197 God speaks through Prophets and prophecy Part 1

How God speaks to us    Talk 13   Prophets and Prophecy (Part 1)

We saw last time that God speaks to us through pastors and preachers, but, as we shall see today, he also speaks to us through prophets and the gift of prophecy. We’ll begin by explaining what prophecy is. In the English language the word prophet is often used to refer to someone who foretells the future. But its basic meaning is someone who speaks on behalf of someone else. A good illustration of this can be found in Exodus 7:1-2. Here the Lord says to Moses:

 

See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go…

 

Aaron is called Moses’ prophet because he is going to speak on his behalf. So prophets are people who hear from God and then pass on to others what he has said. They speak on behalf of God. Moving now to the New Testament, we find that there are three different levels at which prophecy may operate:

 

1. There is a sense in which all God’s people are prophets(Acts 2:16-18)
2. Prophecy as a spiritual giftis given to some Christians, but not all (1 Corinthians 12:8-11).
3. Prophets are given to the churchto equip God’s people for works of service (Ephesians 4:11-12).

 

All God’s people are prophets

As we’ve already seen, a prophet is a person who speaks on behalf of God. Understood this way it is easy to see how, in a sense, all God’s people are prophets. We are all called to speak on his behalf. As the children of God, it is our privilege to be led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14) and the purpose of the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost was that we might receive power to be witnesses (Acts 1:8). The Spirit was poured out so that all God’s people could prophesy – sons and daughters, young and old, servants, men and women (Acts 2:16-18).

 

This does not mean that all Christians will exercise the gift of prophecy as it is described in 1 Corinthians 12-14 or that they will be prophets in the Ephesians 4:11 sense, but it does mean that God has made his Spirit available to all so that we can all speak on his behalf. As we’ve already seen, Acts 8:1 tells us how, because of the persecution that had broken out against the church in Jerusalem, all the Christians (except the apostles) were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Verse 4 tells us that these people preached the word wherever they went. As a result, many people turned to Christ and the great church at Antioch was founded (Acts 11:19-21).

 

These people were not called to be ‘preachers’ in the way we tend to use the word today, nor were they prophets like John the Baptist, but they had received God’s Spirit and they did speak out on his behalf, and in that sense they were both preachers and prophets! In short, all God’s people are called to speak up for him. All God’s people are prophets.

 

The gift of prophecy 

In 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 Paul lists nine spiritual gifts. One of these is prophecy. 1 Corinthians 12:10-11 says:

 

 …to another prophecy… he (the Spirit) gives them to each person just as he determines.

 

This strongly suggests that this gift is not given to everybody and Romans 12:6 backs this up by saying:

 

We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.

 

This gift is given by the Spirit to individual Christians to speak words of encouragement and edification to the church. In 1 Corinthians 14:1-5 we read:

 

1. Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. 2. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. 3. But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5. I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.

 

These verses make it very clear that the gift of prophecy is very valuable. The reason for this is that it edifies or builds up the church. It strengthens, encourages, and comforts God’s people. In church it is more valuable than speaking in tongues because, although speaking in tongues edifies the person who is speaking, it doesn’t help anyone else unless it’s interpreted.

However, when an interpretation is given, speaking in tongues becomes just as valuable as prophecy. In fact, when speaking in tongues is understood, it is in itself a form of prophetic language. On the Day of Pentecost, when Peter was asked for an explanation of how the disciples were able to speak languages they had never learned, he replied that this was the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (Acts 2:17ff.).

 

All this shows us that God may speak to us through the gift of prophecy or through the interpretation of tongues[1] or even through speaking in tongues when the hearers understand the language that is being spoken, as on the Day of Pentecost. And I can testify from my own experience that God does speak to us in all these ways.

 

In 1959, when Eileen and I were seeking the baptism in the Holy Spirit, we decided that perhaps we should visit a Pentecostal Church to find out more and possibly ask for prayer. So one Tuesday evening we went to Bethel Church, Dagenham, when they were having their weekly prayer meeting. The church was several miles from where we lived and no one in the church had any idea of who we were. We were slightly nervous as neither of us had ever been to a Pentecostal prayer meeting before and we didn’t know what to expect. Would there be speaking in tongues, for example?

 

As it turned out, the meeting was not unlike the Baptist prayer meetings we were used to, apart from the fact that there were no real gaps between one person praying and the next. Then, just as we were getting used to it, somebody spoke in tongues. This was followed by an interpretation, which, to our total amazement, began with the words, You have come into this church seeking to be filled with the Spirit…

 

This was followed by two more ‘messages’ in tongues each followed by an interpretation and we knew without a doubt that God was speaking directly to us. We continued to attend that Pentecostal prayer meeting and a few weeks later we were both baptised in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues ourselves. This experience brought us into an entirely new dimension of Christian living and ever since we have been grateful for words from the Lord that have come either through prophecy or the interpretation of tongues.

 

Some years later, when I was pastoring a church in Basingstoke, we were both rather concerned when Eileen discovered that she had a lump in her breast. Fearing the worst but hoping for the best, we committed the matter to the Lord.

 

We have always believed in divine healing, but we also believe that God expects us to take what medical help might be available[2], but we weren’t sure which was the right course of action in this case. So on Saturday night I asked the Lord to speak to us through the gifts of the Spirit in church the next morning.

 

And, sure enough, the answer came through an interpretation and a prophecy. After one person had spoken in tongues, someone else gave the interpretation: You have considered the help of man, and that is great, but in this situation it is the Lord himself who will meet your need…

 

At this point I began to cry and the floor was wet with my tears, when the interpretation was followed immediately by a prophecy: For has he not promised to heal you…?! Needless to say, the lump disappeared within days.

 

So God undoubtedly speaks to us through gifts like prophecy and the interpretation of tongues, but on rare occasions he speaks through the gift of tongues itself. This happened on the Day of Pentecost when people from several different nations heard the disciples speaking in their languages, and it still happens today.

 

One evening, some years ago, when I was Principal at Mattersey Hall Bible College, I was preaching in Newark when, in the middle of my message I spoke a few words in tongues. My purpose in doing so was to demonstrate that, when God has given us this gift, we can use it as a means of praying with our spirit whenever we wish (1 Corinthians 14:14-15).

 

Straight after the meeting, a woman with her husband approached me and said: I’m rather embarrassed to speak with you, but, you see, I understood what you said when you spoke in tongues. Then she went on to explain that, although she had been a Christian for several years, she had never been able to give up smoking. Only that day her husband had said to her, You really must give it up. If you don’t, it will kill you. She had replied, I know, but it’s so hard. She then went on to tell me that she and her husband were gypsies and that they had a language of their own known as Romany. I had never heard of such a language, yet when I spoke in tongues on that occasion, Romany was the language I was speaking. And what did it mean?

 

I have told you already. Cigarettes are not good for you!

 

So God has wonderful ways of speaking to us, through tongues or interpretation or through prophecy. And he also speaks through the ministry of prophets. But that will be the subject of our next talk.