Moving in the Prophetic (eBook)

Chapter One

Does God Speak Today?

Prophecy is God’s gift to the world and to the church, given to challenge and refine contemporary culture and build up the household of faith.

Yet, whether it is exercised in the church or the world, the gift of prophecy always invites some degree of opposition and controversy. It is one of the most vivid displays of God’s presence and power among his people, and since the presence of God can prove to be disturbing and even frightening, many have concluded that prophecy is best forgotten, consigned to the dustbin of history.

Yet we can’t avoid the gift of prophecy if we continue to read the Bible. Especially in the New Testament, we read so much about this activity of God in our midst: its importance, how it works, and the honour due to it. Typical of this positive emphasis would be a passage like this:

In this epistle Paul has already been focusing on the internal life of the church at Corinth, responding to questions his readers had asked about matters of misconduct and malpractice in their corporate life together and about the way the gifts of the Spirit operated. We need to read straight through 1 Corinthians 12–14 to gain a proper understanding of Paul’s teaching on this issue. Taking selected verses, or looking only at chapter 13, is not enough. That great chapter on love is the “meat in the sandwich” of all that Paul says here and it indicates that Paul saw charismatic manifestations not in terms of “either love or gifts” but rather “gifts with love” or “gifts without love”.

We may be surprised and challenged by the suggestion that it is possible to operate the gifts of the Holy Spirit without the seal of the Spirit’s presence – love – upon what we do. Paul warns us that such use of the charismatic gifts is vain and empty.

Yet this does not mean we do better when we aim for love alone, suppressing the activity of the Spirit in the operation of the gifts; for Paul exhorts us to “eagerly desire” the gifts, especially prophecy. We must take Paul seriously as he goes on to discuss how the gift of prophecy is to be used.

A.W. Tozer has been frequently referred to as “that great twentieth-century prophet” and is widely regarded as having been a true prophet to the church, yet during his lifetime he was not esteemed in that way by many. The human tendency is to honour prophets when they are dead and safely in their graves, no longer posing a threat to the way we customarily want things done. Like the teachers of the law and the Pharisees who opposed the ministry of Jesus (Matthew 23:29–32), we build tombs to pay honour to dead prophets even if we were prepared to stone them while they were alive. Tozer is one such prophet, almost universally respected for his words and profound insights now that he has gone.

Tozer once asserted that, “We need to have the gifts of the Holy Spirit restored again to the church, and it is my belief that the one gift we need most now is the gift of Prophecy.” Many would agree, seeing prophecy as a desirable gift and one that we most need as a church living in troubled times when, if we are completely honest, our reputation as the church of Jesus Christ has more often been pathetic than prophetic. Yet the Spirit of God is faithful and longs to work with us to build a truly effective Christian community in every part of the world. This is why we stand in such need of the authentic gift of prophecy, for it has a crucial role to play in building up the people of God.

Danger – Saints at Work!

Even in churches where prophetic gifts are encouraged and fostered, they are robbed of power if the church leadership lacks confidence and experience to pastor, weigh and discern them appropriately. Much slips by in our churches without accurate weighing, correction, affirmation or admonition; and this is a sign that we are not living the mindful, reflective and discerning lives of true disciples. Sometimes even the plainly ridiculous or dangerous is accepted without question. There is often a high “cringe factor” in many churches, and it is one of the major stumbling blocks that frequently keep both sensible believers and unbelievers away from our meetings. The bizarre things we do and say inevitably turn them off. When this happens, people cease to take us seriously or listen to what we say – and so we dishonour our call to be God’s prophetic people in the world. Carelessness makes our words appear ridiculous. From time to time I have come across announcements in church bulletins or notice boards that have made me laugh out loud at their unintentional oddity.

A Baptist church built on a street corner used the windowless wall at the side of the chapel to display “wayside pulpit” posters, but did not take the trouble to reread them. As a result, passersby were treated to such gems as, “Don’t let worry kill you – let the church help!”. Another read, “Sermon for Sunday: What is hell like?”, then, just below that, the apparent answer: “Come in and hear our choir sing”!

An Anglican church, wishing to chivvy the congregation in the direction of more responsible giving, headed a paragraph on stewardship in their newsletter with a phrase from 2 Corinthians 9:7. Careless proofreading sent it to press saying: “God Loves A Cheerful Fiver!” Everyone laughed at the heading, and nobody read the rest!

A notice posted outside an Assemblies of God Pentecostal church in a small town in the south of England boldly advertised their weekly Sunday morning meeting. It read: “Healing service here every Sunday at 10.30 am”, then added the alarming words, “You won’t get better!” It’s a wonder anyone turned up!

Occasionally our errors take us nearer the bone than we intended – as when a Methodist church advertised their forthcoming choir event as a “Sarkey and Moody Evening”. Crowds stayed away in their thousands! And one of my favourites was the priceless announcement: “On Wednesday night the Ladies’ Liturgy Society will meet, when Mrs Jones will sing ‘Put Me in My Little Bed’ accompanied by the pastor”! It amused me, but somebody should have spotted that and informed them.

We laugh at these silly mistakes because they are harmless and unimportant, but they are symptomatic of a carelessness that disastrously blunts our prophetic edge. Our message can be effective only when it is supported by a faithful, discerning, honest critique; an ongoing, clear-sighted appraisal. God knows this, and that is why he raises up prophetic voices in his church even to this day, showing us how we can realign ourselves with his revealed will in the Holy Scriptures.

We are all aware that many people, especially prominent Christian leaders, struggle with the very concept of the validity of prophecy today. They have difficulties because God has spoken in his Word, the written Scriptures, and therefore they are troubled by the possibility that God may have direct access to the minds of his children in more immediate and personal ways than reading the Bible alone, through such means as hunches and divine intuitions, intimations or directions, pictures or even words that come directly from the Spirit of God. Such “words” are designed to build up and positively strengthen his church and not to harm it.

Our Speaking God

I myself had serious doubts about the validity of prophetic ministry at one time. What changed my thinking was the reflection that the devil often operates as a speaking agent in the supernatural realm, all too often gaining access to our minds in this way.

Satan is quite capable of putting alien ideas into our heads – unwanted thoughts, unwelcome imagery, dangerous suggestions, accusations, ideas and directions. Some of us see pictures in our imagination; others have had dreams that seem to be demonic in origin. We have sometimes woken up in a cold sweat, trembling with fear because of what has been screened in our imagination and seen by our mind’s eye. At other times we hear voices, sometimes even audible voices, suggesting the most horrendous things: “You would be better off dead”, “Your life is going nowhere”, “You’re useless”, “Your ministry is over, your influence is finished. You may as well end it all.”

It is important to recognize that the devil is a supernatural, speaking agent with access to our minds. But is it really credible to believe that the devil has a total monopoly of airtime on the radio waves of our souls, while God himself – who created all things by his Word, who expressed himself in Jesus as the living Word, who gave us the Bible as his Word of power – is silent when it comes to dealing directly with his people?

Does God have no access to the minds or spirits of his children? Has he no way of conveying pictures or images, words or suggestions, clear directions or specific intimations to them? Is all of this activity the devil’s...