1 Kings 17:18
When we think of prophecy, we often think of the telling of future events to warn people about what is to come or to tell them what to do to prepare. This idea sounds a lot like fortune telling or psychic readings, which the world uses to try to see into tomorrow. For the believer, we have no need for someone to read our palms or stare into a crystal ball, for the Holy Spirit has revealed the hidden things to us (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10). In fact, Paul states further that we have not received the spirit of the world, “but the spirit which is of God; that we might know all things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
Deeper into his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul tells us the definition of a New Testament prophecy, stating that it will edify, exhort and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). To edify is to build up; exhort is to encourage; comfort is to calm and console. All prophecy will do one or all of these things to a believer. It will build up your spirit man and encourage you to continue onward and it will calm your raging soul.
When you hear something that is called prophecy that does not build your up or encourage you or calm and console you then you are hearing the voice of condemnation and judgment. This voice cannot come to you from your Father, for He has already judged everything in the body of Christ. If this be the case, then why does this type of “prophecy” still exist?
To understand why we still hear gloom and doom prophesied to us, we must first see that this type of prophecy previously existed. When Old Testament prophets spoke, they warned of impending judgment due to increased sin and iniquity. Their style was to warn mankind about the path that they were on, but this warning was due to the fact that the Old Covenant demanded that man pay for his own breaking of the law. Since Jesus came and completely fulfilled the law and all of its demands (Matthew 5:17), there is no more warning against man’s continued failures.
Old Testament prophecy did what the widow of Zarephath was scared of; it pronounced judgment and called sin to remembrance. When her son died, “She said unto Elijah, ‘What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?’” (1 Kings 17:18). The fact that she asks this question lets us know that the reputation of prophets was to remind people of the things that they had done wrong and to pronounce the judgment of God upon them.
Believer, rejoice that your sins are not being called to remembrance anymore, because Jesus has washed them all away!
When we think of prophecy, we often think of the telling of future events to warn people about what is to come or to tell them what to do to prepare. This idea sounds a lot like fortune telling or psychic readings, which the world uses to try to see into tomorrow. For the believer, we have no need for someone to read our palms or stare into a crystal ball, for the Holy Spirit has revealed the hidden things to us (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10). In fact, Paul states further that we have not received the spirit of the world, “but the spirit which is of God; that we might know all things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Corinthians 2:12).
Deeper into his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul tells us the definition of a New Testament prophecy, stating that it will edify, exhort and comfort (1 Corinthians 14:3). To edify is to build up; exhort is to encourage; comfort is to calm and console. All prophecy will do one or all of these things to a believer. It will build up your spirit man and encourage you to continue onward and it will calm your raging soul.
When you hear something that is called prophecy that does not build your up or encourage you or calm and console you then you are hearing the voice of condemnation and judgment. This voice cannot come to you from your Father, for He has already judged everything in the body of Christ. If this be the case, then why does this type of “prophecy” still exist?
To understand why we still hear gloom and doom prophesied to us, we must first see that this type of prophecy previously existed. When Old Testament prophets spoke, they warned of impending judgment due to increased sin and iniquity. Their style was to warn mankind about the path that they were on, but this warning was due to the fact that the Old Covenant demanded that man pay for his own breaking of the law. Since Jesus came and completely fulfilled the law and all of its demands (Matthew 5:17), there is no more warning against man’s continued failures.
Old Testament prophecy did what the widow of Zarephath was scared of; it pronounced judgment and called sin to remembrance. When her son died, “She said unto Elijah, ‘What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?’” (1 Kings 17:18). The fact that she asks this question lets us know that the reputation of prophets was to remind people of the things that they had done wrong and to pronounce the judgment of God upon them.
Believer, rejoice that your sins are not being called to remembrance anymore, because Jesus has washed them all away!
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