The Prophetic

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Introduction

Good morning. Today we are taking a short break from our series called “I Am” to spend some time talking about a subject that is near and dear to my heart, but to other people can be quite controversial. We are going to talk about The Prophetic. Prophetic words, prophetic writing, dreams, visions, words of knowledge and so much more are rolled up in the subject that is supposed to make things clear, but is somehow clouded with controversy.

Today, to put it bluntly, we are going to deal with the Scriptures and I will most likely upset people on both sides of the aisle on this subject, but the Scriptures have to be dealt with. And that leads us to the WHY. Why are we going to talk about this? Can’t we just ignore it the rest of my life? Why can’t we just focus on Jesus and leave all this Holy Spirit craziness to the Pentecostals?

So why are we going to talk about this? Quite simply because the Bible does. In fact, in the Bible Some scholars estimated that around 1/4 of the Bible is prophetic. Entire books of the Bible were written by prophets. Other books are prophetic, even though they were written by people like John who was an apostle. And while some people are content with just studying the prophetic, we want to look at it as a spiritual gifting. We have no shortage of end-times theologians on twitter and Facebook right now because of the happenings in Israel, people are far more reluctant to believe that God could actually speak through them or to them.

We have no lack of preachers of prophecy, but we are pitiably short of prophetic preachers.

Leonard Ravenhill

And that’s not just an issue with preachers, but congregation members as well. This is highly descriptive of American Christianity. And how many of you know that American Christianity hardly resembles Christianity as described in the Bible? So my desire is simple. I want to make a case today. And this is my case, that the church of today is in dire need of people who will prophesy and proclaim Jesus to a lost and dying world. That the church would build up one another to a stronger relationship with God. The main point is this - God desires for us to prophesy and our desire should be to prophesy. That’s all of my cards on the table.

I also wanted to do a better job prepping you for this coming weekend. We will have Pastor Phil McNeil with us and his topic for the weekend is Prophecy and the local church. So I wanted to “get out in front of this” as you would say and look at the Scriptures together before we dive into whatever Phil may bring next weekend.

Let’s first start with my first point.

God’s Desire Is For All To Be Prophets

I believe that God, since early on in Scripture has desired for all of his people to hear his voice and prophesy. Now, we know that in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve most certainly heard the voice of God. He walked with Adam in the cool of the day. There was unfettered relationship between Adam, Eve and God....until the fall. We know that separation happens, yet God never removes his voice from mankind. We see him speaking to people throughout the generations, even to those who did great evils.

But this morning, I want to start with the story of the Exodus again, but we are going to pick up in Numbers 11. The children of Israel are wandering the desert and Moses, their leader is at his wits end. The people are complaining about God’s provision. He is giving them water from the rock and manna is falling from the sky. They want meat. So Moses talks to God. He is exasperated. Moses is feeling the burdens of leadership and realizes he cannot keep carrying this burden on his own. So God says to him, appoint 70 men to be elders of Israel and help shoulder the burden of leadership with you. And that’s where we will pick up this story.

Numbers 11:24–29 ESV

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it. Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

So here’s the passage. Moses appoints elders as God said and God sends his Holy Spirit to rest on those men and when it did, they prophesied. Just FYI, all througout the Bible, this is one of the main reactions people have when the Spirit falls on them…they prophesy.

Let’s do a little definition work. To prophesy, according to theologian Wayne Grudem, means to speak “something that God has spontaneously brought to mind”. In other words, God speaks something to you or shows you something and you share it. That’s the simple definition of prophecy. Now, there can be predictive elements to prophecy, such as prophecies that predicted Jesus would be crucified found in the Psalms. Or they don’t have to be predictive, but rather supernatural knowledge of current things, like Jesus prophesying to the woman at the well that she was living with a man she wasn’t married to. The way God speaks could come through a still, small voice like he did with Elijah, or through natural events, or Scripture or dreams or visions and many other ways.

In the passage we just read, we don’t really have an indication of what they were doing. Were they receiving visions and speaking them, or was God speaking to their heart or through an audible voice. We have no clue here. But we know that when the Spirit fell, they started prophesying.

And as it happens, two men in the camp didn’t stop. They kept on prophesying in the camp and it bothered Joshua, Moses’s right hand man, and Joshua comes to Moses and says, he these guys won’t quit doing this, so you need to tell them to stop. And I think it’s at this point, that Moses gets a glimpse of God’s heart and actually prophesies right here in our passage. He says, I would that all of God’s people were prophets, that God would put his Spirit on all of them!

Now, how do I know that Moses was speaking God’s heart? Because God does this very thing. In fact, Moses isn’t the only one to say this. The Prophet Joel says this exact thing in chapter 2 of his book.

Joel 2:28–29 ESV

“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, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

So here God is promising in the Old Testament that in the latter days he would pour out his Spirit on all flesh, on all people. And what is the result of this? People will prophesy. This is the promise, ok? Now, is God slack in regards to his promises? No! Follow this thought line into the New Testament and the start of the church. In Acts 2, Peter quotes this exact verse in his famous sermon at Pentecost. When the disciples are filled with the Spirit in Acts 2, he justifies it in verses 16-21 by quoting the prophet Joel and essentially saying, this is happening right now before your very eyes.

And Peter finishes his sermon with this beautiful promise...

Acts 2:38–39 ESV

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

So there it is…God’s desire and his promise. This gift of the Holy Spirit wasn’t just for the apostles. It was for you and your children and all who are far off…and to put and even greater emphasis on it, Peter says, it’s for everyone whom the Lord calls to himself. So everyone who gets saved, this gift is for you. Now, that’s a big promise.

