AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPHETIC MINISTRY

Swallowfield, Jamaica

Marlon Winedt

Definition of Prophecy I

Prophecy/To be a prophet is NOT foretelling the future.

To be a nabi of Adonai means to be a mouthpiece of God.

Canonical Prophecy entailed a lot of contextual application and future foretelling.

Canonical Prophecy has more than one fulfillment (e.g. Isaiah 7:14)

Types of Prophecy II

1. The spirit of prophecy—Jesus’ testifying to others through prophetic speaking (see Revelation 19:10)

2. The gift of prophecy (see 1 Corinthians 12:10)

3. The prophetic presbytery for laying on hands and prophecy for ordination (see 1 Timothy 4:14)

4. Prophetic preaching

5. The ministry of the prophet (see Ephesians 4:11)

Different types of Prophecy/Revelation

1. Pre-Elijah Prophecy

2. Elijah Prophecy (Classical Prophecy) Mount Horeb

3. Non-canonical OT prophecy

4. Canonical OT prophecy

5. NT Canonical text

6. Personal revelation in the NT

(John the Baptist and others)

7. Non-Canonical sayings and deeds of Jesus

(John 21:25)

Gift - Ministry

1. Not everyone who receives a word about having a prophetic calling is truly called into the fivefold ministry named in Ephesians 4:11.

2. So Jesus “gave some” to be prophets

3. Paul asks: “Are all prophets?” (1 Corinthians 12:29).

Speaking prophesy as default

Anyone who is filled with the Holy Spirit can exercise the gift of prophecy as he wills (see 1 Corinthians 12:7–11).

“desire earnestly [covet] to prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:39).

Promise of Acts 2/Joel’s vision: Democracy of anointing, calling, gifts

Hellen Leclaire

“Some young or inexperienced ones confuse that with coveting the office of the prophet. I cannot tell you how many on-fire Christians I have met who call themselves prophets yet have no discernible call on their lives—or how much email I get from people asking me how they can achieve the office of prophet.

Jennifer LeClaire, The Making of a Prophet Chosen Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2014.

ADMONITION TO PROPHESY

1. Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 Cor. 14.1

2. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 1Cor. 13.2

3. “if any man is a prophet, let him prophesy as

far as the measure of his faith will let him.” Rom 12:6

PLANS FOR GOOD

Jeremiah 29:11

`For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, `plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Acts 2:17 -18

17 'And it shall be in the last days,' God says,'That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams;

18 Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy.

NT ROPHESY IS LIMITED

1Corinthians 13:8,9 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

NT PROPHESY IS NOT OT CANONICAL PROPHESY!!!!!

EVEN OT NON-CANONICAL PROPHESY IS NOT OT CANONICAL PROPHESY

1Corinthians 14:24,25 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

1Corinthians 14:24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all;

1Corinthians 14:25

the secrets of his heart are disclosed;

REVELATION

and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

ADORATION

Resulting

in TRANSFORMATION

PURPOSE OF PROPHESY

1Corinthians 14:3

But one who prophesies speaks to men for

edification

and exhortation

and consolation

Edification

1. building a building

2. to build up:

an act that promotes another’s

spiritual growth.

1. The promotion of spiritual growth.

exhortation

1. encouragement - paraklêsis

2. Helper, Paraclete, Comforter

– come from this word a calling to one's aid (para, by the side, kaleô, to call)

Consolation

1. Healing of wounds, consoling

2. Speaking closely to someone needs

3. A greater emphasis on tenderness than the previous 2 words.

PROPECY AS ENCOURAGEMENT

1Timothy 1:18

This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight,

GRUDEM’S ARGUMENT TWO TYPES OF PROPHECY IN THE NT

His first argument is that the New Testament distinguishes between apostolic prophets and non-apostolic prophets. The critical text for this argument is Ephesians 2:20

2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, 20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.

Thus, according to Grudem, it is only apostolic prophecy that is involved in laying the revelatory foundation for the church and which is inerrant and divinely authoritative. Ordinary, non-apostolic prophecy, Grudem avers, is neither inerrant nor authoritative.

Grudem

Grudem’s second argument for two levels of prophecy in the New Testament is that the New Testament directs believers to test or evaluate the prophet’s message in order to sort out the good from the bad. Such directives, Grudem insists, are in conflict with the concept of inerrant prophecy that carries divine authority.

Evaluation of Prophecy

1 Corinthians 14:29

There Paul commands, “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment.”

1 Thessalonians 5:20,21

Do not despise prophetic utterances.

But examine everything carefully;

hold fast to that which is good.

Conditional prophecy

People of Israel were promised that they would inherit the land.

People went against God and that generation perished in the desert.

Was the prophecy fulfilled?

Or was it a conditional prophecy?

4 TRAFFIC LIGHTS DISCERNMENT

1. Scripture (1TIM 3:16)

2. Circumstances

3. Witness of the Heart (HS in the heart)

4. Confirmation by mature covering/loved ones

5. Conditional Prophecy (Israel will conquer the Canaan?)

What to do with personal prophecy

1. Register your prophecy and meditate on it.

2. Submit to church leadership.

3. Judge and weigh the word according to biblical principles.

4. Do not act on personal words without confirmation and advise.

5. In a sense most personal prophecies are conditional.

AGABUS PROPHECY

Acts 21:10–11

As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”

Interpretation of Agabus Prophecy

Acts 21:12-14

12 When we heard this, both we and the local people begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking w my heart? For I am ready not only to be tied up, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 Because he could not be persuaded, we said no more except, “The Lord’s will be done.”

Accuracy of Agabus Prophecy

Paul is arrested by the Romans incited by the Jewish mob:

Acts 21:30-33

30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks.

Personal NT prophecies

Prophecies have a human element and are imperfect. (We prophecy in part. 1Cor 13:9-12)

Supernatural revelation makes use of God’s created order and the human being as image of God.

There is: A. the prophecy B. the interpretation of the utterer C. The interpretation of the recipient D. and the actual in life fulfillment/application of that

personal word.

CONCLUSIONS

GIFTS OF THE HS

1. COMMUNITY CRITERIA (1Cor 12:7)

2. CHRISTOLOGICAL CRITERIA (1Cor 12:3)

3. DIVERSITY CRITERIA (1Cor 12:4-6)

4. GOD’s SOVEREIGNTY CRITERIA (1Cor 12:11)