The Testimony of Jesus

Roles of the gift of prophecy

Roles of prophets

When you think of a prophet, who do you think of? Throughout the Bible, we see so many examples of prophets. To just name a few, we read about Elijah, Elisha, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and so many others. Typically we thing of prophets as someone who can foretell what is coming in the future.

Predict something in the future.

Amos 3:7 NKJV

Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

Noah predicted the coming of the worldwide flood.

Abram predicted that his descendants would be in a strange land as slaves for 400 years.

Deliver a message of coming judgement from God.

Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be born of a virgin.

Teach people about God.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream foretold the succession of the major world kingdoms.

Reprove people for their sins.

Jeremiah foretold that Israel would be captive in Babylon for 70 years.

Predict something in the future.

Many more examples.

In fact the Bible says in that,

Amos 3:7 NKJV

Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

When God is going to do something in the world, He’s not going to keep it a secret. He’s going to reveal it to the prophets so that they can share it with His people so that they can be ready. While telling what is going to happen in the future is a very important job of a prophet, there is more.

The gift of prophecy includes so much more than just being able to tell the future.

Bu

Surely the Lord God does nothing,

Teach people about God to help them understand His will.

If you remember the story of Elijah telling Ahab that there would be no rain for 3 1/2 years or Jonah preaching to the people of Ninevah.

If you remember the story of Elijah telling Ahab that there would be no rain for 3 1/2 years or Jonah preaching to the people of Ninevah.

Teach people about God.

Amos 3:7 NKJV

Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

Remember the schools of the prophets that Elisha started. We see many examples of prophets teaching the people about God.

Reprove people for their sins or give counsel and provide direction.

After David slept with Bathsheba, had her husband Uriah killed, and tried to cover up the whole matter, the prophet Nathan came to give Him reproof, to give him counsel on what to do, and to let him know what the consequences would be in the future.

Noah predicted the coming worldwide flood.

Prophets were a very important way that God spoke to His people in the Bible.

Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

says that “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”

Amos 3:7 NKJV

Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

Amos 3:7 NKJV

Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Amos 3:7 NKJV

Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

We see this throughout the Old Testament

Noah predicted the coming of the worldwide flood.

2 Peter 2:5 NKJV

and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

Abram predicted that his descendants would be in a strange land as slaves for 400 years.

Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be born of a virgin.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream foretold the succession of the major world kingdoms.

Micah

Jeremiah foretold that Israel would be captive in Babylon for 70 years.

John the Baptist prophesied the coming of Jesus.

Many more examples.

Prophecy doesn’t have to be only predictive, but it is also used by God to provide counsel, reproof, and teaching.

Prophets in the Bible

Old Testament

Most of the examples that we have seen so far has been from the Old Testament. I think most people would agree that prophets played a very big role in the Old Testament. We clearly see God speaking through prophets a lot in the Old Testament, but did it stop there with Malachi?

We see God speaking through prophets a lot in the Old Testament, but did it stop there?

New Testament

Jesus

Jesus was also considered a prophet and He also predict future events, reproved of sin, and taught people about God.

In fact when Peter was preaching to the people in after Jesus had ascended to heaven, he quoted Moses as having predicted the coming of a Prophet and saying that Jesus was that Prophet that they had rejected and killed.

Acts 3:22 NKJV

22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.

So we see that God spoke to people through prophets all the way through Jesus

Part of the fulness of Christ

Jesus

Jesus told His disciples that He was going to be leaving them and they were incredibly sad. But Jesus told them,

In , Peter is speaking to people who are amazed that they just witnessed him heal a lame man. He refers back to the time Moses prophecied the coming of Jesus

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

John 16:7 NKJV

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

Acts 3:22 NKJV

For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you.

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

A little bit later, Jesus expounds more on this helperHe was sending to say,

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;

Peter was clearly showing that this Prophet that Moses had predicted would come and whom Moses had told the Israelites to listen to was the very same Jesus that they had just rejected and killed just a short time before.

John 16:13a NKJV

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;…”

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

This helper that Jesus was promising His followers was the Holy Spirit.

In the beginning of Acts, we see the disciples waiting in the upper room after Jesus had returned to heaven—waiting to receive the Holy Spirit. When Pentecost came, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. You can read about that story in .

But there was something special this “Helper” brought with Him.

Go with me to

Ephesians 4:7–8 NKJV

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”

These gifts that Jesus gave are directly connected with His gift of the Spirit. We also can see this in and . In , Paul refers to these gifts as the “manifestation of the Spirit.” So whatever these gifts are were very special and were essential to carrying forward the gospel in the physical absence of Jesus.

Skip down to verse 11

Ephesians 4:11-

Ephesians 4:11–16 NKJV

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Prophecy an important part of the gifts.

What

Some of the gifts Jesus gave were the skills given to different people to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers.

These gifts were serving many important purposes to equip, edify, unify, protect from deceit, and to bring God’s people “to the stature of the fullness of Christ”—that perfect body.

