you do it according to the proportion of faith that you have.
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Now if you are doing it in such a way that intimates that it is the gift of prophecy from God, then the others are to judge it to determine whether or not it really is indeed of God. The basis, of course, of the judgment would be whether it is in keeping with the body of Scripture-the whole body of Scripture. You see, God will not give you a prophecy or an inspiration that is contrary to the written Word.
A lot of people make the mistake of saying, "Thus saith the Lord," when they are saying things that are actually contrary to what God has said. The Word of God is forever established and God is not going to give any revelation that would be in conflict or contrary to His already written Word. And so, the Word of God is the filter through which we put the prophecies in judging them whether they indeed are of God or not.
Do they pass through the filter of the already spoken Word?
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Now the Scriptures warn over and over again concerning those who would speak their own ideas in the name of the Lord. And I am afraid that this is a very prevalent practice. I get probably two or three letters a week of "thus saith the Lord" kinds of things in which a person is expressing their own ideas. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: This is pretty heavy.
God is denouncing those who would presume to speak their own thoughts and their own ideas in His name. Jesus warned over and over concerning false prophets. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. In His predictions of the events of the last days, Jesus said, "And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many" Matthew Jesus said, "Not all who say, 'Lord, Lord' are going to enter the kingdom of heaven. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! Under the law God declared in Deuteronomy If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and gives a sign or a wonder and the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spoke unto you saying, "Let us go now after other gods which you have not known and let us serve them," you will not hearken to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord your God is proving you to know whether or not you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.
You see the prophets should not tell you to do something that is contrary to the Word. They may show signs, they may sort of read your mind, and they may tell you what your name is, and tell you what your address is, and recall what happened to you this past week. However, if they would then say, "Now Jesus Christ is not the only way unto God. There are many ways by which we can reach God," then God is just testing you to see if you will hold true to the Word-if you will let the Word be the final authority of your faith and of your practice.
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: Sometimes they try to cow you with fear. I prophesied to a man last week and he laughed at it and he fell dead when he walked away. I had an experience in the early years of my ministry where these fellows were into some false doctrines and they were so convinced that I was to espouse this false doctrine to my congregation that they called me out on a Saturday night and they began to prophesy over me a black coffin and I was in it.
And they said God was going to smite me dead if I did not espouse their doctrine. I was not afraid.
I did not go home and think, Oh my, am I going to die? I had the Word of God. Interestingly enough, the fellow who gave the prophecy died in two weeks. He just saw the wrong face in the coffin. I mean, his prophecy was correct, but We must never forget that the Word of God is superior to anything of prophecy that might be given. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat? You can come and tell me of your visions and dreams and I do not discount them. I believe that God can and does speak to man through visions and dreams. But God speaks to us through His Word as well.
And visions and dreams are but as chaff compared to wheat, when you are comparing them to the Word of God. It is the Word of God that nourishes and strengthens. Chaff can choke you. The Word of God will sustain you and feed you. The Bible tells us not to despise prophesying. It is interesting that the gift of prophecy was exercised many times in our church here. Much of my preaching is the exercise of the gift of prophecy. Years ago as we were in a prayer group, hands were laid on me and prophecy was given that at that time seemed to be just something maybe of a dream, but nothing of reality, as the Lord spoke to me of the future ministry that He was going to give to me.
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile.
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All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
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