So today, I can stand here and say emphatically, that includes you! This promise is for you. God’s Holy Spirit, it’s for you. And the most prominent reaction to receiving the Holy Spirit is that you would prophesy as Joel says. You will see visions and dream dreams. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your servants, everyone.

So what should our response be to this beautiful promise? My second point.

Our Desire Should Be To Prophesy

God has, from the beginning, desired for all of us to prophesy. He sent his Holy Spirit to us, poured out his Holy Spirit on all flesh at the beginning of the church age on the day of Pentecost. Our desire, our longing should be to prophesy ourselves. It should be a burning desire within us. And, just so you know, I’m not the only one who thinks this. The Apostle Paul puts it this way...

1 Corinthians 14:1–5 ESV

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Now this passage comes directly after the love chapter, which isn’t about weddings by the way. That love chapter is the meat in the spiritual gift sandwich. Chapters 12 and 14 deal with the spiritual gifts and chapter 13 gives us the meat of that sandwich, which is this. These gifts really don’t mean a whole lot if you don’t use them to love one another. Love is the point.

So Paul starts this chapter with that in mind. He says to pursue love. Now he’s reiterating his previous point. Don’t neglect this. This is important. But here’s the interesting point. He says AND. And pursue the spiritual gifts. Don’t stop pursuing them. Pursue love and earnestly desire. Burn with desire that you might receive spiritual gifts. Which gift is he telling us to be most zealous about? Not tongues, but prophecy! We should earnestly desire to prophesy. Why? He gives us three reasons in verse 3. He says that the one who prophesies does these three things, which are of utmost importance in the church.

Edification or Upbuilding

Encouragement

Consolation or Comfort

In other words, this is the substance of prophetic words. If you receive a prophetic word in the church, it should meet at least one of these three characteristics. It should build up the church Paul says. That’s the point. The point of prophecy is to build up the church.

Now, I want to aim at charismatic folks for a second. One of the biggest problems I’ve seen with people giving “prophetic” words in the church today is that they do none of these things. For instance, before the 2020 election, we had tons of these “internet prophets” which were saying Thus says the Lord, Trump is getting four more years. Now, that was a false prophecy. They missed it. And the biggest reason why I don’t believe any of those words when they come every four years? They do not do what Paul says the prophetic does. They do not build up the church, they build up the man who gave the word. In other words, the only person getting platformed and glory from those type of words are the internet prophets. Had Trump won, they would have continued to point to them correctly predicting that as confirmation of their ministry.

It’s a bunch of hogwash in my opinion. God’s not looking to make people famous with prophecy, he’s looking to build up his church. To encourage them, to comfort them. He’s not looking to predict presidencies. He’s looking to give healing to a church that’s dealing with heart ache and depression.

So my suggestion is this, if you find a person on the internet claiming to be a prophet, I would suggest changing the channel. Sorry if that offends you, that’s just my thoughts.

So Paul encourages people by drawing a distinct line between the gift of tongues and the gift of prophecy. He’s not against tongues, but he sees prophecy as a far superior gift because it builds up the church, whereas tongues builds up the person. Now sometimes, that may be what you need, so don’t forbid speaking in tongues, but if you are going to earnestly desire a gift of the Spirit, the best one is prophecy. Here’s why I think this is. It’s found later in the chapter.

1 Corinthians 14:23–25 ESV

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? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 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.

Could you imagine if our church operated in this gift the way Paul is describing? If we truly loved people, especially outsiders and would use our gifts to bless them? They would fall on their face and worship God! Who would be mad at that?! No one! This is why would should earnestly desire prophecy, it’s because people meet Jesus. In fact John would say this is Revelation 19:10 ... “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” In other words, prophecy should draw us closer to Jesus. The spirit of what prophecy does is testify of Jesus and what’s he has done for you and what he is doing for you. That’s it. That’s the point.

Now, to close, my final point I want to make is this. Prophecy is never perfect. Sometimes the word itself is not right, someone my prophesy from a wrong heart or whatever, but the word itself is wrong. A lot of times though, people run into issues when the prophecy is correct, but they interpret it wrong. Meaning, God gave me a word for you, then I try to interpret it myself and I mess up the interpretation. I’ve seen this happen more times than the other. Someone will give a word, and then they will interpret it wrongly themselves.

But either way, this is my final point.

Prophecy Should Be Tested, Not Despised

All prophecy should be tested. Do not, believe anyone who comes up to you that has a word for you without first testing it. Listen to what Paul says to the church in Thessalonica...

1 Thessalonians 5:19–21 ESV

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.

He says test everything and hold on to what is good. Notice he doesn’t say, accept all prophecies at face value. Or if some of it is bad, throw the whole thing out. He doesn’t say that. He says hold on to the good. If the prophecy is partially right, they get it mostly right, hold on to that.

Now, the reason I’m telling you this is because there’s a possibility next weekend that Pastor Phil may prophesy over some of you. This is the biblical way to handle it. You test it. You weigh it. Does it resonate with your spirit? Did something not sit well with you. Did any part of the word go against the clear written word of God? Test it. Paul says hold fast to what is good. That’s my encouragement to you.

I’d like to end with a short personal story illustrating the stakes of this. How important is what I am talking about? It’s incredibly important.

Story of Karl receiving a prophetic word.

Conclusion

So that’s the stakes. That’s why this is so important. So let me ask you a question. Are you wanting to prophesy? Do you earnestly desire the prophetic? If not, what is holding you back? I’d ask you to consider laying that down at the feet of Jesus today. He wants you to earnestly desire all that he has for you and that includes the gift of prophesy. If you would like prayer to receive this gift, I’m going to open the altar and I will pray with you. If you have questions, I’ll be around after and will be happy to try and answer them with you. I couldn’t begin to scratch the surface for this topic, so I’d recommend coming to the conference this weekend with Phil. Let’s sing together.