Scope of prophecy?

[Kehaar]

Hello all

Back again for more advice and some (probably) needed education, hopefully you can help me out!

I occasionally attend a local Pentecostal church (my 'own' church only has morning services at the moment) on Sunday evenings. The majority of my church background is in Church of Scotland, so I have very little experience and knowledge of the pentecostal church.

Anyway, I have attended these services with a friend I have known for about 3-4 years who is also a Christian and a member of that particular church. Now, I do understand that prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit and one that my friend appears to be blessed with. Before I became Christian I was wary of this 'gift' she had because to me, at the time, it seemed nothing more than telling fortunes (Sorry if I've offended anyone - thats mot my intention). Now, although I'm far more open and accepting of it, I still have difficulty believeing it 100% and that makes me feel bad!

The problem stems from the fact that I don't think I really understand the true meaning of this gift. Without going into too much detail, some members of my family are going through a rough break-up at the moment and are presently trying to settle the matter out of court. It looks increasingly unlikely this will happen, yet my friend insists it will be settled - she 'knows' it.

Is prophecy really used on this scale though? It seems almost trivial. Would she know how things would turn out using this gift? I don't like to say it, but I am skeptical. I always believed that prophecy was to edifiy, strengthen and build in a spiritual way.......not to advise on day to day events?

Ack! I'm confused! Someone put me right! Is my understanding wrong or am I right to be skeptical?

Thank you,

Astral

 

[Alternate Carpark]

I Corinthians 12:7

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Holy spirit for good and profit.
8. To one is given, in and through the Holy Spirit, the power to speak a message of wisdom, and to another the power to express a word of knowledge and understanding according to the same Holy Spirit;
9. To another, wonder working faith by the same Holy Spirit, to another the extraordinary powers of healing by the one Spirit;
10. To another the working of miracles, to another prophetic insight, (the gift of interpreting the devine will and purpose of God); to another the ability to discern and distinguish between the utterance of true spirits and false ones, to another various kinds of unknown tongues, to another the ability to interpret such tongues.
11. All these gifts and abilities are inspired and brought to pass by one and the same Holy Spirit, who apportions to each person individually and exactly as He chooses.

It depends on what you are sceptical about.
I mean are you sceptical about..
1: That your friend is a prophet,
2: That God would tell someone this supposedly trivial bit of info.
3: Prophecy in general.

Don't forget that satan counterfeits everything God does to confuse people.
The only reason it looks like fortune telling to you is because you see a similarity between prophesy and fortune telling.
Satan is capable of "prophesying" through people, tarot, runes, etc.
Remember, most of the "spiritual " things you see in the world are mere copies of how God interacts with us or are copies of His spiritual gifts that He bestows upon us.
This is where gift #7 comes in, the gift of discerning of spirits. The ability to tell if the power in someone is from God or not.

Does God care about the goings on in your family, enough to tell your friend about it ?
Oh Yeah ! God knows the number of hairs on your head and on the heads of everyone that ever lived.
God wants, I repeat wants to be involved in every little detail of our lives. What loving father wouldn't !
Plus you mentioned that you thought it a bit that someone would get a "word" from God on such a trivial matter.
Hearing from God is NEVER a trivial matter. It always builds trust and faith between the prophet and God and also between God and the people who heard it from the prophet.

There's nothing more amazing or beautiful than interacting with our loving and gracious Heavenly Father.

 

[Kehaar]

Thanks for your reply, Alternate.

I think I'm skeptical simply because I'm not terribly familiar with gifts of the Spirit. My knowledge is definately lacking in that area so I thought that some on CF would be able to educate me better

Thanks for your reassurance and clarity

Astral

 

[Alternate Carpark]

Just looked at your profile and .2 years as a Christian !
Keep up the good work of looking for answers and wanting to know more.
If I remember my time when I first believed, there were a hundred questions that I wanted answered.
But woe to the person who doesn't have a hundred more after those hundred are answered.

Matthew 7:7 (MsgB)
"Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need.
Luke 11:9 (MsgB)
"Here's what I'm saying:
Ask and you'll get;
Seek and you'll find;
Knock and the door will open.

And Proverbs is full of scripture pertaining to aquiring knowledge from God, and how we fall and become sickly when we don't apply God's wisdom and understanding into our lives. Yet He stands in the market place and yells out that it's all free, come and partake of my life I have for you.

The christian's journey is a continuous walk of learning and growing. We never come to the place of knowing everything or being perfect in our thoughts or conduct while we are here on earth in these rebellious bodies of flesh.

But God gives abundantly and freely to anyone who goes to Him and asks for wisdom and knowledge. The thing with God is though, His treasures are not just sitting there on top of the well trodden path. His treasures are buried, and it takes effort to obtain them.
All great things require effort to obtain, we seem to appreciate the treasure more if it took a great effort to obtain it.