Equipping the saints

talks about how there are many parts to a body and every part doesn’t have the same function. In the same way, Paul says, we as the body of Christ have many different gifts or roles, but every part together is absolutely essential to make the body of Christ function as it should.

edifying the body of Christ

We generally don’t have a problem a

So Jesus was giving these gifts to His church to help them as He promised He would before He returned to heaven. They were to create a people that were at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

bringing all to unity

We don’t have a problem with there being people who are apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers, or some of the other gifts of the Spirit or as they are sometimes called “Spiritual gifts”. But when it gets to the “Prophet”, we get kind of squeamish. But why? Prophets are just as much a part of the fullness of Christ as any of the other gifts. And in fact, the gift of prophecy is on an equal footing and yet a different gift from the other gifts that Jesus gives through His Spirit.

So we can see that an integral part of Christ’s body, which is the church, are those who have the gift of prophecy.

End Time

Joel 2

But this gift of prophecy didn’t stop with the New Testament church either. Turn with me in your Bibles to

Joel 2:28-31

Joel 2:28–31 NKJV

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. 29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

After Pentecost happened when God poured out His Spirit with the various gifts of the spirit that we have seen, those who were filled with the Holy Spirit began to do amazing things. Suddenly the different language groups present when this happened could understand what the disciples were teaching about the wonderful things of God. God had given them the gift of tongues—to be able to clearly speak in other languages to communicate the gospel to the people who spoke those languages. But the people were so confused and thought something was wrong and some said they must be drunk. But Peter stood up and quoted the passage we just read.

While Peter applied this prophecy in Joel to his time, it was only partially fulfilled then. If you keep reading vs 30-31 and onward through the rest of Joel, you can see that this passage has a dual application. It applied then to the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it is ultimately talking about the time just before “the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.”

the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord

So in the time before the return of Jesus, God will pour out His Spirit and prophecy through dreams and visions would play a huge role in that time period of history.

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

Go with me to the book of .

Revelation 12

Revelation 12:1–2 NKJV

1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. 2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.

We see a imagery of a woman being in labor ready to deliver her baby

What does a woman represent in Bible prophecy? Frequently throughout the Bible, a woman is used to represent a church.

Revelation 12:

Revelation 12:3–4 NKJV

3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. 4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.

Here we see a dragon who is ready to devour the Child as soon as it was born.

Who is this dragon? Students of Bible prophecy will remember that this dragon was cast out of heaven. Go down a few verses down to vs 9, “that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.”

Revelation 12:

Revelation 12:5–6 NKJV

5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

This male Child was none other than Jesus. He was caught up to God at His ascension.

History continues and we see the woman or the church fleeing into the wilderness, a desolate place, where God would keep her safe for 1260 days or years. In Bible prophecy, a day equals a year. If you are not familiar with this, feel free to ask me later.

We see this 1260 year time period again in , , and . We don’t have time to go into all the math right now, but this 1260 year time period is better known as the Dark Ages from AD538 to AD1798.

Skip with me down to verse 13

Revelation 12:13

Revelation 12:13–16 NKJV

13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.

This period of the dark ages is again referred to here in verse 14 by the 3 1/2 years. The prophets understood each year to contain 360 days. So this prophetic period of 3 1/2 years when multiplied by 360 comes to 1,260 day/years.

If you look back in history, this period of the Dark Ages was a time of intense persecution to all who were followers of Christ. The passage refers to the dragon as trying to wipe the true church out of existence as with a flood.

RECAP

So we have seen so far that there is a church who is a follower of Christ, whom the Devil is trying to obliterate from off the face of the earth. They flee into the wilderness, but the Devil pursues them and persecutes them and tries to utterly destroy them. But God provides for them and preserves His church.

What was t

Revelation 12:17 NKJV

17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Why was the devil so enraged with the woman?

The end of the verse gives two critical identifying characteristics that distinguishes this church as different.

The keep the commandments of God. All of them faithfully.

They have the testimony of Jesus.

So there is

So at the end of time there will exist a church that the devil is enraged with because they keep God’s commandments and have the testimony of Jesus.

We don’t have any problem understanding what the identification of the ten commandments is.

What is the testimony of Jesus?

Please turn with me to . An angel is showing John some more things that made him excited and awed. He says,

Revelation 19:10 NKJV

10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Later on, in , a similar scene happened. Again John fell down to worship at the feet of the angel and again the angel forbade it. In verse 9, he gives the reason, “ For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets,...”

For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets,

From these two verses, which we can reasonably conclude are parallel, we see that the brethren who have the testimony of Jesus are the prophets who have the gift of prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

At the end of time, there will be a church who keep the commandments of God and have the gift of prophecy as integral parts of who they are. Apparently the gift of prophecy is one thing that makes the devil very angry and it is very important to God’s people who live in the time of the end.

Before every great event.

