The Gift of Prophecy

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

The gift of prophecy is simply a message from God for the people. Sure, it can mean the "foretelling" of future events. We can look to Isaiah, Jonah, Joseph, Daniel and others in the Old Testament for these types of prophecies. But it can also mean the explanation of Scripture or the delivery of a word from the Lord to His people.

So does that mean that meteorologists are prophets from God? Well, no. Although no doubt some of them are Christians, their predictions of future weather events come from scientific sources. 

But have you ever read a piece of Scripture that you knew God was trying to tell you something through? Yet you just couldn't quite get what He might be saying? Then you mention it to someone who has the wisdom to tell you exactly what it means? That is prophecy.

Or how about this? A young child reads the following Scripture and looks to the Sunday School teacher for interpretation:

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Exodus 20:16

Explaining that this is just a fancy way of saying, "Tell the truth," is actually a type of prophecy.

When you come away from a worship service and tell the pastor that you really needed to hear the sermon that day, understand that you have just received God's word to you through His messenger. That is prophecy.

God speaks to His people all the time. Sometimes we hear Him and sometimes we don't. Sometimes His message is for our ears only. And sometimes it is for someone else's. That is prophecy.

So what do you think? Do you have the gift of prophecy?