This principle is the same as when a parent teaches and encourages a baby on it's first steps. Once the baby can walk without holding on, the baby walks till it gets to the parent.
The parent reaffirms the baby with words of praise and the baby feels so good to accomplish this task. Each time though, the parent moves back a little so the baby has to walk further each time to get to the parent.

Through the harder exercise, the baby becomes stronger.
This is why God leads, He is always just ahead so we will be forced to grow.
It's the only way we do grow.

Oh I seem to have wandered a bit there LOL.

 

[R2_Wildfire]

The easiest way to put this is like this. Not all prophecy is from God. Anyone can walk up to you and tell you that tomorrow, you will find the love of your life or that tomorrow, everything will go well. Remember that prophecy is confirmation of what God has already revealed to you. Don't trust every prophecy you hear. It isn't always God. Now, i'm not saying that all prophecy isn't from God, just that there are people who say that "God said" when God didn't say anything at all. Now, whether your friend is a prophet, I would say no. I have rarely seen "prophecy" used as fortune telling as you said. Like I said, Prophecy has been used in my case to tell me what I was going through without me telling the minister or someone telling me that I will be a great minister of music but that is confirming what I already know in my heart. Don't let yourself be guided by prophecy because in the end, the only thing that really matters is what you and God share.

 

[Macca]

Hello all

Back again for more advice and some (probably) needed education, hopefully you can help me out!

I occasionally attend a local Pentecostal church (my 'own' church only has morning services at the moment) on Sunday evenings. The majority of my church background is in Church of Scotland, so I have very little experience and knowledge of the pentecostal church.

Anyway, I have attended these services with a friend I have known for about 3-4 years who is also a Christian and a member of that particular church. Now, I do understand that prophecy is a gift of the Holy Spirit and one that my friend appears to be blessed with. Before I became Christian I was wary of this 'gift' she had because to me, at the time, it seemed nothing more than telling fortunes (Sorry if I've offended anyone - thats mot my intention). Now, although I'm far more open and accepting of it, I still have difficulty believeing it 100% and that makes me feel bad!

The problem stems from the fact that I don't think I really understand the true meaning of this gift. Without going into too much detail, some members of my family are going through a rough break-up at the moment and are presently trying to settle the matter out of court. It looks increasingly unlikely this will happen, yet my friend insists it will be settled - she 'knows' it.

Is prophecy really used on this scale though? It seems almost trivial. Would she know how things would turn out using this gift? I don't like to say it, but I am skeptical. I always believed that prophecy was to edifiy, strengthen and build in a spiritual way.......not to advise on day to day events?

Ack! I'm confused! Someone put me right! Is my understanding wrong or am I right to be skeptical?

Thank you,

Astral

Much advice you have received is good, but none has really touched the problem.
In Eph.4 11 Paul writes " it was He (Jesus) who gave some to be Apostles, some to be Prophets. some to be Evangelists and some tobe Pastors and Teachers. Often called the five fold ministry gifts, they are recognised as leadership gifts.
In 1 Cor. 14: 3, speaking of the Spiritual Gift of Prophecy (1 Cor. 12), which is given to believers as the Spirit wills, Paul writes "But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strenghtening, encouragement and comfort." Nothing about telling the future.
Unless the Church leadership recognises the mantle of prophecy on a person's life, they have a questionable right to call themselves a prophet.
Macca.

 

[charligirl]

What you are describing, that she 'knows' what is going to happen sometimes happens when I pray for stuff, you can't explain it but you just 'know' that it is a done deal as it were.

Perhaps I can explain further. We live in our bodies the physical world, but God is a spiritual; being and exists in a supernatural dimension, and we also exist there because we are spiritual beings too. This dimension is actually more real than the physical world, for example; God exisited, He spoke 'LiGHT BE' and there was light, so what happens in the 'spirit' dictates what happens in the natural realm.

When we pray we enter in to that supernatural dimension and connect with God, which is how prayer works, we pray according to God's will and leading and business gets done there and then..... we might not see the actual manifestation of that in the natural world for some time, hours, days , months or even years.

To give you an example, I was praying for a car, I knew God had told me to start praying for one and He had one planned for me, so I started, every day I would thank God for the car He had given me (even though I didn't have it physically yet) at first I confess I didn't 100% believe it would happen, but as I continued to pray over the months I started to get a certainty, a 'knowing' in my spirit that it was real. After about 4 months I got a call to say I was being given a new car!! So the car was 'there in the spirit' it was done and dusted, I just had to have the faith to pray it into my life. Faith being the substance of things we hope for and the evidence of things we cannot see(.....yet!)'

So perhaps your friend has been praying and just has that certainty in her gut that God has answered her prayer and is just waiting for that to manifest in the world we see.

Prophesy usually confirms what God is already saying and should ALWAYS be tested against God's word (the holy spirit cannot contradict himself ) It can be given as a personal word as in 'I feel the Lord says such and such' which should be tested. it can come as a corporate word in a prayer meeting where as someone is praying out loud they start to pray specific things such as 'The Lord is building this church, the people are coming in and being saved, we will specifically see XYZ coming in and I can sense that there are some on the fringes that are still deciding, well God we pray for them to make the right choice'


I hope that makes sense.

