ROM 12:6 "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith."

The gift of prophecy is a gift from God which has been sorely misunderstood in the church and as a result this misunderstanding has created a variety of false doctrines and misapplications, together with a fleshly approach to a spiritual gift.

Much of this abuse is found in certain quarters of the church where the experience of particular gifts takes precedence over the written word of God, which comes from the same Holy Spirit who gives us these gifts.

However, as we shall see as we study the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the word of God is the final authority when it comes to the use of any gift. But even more than that there is another aspect of the use of the gifts which entails God's command to use them in love.

For anyone to use a gift in the Body of Christ with the motive of showing everyone how spiritual they are or to use it to place ourselves above others, while at the same time slighting those who may not have the same gift or gifts, is not love.

The gifts of the Spirit are given by the Spirit to unify us in the Spirit so that the Body of Christ may be built up for God's glory. Though some churches who claim to be Spirit-filled may place more emphasis on the experiences of the gifts over the truth of God's infallible word, I would say that many traditional churches have erred equally as they promote an orthodoxy devoid of certain legitimate works of the Spirit.

Many mainline churches deny the working of the Spirit as they deny many of the gifts of the Spirit. In so doing, I believe they actually quench the Spirit, and they end up with a dead orthodoxy, which we usually associate with a lifeless church, and which often leads to a man-centered approach to ministry instead of relying on the power of the Spirit.

What I believe the Scriptures teach is a balanced approach to all of life. Jesus told us that we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. That is not limited to a worship service.

Rather, all of life should be an act of worship for the Christian and the Christian must approach all aspects of living for Christ, as he or she relies on the truth of God's written word, coupled with a total reliance on His Spirit who enables us to walk in that truth, as we surrender our lives to Christ as our love gift to Him.

Together we then see the Living Word, Jesus, exemplified in our lives and He is lifted up. The N.T. gift of prophecy is a very important gift in the church. And to better understand how this gift works today I think it's important to see how it differs with prophecy in the past, that is, in the O.T.

There is a distinction. And again, I believe because the word of God is not studied and relied upon when it comes to these things that there is confusion which leads to all sorts of false teachings.

So, let me say at the outset, O.T. prophecy is not the same phenomenon as we see with the gift of prophecy in the N.T. How do we know this? Only the word of God could show us clearly.

What I'm going to do today is to take us back to O.T. times and show what it is that the Spirit of God was doing prior to Christ coming into the world and what the Spirit was accomplishing through His prophets in the O.T.

When we look at O.T. prophets of God we usually consider men like Isaiah, Moses, Daniel, Jeremiah and others. But when we look at these men we should ask certain questions as does Dr. Wayne Grudem in his book, "The gift of prophecy in the N.T. and today".

Questions like: What was their purpose? How much authority did they have? What happened if someone dared to disobey them? And did they ever make mistakes?

Much of the information we'll be looking at this morning is gleaned from Dr. Grudem and so I will acknowledge his influence on this entire study at the outset.

In studying these O.T. prophets we see that their main function was to be messengers of God. They were given messages by God and then they would take those messages, word for word, to the people of Israel. In most cases those same messages were then to be a permanent written record for all time.

What is interesting is that even in the O.T. there were those who were given a gift from God as they were permitted to prophesy, but they were not necessarily considered to be prophets. It was a one time gift to encourage and inform God’s people.

One example of this is found in the book of Numbers as God has informed Moses how He will feed the entire nation of Israel in the desert with meat. You might remember how they were complaining of eating only the manna. Here’s the conversation God had with Moses.

NUM 11:21 “But Moses said, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!'
22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?"
23 The LORD answered Moses, "Is the LORD'S arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."
24 So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the Tent.
25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.”

The Lord chose to put His Spirit on these 70 elders to exhort Israel. But notice that what the Lord spoke to Moses, who is considered a prophet, is what is recorded in the Scriptures. The 70 were not considered prophets, but they did prophesy once. Their prophecy is not recorded in the O.T. and so was not to be used as an infallible source for God’s people today.

And so, to be considered a prophet in the O.T. meant that God had chosen you and used you, to where you were recognized as God’s prophet, to give His inspired and infallible word to His people as being the very word of God for our instruction. And every word was to be the word of the Lord only, not to be added to by the prophet unless God prompted it.

In the case of Balaam we see what God desires of His messengers in terms of what He wants them to say.

And so "a true prophet is one whom the Lord has truly sent. But false prophets who prophecy lies are ones whom the Lord says, I did not send them.' "(Jer.29:9)

Now the reason that this is important is because these prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord carried with them the authority of the Lord Himself.

In other words, the origin of the message came from God and they are the actual words of God. It's very common throughout the O.T. to see the phrase, "The word of the Lord, which He spoke by his servant the prophet." (1Ki.14:18; 16:12; 2Ki.9:36; 14:25; 17:23; 24:2; 2Chr.29:25; Ezra 9:10-11; Neh.9:30; Jer.37:2; Zech.7:7; etc.)

"To disbelieve or disobey an O.T. prophet's words is to disbelieve or disobey God Himself."

