Prophecy

4-30-23 Prophecy and the LORD’s baptism

Good morning One River,

We’re in the middle of our journey from the Crucifixion of the LORD to the outpouring of the HS at Antioch. Pentecost is perhaps the most celebrated day in the Vineyard church outside of Christmas and Easter.

But before we get too far down the rabbit hole I want to briefly recap where we’ve been the last few weeks.

Cheryl started us off with a brilliant explanation of the Holy Spirit across the spans from Pentecost. We looked at the idea that the Holy Spirit stopped working as anything more than a mechanism for scriptural interpretation, either around the end of the Apostle’s lives or when the Scriptures were Canonized.

To which I say, Which scriptures and which episode of Canonization?

History records several times when the legacy of scripture was decided. But different aspects of the Christian faith still today do not agree on what’s in and what’s out…. But that’s another message.

The other options are that we are in a fully activated ALREADY time where we have full access to heaven on earth, only separated by our own relationship with God and purity. Or the Vineyard option of the ALREADY and the not YET. We’re in a period where God gets his way. But not all the time.

Charise talked to us last week about the gift of healing. That it’s a product of God’s will and not our own. Sometimes we pray our heart out and a person still dies, or the healing doesn’t happen. It’s not our fault, we’re not unworthy or insufficient. But God is still God. It’s a byproduct of living in that Already, not yet era.

The Vineyard has long maintained a philosophy that God equips the Saints (that’s us) with the gifts needed at that time. Anyone can receive any gift at any time, if the LORD wills it. Today we’re going to look at Prophecy through the eyes of Paul and see if we can figure out what it is and how we use it.

So this has been one of those weeks where my message just didn’t come together in the way I thought it would. I will say, with Charise speaking last week, there have been many interesting conversations about what I do up here on the Sundays and that maybe it’s a little more complicated than it appears at first glance, especially, if you give God a hand in creating the message. (Which I recommend).

I want to look at a few different aspects of Prophecy. I want to be clear at the beginning most of what I’m going to say is my opinion and what I think I’m hearing from God. We as the Vineyard, I would say are very familiar with the topic of Prophecy. We claim it often as the people of the Radical middle.

However, Church wide there is surprisingly little consensus on what Prophecy actually is and how it ties in with the other spiritual gifts. I’m not going to get into all of the different gifts as that would take the rest of my life, step on the upcoming weeks of this series and probably not help us focus in on what Prophecy is and how we use it.

But I am going to bring up one other gift, Words of Knowledge. Effectively, words of Knowledge and prophecy are the same gift. They are separated merely by time. A word of knowledge is simply a word delivered by God of past or present events, usually that the receiver has no earthly way of knowing.

Prophecy is the same, only the word takes the form of things that have not happened yet. But there has been a shift in this gift between the OT and NT. I have scoured my texts and sources to try and find out when exactly this shift took place, and more particularly why.

Paul tells us in 1 Cor 14 - Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.

I know this passage talks about tongues too, but we’re going to hold off on that topic for today. But in case anyone has questions, I do believe in the gift of tongues and that it still exists today.

If we read back through the OT, Prophecy is almost always used to tell the people of an upcoming tragedy if they fail to turn from their evil ways. We have an entire section in the Old Testament called the Prophets, which is then broken down further into major and minor prophets.

The sustaining feature of this gift is that it came and continues to come to us by the will of the Holy Spirit. But once Jesus shows up, the nature of the gift seems to change. Jesus’ prophecies seem to shift from warning of impending doom, to uplifting and edifying predictions. The trick here is knowing which is which.

What do I mean by this. In John 2:19 Jesus says, “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” This on its face seems to be a negative prediction. I think the Jews of today would still agree that it was.

But as Christians we know that the destruction of the earthly temple was Jesus speaking of his physical body. It would be another 40 years before the actual temple was destroyed. And in the end, it was God’s design to show people that Jesus was and is the temple.

I want to give another example here from Paul in Acts 21:10-14-

After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

At first glance this does not appear to be uplifting and edifying. In fact, this is quite literally a foretelling of impending doom. Agabus is telling Paul of his death. But what the reader doesn’t know, and we can only judge by his reaction in the text is that Paul must have already had some kind of chat with God about the way things were going to go. This prophecy did not surprise Paul, it seemed to have been a confirmation of upcoming things he was looking forward to.

Why am I bringing all this up? Well because in the Vineyard we have belief that only positive things should be revealed in prophecy, because they’re supposed to be uplifting to the church.

I don’t necessarily believe that is an exclusivity. Sometimes we get prophecies to warn us and prepare us for upcoming events. (Again, I’m speaking about me personally.)

But even if we do think they are solely for edification, we need to stop and ask ourselves if we are truly in the best place to judge what is edifying to someone else. I personally, today, would find it destressing if someone told me that I was marching on an immediate path to my death. However, Paul clearly did not.

The Charismatic Church has a saying “Be the mail, don’t interpret the message.”

Now I want to talk about a third gift of the Spirit, discernment. Sometimes when we get a word of knowledge of a Prophecy we need to stop and pray. Sometimes the mail may need to be interrupted, so that we can make sure we’re delivering the message God intended.

Words of knowledge and prophecy can be powerful, but they should be tempered with sensitivity and kindness. Even, and especially, words that are delivered about sensitive topics to someone.

I think I mentioned this before. Charise had a friend for a ways back. She and her husband were in some kind of class with Charise and I. I can’t remember what it was for the life of me. But as she walked in I got this word from God…. Oh, she’s pregnant. I couldn’t help myself. It caught me so off guard that I just blurted it out. Quietly, but to Charise. Who then walked up and said something like “Oh congratulations, we knew you guys were trying.” Well, Charise’s friend went Ghost white. She was a very private person and particularly guarded with her personal information. She asked “who told you? I haven’t even told my husband yet. I just found out a few hours ago.”

Ya, that’s a master class in what NOT to do with words of knowledge or prophecy.

I have figured out over the years, often painfully, that not everything is meant to come out right now. God moves in complicated ways. His words are powerful, and they can bring life or heart ache depending on how they are delivered. Just because we get a word that seems harsh, doesn’t mean it’s not encouraging to the person it was intended for. It also may be a word that becomes encouraging in the course of time.

The life and death of Jesus was the single most prophesied event in human history. However, at the time those prophecies were made, they did not all seem uplifting and edifying.

I told you all at the beginning of this, that there was a shift. When things moved from doom and gloom to uplifting and edifying. I also told you that I can’t find a single articulated scripture to explain this shift. But personally, I think this shift is Jesus.

I think it comes with the completion of the first round of his work here on earth. With his death, we were lifted out of sin. No longer do we need a constant reminder that we’re on the track to death…because we’re not. Jesus saved us from that fate.

Also, the nature of the Holy Spirit in relationship to humanity shifted. Upon Christ’s death, the Spirit no longer appeared sparingly to only a select few worthy people. Jesus poured him out on the world. We have our own spirit inside now that directs us when we’ve stepped off the path.

The gift of knowledge and edification through words or prophecies comes now because sometimes we can’t hear what Jesus is saying to us. Or sometimes we need corroboration when we are hearing his words.

I know some of you all have already practiced prophecy or words of knowledge. Paul seems to imply that it’s a gift that everyone in the church has access to. I think he has things he wants to share with us this morning, so I want to say goodbye to those of you following us online and invite you back to join us next week.

I would like spend some time Prophesying this morning. Everyone who is willing to jump into smaller groups, pairs or triads if possible. Let’s take some time this morning and see if we can hear from the spirit about each other.