Sidewalk Prophets
Notes
Transcript
Prophetic Misconceptions
Prophetic Misconceptions
I will now prophesy...
At some point this morning, someone will stand up in their chair and shout “I want a peanut!”
(I may have bribed them to do that). I predicted a future event… but that’s not prophecy, is it?
Next Step Prophet
Next Step Prophet
I will tell a story many of you were there for… and I was not.
There was an active work of prophecy many years ago, before “Next Step” was called “Next Step.” When the church was in Lakewood.
And a woman spoke up during the prayer time, claiming the spiritual gift of prophecy… and then proceeded to predict some future events.
In particular, as it was told to me, they pointed at Brandon and said something like “You are going to die!!!”
Brandon, who at that time was dating or engaged to a girl named Kelly… was very concerned! The church leadership responded appropriately, there was no confirmation, no discernment, and this person was asked to leave.
Self-Tested Prophet
Self-Tested Prophet
When I was a young adult I remember taking these spiritual gift tests in waves. One young peer in particular, I remember they took the “spiritual gift” test, which was basically a personality test in disguise, and they came up with “the gift of prophecy.”
And it’s because every time questions like “do you see the truth of situations?” and “do you often have insight into what other people are doing wrong?” came up, they were always like “Yes, I absolutely do.”
They weren’t prophetic… they were just an arrogant jerk. (Might be another theological term there).
But now they had this mantle of authority behind them being a jerk. “I’m not a jerk, I’m a prophet… therefore it isn’t just me being a judgmental know-it-all… it’s God speaking through me!”
So… the topic of “prophecy” may come with some misconceptions, it may come with some baggage, it may even come with some fear from having seen this abused.
Maybe you picture Gandalf. Maybe you picture crazy dude with the sandwich board on the corner. You all have a picture when I say “prophet” or “prophesy...”
But I think we miss the prophets among us. We miss prophecy in us. Because we don’t recognize it when we see it. And we don’t “earnestly desire” it as we should.
Prophecy Today
Prophecy Today
Does Prophecy continue today?
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
It’s when we “see him face to face.” That’s when prophecy is done.
So where is it?
Why don’t we see it all over the place in Scripture.
In particular, prophesy is kind of in a special position among the gifts.
Recall that in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul stresses that we should not envy other gifts but that the Holy Spirit gives when He wills, as He wills.
We receive spiritual gifts - some for a lifetime, some for a season, some for a moment… as the Holy Spirit wills. We should remain open to the gifts at any time… but not envious of the gifts of others.
Using the metaphor of the body, the eye should not be jealous of the ear, or the foot…
If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
But in these two cases, in particular, things seem to be different. Don’t “envy” other parts… but pursue love. First and foremost, all of 1 Cor 13, if you don’t have love you are wrong.
End of story.
Walk through 1 Corinthians 13 as a filter for love, to learn to recognize what love does and doesn’t do.
Pursue love. Chase it down. Seek it and find it and be it. And then...
Earnestly desire:
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
“especially that you may prophesy?”
What happened to not envying?
Prophecy kind of appears to be in it’s own special category.
Every believer should earnestly desire to prophesy.
Every believer should earnestly desire to prophesy.
Is that true? Is that scary? What the heck is prophecy then?
What is Prophecy?
What is Prophecy?
I’ll give a definition. Here’s my overly simplistic definition. Prophecy is a message from God.
We can use some bigger words. Prophecy is a revelation from God through someone to His people or His person. God speaks to me for you, to you, and I speak it, that’s prophecy.
Let’s examine it by what prophecy actually does.
Listen to this:
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.
Obviously there is contrast here to speaking in tongues. More about that next week.
But listen to what it says about prophesying, especially there in verse 3.
On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.
What does prophecy do?
It builds up.
It encourages.
It comforts (or consoles).
That’s not all prophecy does. What about the Old Testament prophets who came with fire and doom and gloom. REPENT! Well, it turns out that is actually edifying if you are heading for destruction. But we get this picture here in 1 Corinthians 14 too.
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.
Prophecy convicts.
