Reclaiming Prophecy
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood gifts that the Holy Spirit has given the Church is the gift of prophecy. Its use has dwindled in our modern Church culture, and the mere mention of the word tends to create apprehension. Whether due to a misapplication of the word by popular culture, an (unfair) association with occult practices, a misrepresentation of its true meaning, or simply a shortage of its healthy expression within Christianity, this gift tends to spark controversy, and has thus fallen by the wayside – at great loss to the Body of Christ. In truth, though, prophecy is one of the most valuable gifts we have access to as followers of Jesus. It carries tremendous power to strengthen those within the Church and to bless and transform the world around us. And its presence has been consistent throughout salvation history and in the lived experience of the Saints. In this post, I’d like to unfold the beauty, value, and true meaning of prophecy within a Christian context, in hopes that we can reclaim it for the gift that it is, and empower the Church once again to be edified and to edify others through its use.
The Power of Hearing God
It’s no secret that our world is hurting and broken. Many, many people go through life weighed down by their problems, without a clear understanding of their identity or purpose, and without a means of sorting through all of it or finding a solution. This leads to a great deal of brokenness and pain, which leads to bad choices… which brings even more brokenness and pain… and the cycle continues.
Imagine what it might do for a hurting person if they could hear what God has to say about their specific situation… about the unique love He has for them… about the great calling He has for their life. That kind of experience has the power to restore hope to the hopeless, bring clarity to confusion, bring comfort in the midst of pain… and offer the potential for powerful change to take place.
Kingdom Vision
If you’ve been acquainted with our ministry for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that we place a strong emphasis on the practice of listening for God’s voice in prayer. This, we believe, is a crucial part of having a living relationship with the Lord: 2-way conversation.
Just as we are able to hear from God for the sake of our own personal edification, it’s also possible for us to hear from God for the sake of someone else. What do I mean by that?
As disciples, when we connect to God through prayer and become familiar with His voice, there is a calibration that starts taking place between us and Him. A natural outgrowth of this intimacy is that we’re going to start hearing what He has to say about not only our own circumstances, but also the world around us. We’ll start:
seeing the potential that He sees for broken situations to be redeemed.
seeing the people around us in the best way possible.
seeing the restoration that He wants to bring to hearts, relationships, communities, and cities.
seeing the ways He wants to demonstrate His goodness and show His glory in our world.
This is what I like to call “Kingdom vision.”
The closer we grow to Christ, the more we gain the ability to see others through the eyes of love, because that’s how God sees us. God is outside of space and time, so He sees us in our fullest glory – because He already knows what that looks like. And His heart towards us is love and acceptance, because He sees us for who we really are: glorious, powerful, beautiful, and unique human beings, with something incredible to contribute to the world.
He sees this even if we haven’t fully stepped into that identity yet. Akin to looking at an acorn and seeing it as the majestic oak tree it will become, God looks at us and sees us in our fullness.
This is good news. And our capacity to connect with this perspective is nothing short of life-changing. St. Paul touched on this when he declared, “It’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance.” (Romans 2:4) Another way of saying this is: it’s the goodness of God that helps us to re-adjust our perspective. And as Bob Hazlett once so aptly stated, “When God can re-adjust our perspective of who we are and the burden we’re carrying, the burden gets removed along with that.”
As members of the Church, this is a tremendous gift that we can offer to each other and to the world. We have the honor and the calling to demonstrate the heart of God to others. A huge way that this can happen is through the spiritual gift of prophecy.
The Gift of Prophecy
So what exactly is prophecy from the Biblical or Christian perspective?
DEFINITION
A simple definition of prophecy that I like to use is this: tapping into the heart of the Father for a person, and then revealing what is in His heart for them.
Most often, the subject matter of a prophetic word for someone regards their identity or destiny. There are some things we objectively know about God’s heart for all people – they are seen, loved, and known by Him; His plans are for their welfare; Jesus died to offer them eternal life; etc. But prophecy is deeply personal and goes beyond that, leaning in to see or hear what is in God’s heart for a specific individual, which may differ from what is seen or heard for another. If you are familiar with the distinction between the terms rhema and logos, prophecy is the rhema word of God – the “right now” word that the Holy Spirit quickens to a specific person for a specific situation.
To prophesy means to hear – and subsequently deliver – that personal message from God’s heart to another person. So in its simplest form, prophecy is about hearing and declaring.
PURPOSE
“One who prophesies speaks to people for their building up, encouragement, and comfort.” -1 Corinthians 14:3
St. Paul here is clear and succinct in describing the end goal of this gift. Drawing from another translation of his words, we can say that the purpose of prophecy is “edification, exhortation, and comfort.”
