The gift of prophecy allows God to use human voices to speak to His people.
As shown in our text today, the gift of prophecy is the only gift we are told to covet
Other gifts often manifest through the gift of prophecy. For instance, prophecy is the voice through which wisdom speaks and the voice by which faith speaks.
To prophesy is to speak for another.
The one prophesying is speaking for God. To prophesy is to say in one’s own language in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of prophecy is given to build up, exhort, and comfort.
One way to test a prophetic word to see if it is from the Holy Spirit is to determine if it falls within these three guidelines. A word of prophecy will never condemn, belittle, or tear down. Let me say that again; a word of prophecy will never condemn, belittle, or tear down. The Holy Spirit uses the New Testament prophet as a voice to build up His church.
An essential part of prophecy is to reveal divine truth.
However, the truth revealed in a prophetic utterance will never contradict the written Word of God (the Bible). Of course, some say we do not need prophecy today since we have the Bible; however, that position discounts how Bible truth coming to us through a spoken word of prophecy grabs our attention and penetrates deeply into our hearts.
In Christian circles today much is said about speaking with a prophetic voice. A prophetic voice is a truthful voice. But, we’re kind of like that judge that threatened the lawyers with fines and charges of contempt. For the most part, we’re like the people that Jack Nicholson was talking to in the movie A Few Good Men. We can’t handle the truth. Not God’s truth. Because God’s truth begins with us looking within ourselves to determine how closely we align with God’s truth, and we don’t like to do that do we.
Before we can speak God’s words, before we can even hear God’s words, we have to remove the stumbling blocks in our own lives. And if that brings Jesus’ admonition against looking at the speck in your brother’s eye before attending to the log in your own, it should because that is what He’s talking about in Matthew 7:3.
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