Prophesy or Profi-lie?
“Then I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brothers and sisters who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'”
— Revelation 19:10
Warm Up
- What is prophecy? How does this word make you feel?
Lessons
Video coming soon
“Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.”
— 1 Corinthians 14:1Prophecy is one of those spiritual terms that may be more of a mystery than a reality in your life. Most likely because some of the church has shied away from teaching prophecy as a new covenant practice. The gift and calling of prophecy is just as active under the new covenant as it was under the old. Though, the context and purpose has changed due to the atonement of Christ.
Prophecy is the supernatural act of receiving information from the Holy Spirit and proclaiming that message at the right time to the intended listener.
Prophecy can be delivered in a variety of communication vehicles. All of them can be useful to minister to the good news to the people you meet. Here are a few: {{foretelling|Prophecy that predicts a future event to warn or prepare people}}, {{forthtelling|Prophecy that makes public God's plans so they can be carried out}}, dreams, visions and interpretation. In this session, you will exercise your prophetic gift in a safe place. Our goal is to give you opportunities to take a step that will change the way you look at evangelism forever. Will you take this gift of prophecy with you into the world?
1 Corinthians 14:1 says 'Pursue love: yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts...' Earnestly desire is the Greek word {{zeloo|Greek for earnestly desire; to be zealous or jealous for something}}. It could be translated as 'be zealous for' or 'feign for'. It literally means to be jealous. In other words, let love be your highest goal and in the process be jealous to possess spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.
I want you to be rooted and grounded in the love of God and salivate over the idea of hearing God and being his mouthpiece to broken people in desperate need of His love. In fact your mouth should be watering right now at the mention of spiritual gifts.
“Anyone who speaks in other languages builds up only themselves. But the person who prophesies builds up the church. I would like all of you to speak in other languages. But I would rather have you prophesy. The person who prophesies is more helpful than those who speak in other languages. But that is not the case if someone explains what was said in the other languages. Then the whole church can be built up.”
— 1 Corinthians 14:4-5 NASBDoes your mouth 'water' at the idea of spiritual gifts? Or does this topic make you nervous? Why?