Gift of Prophecy

Prophecy, in some ways, gets a bad rap. When many people think of prophets (those with the gift of prophecy), they think of false prophets. They think of those foretelling prophets whose prophecies have not come to pass--Jim Jones, Harold Camping, David Koresh, and Jack Van Impe, to name a few.

While it is my belief that God still can and will use prophets to foretell future events as He will, (after all, He's God and He can do what He wants, right?) this morning, we talked about the gift of prophecy, focusing on the forth-telling part of prophecy. Forth-telling we defined as "the ability to declare truth boldly on God's behalf."

We have prophets among us, and maybe you are one. You may know that you are in the presence of one with the spiritual gift of prophecy when they consistently speak truth to those around them, bringing correction and conviction with an intent to restore.

Prophets can be seen as harsh, and in truth they most of the time have to seek the Lord's strength in developing the "soft side of love." Prophets can be seen as critical, especially by those who come under their correction. Prophets can be seen as black and white and we have to weigh what they say against the truth of God's word, for in truth there are lots of gray areas in God's word.

A proper response to a prophet is to turn to God's word and seek the Lord to see if what is spoken to you is true. A man whose heart is filled with pride and arrogance may have a difficult time hearing truth in correction that is directed at him. But God calls us to humble ourselves and seek whether a prophet is pointing out something that He wants to change in us. We must learn to receive it as love from Father God.

Thoughts?