 

[seangoh]

The problem stems from the fact that I don't think I really understand the true meaning of this gift. Without going into too much detail, some members of my family are going through a rough break-up at the moment and are presently trying to settle the matter out of court. It looks increasingly unlikely this will happen, yet my friend insists it will be settled - she 'knows' it.

Is prophecy really used on this scale though? It seems almost trivial. Would she know how things would turn out using this gift? I don't like to say it, but I am skeptical. I always believed that prophecy was to edifiy, strengthen and build in a spiritual way.......not to advise on day to day events?

Ack! I'm confused! Someone put me right! Is my understanding wrong or am I right to be skeptical?

Thank you,

Astral

Hi Astral,
I don't know exactly your friend's situation...but i do know that for me, sometimes i do feel i can tell the future..(eg..whether it would rain or not.haha)..to me it's more of a feeling but i don't think i'll say for sure that this revelation of mine is from God. And sometimes i would tell myself with such faith that what i sense is absolutely going to happen..because you know, since i'm a christian, i gotta have faith right? So i feel that faith would be something wrongly applied in this situation of "feeling". Well, i feel this way so i'm sure some other christians would feel this way too. I hope you get what i mean..hehe.
It's essential to be skeptical when one's in the christian faith. After all, we are said to be sent like sheep in the midst of wolves (matt 10:16)..and paul advises Timothy "As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer" 1 Tim 1:3

Jesus says "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits" Matt 7:15,16.

So in the center of all these dangers, we should learn and adopt the attitude of the bereans. "Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Acts 17:11

Personally, i like to be a skeptic because it's rewarding to find the answers to questions i have. With those answers, my faith is strengthened more. You do have questions about the gift of tongues and prophecy and i urge you to find the answers to them by asking various ppl and consulting various material. The internet is a good resource too.

Finally, here's something i got from a commentary regarding Prophecy.

Prophecy. This is the power to speak authoritatively for God, or on God’s behalf, either by foretelling future events or by declaring God’s will for the present (see Ex. 3:10, 14, 15; Deut. 18:15, 18; 2 Sam. 23:2; Matt. 11:9, 10; 2 Peter 1:21). Prophecy is the means chosen by God to establish communication between Himself and man (see Num. 12:6; Amos 3:7). The whole Bible has come to men by means of this gift (see 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20, 21). Scriptures testify of Jesus, and the gift of prophecy is appropriately called the “testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 19:10; see John 5:39; Rev. 12:17). Visions, dreams, special divine illumination of mind, are ways in which this gift of prophecy works (see Num. 12:6; Rev. 1:1–3). Thus the human agent becomes the mouthpiece of God (see 2 Sam. 23:2; Matt. 3:3; 2 Peter 1:21). God intended that this important gift of the Spirit should be with His church to the end of time (see Joel 2:28, 29; Rev. 12:17; 19:10). In fact, it is to be a mark of identification of God’s true church in the last days (Rev. 12:17; 19:10). This is only reasonable, because God has been using this channel through which to reveal Himself and impart His messages to the world ever since the fall of Adam.

 

[Yitzchak]

This is a huge subject.
First of all there is a distinction made between a prophet and someone prophesing. One is an office and one is an exception. An analogy to make my point. I may perform activities which fall into the catagory of pastoring/discipling someone, that does not make me a pastor. I may teach a friend some things about the bible but that does not mean I hold the office of teacher. So the first thing is there is a difference bettween a christian getting prophetic insight into some things and being a prophet.
Second, there is overlap in the gifts and many times impricise defining of what is happening. Someone can get a word of knowledge or wisdom by the Spirit or they may get a prophetic word. Sometimes there is overlap, but many throw the term prophecy around loosely , which does not matter that much until people start pulling out scripture verses to judge the "prophecy" and are comparing apples and oranges.
I guess prophecy at it's most basic is just someone proclaiming a message from God to a person or persons. If your friend is hearing accurately from the Lord and communicating accurately that insight or knowledge , it can be a good thing. It certainly is biblical for people to do this. However in passsages such as 1 corinthians 14 it mentions these things happening in the context of community where mature christians are there to judge the word whether it is from the Lord or not. It is somewhat risky to make big decisions based on individual prophecy. Best to pray for some confirmation from the lord first if you find yourself ever leaning in that direction.
Anyway, it is good to keep an open heart to hearing from the lord and not limiting the method to only what we are comfortable with. It does not however mean that anything goes. Ask God to teach you and help you to learn. It is a process to learn to discern these things and most of us blow it sometimes...... But I would have missed a whole lot of good stuff from the Lord if I didn't have courage to go through that process.

 

[AngelDancer]

Quite frankly, I think it will be all answered as to whether she is a prophet or not by whether your family goes to court or not.

Simple!

Angeldancer

 

[AngelDancer]

Angeldancer

 

[Kehaar]

Thanks to all who replied!

Astral