series: The Gifts of the Spirit
title: #6 Prophecy
date: March 11, 2018
teacher: Jacob Bender
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 14:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-21, Acts 16:9, Hebrews 1:1-2, Deuteronomy 18:20-22, 1 Corinthians 14:29-33, 1 Corinthians 13:9, 1 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Corinthians 13:3-4, 1 Timothy 1:18-20, Psalm 105:19, 1 Corinthians 13:2
The Bible is God’s literal word and if any prophecy ever goes against that, obviously that needs to fall to the ground right from the beginning. If a prophecy does not line up with the New Testament guidelines for prophesying, it needs to fall to the ground from the beginning.
The Bible is the starting place… think about it… it is God’s literal word…
If you aren’t moved by the word of God, why would you move on a word claiming to be from God?
In other words, if you read the Bible and it doesn’t motivate you, then why would you care if I, speak a word that I SAY IS FROM GOD, as a human, imperfect vessel…
even if God had put it perfectly in my mind, I STILL COULD MESS IT UP BY THE TIME IT GETS TO YOU.
In fact, 1 Corinthians 13:9 says that we only prophecy in PART. and what Paul tells the church in Thessalonica to do is to NOT despise prophecy, but to always test everything that is said, and then to hold fast to the good.
this is something that God brings to mind, it is NOT fortune telling, and its not mind reflection (it is NOT thinking back on something that we have already seen or experienced).
Prophecy is something that God reveals to you, in a moment, for a person or a group of people. Now, you could have a revelation… God can reveal something to you, and you can keep it to yourself and that can still be VALUABLE… and it may be edifying to you but it is not prophecy unless you actually proclaim it. So once you get the word, you now need to proclaim the word...
and the third part of this is SO important… it is for the purpose of EDIFYING the church.
“the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. 4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.”
This word “encouragement” can also be translated: exhortation… which means “to draw them near” - one of the purposes of prophecy is to draw people into the direction of their calling.”
when you are wondering if something is edifying you can start by asking… “does this inspire me? will this inspire somebody else to do more, to be better than they are right now? will this inspire us to do more for Jesus? Will this inspire us to do more for our community? Does it inspire us to be better people?”
IS IT EDIFYING?
In this series, we dive into some complex issues that at times may be difficult to understand. We do not want to leave anyone confused in any way, so if you have any questions about what was taught, or if you have a question about the Gifts of the Spirit that we did not cover, please submit your question to us and we will do our best to respond to you and to post it online for others.
Below are other sermons we have given about dreaming big, following your dreams, and walking toward your destiny.
Here are two of the music videos that Pastor Jacob's band "HYPERBOLE" made while they were together: