Intro
We are examining the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Cor. 12. We will begin reading in 1 Cor 12:4. “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy….”
Our subject today is the gift of prophecy, as stated in 1 Cor. 12:10.
Prophecy is an enormous subject. The Bible itself is a prophetic book in the broad sense of the word.i Prophecy runs all through Scripture and is expressed in a variety of ways. Many verses foretell end-time events. The study of end-time prophecy is a big subject. We see prophets operating in the Old and New Testament. Jesus was the ultimate prophet who would come according to Deut. 18:18.
Our subject today is more specific than all that. We want to understand prophecy as one of the nine gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Cor. 12:10. To do that we must get a general understanding of prophecy; then narrow our study to the context of 1 Cor. 12:10. There is so much in Scripture about prophecy that people can get lost in the vastness of it all.
When we studied the word of wisdom, we learned that the word of wisdom is not just wisdom in general. There are many expressions of wisdom. There is even a kind of wisdom in the world that enables people to have temporal success in that system. There is practical wisdom that comes through experience. There is wisdom that is gained by knowing the word of God and living according to that word. Within the broad scope of wisdom, we found in 1 Cor. 12:8 the “word of wisdom” that comes as a manifestation of the Spirit. In order to understand the word of wisdom we had to identify it specifically within the broad context of wisdom in general. We had to do the same thing with the word of knowledge. In 1 Cor. 12:7-10 Paul is taking about something very specific. We must understand that, and hear what he is talking about in the context. The key term that helps us do that is found in verse 7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.”ii The Greek word translated manifestation is phanerosis.iii Paul is talking about expressions of the Holy Spirit through believers. These are disclosures of the Spirit’s activity in the midst of God’s people.iv So, instead of wisdom in general, Paul is talking about a word of wisdom given for the occasion. Instead of talking about knowledge in general, he is talking about a word of knowledge imparted by the Spirit. And instead of talking about prophecy in general, he is talking about a manifestation of the Spirit that occurs by the will of God to meet the need at the time. We will define prophecy (as stated in 1 Cor. 12:10) as “a supernatural revelation from God, given on an occasion, to be expressed in a known language.” It may be foretelling events, but more commonly is the forthtelling of the mind of the Lord for edification, exhortation, or comfort (1 Cor. 14:3).v
Before we deal with prophecy as a gift of the Spirit, I want to give a little background on prophecy in general.
One wonderful attribute of God is that He speaks.vi He mercifully and gracefully reveals His mind, thoughts, and will to people. He doesn’t reveal everything, but He tells us what we need to know. He does that through the Bible (a more sure word of prophecy) and He does that by speaking to our hearts directly. Deut. 29:29 "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Notice the purpose behind the revelation: “ , that we may do….” Prophecy is not given to satisfy curiosity. It is not given for purely intellectual stimulation, and it is not given just to stimulate emotions. It is given so we can do “all” that the Lord requires of us and, in doing that, enjoy life to the full. When people study biblical prophecy just to satisfy curiosity about the future, they will go astray. They will want more and more to satisfy the craving and can be easily misled. It might be okay to start with that motive, but if it never switches to a desire to know so that we can do, then it’s a problem. The same is true with personal prophecy. When people want to know their personal future out of carnal curiosity, it can be a problem. God may very well speak something about our future. When He does that, it is always so that we can cooperate with His will. It is usually because we need to know it in order to endure the trials that precede its fulfillment. From Deut. 29:29, we understand two things about prophecy.
(1) God will tell you what you need to know, but some things He will not tell you. We know in part, and we prophesy in part (1 Cor. 13:9).
(2) He tells you so that you’re better equipped to do His will—better equipped to cooperate with His leading.
