Prophecy Must Find Good Soil in Our Hearts
For this reason, prophecy isn't supposed to be something I hear and then sit back like Jonah over Nineveh to see if God does it or not. No! Prophecy should get me talking and watching with God (watch and pray) so our connection grows as His word is fulfilled in a way that requires FAITH for me to see.
Galatians 5:16-21 NKJV — I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
If hearing a prophecy, embracing it, and especially seeing it fulfilled moves me into ^ that Galatians list of the works of the flesh, then it's fruit, and/or my fruit, is bad.
Yeshua's very coming was the greatest prophetic fulfillment to date. Some were humbled by the fulfillment of messianic prophecy into the Spirit's leadership, but most were provoked to the flesh. It was a true prophecy and it found the truth out in every heart. Some humbled themselves in the light of the truth. Most didn't. Yeshua wasn't the Messiah most people wanted.
We pick how we let prophetic fulfillment, and prophecy itself, move us. We chose what we take in and how we let our heart conform to God's voice. We pick these to the degree we are willing to pray about them:
1 Thessalonians 5:19-23 NKJV — Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The point of prophecy isn't to be "right or wrong," or prove some special people hear God. No, prophecy is always an opportunity to "work out our salvation" and find Biblical unity with God and each other.
Godly unity is not you and me agreeing about God. That is Babylonian unity. No. Godly unity is me and God agreeing about you. That keeps God in the center of all of our unity. Prophecy... or every word God speaks... is one of the main ways God grows unity and separates wheat from tares.
God's word accomplishes His will. To the doubtful, He hardens hearts. To the faithful, He matures hearts. Those who abide in Him bear the fruit of people that evaluate truth with God.
Prophecy should provoke us to talk to God more, not less. Most people are tempted to doubt a prophecy unless it is something they already believe. If they believe it, the next temptation is to develop a theory of how it will be fulfilled and watch for what WE think God will do. That is to fail the test of prophecy!
Prophecy rightly embraced should cause us to need God more, not less, to see it fulfilled.
If the religious leaders of Jesus' day would have sought the Father about Jesus as He came on their scene, they would have found the Father in Jesus. The fulfillment for the prophecy of the Messiah caused the religious leaders to talk amongst themselves, but not to God. The very prophecies they were experts in were being fulfilled but their very expertise blinded them. They used prophecy to disqualify Yeshua! The fulfillment of the greatest prophecy they all hoped to see matured and manifested their pride. We should soberly note this!
We are no different unless we humble ourselves and ask God to help us release, receive, and process prophecy WITH Him, not for Him. No one is an expert in any prophecy. We ALL see dimly.
All can literally prophesy. It's up to us how we chose to ask, seek, knock, share, receive, and let the voice of God move our hearts. We pick how our hearts are moved by God to the degree we see our poverty and pray God changes us. prophecy challenges our faith if its a good word and if its found good soil. In some people the very idea of prophecy produces bitterness, doubt, disdain, in others hope, joy, peace and faith:
1 Corinthians 14:31-33 NKJV — For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
The future events aren't the point of prophecy. The future YOU and the future ME is the point of prophecy. Prophecy is only fulfilled in hindsight:
John 13:19 Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.
Prophecy is supposed to teach us faith, hope and especially love as we let God keep His word His way. His ways are not our ways. That is one of the single most important truths about prophecy: God knows how to surprise everyone because no one thinks like He does. Faith in God's character... His truthfulness, generosity, mercy and ability... this is the faith of the saints. Prophecy grows faith in good soil. Faith empowers Hope. Hope enables love.
Love is very specific. It doesn't parade itself. Though every prophet wrote their own book, they weren't parading themselves. The true prophets were hated in their day. They wrote their own books because no one else would. False prophets were celebrated, not the true. True prophets were killed, not the false. But, the true prophets are still a place to find faith, grow hope, and enable love in the humble.
Matthew 23:29-34 NKJV — “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, “and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. “Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
The world loves a dead prophet shown to be correct, because the flesh likes concrete facts that require no faith to see. The flesh hates a living prophet who says things that require faith to see.
Right now, the wisest thing we could do is prophesy. Prophecy is light from heaven shining in the confusion of this present darkness. This is why Samantha and I love daily prophetic prayer meetings. We see so much more clearly walking out of them than we do going into them!
The world is getting very dark. It requires a prophetic light... Not so more flesh can be strengthened, but so more faith can be exercised and our conversation with God can be expanded. We want prophetic light to shine, not so we can see things fulfilled, but so that love can grow in our hearts as God fulfills His word in ways that grow faith!
This is the greatest teaching on prophecy in the Bible, IMO:
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 NKJV — Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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