Prophecy Builds up, Encourages, Comforts and Convicts
Prophecy Builds up, Encourages, Comforts and Convicts
Prophecy:
Builds up
It edifies. When someone speaks, people grow in maturity, the church is strengthened, more prepared to do the work of God. The foundations grow stronger.
Encourages
When people speak the words of God, the people of God are filled with courage “en-couraged.” Fear is left behind, driven out.
Comforts
When God speaks, the broken are healed, the hurting are comforted. God loves you, you are in His hand…
Convicts
When people are complacent, lured into sleep by the enemy, the Word of God says “WAKE UP!” Awaken to your danger, to your sin, to your complacency, repent and be MINE!
Is that a full list? What about all the predicting of future events that prophets are “always” doing in Scripture?
Foretelling vs. Forthtelling
Foretelling vs. Forthtelling
You wouldn’t guess this from the common vernacular definition of prophets, but predicting future events is actually pretty rare in the prophets of the Bible.
Very occassionally the prophets, even in the old testament, are telling the future. Very rarely, really. Most often they are speaking truth about how God sees the present. They are “forthtelling” not “foretelling.” And even the foretelling they do is usually of the form:
If you don’t repent of this… here’s what’s going to happen.
If you do… here’s what’s going to happen.
Some of those are absolutely miraculous predictions of future events. Some are more like seeing natural consequences coming down the pipeline. I tell Logan “If you keep driving like that you will get in an accident before you’re 17!”
That’s not a long bet.
Prophets are in tune with God’s heart, hearing revelation from Him about how He sees present reality, present community, and they speak that revelation to the people.
This is how God thinks about what you’re doing.
This is how God feels about you.
Communicating His love, His wrath, His presence, His Word.
Prophecy builds up, encourages, comforts and convicts. If predicting the consequences of sin near and far term are part of that, then prophecy includes it… but it isn’t the primary function and certainly not the definition of prophecy.
Prophecy is a message from God. To God’s people. To build up, encourage, comfort and convict them.
Does this start to sound a bit more familiar? It should.
Do we have moments in our service aimed towards speaking and hearing the Word of God speaking into your life to build up, encourage, comfort and convict?
God, I pray so.
All preaching should include the prophetic. Preaching and prophesy are not synonymous. Preaching can include other aspects, it includes teaching, for example, but there is a great deal of overlap. Holy Spirit inspired preaching should certainly nearly almost always include the Word of God speaking through the preacher into your life to encourage, comfort or convict you… that is prophesy.
But that isn’t all. It doesn’t say “All preachers should earnestly desire prophecy.” It says “all y’all should earnestly desire prophecy.”
Every Christian should desire the gift of prophecy.
And if it boils down to this… it makes sense.
I, a follower of Jesus, I want to learn to hear and discern Jesus’ voice. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has thoughts and feelings and things to say about my life and yours. I want to hear His voice, His will, His heart as it relates to my life.
And, because I love you, I want to hear His heart for you too… to the extent it might build you up, encourage you, comfort you or… if necessary, convict you.
The Word of Katie
The Word of Katie
At camp this year we had a COVID protocol we had to follow. If we had such and such symptoms, here is how we would respond. Here is where we would isolate campers, here is where we would take them for testing… all the things in a handy-dandy document.
We had the document with us up at camp.
Well, a cold started going around at camp. Sniffles. Sneezing. Coughing. And we are 99% sure this is a cold… but we have to walk through our COVID protocols, not least because the health inspector is up there, and aware all this is going on.
We have the document, the “Scripture” to follow.
But Katie wrote this document. And while she may not be physically and obviously present up at camp, she is readily available. Miriam, Nina and I are texting her like crazy, a little group chat going. Our reception is going in and out, so our conversation looks like this:
“What should we do? Here are the symptoms… I think the protocol says this...”
“Oh, just got a Word from Katie. She found a new free testing site for us...”
“I don’t know what that part of the document means, let’s ask Katie...”
Someone else, “Oooh, just got a response, looks like she will let the county know we sent for testing. She’ll take care of it!”
“Oh, she says ‘if we don’t use the COVID protocols the county will shut us down.’”. (That’s some foretelling and forthtelling there isn’t it?)
We all have a line open to Katie. One of us receives “Word of Katie” to share with the rest. In this way, Katie is an ongoing part of the plan, part of the conversation, part of the process, working through all of us.