Prophecy in both the Old Testament and New Testament can be predictive. Joseph received a prophetic dream about his future when he was 17 years old. It enabled him to endure the trials that would follow. When I completed Bible School, I was the only graduate who did not go into the ministry. It was a very small school, but that distinction was a little discouraging. Unlike the other graduates, I knew God was telling me to get a secular job—that I was not ready for full-time ministry. In that context, I was praying about God’s will for my life. I was even questioning my calling. One day, I fell asleep (something extremely unusual for me), and God gave me a prophetic dream. In the dream, I was carrying my pastor on my back. We were having a pleasant conversation with each other. I noticed in the dream that he was naked and exposed. It was not anything immoral or impure. But it was an evident part of the dream. I knew the dream was from God but did not know the interpretation. I shared the dream with our associate pastor, and she knew it was supernatural. So, she went with me to share it with the pastor. They seemed to understand the interpretation but did not share it with me. Shortly after that, I shared the dream with my father, who was walking close to the Lord and has experienced dreams from the Lord.
He gave me the interpretation, and I instantly knew the interpretation was from the Lord.
The interpretation had three components. (1) Whereas the pastor was stripped naked, he is about to be exposed. (2) Whereas your conversation with him was congenial, you will maintain a good relationship with him. (3) Whereas you were carrying him, you will carry the load of a senior pastor. I don’t remember how long it was before the first two components were fulfilled, but they were fulfilled first. The pastor was exposed for having an affair and had to step out of the ministry. I am happy to report that he has been restored and is pastoring today. My relationship with him stayed good the whole time. From the time of the dream until the fulfillment of the third component, it was about seven years. I needed the assurance of the third component to strengthen me during those seven years. It helped me maintain the right direction for my life. The prophetic dream had an important purpose. The fulfillment of the first two components assured the coming fulfillment of the third component. With that promise, I continue to prepare for ministry while working a secular job.
Sometimes, prophecy comes through a dream. Sometimes, it comes through a vision. Zacharias, John the Baptist’s father, saw a vision while at the temple. In that vision, an angel told him that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear him a son, and they were to name him John.vii The predictive prophecy came to him during a vision.
Predictive prophecy runs throughout the Bible. God told Abraham he would have a son many years before it happened. Samuel anointed David to be King of Israel many years before that happened. Jesus foretold his own death in John 12:32. He prophesied the fall of Jerusalem and end-time events in Matthew 24. By and large, the book of Revelation is predictive prophecy.
Predictive prophecy is also for the church today. A prophet named Agabus predicted a famine in Acts 11:28. Knowing this was coming, Christians at Antioch sent a relief fund to help the Jerusalem Christians through the ordeal. In Acts 21, Agabus gave Paul a personal prophecy at Phillip’s house in Caesarea. Acts 21:11 says he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'" It was a pretty dramatic way to deliver the message—a prediction that the Jews in Jerusalem would take Paul into custody and deliver him over to the Romans. There is a lot to be learned about prophecy from this story. (
1) Predictive prophecy is still alive and well in the early church
(2) The prediction is accurate, and Paul receives it as genuine
(3) The response to the prophecy by most who heard it was wrong. They interpreted the prophecy to be guidance that Paul was not to go to Jerusalem. Even when a prophecy is accurate, people don’t always come to the right conclusion as to what to do about it. Paul corrected them by saying he was still willing to go to Jerusalem and even willing to die for the name of Jesus.
Predictive prophecy can be challenging for a number of reasons.
(1) Anyone operating in predictive prophecy needs to be operating at a high level of faith. Predictive prophecy is usually ministered by those who stand in the office of a prophet (Eph. 4:11). Agabus was a prophet. He prophesied at a higher level than most of us are able to do. In Romans 12: 6, we’re given this guidance on the subject, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith.” Most Christians are not operating at a level of faith that equips them to give predictive prophecies. It’s not something that I commonly do.
