As promised this is a follow up to the first post on cultivating a PROPHETIC culture within a Church plant but also as an ongoing practice within more established churches. At CityLight Church Toronto we are constantly contending for a fresh expression of God. Meaning that we believe God still speaks today through the spiritual gift of Prophecy. This conviction is firstly founded on scripture (1 Cor 12,14:1,25,31,39) Secondly it’s reinforced by our personal encounters with the gift of prophecy and lastly it’s further aided by our mix of life and faith with the wider body of Christ.

I am a big advocate of not re-inventing the wheel and giving credit where it is due. The principle found in 2 Timothy 2:2 teaches us that the things we first heard when we were being discipled in various disciplines of the Christian faith that these were to be passed onto others. In the light of this I pass on the second article that I made reference to in the first part of this blog series. The article was written by David Devenish in 2001. I believe it’s a very solid and practical approach to helping churches cultivate the gift of prophecy.

PROPHETICALLY SPEAKING
David Devenish
New Frontiers InternationaI Magazine
Winter 2001

‘The gift of prophecy is the special ability that God gives to members of the body of Christ to receive and communicate an immediate message of God … through a divinely anointed utterance.

From the pages of the New Testament it is quite evident that prophesying in our gatherings, both large and small, is very important. According to 1 Corinthians 14v1, we should earnestly seek all the gifts, but we should in particular seek the gift of prophecy. Prophecy in our gatherings is also intended to have an impact on those coming in as unbelievers. If everybody is prophesying then the unbeliever is likely to be convicted of sin and to exclaim that ‘God is really among you!’ (1 Cor 14v25). Furthermore, it doesn’t seem to be something for the special few because Paul makes it clear we can all prophesy in turn (1Cor 14v31).
He concludes the chapter by stressing the same things, saying, ‘Be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues’ (1 Cor 14v39).

A particular characteristic of the age of the Holy Spirit (from the day of Pentecost until the second coming of Christ) is that there should be an abundance of the prophetic. In looking forward to this, Joel prophesied about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The evidence of this would be that ‘Your sons and daughters will prophesy’ (Joel 2v28). In other words, the role of prophesying was not limited to a few special prophets; it was something that would be demonstrated widely amongst God’s people. On the day of Pentecost Peter quoted Joel’s prophecy, saying that this age of the Spirit had now dawned. Paul told the church in Thessalonica that they must not treat prophecies with contempt (1 Thess 5v20). It seems that whereas the church in Corinth perhaps went ‘over the top’ by not handling the spiritual gifts in an orderly way, the church of Thessalonica was in danger of despising the prophetic and putting out the Holy Spirit’s fire. In reality, even in the charismatic movement, we are probably more in danger of the mistakes of the Thessalonians rather than the mistakes of Corinth.

WHAT IS PROPHESYING?
So what is prophesying? The gift of prophecy is the special ability that God gives to members of the body of Christ to receive and communicate an immediate message of God to His gathered people, a group among them, or any one of His people individually, through a divinely anointed utterance. It is essentially a sense of the immediacy of God’s presence demonstrated in His speaking to us. It is not a prepared talk explaining what the Scripture means, as some would say – that is teaching. However, it is still consistent with God’s revealed word completed in Scripture.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF PROPHESYING
There are different aspects of the prophectic gift referred to in the New Testament. All these aspects need to be reflected in our gatherings.

It is a general characteristic of prophesying that God is speaking to us for our strengthening, encouragement and comfort. Many words we get in our gatherings obviously have that effect. Some may be brief, some longer and more involved, but all should have an uplifting effect upon God’s people. Even if a prophetic word comes with a corrective aspect to it, it must clearly be seen in the context of strengthening and encouraging the church.

