Written by Jeff Duncan
“Thus sayeth the Lord…” It was the first time I had ever heard a prophetic word. And it was in King James English! God speaks King James English?! I found it hard to believe. Was this the God I knew? I had been on edge for many reasons in this meeting. This was many years ago, when as a teenager, I joined Cheryl’s family for some meetings that were very outside the box of my experience. People were raising their hands, worshipping with a passion I had never seen before. There was energy in the room, or was it my mixture of fear and uncertainty because it was all new? I wasn’t sure, but I knew that there was something real here. And God was speaking! It made me hungry for more, even if God spoke King James English!
I kept going to similar meetings and was relieved to find out, weeks later, that God also spoke in everyday English! Over the years I have received many significant prophetic words. But prophecy is not welcome in some circles. It can be controversial, and can be the source of confusion, or abuse. This is not new. In the Thessalonian church, prophecy was such a problem that Paul said to them: Do not despise prophecies, test everything. Can you imagine how bad things were that many were despising prophecy?
I know one pastor who tells of a church he attended before he was pastoring where the church was encouraging people to prophesy. Anyone who wanted to, could come to the microphone and prophesy. He said that unfortunately some prophecies were off and in a short time, the church no longer felt safe. It stopped growing. People weren’t willing to bring their friends to church because they weren’t sure if something weird was going to be said from the front.
Unfortunately, this church hadn’t learned how to test prophecy. Paul says: TEST EVERYTHING. Testing means we examine all prophetic words in line with scripture, discernment, confirmation, and the wisdom of others. Though it is our desire to prophesy with the highest accuracy, when Paul says, everything must be tested, what is implied is that prophecy can be in error, either in whole or in part. We don’t accept everything that is said to be prophetic. We can expect that some prophetic words need to be corrected or even rejected. That is OK. Without doing this, prophecy will develop a reputation that causes people to despise it.
We are encouraged to desire prophecy in 1 Cor. 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. The one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.
Strengthening
Encouragement
Comfort
We can all use some of that. If you would like to receive some strengthening, encouragement or comfort, please sign up for our PERSONAL PROPHETIC MINISTRY sessions that we host once a month.
