“He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and the other the gift of prophecy.”
1 Corinthians 12:10
“The ability to prophesy” doesn’t only mean predicting future events. It also means being God’s messenger, giving His messages of insight, warning, correction and encouragement.
“In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophecy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.” Romans 12:6
My Bible commentary says that some have interpreted “prophecy” to be fulfilled in various sermons throughout church history. Others, however, say that prophecy is not a sermon, but a spontaneous, Spirit-filled message that is orally delivered in the congregation for the edification and the encouragement of the body of Christ.
In the Old Testament, God called prophets to try and rescue Israel from its moral and spiritual decline. Their main job was to encourage the people and their leaders to turn back to God. But there were true prophets and false prophets – just like today. False prophets speak only what people want to hear, while true prophets speak only what God tells them to say-no matter how unpopular. But how can we tell the difference? 1 John 4 tells us how…
“Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.” 1 John 4:1
“…indeed is already here.” Wow…and that was written 2000 years ago! John is telling us that we shouldn’t believe everything we hear just because someone says it is a message from God. Isn’t our world full of voices claiming to speak for God? We can check to see if their words match what God says in the Bible, but the most important test is what they believe (if they believe) about Christ. Do they claim He is fully man and fully God? Please realize this: Those who reject Christ are unknowingly or consciously siding with the spirit of the Antichrist.
Tomorrow we’ll continue with prophecies about Jesus, and what He says about the end times…