This post is part of my Myth-Busting blog series.
As I mentioned in “My (Real) Prophecy for 2019,” many people in Pentecostal-Charismatic circles define the spiritual gift of prophecy too narrowly. When they say someone “prophesied over” them, they usually mean that someone told them something about their future. This shows that they likely belief the myth that prophecy is only about the future.
More than the Future
While prophecy might refer to the future (Acts 21:10–11), it can refer to much more. In fact, when prophecy is mentioned in Romans and 1 Corinthians, Paul doesn’t mention any predictive element.
Furthermore, when we look at the content of prophecy in the Old Testament, we find that prophecies were generally more concerned with contemporary events than with the future. Their message was usually something like, “Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices” (Zechariah 1:4).
Prophecy, then, can also occur when someone speaks up when they see a problem of sin. Moreover, Paul added that prophecy takes place when “the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort” (1 Corinthians 14:3).
Everyday Prophecy
I once had a student sitting in my office, slouched over on a chair. He was feeling worthless and insecure about his abilities as a student, though I could see he was doing good work. I could tell by the marks on his arms that his depression had plagued him previously in life.
As I spoke with him I encouraged him and reminded him of his identity as a child of God and as someone who is made in the image of God. I did not shake or speak in a strange voice, which many people seem to think is a necessary marker of prophecy.
I never told the student I was prophesying. Yet when the student left, I was certain God had used me to prophesy to him. I had a sense of the Spirit’s presence, and I knew the words I shared were not something I had come up with on my own.
Not Just Sermons
Some people suggest that prophecy is nothing more than the preaching of the Word of God. While I affirm that prophecy might take place as someone preaches, my previous story illustrates that prophecy isn’t limited to a church service, just like the gift of healing and other gifts aren’t limited to church services.
Furthermore, Paul’s description of prophecy indicates that prophecy isn’t only the result of a pastor studying and preparing a sermon, but it can include some sense of spontaneity, for Paul speaks of prophecy happening after “a revelation comes to someone” from God (1 Corinthians 14:30).
Prophecy is not always about the future. And like the other gifts of the Spirit, it might not always appear so dramatic and spectacular. That’s no myth.
Question: What are other ways that people sometimes misrepresent the nature of prophecy? Leave a comment below by clicking here.
*This is an edited excerpt from, Simply Spirit-Filled: Experiencing God in the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit, by Dr. Andrew K. Gabriel, © 2019 by Emanate Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson.
Read Chapter 1 or Order Simply Spirit-Filled
Andrew K. Gabriel, Ph.D., is the author of Simply Spirit-Filled: Experiencing God in the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit as well as three academic books, including The Lord is the Spirit. He is a theology professor at Horizon College and Seminary and serves on the Theological Study Commission for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. You can follow him on Facebook or on Twitter.
Hi Andrew,
As I read your blog I was very encouraged by your story that encouraged a student to step into what God had for them, to be encouraged out of the depths of depression and perhaps oppression as well. I found it interesting in my studies that Barnabas who is known as the encourager, his name also means Son of the prophet; or of consolation.
I wondered if a word of encouragement can be considered prophetic, as prophetic words can also be encouraging. Does a prophetic word have the element of the mysteries of God? Things that are not known by our own understanding but revealed by God’s Spirit? I have often moved toward this understanding in the prophetic, that God reveals without our knowing. Would then words that are spoken about what we know be words of encouragement, or gift of counsel and exhortation? Are there different levels and categories of prophetic words then? “Everyday” prophecy for example? Just a thought….
I think we are thinking along the same lines. We often try to make sharp distinctions between spiritual gifts, but there can be overlap. For example, healing can be a miracle, and both are gifts. The important thing, in either case, is that we can praise God that the Spirit is at work.
And yes, I think there are different kinds of prophecies.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Prophesy is from God Father by Son to us to be saved by belief to his love and mercy revealed to us by Son’s one time reconciliation death for us each and all to be offered new life in us, which is the risen Christ leading us in Father’s Spirit and Truth.