In a word, this gift is about ENCOURAGEMENT. Encouragement that helps people to see things from God’s perspective – loving, kind, redemptive, and hope-filled – and helps them to step into the fullness of their God-given identity.
Now, it’s true that each of us is capable by our own effort to encourage someone to a certain degree. However, we say that we are operating in the spiritual gift of prophecy when it is the Holy Spirit who inspires and guides our words of encouragement.
There is another important dimension to prophecy as well: prophecy not only reveals what is in God’s heart, but it enables the fulfillment of what is revealed.
How does prophecy do that?
MEANS
Recall that prophecy begins with seeing a person through God’s eyes, leading us to speak to them according to how God sees them. In some Christian circles, this practice has been termed “calling out the gold” in a person – which I love!
On the natural level, this experience is powerful because it calls to the surface the truth, beauty, and goodness that lies within that person, offering an invitation for them to step into that reality. Most people are their own worst critics, and often need an outside perspective to help them see and embrace the glory that they carry.
On top of this, though, when a prophetic word is released, GRACE is released along with it, which provides the supernatural backing for that person to live according to that identity. Prophetic words never stand alone; they have the strength of the Holy Spirit behind them, which enables those words to go straight into the heart of a person and bring a supernatural conviction and power for that word to become a reality. This is where the true strength lies in this spiritual gift. Kris Vallotton puts it beautifully: “Words become worlds.”
VALUE
By now, the value of this gift has probably become clear, at least in terms of its impact on those who are blessed to be on the receiving end of its use. But I do want to highlight an additional dimension of this gift. While prophecy has obvious benefits to those who receive a prophetic word, I believe the greatest hidden value in this gift lies in what it does for the person who is giving the word.
Exercising the gift of prophecy means hearing from God on someone’s behalf. Done properly, this process requires the one prophesying to connect with God’s heart of kindness and compassion toward an individual, regardless of what meets the eye. Indeed, read St. Paul’s writings on prophecy and you will see how adamantly he insists that this gift (and all the others) be rooted in love. But prophecy in particular invites us to look at a person and see them the way God sees them – as their greatest advocate and cheerleader, believing the best about them, seeing them in their fullest identity, and feeling the same love toward them that He feels. This experience trains those who prophesy to see people (and the world) with the Kingdom vision I spoke of earlier, looking out through the eyes of love. This process can’t help but transform the one exercising this gift.
Additionally, the effect on those receiving a prophetic word is multiplied when it is received from a person of this disposition, because it offers them not just a “report from God” but also an experience of the love that He has for them – and that love itself is transformative.
Exercising the Gift of Prophecy
One of the most common questions I hear about this is: “Don’t I need to receive the gift of prophecy in order to prophesy?” Many Christians believe this is a gift that is (a) reserved for the spiritually elite, or (b) must fall upon them sovereignly/passively, meaning they either have the gift or they don’t – there is no option in-between. But St. Paul urges us:
“Strive eagerly for the spiritual gifts, above all that you may prophesy.” -1 Corinthians 14:12
There are two things I’d like to point out here.
St. Paul places a particular value on prophecy, so much so that he wants everyone to seek after this. In Paul’s mind, everyone can go after it because it’s available to everyone. Yes, some will be stronger in this gift than others, but the gift is available to any believer simply because the Holy Spirit dwells within them. Consider what we read in Acts 2:17-18. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were in the streets, and with a crowd gathering, Peter proclaims:
“No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘It will come to pass in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Indeed, upon my servants and my handmaids I will pour out a portion of my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.’”
Peter considers this Pentecost moment as the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. ALL would receive the Holy Spirit, and there were no limits on who would prophesy: young and old; men and women; even the lowest classes of the time (servants & handmaids) were not excluded from this gift.
St. Paul says that, not only are we allowed to, but we SHOULD strive after or pursue the spiritual gifts. This holds true of prophecy in particular. Prophecy is a gift that can be learned, practiced, and developed. Because prophecy involves hearing God’s voice, there are very practical ways to grow in it. Just as you can grow when learning to speak a new language, you can grow in your capacity to listen for God: increasing your awareness of His voice, fine-tuning your perception and accuracy in what you’re hearing, and practicing the art of yielding to the Holy Spirit. In regards to prophecy, it’s still incumbent on the Lord to speak, but there are many ways you can prepare to cooperate with Him when He does.
This is our invitation and my hope for the Body of Christ. That through a recapturing of this beautiful spiritual gift, our lives and the world around us would become transformed – from glory to glory, on earth as it is in heaven.
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