The Gift of Prophecy

Then, there are those evangelicals who take the position of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement, which believes God still gives the gift of prophecy to Spirit-filled Christians. In traditional circles of these movements, much of the scriptural teaching and regulation of this gift is hardly followed. Thus, it results in utter confusion and chaos due to the exercise of these biblical gifts in unbiblical ways. The increasing apathy that such churches exhibit towards the exposition of Scripture and the resulting biblical illiteracy causes them to practically elevate prophecy over Scripture. This is the reason why Bible-loving, doctrinal Christians who reject Cessationism have claimed a new label called Continuationism. While these Christians are non-cessationists, they reject the excesses and misuse of gifts in traditional Pentecostal-Charismatic churches. In such continuationist churches, while they affirm prophecy, in general, one will find the pulpit ministry of patient exposition of Scripture taking priority over all other gifts.

Defining the Gift of Prophecy

All Cessationists believe prophecy is always God giving inspired Scripture-quality revelation. In other words, for them, prophecy was one of the historical modes of revelation by which God brought forth His Bible. Hence, it is logical that when the canon of Scripture is completed in history, the mode ceases with it.

The issue, however, is Paul’s teaching on the gift of prophecy as found in 1 Corinthians. Paul seems to suggest that the gift of prophecy is not identical with the gift of inspiration. While the gift of inspiration whereby God gave infallible revelation to write down His Scripture was limited to certain men, Paul says he wants everyone in Corinth to prophesy (1 Cor. 14:5). The intended effect of prophecy, Paul says, is mutual edification, encouragement, and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3). For these reasons and more, the cessationist’s definition of prophecy is incomplete. They are right in that there is a mode of special revelation, which the Bible calls “prophecy of scripture” (2 Pet. 1:20), but in 1 Corinthians, Paul is speaking of a congregational gift of prophecy. The former has ceased since the canon got completed, but the latter is a spiritual gift which Paul encourages everyone in the church to desire earnestly for building up the church (1 Cor. 14:1, 39).

Prophecy and Foretelling

In most circles where prophecy is believed to be a present gift of the Spirit, I believe people have not taken much time to study the nature of this gift. Most people have this notion that prophecy is always predictive. When we look at Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 14, we do not find any explicit affirmation of predictive prophecy. As far as the nature of the gift of prophecy is concerned, Paul only says, (1) it’s a revelation from God (1 Cor. 14:29-30), (2) its outcome is edification, encouragement, and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3), and (3) it reveals the secret sins of the heart and causes one to worship God (1 Cor. 14:24-25).

While prophecy could be predictive, it is not necessarily so. In the whole of the New Testament record concerning the early church, we have only three instances of the gift of prophecy being predictive — two from the prophet Agabus and once from the saints in Tyre. Paul’s lengthy treatment of the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14, however, never once explicitly mentions anything to do with revealing the future, but only revealing the secret sins of the heart.

Moving away from this emphasis of Scripture, Pentecostal-Charismatic, and even many Continuationist Christians have largely paganised the gift of prophecy as a Christian version of a horoscope. The carnal curiosity of men to know and feel good about their future is catered to in these churches with predictive prophecy. One rarely comes across a prophesying in these churches which matches Paul’s conception of the gift, where the secret sins of a person’s heart are revealed by God.

Testing and Judging Prophecy

Paul’s teaching on the congregational gift of prophecy is always that it should be judged (1 Cor. 14:29) and tested (1 Thess. 5:19-22). In other words, unlike the prophecy of scripture, we should not swallow everything prophesied through the gift of prophecy as if it were the infallible word of God. It is not. Even Paul, when the saints of Tyre kept telling him “through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem” and the prophet Agabus followed it to the same effect, while he acknowledged the revelation that he is going to be persecuted in Jerusalem, he, however, rejected their directive that, therefore, he should not go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4-14). Luke closes this incident in v.14 as “And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, 'The will of the Lord be done!'” If the gift of prophecy, both its revelation and its interpreted directive, were the inspired and infallible word of God as Scripture, then Paul would have been disobeying the Lord when he was unwilling to be persuaded. However, Paul and the early Christians knew the difference between inspiration and the gift of prophecy.

The exercise of the gift of prophecy, therefore, needs to be always tested to see if the underlying revelation is true and from God. Even then, the interpretation of this revelation and the practical directive given by the prophesying person could be human and wrong, as was in the above incident concerning Paul. Hence, discerning and judging prophecy is a necessary and commanded responsibility for us. Here are the five ways we should test predictive prophecy:

1. Accuracy Test: Does the prediction come to pass? If not, it was false (Deut. 18:22).
2. Orthodoxy Test: Even if the prediction comes to pass, if the prophet’s doctrine is to lead you to worship other gods, including idols of the heart like money, self, world, honour, pleasure, etc., he is a false prophet (Deut. 13:1-4).
3. Communion Test: In your personal communion with the Lord, does the mind of the Spirit bring forth peace in your heart (Rom. 8:6)? A surrendered body and transformed mind can discern the perfect will of God (Rom. 12:1-2).
4. Wisdom Test: Is the prophetic revelation confirmed by the counsel of your God-given authorities (Prov. 11:14)?
5. Providence Test: Does the prophecy line up with the providential leading of the Lord as evident in your circumstances? Paul’s past leading of the Spirit, as mentioned in Acts 20:22-23, enabled him to say no to the fallible interpretation by the saints of Tyre regarding the prophetic revelation they received (Acts 21:14).

Conclusion

Let me conclude with seven short practical exhortations.

1. Do not elevate prophecy above Scripture as God’s infallible revelation to you.
2. Do not desire prophecy more than Scripture. God often sends prophets to people when they were not personally listening to Him (think of Nathan being sent to a sinning David or Isaiah to a proud Hezekiah).
3. Do not make major life decisions simply based on a prophecy. Weigh everything carefully. God guides us through His Spirit employing multiple means (Scripture, renewed mind, providence, wise counsellors, prophecy, etc).
4. Do not be more curious to know what God says about your future than what He says about your heart.
5. Do not associate the practice of spiritual gifts in a church with spirituality. Corinth had all the gifts of the Spirit zealously exercised by them (1 Cor. 1:7; 14:12), and yet, Paul calls them unspiritual, infants in Christ, carnal, and walking like mere men in the world (1 Cor. 3:1-3). Spirituality is a matter of the heart, not ministry.
6. Do not despise prophetic utterances (1 Thess. 5:20). While upholding scriptural principles and regulations, prophecy can be an excellent gift for the edification of the church.
7. Do not worship anyone but the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Bible says, "worship God, for the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus." (Rev. 19:10). Even apostle John, after hearing all the prophetic revelation, fell at the feet of the angel in worship. To which the angel gave the above reply. Even when God gives you amazing prophecies, do not worship the messenger, but understand that the purpose of all prophecy is to testify to the glory of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore, the only appropriate response is to worship Him alone (1 Cor. 14:25).