There are individual prophetic words. Agabus brought such a word to Paul in Acts 21v11. Not only did he bring a very specific individual word, but he acted out the word so bringing it into very clear focus. I have experienced on a number of occasions when a dramatic presentation of the word, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, has really helped in terms of making vivid what God is saying. However, I believe this is still the exception rather than the rule because otherwise it could just become yet another method and lose its impact. Sometimes individual prophetic words bring an impartation of a gift of the Holy Spirit. Paul refers to such a prophetic word when the elders laid hands on Timothy (1 Tim 4v14).
Some prophetic words are predictive. In Acts 11v27030, Agabus predicted that there would be a famine. It is very important to note the response of the Antioch church. They did not say, ‘Well let’s hold that and wait and see what happens’. They acted upon the prophetic word and as a result funds were available to help the poor Judean churches when the famine actually came.
Prophetic words may give clear direction to the church. In Acts 13 at Antioch, the Holy Spirit spoke to the effect that Barnabas and Saul needed now to be set apart for the work to which they had already been called. It is noteworthy that this word came in a leadership context. I will be coming back to that later in the article.
It is also anticipated that prophetic words will sometimes bring genuine conviction of sin. This is often linked with what we call the ‘word of knowledge’. I believe that the ‘word of knowledge’ is an important weapon in the prophetic armoury. When the woman in John 4 heard Jesus say that she had had seven husbands and was now living with another man, the woman replied to the effect that she discerned that Jesus was a prophet (John 4v19). I believe it was almost certainly these sorts of prophetic word which were occurring in Corinth, which would have caused unbelievers to be convicted of sin. A few years ago in one of our churches in Bedford, somebody tentatively came to the front and shared what seemed an unusual prophetic word. It was simply two words: ‘shoplifting’ and ‘Woolworths’. It turned out that there was somebody present who was not a usual member of the congregation but had indeed been guilty of shoplifting in Woolworths. (Chain store in South Africa)

HOW SHOULD WE BRING THESE WORDS?
Normally, I encourage people just to bring words at an appropriate time during the meeting. In smaller churches, just bring them from where you are seated. In larger churches it may be appropriate to have an extra microphone at the front to which people can come and share the prophetic word. A microphone aids hearing it doesn’t give prophecy additional authority! I personally do not encourage the practice whereby every word has first to be vetted by the elder presiding in the meeting. In effect this makes one elder the sole judge of the prophetic words and does not seem to capture the ‘body ministry’ atmosphere of the New Testament. I think it is better to listen to the word and then test it. There would of course be exceptions to this. Somebody may not be very confident or may be new to this ministry and prefer to have such encouragement before bringing a prophecy. Furthermore, if the word is very directional in terms of the life of the church, or of that particular meeting, then it would be sensible to speak to the meeting leader first. However, we should avoid the formality of ‘platform’ and do everything possible to encourage the sense of family and body ministry.

WEIGHING AND TESTING
What about weighing and testing? This is obviously something that Paul encouraged us to do with prophetic words. The New Testament suggests that this should be done after two or three prophetic words. I would not want to be legalistic about this but it is helpful to summarise what we believe God is saying in a meeting after a few prophetic words have been given, otherwise we can lose track and their effect can be lost. The idea of weighing, I believe, not only means testing (1 Thess 5v21) but also giving weight to the word that has come. Sometimes the weighing may take place by asking people to respond to the word. If the word is in any way directional to the life of the church, then the elders may say that they will consider the word and also invite others to pray about it and to let the elders know if they have anything they feel God is saying about it. It is very important then that elders give feedback to the church where there has been a significant directional word.

HOW DO WE WEIGH?
It is obviously important that we weigh prophetic words in accordance with Scripture. What God may be saying now will never contradict Scripture. In Acts 15 James summarised what God was saying to that meeting by reference to a Scriptural promise in the book of Amos.

Prophecy will be Christ-honouring. ‘The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy’ (Rev 19v10). We also need to test the attitude of the person bringing the prophetic word. Whatever is said can have three origins. It can be human, demonic or of God. Sometimes there can be a strong human element in prophesying which needs to be sifted. For example, somebody may feel very strongly about a particular subject; they may be quite right to feel strongly about it. However, this does not justify ‘prophesying’ about it. It may just be better to say that we feel strongly about it. Only very rarely have I heard prophetic words that seem demonic in origin because of the content or the heaviness they can bring into a meeting. Here we do need to be responsible and say that we believe that contribution is not of God. It may even be appropriate to stop the person mid-flow.

It is important to say that condemnation is not of God. We need to distinguish between conviction of sin, which is specific and which requires repentance, and general condemnation. Sometimes there can be a misunderstanding of Old Testament prophets and the way they brought messages in an attempt to justify condemnatory prophesying today. We are living in a New Testament era when, praise God, ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Rom 8v1). Furthermore, the Old Testament prophets spoke about specific sins and brought clear conviction. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. They did not bring simply ‘blanket condemnation’.