This is prophecy. And yes, in this metaphor, Katie Moore is God.
And if that is prophecy, maybe it starts to seem acheivable, probable even that all of God’s people could “earnestly desire” this gift. We hear from our Master, and we pass on His message.
Fallible Prophecy
Fallible Prophecy
BUT WAIT!
Now here comes the problems. Here comes the fear.
What if Dusty is WRONG about what God says?
What if I am WRONG about what God says?
That’s a big deal. We absolutely should take that seriously.
To be clear, and I think this clears up all sorts of things about the exercise of prophecy in the modern church, prophecy is not infallible, prophets are not perfect.
The prophets in the OT weren’t infallible, by the way. They are all presented as partial and broken people… but even then, the ones we have are the best of the best. There were hundreds of prophets. Some were “false” prophets (as in purposefully seeking to deceive)… but many were just wrong, or partially wrong, or simply not helpful beyond their age.
Comparing yourself to the greatest prophets of the Old Testament is like comparing yourself to Mozart or Beethoven and deciding that you can’t make a joyful noise to the Lord.
Let’s take the analogy of the Spiritual gift of Teaching.
Spirit-prompted, Spirit-sustained act of explaining biblical truth for the edification of the church. .... But is that teacher infallible? No. It is submitted to the truth of Scripture. We would test that teaching. We might even sift the good from the bad. I learned a lot of good truth here… I’ll just drop this piece off as unhelpful (or as heresy).
There’s a HUGE difference between “flawed” teaching and the “false teachers” warned against in the Bible. When a teacher gets a detail wrong in our bible study, we might gently challenge, not turn over the tables and accuse them of being the anti-Christ. The humble teacher will humbly receive correction.
Same with preaching, really. And we already see the overlap there with prophecy.
Same with other gifts of the Spirit. You have the gift of mercy… doesn’t mean you don’t sometimes show “mercy” when “hard truth” would serve better.
You have the gift of “giving”… doesn’t mean you always make the perfect choice when choosing charities to give to.
In the same way we have Prophecy - prompted by the Spirit, sustained by the Spirit, based on a revelation from God.
“The gift of prophecy does not guarantee the infallible transmission of that revelation.” - John Piper.
(As Paul says, we see in a mirror dimly).
Prophecy is speaking what God is saying to you.
When I said, last year, that God gave me a vision for our church… what is that? That is prophecy.
That doesn’t make it unquestionable and infallible…
Paul encourages us all to seek the gift of prophecy. To know and hear from God and share what He says and thinks and feels with the church, to build one another up. That is HUGE!
I love the way he says this in 1 Thessalonians
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.
It would be quenching the Spirit to “despise” all prophecies. The gift is alive and active.
Don’t be cynical, don’t “despise” prophecies… instead test them all, test everything, sift away what is not of God, what is wrong, what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
Prophecy For Dummies
Prophecy For Dummies
So it looks like this.
We are to “earnestly desire” the gift of prophecy. How do we actually do that?
How did we do that with Katie?
We read or heard His word. We sought to correctly interpret and understand it. We shared it appropriately.
Hear His Word
Test Everything
Speak His Message
First, we learn to hear God’s Word. God still speaks in prayer, He still speaks in dreams, He speaks in quiet whispers, He speaks in ideas that come out of nowhere, He speaks in quiet urgings we just can’t shake.
We test what we hear or feel or suspect against His authoritative Word… for God is consistent and faithful, the same yesterday and tomorrow, His Word is true and consistent. We test revelation against authoritative revelation.
We may test it with wise counsel. Pastors, elders, people we know recognize the voice of their Master.
And then, probably cautiously, we may share the Word as God leads us.
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
Especially as we are learning the voice of God, as we are learning and testing gifts of prophecy, it isn’t timidity to say:
“I’m not sure, but I think...”
“Could God be calling you to…?”
Here are the days we are living in (as the worship team comes up). Hear yourself in all of this, it is inclusive across all of you. Not that the young will do this and the old will do this, not that men will do this part and women this...
That God’s Spirit is now, fulfilled, now upon us all… and we can all earnestly desire this gift, to prophesy in the name of Jesus:
“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.