When I was on staff in a church as an assistant pastor, God gave me a predictive prophecy. The senior pastor and I were praying together one morning. God told me that one of the church board members would resign at the board meeting scheduled for that evening. There was no reason for me to think that, and I knew it was the Lord telling me that. I’ll assign the name John Doe to the board member to protect his privacy. John was a strong financial contributor in the church. When I gave the prophecy to the senior pastor, he was put out with me and assured me that John would not be resigning. He had recently spoken with him, and there were no problems. I then added the word of wisdom that God gave with the prophecy. I said, “John will resign tonight, and you’re to let him resign.” The pastor dismissed the whole thing and went back to prayer. That evening, when it was time for the board meeting to begin, John was not there. This was unusual in itself. After waiting awhile for him, the pastor finally started the meeting. While the meeting was in progress, John walked in. He immediately declared his resignation with very little explanation. The pastor just froze. Everyone was looking to him for guidance, and he was speechless. Clearly knowing what God had said, I spoke up and accepted John’s resignation. This was not at all what John was expected. Now, he is flabbergasted and eventually walked out. The pastor tried to go on with the meeting without much comment on what had just happened. I don’t think he wanted the board member to resign, but what do you do when God has made it that clear? I later found out that the board member had some sin problems and probably shouldn’t have been on the board, to begin with. You would think that operating accurately in the gift of prophecy would have given me favor in that Pentecostal church. It did not. The pastor eventually reinstated John on the board, and John was not happy with me. So here is another reason predictive prophecy is challenging.
(2) The response to predictive prophecy is not always what you would like it to be. It can get you into trouble real fast. It got Jeremiah thrown into a dungeon (Jer. 38:6).
(3) As we have seen, predictive prophecy is challenging because people don’t always interpret its implications correctly. When Agabus told Paul that he would be arrested in Jerusalem, everybody but Paul thought that meant he should not go to Jerusalem. People can confuse their interpretation of the message with the essence of the message. In that case, Paul set them straight. He knew God was just forewarning him so that he could brace himself for the event. It didn’t mean that he should not go to Jerusalem. It meant he should not be surprised when they take him into custody.
(4) Predictive prophecy is also challenging because even when it’s accurate, it might not come to pass. That’s what happened to Jonah. Jonah went to Nineveh in obedience to the Lord after a little help from a large fish. He prophesied the judgment of God on that city. He walked through that city predicting the overthrow of Nineveh in 40 days. Predictive prophecy is tricky, but when you add the time element to it, it is particularly precarious. Jonah goes out on the hillside to watch his God-given prophecy come to pass. Only it does not come to pass. What happened? The whole city repented, and God, in His mercy, postponed the judgment. Predictive prophecies may not come to pass, depending on what people do with the prophecy. Here a prophecy of judgement did not come to pass because people repented. Sometimes a predicted blessing does not come because people do not continue with the Lord.viii The contingency in Jonah’ prophecy was not explicitly stated, it was implied. A generation or so later the city went back into sin, and the prophecy was fulfilled.ix
(5) Predictive prophecy is challenging because there are consequences for inaccuracy. For one thing, you could send people down the wrong path. In the Old Testament, if a prophet’s predictions did not come to pass, they were to kill the prophet. That’s a severe consequence. We are no longer under the Old Covenant, and that mandate no longer applies. However, credibility is lost, and if a person is making predictive prophecies that don’t come to pass, he is prophesying beyond his proportion of faith and should get back within his scope.
A major TRANSITION OCCURRED ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST concerning the operation of the gift of prophecy.
In the Old Testament, very few people were privileged to prophesy. The gift was mostly reserved for a few people anointed for the office of prophet. These people represented the voice of the Lord, and the consequences of their error were severe. God spoke very clearly to people like Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. They were required to give the word of God accurately, and the people depended on it. There were a few occasions when this spread out a bit. When Moses prayed for the 70 elders, they prophesied (Num. 11:25). In 1 Sam. 10, Saul encountered a group of prophets and prophesied. Elijah and Elisha had a school for prophets. But this was a very small percentage of God’s people. For the most part, they could not hear God for themselves. So, the responsibility on these Old Testament prophets was significant, and judgment on unfaithfulness to the call was severe.
In the midst of all this, God began to speak of a day when all God’s people would know Him from the least to the greatest. Moses expressed this desire when he was told that a couple of men were prophesying outside the camp. He said, “Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!" (Num. 11:29). This was actually an expression of the heart of God and a foreshadow of what would one day be available. Jeremiah prophesied a new covenant in which all the people know God personally. Jer. .31:33-34: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." We’re talking about a change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. That change would bring a personal relationship with God for each and every one of His people “from the least of them to the greatest of them.” And this would include a significant change in the way the gift of prophecy would operate. Instead of there being just a very few telling everyone what God is saying, each one would know the Lord. Each one would have the capacity to hear the Lord. This grace would be spread to all God’s people under the New Covenant.
