Do You Really Know Prophecy? (MINISODE)

Today, I share some profound insights I gained during a sermon at my church in December 2024. In this episode, I open up hugely. Enjoy! 

Listen to Jonnie T’s past episode about Prophecy:
https://www.honestchristianconversations.com/a-rebuttal-to-the-end-of-sign-gifts/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Reconsidering the Idea of Prophecy
• 15:48 Embracing Spiritual Gifts Today

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey friends, in this mini-sode I wanted to reflect on the idea of prophecy. For those who haven't listened to the episode I did with my friend Johnny T, the host of Refuge Freedom Stories, on Prophecy, please go back and listen to it before you continue with this one. It will give context for what I plan to discuss here. The link is in the show notes For those who are sticking around. Let's get to it. Johnny T and I talked about the topic of prophecy and, as it was probably evident from the episode I did with Pastor Chad Wagner the week before, I wasn't open to the idea that this gift was still around. I will be honest and share that even after Johnny and I were done recording this episode, although Johnny gave me some great thinking points to mull over, I still wasn't sure what I thought about prophecy and if I believed people still had the gift of it. For context, johnny T and I recorded that episode on prophecy a few months before December 2024. With that said, starting in December of 2024, my church was set to start talking about the topic of prophecy, and boy did my eyes roll when I found this out. See, in my mind I only thought of prophecy as the people who try to claim they know when the end of the world is, who the Antichrist is, claim that they can get rid of storms, or claim they know how the elections are going to go. This is the only form of prophecy I had ever known or been told about. So naturally, when I heard our church would discuss this topic, why wouldn't my eyes roll? I was still unsure whether I believed in prophecy and was convinced that biblical-style prophecy was finished with the book of Revelation. Friends, god is so good, he never gives up teaching us if we have hearts willing to learn, which I do.

Speaker 1: 2:07

In the second week of the series, we had a guest pastor, my friend and our church's former associate, pastor Curtis Thompson, on stage to preach that week. He is a wonderful man of God and his preaching style has always resonated with me. Don't get me wrong. God speaks to me plenty through every pastor on that stage, but there was always something special about how Pastor Curtis's preaching style either convicted or enlightened me. Anyway, I was intrigued to hear what God would say through him. I was not disappointed. God blew the lid off what I believed about prophecy and I loved every minute of it.

Speaker 1: 2:51

So much information was said, but I wanted to share the key points he touched on so you can better understand what I mean. Prophecy is God speaking to people through people. That was what he started with. That alone changed my thoughts on the idea of prophecy. But wait, there's more. Biblical prophecy is not predicting the future. So for all of those out there who think they know when the end of the world is, you're wrong. Only God knows that. Not even Jesus knows. So you can stop right now. Point two God wants to interact with his people.

Speaker 1: 3:33

He said Joshua was a prophet. I wasn't sure how to take that, but he sent us to Joshua 1, 1 through 2. So I'm going to read that now. After the death of Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua, son of Nun, moses' assistant. He said Moses, my servant, is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them Now. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who's just read that before and said oh okay, so he called Joshua to fulfill what Moses didn't fulfill.

Speaker 1: 4:15

But after hearing that Joshua was a prophet, that statement that I just read brings on a whole new meaning for me. I don't know about you, but for me my mindset shifted. He was called Prophets and apostles were called right, isn't that what we are told? So if he was called, then he must have been a prophet. So I don't know why it took me so long to figure that out, but if this is an epiphany moment for you too, welcome to the club, because it was for me, all right.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Another thing he said was a priest represents the people before God and prophets represent God before the people. That was another profound statement, and he has verses to go with that. But before I get into those verses, that just hit me in a different way. A priest represents the people before God and prophets represent God before the people. They both had their parts to play and they were both called by God to do a certain thing, for whatever the purpose was, the priest was there to represent who God is in flesh is what I think that means and a prophet represents God to the people. The prophet is there to speak on God's behalf to the people, what they need to hear. It's a very profound statement, and he followed it up with some verses, which I'm going to read.

Speaker 1: 5:51

The first one you'll probably recognize if you did listen to the episode with Johnny T on prophecy, because he also quoted this verse and it gets quoted a lot by people who claim to be prophets in the ministries and they're talking about prophecy and all that stuff. So this is a very familiar verse and once I say it you'll probably recognize it immediately. It's Joel 2, 28 through 30. Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit on even servants, men and women alike.

Speaker 1: 6:44

No-transcript. So I'll be honest, and I will be vulnerable and transparent, that I don't fully understand if this is talking about the actual end times when Jesus comes back, or if it's just talking about after Jesus came to earth, died on the cross and ascended to heaven. And then that's when all this was going to happen. Because if you look at Acts which is the next verse we're going to go to is Acts 2.16, they prophesied, they spoke in tongues and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. So perhaps it's the latter that it's referring to, but I mean, this whole idea of prophecy is still something that I really need to dive into more, but this sermon was very helpful in jump-starting me into realizing my position might have been wrong and very narrow-minded.

Speaker 1: 7:46

So before we go on to any more points, I want to share Acts 2.16, because that was another one he had referenced. Under the point a priest represents the people before God and prophets represent God before the people. It says no, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel, and in Acts it repeats what we just read in Joel 2, 28 through 30. And it talks about how your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will see visions and dreams and pour out my spirit even on the servants. I mean, it's talking about prophecy in the Old and the New Testaments. So that kind of gave me pause in the middle of the sermon to reflect on and realize maybe I was thinking too little of the idea of prophecy and maybe it is something that I still need to focus on.