If prophecy is predictive or directive, we do need to look for confirmatory prophecies. God may speak more than once and such prophecies will usually be confirmed over time by others. It may be helpful to say this in a meeting. If I am bringing something particularly directional to an individual or to a church, I ask God for a ‘word of knowledge’ component to my prophesying. I once received a prophecy to the effect that somebody was to be an evangelist. However, because this was so directional in his life, I asked God for a word of knowledge. I immediately sensed from God that this person had been beaten up recently. This word of knowledge raised faith for the directional prophecy because the facts were true. With predictive prophecy, however, we must remember the ‘implied condition’ of most prophesying. We may hear words about amazing things for which we shall be used in the future. However, if we do not continue to live godly lives and perhaps train for what God has for us, then we should not be surprised if they are not fulfilled.

We also need to recognise that some people who have remarkable insights and an established prophetic gift can sometimes be wrong. We must not accord to any person in our current age the status of infallible prophet.

It may be helpful to say another word about individual prophecies. Often these are given in ‘ministry times’ following meetings and may therefore be given ‘one to one’. Personally, I discourage ‘one to one’ prophesying. The reason for this is that because all prophecy needs to be weighed and tested, it is important that there are those present who are able to weigh and test the words. I usually like to bring individual words in a public setting so that they can be tested. This may be a bit daunting to somebody who has had less experience in bringing individual prophetic words. However, under these circumstances the importance of testing is even more relevant. When bringing an individual prophecy it is helpful to ask one or two others to be present when the word is given. I do not mean people selected at random because they may not have the maturity to test the prophecy. Ideally, those called to test the word should have a degree of authority in the local church and know the circumstance of the person receiving the prophecy.

GETTING STARTED
You may be saying, ‘This is all very well, but how do I start prophesying?’ First of all, let me encourage all of you to have faith for it. Paul said, ‘I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy’ (1 Cor 12v5). The vast majority of you who have been baptised in the Holy Spirit will have no problem with faith for speaking in tongues. This same faith is available for us to prophesy.

Let me be very practical. Here I am not giving explicit biblical teaching but some practical hints that may help you. When you first prophesy, you may feel you have heard something from God and start to ponder it. Often this can be accompanied by natural sensations such as a nervous stomach, or clammy hands. You are getting nervous because God is speaking to you and something may be required of you. Sometimes there is the sense of the hand of God upon us compelling us forward. It is often helpful to ask God for confirmation. Sometimes you will find a clear reference to what you believe God is speaking to you in somebody else’s prayer or a reference in a song that is subsequently sung. Take that as encouragement. Also ask God to clarify the word in your mind. You may have received a picture so ask God to clarify it and give its interpretation. A prophetic picture does not then just fade away or get confusing. It becomes clearer and usually God gives some interpretation.

Sometimes somebody else brings the word you were going to bring. You could at this point get negative and feel that you have missed God. I would rather you saw it as an encouragement. It is God confirming that you are beginning to learn to hear his voice.

There are different ways in bringing prophecy and we need to be sensitive to the promptings of God in this as well. Sometimes we speak out the picture because that will help people understand what God is saying, and then we explain it. Sometimes we simply speak out words of interpretation even though we may have seen a picture. Sometimes it is helpful, as we have said above, to accompany our word by actions. We may be in a one-to-one situation, perhaps counselling, when the prophetic word is not to be given in the form of a prophecy but to encourage us to ask relevant questions.

It is very important to learn to obey the promptings of God. Sometimes this can be very risky. However, it develops our ability to hear the Shepherd’s voice.
There are other matters to consider as we start bringing prophecy. The Bible says that we prophesy ‘in part’. This means that parts may be right and parts not. We need encouragement but we also need correction as to the way in which we brought the word, what was said, whether it was said at the right time, or whatever. If we cannot receive correction then we cannot really operate in the prophetic.

Do be careful about such things as manipulation. We can sometimes try and change circumstances or somebody’s mind by speaking in the form of prophecy when we are really just expressing an opinion. Also we need to be very careful with time predictions. Because the prophet ‘sees’ the word in the present then he or she may be way out as far as dates are concerned. Also, we must rule out prophecies regarding who should marry whom and be very careful about bringing prophecies in emotional circumstances such as terminal illness. If you do receive a word about someone’s healing then this should encourage you to pray more fervently. It is not usually right to share something like this in traumatic circumstances.

Prophetic ministry is a vital part of the life of a healthy church. It is essential that we make room for the Holy Spirit to speak to us in this way, applying the appropriate biblically-stated safeguards to ensure authenticity.’

Strength and Honour

Anthony Dube