Before every great event God sends a prophet or prophets to precede that event to warn and prepare people for what is about to come. Remember the verse we first started out with in .

Amos 3:7 NKJV

7 Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

Before the flood of water that God sent to destroy the widespread wickedness in the world, God sent Noah to warn and prepare the people for the coming destruction

Noah.

Before the destruction of Jerusalem, God sent Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and many other prophets to warn and prepare His people for the coming destruction of Jerusalem.

Before the coming of Jesus, God sent John the Baptist to prepare people for His coming.

And before the Second Coming of Christ He will also send a prophet to warn and prepare people for His second coming.

The gift of prophecy given by God to prophets plays a very important role in the time leading up to the Second Coming. Remember ?

Tests of a prophet

So

We have seen that the Bible makes it clear that the gift of prophecy is very important tool that God uses through the Old and New Testament down through the second coming. And Satan is fighting against God’s people who have the testimony of Jesus—the spirit of prophecy as an integral part of who they are.

So it would make sense that one of the ways that Satan would fight back against that church is to try to create false prophets, counterfeits who look enough like the real ones from God to be believable, but who are teaching lies. I believe this is largely why we are so skittish if someone claims to be a prophet because we have seen so many who have claimed to be prophets who have turned out to be not genuine.

How do we know we can trust someone who either claims to be a prophet or who by their ministry appears to have the gift of prophecy?

How do we tell who has the genuine gift of prophecy?

1. The prophet’s predictions must come to pass.

Jeremiah 28:9 NKJV

9 As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent.”

2. Someone possessing the genuine gift of prophecy will not speak contrary to the Word of God even if what he predicts comes to pass

Deuteronomy 13:1–3 NKJV

1 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

3. The genuine gift of prophecy will always speak in harmony with God’s law.

Isaiah 8:20 NKJV

20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

4. The life of someone with the genuine gift of prophecy will reveal the character of Jesus.

Matthew 7:15–16 NKJV

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

5. The person with the genuine gift of prophecy will uplift Jesus as central to their message.

1 John 4:1–3 NKJV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

Ellen White

If you remember from what we have studied in the past about the time prophecy. said that after 2300 days/years, the sanctuary would be cleansed. This 2300 year period came to an end in 1844. The 2300 day prophecy was the last great time prophecy to be fulfilled that is in the Bible.

What happened on October 22, 1844? Jesus, the High Priest in the heavenly Sanctuary moved to the Most Holy Place to begin interceding for His people. The closing time of earth’s history was starting to wrap up. No more prophecies have yet to be fulfill except those immediately surrounding the second coming. So to prepare His people for His Second coming, God sent someone whom I believe was given the gift of prophecy right around this very time period in the mid 1800’s. Her name was Ellen Harmon who after marrying James White became Ellen White.

As God’s end time church began to emerge during this time period, God blessed Ellen White with the gift of prophecy. Through this woman, God was able to counsel and encourage the growing group of believers. Those who kept all the commandments including the fourth commandment to keep the Seventh day Sabbath holy now had someone to help guide them to whom God had given the gift of prophecy.

There is so much I could say about her, but this amazing woman only had a very basic education and yet she wrote dozens of books about many different topics and has always pointed people to Jesus and to the Scriptures.

I am not asking you to accept my word that Ellen White is someone God has blessed with the gift of prophecy. All I am asking you to do is to check her out for yourself. Read her writings and run them through the tests of a genuine prophet. Have all the predictions she has made come to pass? Does she always speak in accordance with the Word of God? Does she speak in harmony with all of God’s law? Did her life reveal the character of Jesus? Is Jesus at the core of her message?

If you look at some of the major people who have claimed to be prophets throughout recent history, most have claimed at some level to be higher than the Scriptures. But this is not true of Ellen White. She wrote of her own books,

“The Lord has sent his people much instruction, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little. Little heed is given to the Bible, and the Lord has given a lesser light to lead men and women to the greater light.” The Colporteur Evangelist 37.1

She never elevates her writings above the Bible or claims to be equal to the Bible. But again and again she insists that her writings exist to point people to the Bible and to the Savior found in that Bible.

I am not asking you to accept my word that Ellen White is someone God has blessed with the gift of prophecy. All I am asking you to do is to check her out for yourself. Read her writings and run them through the tests of a genuine prophet. Have all the predictions she has made come to pass? Does she always speak in accordance with the Word of God? Does she speak in harmony with all of God’s law? Did her life reveal the character of Jesus? Is Jesus at the core of her message?

I believe if you read her writings you will find this to be so. If there is anyone here who has not had the privilege of reading what she has written I would encourage you to start with the Desire of Ages, a beautiful book she has written on the life of Jesus. Or Steps to Christ, a little book that has had a big impact on my life and has won thousands of people to Christ. Or the Great Controversy which shows how God has preserved his faithful people from the beginning of time down until He returns. If you want any of those books, we have them here for you as a gift if you ask for them.