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The Gift of Prophecy is the ability to speak to others by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to help them grow, to encourage them and to comfort them. The Gift of Prophecy reveals and expresses the heart of God towards people.
3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. – 1 Corinthians 14:3 NKJV
This gift of the Holy Spirit is available to every believer and it is one gift we are all encouraged to desire earnestly.
1 Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you may prophesy. – 1 Corinthians 14:1 NRSV
We see this gift in operation in the Book of Acts and in the epistles, every time believers were filled with the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues and prophesied. It was so then, it is so now and we should not settle for anything less than the Scriptural standard and precedent already set by the early church.
What the Gift of Prophecy is Not
The Gift of Prophecy cannot be operated as man wills; it is the Holy Spirit who initiates it. The Gift of Prophecy is not meant to replace the written Word, if anything it is to confirm the Scriptures. The Gift of Prophecy is not for foretelling future events, neither is it to be sought for directional purposes. The Gift of Prophecy is not for bringing correction, rebuke or pronouncing judgment. It should not be confused with the Ministry or Office of Prophet which entails more than exhortation, edification and comfort and is outside the scope of this study.
Prophesying
This gift, like every other gift of the Spirit, manifests differently in different members of the Body of Christ. Each one of us is unique and the Spirit uses each one of us the way we are (with our uniqueness, quirks and all), so imitating how another person is being used by the Spirit is needless, to say the least. Just be yourself and deliver the prophetic utterance that the Holy Spirit gives you. Remember this, it takes faith to step out and deliver a prophetic word, actually our life in the Spirit is a life of faith from start to finish. We walk by faith, not by our five senses.
Some practical ways of receiving prophecy include visions (open and/or inward), hearing words (inwardly and/or audibly), on-the-spot unction, etc. – the thing is, the Holy Spirit knows exactly how to communicate with each one of us. Let us not fall into the soulish trap of trying to manipulate the Spirit to speak to us according to our preconceived ideas or even past experiences.
We will never be able to prophesy paragraphs and chapters until we are faithful in giving out the “one word” or “one liner” prophecies that the Spirit gives us. If we are faithful with little we will be faithful with much, if we are unfaithful in little we will be unfaithful with much, that’s a Scriptural principle. Faithfulness is always rewarded with increase, no wonder it is a Fruit of the Spirit, a trait every Spirit filled believer should manifest consistently.
In prophesying, do not go beyond what you have received – to do so even with just a few choice words – as harmless as it may seem, is a form of pride and if not checked may eventually lead one into deception.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; - Romans 12:6 NIV
Judging prophecy:
It is important we understand that there is a huge difference in the way prophecy was handled in the Old Testament and the way it is handled in the New Testament. In the OT, they were not instructed to judge or weigh prophecy but in the NT we are. In the OT if a prophecy didn't come true, the one who gave it would lose their life for they are deemed to have spoken presumptuously. In the NT we judge the prophecy and either accept or reject it.
Why such a difference in handling prophecy in the two Covenants? To answer that we need to understand that in the OT, the Holy Spirit did not abide in people continually, He just came upon Prophets, Judges, Kings, Priests and a select few for a specific purpose and season. In the NT, we are born again by the Holy Spirit, He recreates us and dwells in our spirits, we are one with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17) and after Jesus was glorified, the Holy Spirit was given and came upon us from the day of Pentecost, empowering us to be witnesses for Jesus, He came to be with us forever, He doesn't come and go like in OT times (John 14:16).
Now we all have the Holy Spirit, we all have access to God, we all can hear God, we all can be led by the Spirit and He desires to have fellowship we each one of us, not a select few on behalf of everyone else. That’s one reason a NT believer today isn't supposed to run around chasing prophecies from other believers, the Holy Spirit in you yearns to talk to you, spend time with Him through studying the Word and prayer, cultivate a relationship with Him, hear His voice and be at rest.
Now when the Holy Spirit speaks prophetically through an individual, we can all confirm His voice and we should. We know we have an enemy who would jump at any opportunity, using any available vessel to lead us astray; that’s one main reason we are to weigh and judge prophetic utterances.
In some circles, because of abuse, the Gift of Prophecy is somewhat thwarted and frowned upon while in others there is a prophecy for everything, everyday, every-single-time they gather (obviously I’m exaggerating 
) but you get the idea! Either extreme is unscriptural and therefore not good, the written Word of God is our standard.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. – 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 NKJV
In the New Testament we are instructed to test everything and to hold on to what is good (1 Thessalonians 5:20) therefore we are to judge prophecies, failure to do so can result in dire consequences to the hearers. The Apostle Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit instructs us to weigh prophetic utterances. We are to judge the prophecy, not the one prophesying. The written Word is our main guideline for judging prophecies.
Any prophecy that violates the written Word must be rejected promptly and the one who gave it should be lovingly and carefully shown why, if they are a new believer or a novice at operating in the Gift of Prophecy and they genuinely missed it and are humble enough to accept correction, then it’s a learning curve for them, they should be encouraged not stifled.
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. 30 But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. 32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 33 For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. - 1 Corinthians 14:29-33 NKJV.
If the result of a prophetic utterance by the Gift of Prophecy is fear, confusion, condemnation, shame, manipulation, control, intimidation, guilt or anything like that, rest assured it did not originate from the Holy Spirit and should not be received by God’s people.
Any prophetic utterance that focuses on man at the expense of the testimony of Christ is at best soulish, at worst – outright demonic in origin. Sadly, these are the kinds of prophecies rampant in many charismatic circles today, you know, the ones that go something like this…”you shall be the greatest and everyone will come to you blah blah blah” or the more subtle but equally destructive "because you've fasted and prayed for seven days I will do blah blah blah...". You see beloved, the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy (Revelations 19:10), He is central, He is the focus, once we know and understand that anything we are and everything we receive from God is based on what Jesus did and not on what we can do, we will swiftly sift out these flesh tickling, ego boosting utterances masquerading as prophecies. More on this when we get to the "Gift of Discerning of Spirits"
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Beloved, of all the nine Gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12, the Gift of Prophecy is the one we are encouraged to desire earnestly (1 Corinthians 14:1). Let us, therefore passionately desire to be used by God to edify, exhort and encourage others through the Gift of Prophecy. How do we do that? It all starts and ends in Love; as we love others with the love of God that is in us, that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), we will find ourselves walking in faith which will result in us receiving words of edification, exhortation and comfort to impact lives and glorify Christ our Lord.
Blessings beloved,
I am your brother,
Patrick
Up Next>>> Speech Gifts: Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues
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