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Prophecy

depending on many things, this word can mean a lot of things. and if you’re a post-modern western society christian [and even if you’re not, but i dunno since i can only speak from one perspective here], the word prophecy conjurs all sorts of “special” things. being a propet just sounds so much more appealing than being an ordinary [fill-the-blanks].

of course, there’s a lot in the Word about the office of prophecy, and being prophetic. and of course, the idea of “foretelling” comes into the picture and being able to divine the future makes you some sort of prophet. oh-hum. more pagan ideas and too many errors and half-truths to bother engaging with…

Joh 7:37  On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Joh 7:38  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'”
Joh 7:39  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Joh 7:40  When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”

Right. So what is a prophet exactly? Both the original Greek and Hebrew usage conveys, quite simply, an inspired speaker. And by extension, a poet. And it’s not unreasonable to imply, given the context, that we’re specifically referring to being inspired _of God_. It does make the above scenario in John suddenly a lot more accessible. It also highlights an important aspect about being a prophet.

Everytime we, as post-modern western society Christians start quoting the Word as a form of encouragment or rebuke, our intention is to provide inspiration, or act out of inspiration. In fact, many times, i have heard [and said this myself]… “i just had a scripture come to mind” and we speak that into the situation. We’re being prophetic. Let’s make sure that what we speak “comes true”. We know what lies in store for false prophets….

There’s another dynamic which i personally struggle with when it comes to this sort of inspiration. There’s practically an expression and piece of wisdom/advice for just about every situation. And they could go advise different things, based on context. There are no formulas with God [read about how Jesus healed blind men. Just about every time, He used a a different method]. So, there being no formulas combined with “a season for everything”, how do you know which advice is meant to be offered as inspired advice?

The answer to that lies in knowing all the possible scenarios. How many times have you debated/prayed about a situation and held two [or more] scriptures against each other to find out which one applies to the situation you’re dealing with? And they can both be applied quite differently with opposite effects. You need more understanding, that is to say, you need to understand more possibilities. But how is that ever going to be possible when the only thing you ever read is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? And then for measure, you’ll occasssionaly read Acts. Romans is a stretch. Ephesians is a quick read and James is pretty cool. The other 75% of the Word is old-fashioned, right? So we struggle with situations because of our lack of knowledge of God and then wonder why the Spirit isn’t bringing anything into remembrance. There’s nothing there to begin with to remember.

Anyways, back to being prophetic. When we comfort and encourage others, we are more likely to choose from our pool of most recently read [heard] scriptures [the fresh ones] as the ones we want to /need to speak. But what if that well-intentioned advice is the wrong one? You end up giving that person a false hope because what you’ve said doesn’t come true. If any advice, based on God’s Word is just just wishful thinking and convenient, and not led by God’s Spirit, are you not being falsely inspired? Hope delayed kills. And more harm has been done by mainstream psycho-prophets bullying people out of hope and ca$h. No wonder God wanted them stoned at the city gates.

So before you utter words of comfort and rebuke next time, be pretty sure they are inspired Words and not just convenient catch phrases and overused expressions designed to make people hope for something that will never happen. If it is God inspired, it _will_ happen. I say this to myself as well as general commentary to the greater community around me. Why? Because, quite frankly, i am weary of hearing these cliche’s phrases which never do come true. They got me all excited for nothing. And that burns!

And more… whatever you tell someone, are you prepared to put your head on a block for it? if we took this business of being prophetic as seriously as it’s supposed to be, there would be a lot less noise out there- and more of the clarity of God’s Word being spoken.