Encouraging Believers to Join the Remnant in these Last Days
July 6, 9:49 PM
Daniel
Prophecies, are foreign to most Christians. Many American Believers stick to shallow elementary things that don’t require much commitment to the plans and purposes of God. Frankly, most have no desire and even fear the deep spiritual encounters with God.
I am encouraging you, as well as others, to not discount what you haven’t experienced, like prophecy. It might be a life changing revelation straight from the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul strictly warned us,
“Do not despise prophecies.”
I Thessalonians 5:20 NKJV
So what is prophecy? Let’s first look at the Greek definition:
G4394 (Strong)
προϕητεία
prophēteia
prof-ay-ti’-ah
From G4396 (“prophecy”); prediction (scriptural or other): – prophecy, prophesying.
Prophecy has been a major tool of God since the garden. Before anything happens on the earth, it is spoken on the earth. We have hundreds of examples in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, one scholar identifies 351 direct prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament. This doesn’t include hundreds of other prophecies found in the Old Testament. J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy lists 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament, for a total of 1,817. These encompass 8,352 verses. Not to mention there are some books in the Bible devoted almost entirely to prophecy.
Wow, and the exciting news is that prophecies continued after Jesus and long after the apostles were gone from the scene.
The Apostle Paul again illustrates that the Christian life is not just an intellectual argument, moral code, nor is it just an emotional experience, but the Christian life is a spiritual encounter with the deep things of God.
Paul encourages carnal believers to seek God on a different level in his exhortation to the church at Corinth.
“But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
I Corinthians 2:9-16 NKJV
The word prophecy is used 19 times in the New Testament:
Matthew 13:14: “them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear,”
Romans 12:6: “that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;”
1 Corinthians 12:10: “of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits;”
1 Corinthians 13:2: “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries,”
1 Corinthians 13:8: “faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;”
1 Corinthians 14:6: “knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?”
1 Corinthians 14:22: “but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.”
1 Thessalonians 5:20: “Despise not prophesyings.”
1 Timothy 1:18: “Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that”
1 Timothy 4:14: “was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands”
2 Peter 1:20: “first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private”
2 Peter 1:21: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but”
Revelation 1:3: “they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein:”
Revelation 11:6: “it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have.”
Revelation 19:10: “of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Revelation 22:7: “the saying of the prophecy of this book.”
Revelation 22:10: “the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the”
Revelation 22:18: “the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man”
Revelation 22:19: “words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part”
We should have our ears open and discern when we hear words of prophecy today. These words can bring warnings, as well as, prompting of the Holy Spirit for critically needed Intercession.
Perhaps the greatest prophecy that all believers can enjoy and be most effective in their Christian life is speaking promises in God’s Word. When we truly believe in our heart God’s Word and speak those promises in our life or the life of others, we are engaging in the most effective prophecy.
“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;”
II Peter 1:19 NKJV
The best prophecy is prophecy that has been confirmed. The scriptures are confirmed Words of prophecies. In 2 Peter we are reminded that the Word of God needs to be believed in our heart until the “light goes on” in our minds. This brings about a heart belief that catapults change in the earth. Then in we see that in verse 21 the Word of God had to be spoken. When we speak the promises that’s prophecy.
I encourage you everyday to proclaim, declare, and prophesy the scriptures with promises that the Holy Spirt directs you to. The Holy Spirit will teach you not to despise or take lightly prophecy, but to love prophecy as it changes your life.
Hope this is helpful to my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Pass it on so that others may join the remnant in these last days. Let’s speak the things that are not as though they are, Prophesy!
Your brother in Christ,
Daniel
