Advance warning: This is a long post, so get your spiritual knives and forks out and dig into it.
Overnight I had some interesting new thoughts about NT prophecy. I thought through 1 Corinthians 14 and consider what Paul actually said about prophecy and what he didn't say.
Firstly, he didn't say that NT prophecy was the direct voice of God Nor did he say that it has a predictive component. Therefore I conclude that these were not components of prophecy as far as Paul was concerned.
Secondly, what he did say was that we prophesy "in part", meaning that NT prophecy is incomplete, imperfect. If prophecy came from the direct voice of God as was OT prophecy, then it would have been complete and perfect, because what God does directly is perfect.
Paul says that the purpose of prophecy is for the encouragement, exhortation, and comfort of believers in the body of Christ. Therefore any prophecy that does not encourage, build up or comfort other believers does not fit within Paul's definition of it.
Also, prophecy exposes the hearts of the listeners, especially outsiders who come into the gathering. What I have observed on occasions is that a prophetic word has such an impact on the person, that they have fallen to their knees in tears getting right with God. I have seen this in meetings, where some of the most hard hearted men and women have had their hearts broken in the presence of God as the prophetic word has been spoken. On several occasions when I have given a prophetic word over a person, they have broken down in tears and turned back to Jesus as their Lord.
John, in the book of Revelation, says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. When people have been confronted with the powerful testimony of Jesus through the prophetic word, they have turned to Him in genuine repentance.
What happens is that the person prophesying is prompted to give a prophetic word. He is not hearing God's voice. He decides to speak words that are appropriate to the building up of others, and the Holy Spirit speaks through those words to have an impact in the hearts of the listeners. The speaker is not aware of the impact. He is just obeying the prompting, and the Holy Spirit uses the words to speak to the listener's hearts.
The most powerful prophetic word came to me from a pastor's sermon. I was a visitor to a suburban Baptist church on five random Sunday evenings. On each evening the pastor preached on a particular topic and it was as though he was speaking directly to me in a way that he had "read my mail". I was just one person among 400 people, and the pastor did not know me at all. It was the Holy Spirit speaking directly to me through the pastor's sermon. He wasn't aware that he was being prophetic in his sermon, but it was certainly prophetic for me.
When CF had a prophetic ministry forum, I gave a number of prophecies on request, and a couple of people told me that when they read my prophecy, they broke down in tears because it spoke strongly to their hearts. I was not aware of the likely impact, because I gave prophecies just before I had to catch the bus to work and so I just had to write what came to mind. What I learned was that I give a word in faith without having any sense of the Holy Spirit in it, and it is the receiver that receives the impact when the Holy Spirit speaks to him or her. The moment someone says, "Thus says the Lord" in a prophecy it immediately proves that the prophecy is false, because Paul's definition of NT prophecy does not attach the direct authority of God to it.
Cessationists base their whole doctrine on the definition of just one word: "perfect" to teach that NT prophecy was limited to the time of the Apostles. Yet their definition of the word is not consistent with all the other meanings of "perfect" in other verses. Cessationist definition of "perfect" is just stupid nonsense, implying that Paul had advance knowledge of the completion of the NT Canon, when His view of Scripture was the OT Law and Prophets. This is why cessationists have a blind spot and can't acknowledge that there is true NT prophecy still active in the churches. They have to teach that all modern prophecy has to be false, and they use the flood of false prophecy on Youtube to try and prove their point. It makes a complete mockery of their claim that "we are keeping to God's Word". The truth is that God's Word does not support cessationism. They cannot show even one statement from either Jesus or Paul to show conclusively that the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, including tongues and prophecy were limited to just the lifetime of the last surviving Apostle.
In Romans, Paul says that we prophesy to the proportion of our faith. It takes faith to give an encouraging word to fellow believers, trusting that the Holy Spirit will speak to their hearts. Often the person prophesying is nervous because he has no way of knowing whether the word he is speaking will have any impact on the listeners.
Most of the Youtube prophecies are not real prophecies at all. Often they are just buzz word salads that don't say anything, and so there is no real impact on the hearts of the hearers. In Youtube videos of church services where prophecies are given, no one is falling to their knees in tearful repentance, because the Holy Spirit is not speaking through them.
There are Youtube videos of a particular church services where people are waving coloured flags around, and a guy who looks like Santa Claus gives very dramatic "thus says the Lord" prophecies that say basically nothing. No sign of any impact from the people. Just words spoken into the air. Yet that particular "prophet" is highly respected as a prominent Charismatic prophet. Such is the ignorance of what true NT prophecy is all about.
