The Bible says all believers can prophecy; and some function in the 'office of a prophet' with a strong revelatory gift. It is a great gift to build in other people, and we should be passionate to stir up this gift. There however definite boundaries, guidelines, do's and don't's that we should be aware of, and definite steps to follow to get us going.
Good morning to those who are watching on the internet or looking at it through a DVD. We're so glad you could be a part of what we're doing, and I encourage you as we do activations that if you're with a group watching this in a room, you practice these same activations and interact with one another to see how it went. So let's get started.
Today we'll look at the gift of prophecy and we're going to pick up in a section in your notes under 12, so first of all what is prophecy, the gifts of the spirit? Remember we saw different gifts of the spirit? Go back to it and look at it in 1 Corinthians 12 and Verse 7. See if we can find it in our Bible, 1 Corinthians 12 and Verse 7. It says this - let's go back to where we were yesterday - the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit others. So God's desire is you build other people, and the gifts are given to help you do it, so it's God's plan we all build up people, and the gifts of the spirit are a help to do that. So we saw a list of the gifts of the spirit, to one by the spirit, the word of wisdom, another word of knowledge by the same spirit, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophesy, discerning spirits, diverse tongues and interpretations. In all these works the one and self same spirit dividing to everyone severally, so God's willing not only to let you operate in one gift. He will let you operate in any of the gifts. It's quite amazing.
Severally means several, it means more than one, so all of us, it's God's plan we operate in more than one gift. We saw the gifts were divided up into or could be grouped as gifts of revelation, God shows you something; gifts of utterance where you speak something, gifts of power where the power of God flows forth. We shared with you the key on how to flow in that. We'll come back to that shortly, so first of all we're going to look at the gift of prophecy and in 2 Peter 1 and Verse 21 it says: now prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men spoke of God, spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Moved means that they were inspired, there was something stirred inside them. So when we speak of prophecy it's not necessarily telling the future. It is an inspired utterance. We read it in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 14, Verse 3, means literally whoever prophesies speaks for edification, exhortation and comfort to men.
So prophetic or the gift of prophecy, God gives you a small inspired thought. He gives you a thought that bubbles up from inside you, and it is inspired. In other words you're not trying to work it out with your mind. It is something God is giving to you, and it flows through and expresses through you, so you receive an inspired thought, picture, impression. You begin to speak, and as you speak there is a flow of God's words through you, and when God flows through you, it sounds just like you. It's not sort of something artificial or weird. It's just like you're talking, and there's a flow of thoughts coming through. It'll also take on something of who you are, and how you would speak, so God works through people. He is happy to work through people. There's no perfect way of prophesying or perfect way of doing it. God just is willing to use you and flow through you.
So notice that it tells us then, that the purpose of the gift of prophecy is three-fold, so number one is edification. That means if you're going to bring a prophetic word it is to build someone, it is to encourage them, to lift them up. The second purpose of the gift of prophecy is the word exhortation, to come alongside them and strengthen them, or stir the person, so the first person is to build them up. So if someone gives a prophetic word, it should build the person up. A second thing is, it could exhort them or comes alongside them, and after the person's had a word of prophecy, they feel like God came alongside them and strengthened them. The thirdly, it is for comfort so when the word of prophecy comes sometimes it will bring such a presence of God to the person that they begin to weep, and they feel God touching them and loving them and comforting them.