The Gift of Prophecy...

Thank God so much for a wonderful MSN conversation earlier. A dear bro gave me some feedback, which I really appreciated a lot. Then we chatted a bit more, and we ended up talking about our callings. He shared that he wasn't sure, but had a gameplan on hand. It sounded fine, and it is a sensible plan... but at that moment in time, as I was listening to him share, a particular insight into this brother's situation came into my mind, and had this sense that God wanted me to speak this particular insight to this bro.

So I shared this insight with him, and he shared that he too thot so! And he said that this seems that God has been bringing to his attention recently during one of his quiet times.

Wow! thank God for the insight that He gave me. I'm sharing this, because I thought it would be good to record down and trace out how God gives a particular word of prophecy. Hee. Have been exercising it, ever since God confirmed through one of the pastors during altar call that day during the Global Conference that He has given me the gift of prophecy.

Anyway, this is strictly an impressionistic and experiential journal... so please don't draw any doctrinal conclusions from this entry! All spiritual experiences and conclusions are to be strictly, soundly and rigorously tested against the Scriptures!

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Haha. I guess I've always wondered how do prophets get their insights and so on? Well, the Bible mentions that there are false prophets who see visions of their own imaginations, as well as true prophets. So how do we know which ones are the true ones, and the 'pirated' ones?

The iron rule is: if what the prophet says comes true, that prophet is a true prophet. Otherwise not. And the Law went on to say, terminate the false prophet, because he is leading you astray!

What about New Testament times? Well, in the book of Acts, there are Christian prophets who have foretold future events, like the prophet Agabus who was sent to Paul to let him know what would happen to him in Jerusalem.

Anyway, from what I understand, we're still in the church age today, and yes, there is the office of the prophet, along with the offices of pastor, teachers, evangelist and so on. But there are the gifts of prophecy, pastoring, teaching, evangelism and so on. The gifts are separate from the offices. So it means a pastor can have the gift of prophecy, and a prophet can have the gift of pastor and so on. (Again, please correct me if I'm wrong! Thanks...)

So, about gift of prophecy... how does it look like?

Well, even as a young Christian, I realised I was able to sense whether a person wasn't doing well in his/her walk with the Lord, to the point of leaving church or falling away even. But I wasn't sure, so I just sat down and watched. And gosh, it really did turn out to be so. Even now, I have this sense of being able to sense when one's spirit is not right with God for whatever reasons... be it pride or dryness or disappointment or bitterness, etc. And I've realised that it doesn't matter whether the person is serving in a very high leadership position in church, or is simply a visitor.

And I've also been able to sense the opposite, when a person has a truly good spirit and heart for God, even tho external indicators might seem the opposite. E.g. the guy had to step down, the guy is struggling with some emotional issues or even sins... and yet, I sense strongly through the Spirit that the Lord sees the person's genuine heart of brokenness.

And to my surprise, what I sense spiritually is accurate. It's been very consistent over the years.

So I think it's like having a very sensitive radar. But I need to be walking very closely to God and ask His Holy Spirit to help me make sense of my readings correctly. Like, a radar operator thinking that big blog in the ocean is a killer submarine, but actually, it's just a killer whale. So from time to time, I sense correctly, but interpret wrongly. And I've come to learn that the interpretation needs to be given by the Holy Spirit himself, not the human interpretations of men. In order to know, I need to ask the Lord what He means by this particular sensing.

If i remember correctly, there are two types of "telling" in prophecy: fore-telling and forth-telling. Fore-telling is basically predicting future events before they happen. Forth-telling is proclaiming what is currently happening now, in order to help wake up the listeners' ideas... or open their eyes, or encourage and comfort the listeners. The prophets of the Old Testament did both.

I think the forth-telling part... I discovered something new today. That I can see a set of circumstances, and immediately, God gives me a clear view of what is actually happening in the big scale of things. Sort of like a God's-eye view of a battlefield... How do I arrive at these insights? I don't know, honestly! They just come... of course, sometimes they don't come clearly, so I need to sit down, fast and pray and wait upon God. Only then do I get a clearer sense of what He wants to say, and occasionally, He impresses on me HOW to say it. Hee. Like how God helped Nathan the prophet come up with a creative way to bring the hard truth of judgement to King David when he had committed adultery and murder.

Also, there are plenty of times a particular verse comes to mind. So I need to take time to pray through the verse, and ask God for His input. What is He trying to say to me here? Am I hearing Him correctly or is it just my mind speaking? And so on.

And well, could these "sensings" be due to natural human empathy? I wouldn't discount these, because I naturally have a high level of empathy. But perhaps God also works through the natural. But, yes, I definitely have received supernatural insights into situations that don't seem to be what they actually are. So have to do forth-telling lor. Scary actually. But that's the life of a prophet... sometimes he/she has to be the bearer of bad news.

And for fore-telling? Well, there are particular times I receive a strong sense that God says something. Recently, I was fasting and praying for my DMM, when God gave me a particular word of prophecy for one of the sisters. So I shared this with the sister, that God said that this will come to pass. Actually, I really was going out on a limb, 'cos I didn't have any reasonable basis upon which to tell that sister. But... a few days later, this sister replied back to me, and told me that God had shown her that the prophecy had come true!

I was stunned, but very encouraged. Haha... so thank God for His grace to me, that He allows an unworthy fellow like me to experience His wonderful power so real! :)

So yah, think these are some ways how I see the gift of prophecy being manifested in my life. But no matter how impressive the gift of prophecy may seem, or how important it may be... the gift of prophecy will fade away. It is possible for me to prophesy without love in my heart. After all, Jesus warned that there will be those who try to say to Him, "Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and perform many miracles?" But His reply to them would be: "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

So I really tremble, because I know that without love in my heart, the gift of prophecy is nothing, and I'll only be a hollow vessel, a clanging gong. That's why it is so crucial that I walk closely with God every day...