Speaker 1: 8:48

So then he has one more verse in this section. It's Hebrews 4.16. Let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. So we should be bold in our commitment to Christ. We shouldn't be timid Christians, we shouldn't be afraid to step on the toes of the enemy. We should be bold and realize that we have a role to play, and perhaps prophecy is part of that role.

Speaker 1: 9:24

And perhaps what I learned is that I should be thinking more about what is actual prophecy, because I'm I might have it wrong. That that was the continuing thought I had during this whole sermon is that perhaps my idea of prophecy is wrong. And this is where it gets amazing. And my mind was just blown and I can't even put it into words because just thinking about it, I realize how good God is, that he doesn't give up on us when we think we know what we know, but we don't actually know what we know. We don't know God, we don't have a handle on him the way we think we do. And he just blew my mind again and showed me a different side of who he is and what he's called us to do. So now Pastor Curtis's last point was it's our turn, and he had us turn to 1 Corinthians, 14, 1 through 3. So that's what I'm going to read now.

Speaker 1: 10:32

Let love be your highest goal, but you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives, especially the ability to prophesy. For if you have the ability to speak in tongues, you will be talking only to God, since people won't be able to understand you. You will be speaking by the power of the Spirit, but it will all be mysterious. But one who prophesies strengthens others, encourages them and comforts them. How did I not read this with clear thinking before? This is what happens, ladies and gentlemen. When we think we know everything about the Bible because we've read it over and over again or because we were told by this person or that person or this church or that church, this is what happens. Is we miss things that God is trying to tell us?

Speaker 1: 11:28

I have read that many times, because I've read through the Bible several times in my life. I have read certain verses that talked about prophecy, that talked about speaking in tongues, all that stuff. But because I grew up in a mindset of those things were of the past or those things are for only the charismatics, I just dismissed the ideas as anything that I could be doing or should be doing. But you heard it. It said desire, prophecy above all those. Why would it say that? If one, it was something that wasn't still around. And two, if we weren't supposed to care about it or not, everyone was supposed to have it. How are we supposed to desire something that we all can't have? You know, some people have the gift of prophecy it says in some chapters but how are we supposed to desire something we all don't have a chance to have? I don't. There's so many things, so many things, that I'm still learning about this topic.

Speaker 1: 12:33

But he did give us three different ways that people can prophesy, and this helped me immensely to understand that I have actually been prophesying all along. And that was very encouraging to me is that, even though I was dismissing this as something that isn't possible, god was still using me to do it. He is so good I can't even. So these were the three ways that he talked about that we can prophesy encourage, edify, build up or call to repent and sharing the gospel. I encourage a lot. I don't anyone who's listening. If you feel that I have encouraged you, please message me and let me know, because I love to encourage people. I love to uplift them when they are feeling low. I love to point out the good things that they are doing or who they are, their personalities. I just I love doing that, and to find out that that was one of the ways that you can prophesy to someone really comforted my heart and I really felt like God was just hugging me and saying see, there's more, you still have more to learn and I was thankful that he did that for me. And edifying, building up, calling to repent, that's what this whole podcast is about. That is what I'm trying to do and I've been doing it all this time and I didn't think it was a form of prophecy.

Speaker 1: 14:02

And then sharing the gospel. I mean, we are called to share the gospel. Everyone is called to share the gospel, so therefore, we are all called to prophesy to the world that they need a savior. That is the highest form of prophecy, I would think, is to share the gospel with everybody. If you look at biblical prophecy, it was calling people to repentance. Again, remember what Johnny T and I were talking about in our episode on prophecy. We mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah and we mentioned Nineveh. They were called to repentance. That is biblical prophecy. They were edified, called to repent and the gospel needed to be shared. The gospel may not have been shared in the way that it's shared now, because Jesus didn't die on the cross back then, but they got to see the gospel played out because, well, one of them did Sodom and Gomorrah they missed the boat and they were destroyed. But Nineveh got to see what happens when you repent and you get the gospel, the good news you did not perish, your city was not destroyed because you chose to edify, you chose to repent and, yes, maybe Jonah was the worst prophet ever because he did it begrudgingly and was angry that God didn't destroy them, but he still did what he was supposed to and because of that, a whole city was saved. So this whole service.

Speaker 1: 15:39

I was praising God and I immediately knew that I was going to need to record this mini-sode because I wanted to share my heart with you guys.

Speaker 1: 15:48

I wanted you to know that if you're on the fence about the idea of the spiritual gifts and maybe they aren't still around that you aren't alone in thinking that, but you need to go to God and you need to ask him to help you discern. Have his Holy Spirit discern for you in whatever way possible to show you that maybe we are thinking too little about God and what he could possibly do in our lives. This was a major gift to me from God that I don't know everything and that I still have so much to learn about who he is, about his spirit and what he can and cannot do, and I am so thankful that God never gives up when we hunger for truth. So if you are hungering for truth, don't give up the search for it. Ask the Holy Spirit to help guide you to the right direction. I hope I've encouraged you. Let me know what you think about all this. Have a wonderful day and God bless.