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Prophecy

             We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (II Peter 1:19-21)

 

“I can see that you are a prophet.” (John 4:19 b)

 

Prophesy: the ability to receive a divinely inspired message and deliver it to others in the church.

 

            I used to believe that prophecy had to do with foretelling the future. That made the comment by the woman at the well confusing to me. Jesus hadn’t told her anything about the future. He told her about her past and present. It came as a relief to me when I learned that prophecy is “just” receiving and delivering a divinely inspired message. The future may be the topic, but it doesn’t have to be. At the same time, false prophecy in the form of declaring the future incorrectly (which would prove the message was not from God no matter how much the prophet thought it was) was a capital offense.

            While I’ve wished for this gift from God, I’ve also always been wary of it because it is such a great responsibility. I’ve also been more than a little dubious about others claiming to be speaking a word from God, and that’s one of my issues with the book I’m reading. He wrote of several instances where he delivered “prophetic messages.” I struggle with his characterization because there’s nothing in what he says to verify that he’s heard from God or that God told him to say something. On the other side, while the prophets in the Old Testament regularly said, “Thus says the Lord,” he doesn’t quote himself saying anything similar.

            I think the writer in question may be from a fairly casual culture about such things, but it makes me uneasy. Today’s first passage makes clear it that it’s dangerous to declare something to be a prophetic word. Prophecy is not given as a matter of human will. I suspect we are more likely to deliver a prophetic message without recognizing that it is one. And I think that’s the best sort of prophetic message because we won’t pat ourselves on the back for doing something we  don’t realize we’re doing. Quoting Scripture is probably the one time we can feel reasonably certain that we are giving a prophetic message.

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