So, let me give you one more Old Testament prophecy and then tie it into the New Testament reality. Joel 2:28: “And it shall come to pass afterward That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions.” Peter quotes this passage on the Day of Pentecost in his explanation of what God was doing. The gift of prophecy is now available to all believers. They don’t all enter into it. But it is available to them. That’s why Paul can say in 1 Cor 14:31 “For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.” That certainly wasn’t the case under the Old Covenant.
There is a difference between a believer operating in the gift of prophecy and a New Testament person called to the Office of a Prophet. Those who stand in the office of a prophet operate in a stronger prophetic anointing. They are able to prophesy at a higher level of faith than most of us can. And that dominates their ministry. Today, we are not analyzing the office of a New Testament prophet, listed in Eph. 4:11. But we do need to understand that there is a difference between a Christian who occasionally prophesies and a prophet whose ministry office is a prophet.
All New Testament believers are supposed to be prophetic. I say that from the standpoint that all may prophesy. But it is true in a more general sense as well. Sometimes, we use the word prophetic in a broader sense than just prophesy. A word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, tongues, and interpretation, all the gifts of the Spirit are manifestations of the supernatural on a prophetic people. Since the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer, the potential is there. However, the potential is realized by submitting ourselves to God’s program. The 120 were filled with the Holy Spirit and operated in a prophetic anointing because they were where the Lord told them to be, submitted to His authority, and waiting on His outpouring. Acts 2:1: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” That event ushered in a new day for the prophetic. That is where we are today. “For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.”
I must share more on the gift of prophecy next week. But the takeaway from today’s message is this.
(1) A change occurred on the Day of Pentecost that opened the prophetic anointing to all God’s people.x In the Old Testament only a few selected people prophesied. In our covenant, you may all prophesy according to 1 Cor. 14:31.
(2) Not all believers operate in the Office of a Prophet (as mentioned in Eph. 4:11). In fact, only a few do. However, the gift is still operating just as it did in Agabus in the book of Acts.
(3) Predictive prophecy requires a higher level of faith than most prophecies of edification, exhortation, and comfort. Believers should prophesy in proportion to their faith and be cautious about predictive prophecies. I’m not saying they can’t do it. I have done it, and I don’t place myself in the office of a prophet. But there are pitfalls to be avoided when we are prophesying predictions and guidance. This will more likely be done by those who hold the office of a prophet. Having said that, let me say this plainly. Predictive prophecy is for today. And personal prophesy, like Agabus did, is for today. Just make sure you know what you’re doing when you venture into that arena.xi
Next week, instead of discussing foretelling or predictive prophecy, I want to discuss forthtelling under the anointing of God. That is the expression of prophecy most of us will be operating in. It is so important that I want a whole message to deal with it. May God give us a hunger to enter into everything He has for us. Amen?
ENDNOTES:
i 2 Peter 1:19-21
ii All Scripture quotes are from the New King James Version unless indicated otherwise.
iii NT:5321 (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006, 2010 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
iv Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987) p. 589.
v This is simply a working definition to help us focus the subject of our study. It is not intended as a technically precise definition. Both prophecy that foretells and prophecy that is not predictive fulfill the three-fold purpose stated by Paul in 1 Cor. 14:3.
vi Psalm 115:3-9; ex. 6;2; 20:1; Matt. 3:17, etc.
vii Luke 1:22
viii Jer. 18:9-10 “And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.” Some biblical prophecy is not subject to this kind of condition; but a personal prophecy often has an implied contingency.
ix “An Alliance of Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians destroyed Nineveh in August, 612 B.C. (New Unger Bible Dictionary: Ninevah). Jonah died in about 753 B.C. (New Unger Bible Dictionary: Jonah).
x For a scholarly discussion of this see Roger Stronstad’s book The Prophethood of All Believers: A Study in Luke’s Charismatic Theology (New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003). On p. 71 he writes, “Thus, the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost inaugurates nothing less than God’s people as the prophethood of all believers.”
xi For cautions about prophecy see my sermons entitled "Nine Tests of Prophecy" and "Fooled by a Prophet."