Encouraging from day one, when the fall of Adam happened. God had mercy on them and clothed them, sacrificing an animal then for them to still live, for a short while, to see what in truth they need!
And we all have been going on ever since, by women getting pregnant, Yet sex has become bad. When in truth it is not bad, just can be and has been many a times ever since.
However reading the Bible has informed me, that God just loves me and all people whether sinned or not against him.
Does this mean to continue in sin, God Forbid!, yet man does not see and thinks he has to do to be in with Father and Son, usually not mentioning Father of Jesus as now our Father too, in his resurrection for us where new life gerts installed to us, by Father, no other, Jesus’s Job was for us in his flesh and blood, the only perfect flesh and blood it ever have walked this earth today.
MERCY, has been from the beginning, and has not stopped, even when those see as has in causing and taking people away.
NOT!!!!!
Man does this to himself and others, that is what happened in the beginning, Adam in unbelief to death would be, ate from that tree after he saw Eve not die right away. So he ate too, and this brought death to all flesh.
As all flesh to this day dies, born first alive in flesh and blood, physically but dead to God Father of risen Son Spiritually.
Mercy has been from God and has not ever changed, nor ever will
I also want to say to you Brother, Thank you for listening in Spirit and Truth of Father’s love for you through Son’s done work for you to walk new in, as I know I do not always do, but learning to as Paul himself tells us in Phil 3:1-20, in verse 12, not that I have gained.
I hear when I think I have, I get buffeted as told about that in 2 Cor:12:7-10
Simple words I heard after my oldest Brother died here on earth, went home to Father and Son forever safe in those two as won for us
Amazing how he knew he was going to die, He told my older sister on the phone before he left here and died on Campus Crusade for Christ in 1978
His words to here were
” God just loves Me”
That was his Epiphany, that hit me in 2012, where I started a blog,
called
“God just Love you”
It hit me, God just loves us all, period, and until that hit me, I could not see clear at all in being religious prior
Start right there, and Father reveals truth over error, and will be the teacher in everything we hear from others and inside our selves where Satan and his cohorts are good at planning thoughts
Get saved in belief, Son is risen for thee. after his one time death took care of all sin in his, ours now Father’s sight.
For Father did not come to earth prior to live in and through us in risen Son until his being risen as proof of this, now sanctified for us to stand in, even whenever troubles come up.
That is what is walking by Faith, Christ’s Faith that Father gives free and not made up by people as I know in past I did and have bad habits still being waxed away, as I see these bad habits, I understand what Paul meant by glorying in his iniquities \\
He needs Father and Son as Won (One) for him as I see that to be what everyone needs, yet each needs to see 5this for themselves to stand in belief too even as Job did in the book of Job, who saw the day of Christ coming in stating this in Job 19:25, that is what he stood in dependence on, even as all the Prophets as well, when God did not live inside them then, Just visited. For them to see what they can’t do
Gal 2:20-21 and Acts 17:28 tell me this truth, but I had to go to work hard to find the rest Father in Son and Son in Father has offered
Hebrews 4:9-13
Thank you, Howard, for sharing about God’s love.
You as well, as I learn from others and share what might have learned as well, not stating I am right, only God is right
We are blessed to have a stewardship top where I see to take no credit in, even though this flesh would love it and does, yet is dead to me, as I do not always remember that. I am so elated I get buffeted whenever I think I know as Paul talked of in 2 Cor 12:7-10
A number of years ago, i was teaching a series on the gifts of the Spirit. I had an excellent rapport with the local baptist pastor. I would attend his bible study and he would come to mine. I had already been teaching that the gifts are for everyone and that prophecy was not just predictive or personal in nature. Prophetic words are words spiken at just the right time to address a specific issue. A couple were attending the study. I was the only one privy to a situation in their life and marriage. As we concluded the bible study, the baptisr pastor ( and cessasionist), prayed a prayer over this couple that spoke directly to thier situation. When the couple asked the pastor if i had spoken with me, and he said no they understood God was speaking a prophetic word of edification and comfort. Funny thing the baptist pastor still does not believe in spiritual gifts.