And so, when we look at the prophets of the O.T., whom God chooses, what we see is that when they spoke in the name of the Lord none of their utterances were to be questioned. It's not as though the listeners were given permission by God to evaluate what was said, as either being good or bad, and then decide for themselves whether they should obey the message.

If the message came from God, through the prophet, they had no other choice but to obey. And they must view God's prophet as the authoritative spokes-person for God.

And so we read that "when Samuel was established as a prophet, "the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. (1Sa.3:19). Because Samuel was a man of God, (that is, a prophet), Saul's servant could say in 1Sa.9:6, 'All that he say's comes true.'"

This means that when a prophet spoke in the name of the Lord, even if one prophecy did not come true, or one message he claimed as coming from God was proved to be false, he was a false prophet.' This is what we read in Deuteronomy.

Deu 18:22 "If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him."

In fact, the office of prophet was so awesome as carrying the responsibility of giving God's actual message that the penalty for false prophecy was death.

DEU 18:20 "But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."

"And so what we see is that what God spoke through the O.T. prophet had absolute divine authority, extending even to the very words the prophet used." In Theological terms this is referred to as plenary inspiration.

This is not to say that a prophet could not sin or that the prophet himself was infallible. But, when he spoke in the name of the Lord, as God gave him utterance, the actual words from God, through the prophet, are infallible and carry the full weight of divine inspiration and authority.

And so when it comes to the O.T. every part is God's very words spoken through His messengers. And so what the O.T. says, God says, and to disbelieve or disobey it is to disbelieve or disobey God Himself.

Now, when we come to the N.T. "we might expect that N.T. prophets would be just like the O.T. prophets. But when we look through the N.T. this does not seem to be the case. There is little if any evidence for a group of prophets in the N.T. churches who could speak with God's very words, (with absolute divine authority that could not be questioned), who had the authority to write books of Scripture for inclusion in the N.T."

"On the other hand, there is a very prominent group of people in the N.T. who do speak with divine authority, and who did write most of the books of the N.T. These men are called not prophets, however, but apostles. In many ways they are similar to the O.T. prophets."

It's interesting to note that throughout the N.T. there are several times when apostles are associated with O.T. prophets, but the gift of prophecy in the N.T. is never associated with O.T. prophets in the same way.

That doesn't mean that reference isn't made to the apostles as giving prophetic utterance in the N.T. sense, but that doesn't equate a N.T. prophet with an O.T. prophet.

"What's interesting though is that Paul, for example, never appeals to a gift of prophecy to establish his authority--something which would have been very natural and very easy if all N.T. prophets had been commonly thought to speak words with absolute divine authority. Rather, when Paul wants to establish his authority, he always appeals to his status as an apostle."

2Co 1:1 "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:"

Gal 1:1 "Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead--"

He say's the same thing to the Ephesian church, the Colossian church, and addresses Timothy in 1st and 2nd Timothy the same way. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ", so as to identify his authority which must be adhered to, because what he spoke, on behalf of God, he spoke with divine authority, just as the O.T. prophets.

Like the O.T. prophets who spoke divinely inspired words of God, to be obeyed by God's people, the apostles were divinely inspired by God Himself to give us the very words of God that we might know who He is and the salvation we can only have through Jesus Christ.

In fact, Peter recognizes that when the apostle Paul wrote on behalf of God to the church, he wrote words which were the exact equivalent of the O.T. scriptures, which are the very words of God.

2PE 3:15 "Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."

And so, like the O.T. prophets, the words which God has given us through His apostles are meant to be taken as God’s very word which must be obeyed and followed, because the God of the universe desires for us to know Him and walk with Him, without compromise, according to His word and the power of the Spirit, which we are not to quench by avoiding such power through unbelief and rebellion.

What I want you to see today is that prophecy is something that originates with God, but there is a difference between prophecy and prophets in the O.T., and the N.T gift of prophecy and prophets. But the common thread throughout the entire Bible is that God has given us His very word through the apostles of the N.T. and the prophets of the O.T.

Of course, the O.T. prophet of God did not give just messages of the future, which we often think of when we use the word prophecy. To prophesy actually means to speak with inspiration.

Whether a prophet in the O.T. was given a dream or vision by God to share with the nation of Israel, or he was given a command by God to admonish or rebuke the nation for disobedience, it was all a form of prophecy, because the prophet was speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit as God gave him utterance.

And so, when we speak of O.T. prophets and N.T. apostles from this perspective we mean those who speak on God's behalf under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with the express purpose of ultimately recording God's very word which we have as the Bible, the Scriptures.

I might add, that this Bible is no longer being added to since God completed it. What we have in our possession is the entire revelation of God's very word in the Old and New Testaments as He desires us to have it.

This distinction is important if we're going to understand the N.T. "gift of prophecy", which is part of the list of gifts found in our text and in Rom.12:6 and Eph.4:11, and which was not to be limited to the apostles, but were to include anybody in the church whom the Lord chose to gift.

Let me just say again that any gift from God is to be used for His glory and should never be used to puff oneself up as though we earned or deserved such a gift or that we should be proud in an arrogant way.

This was part of the problem in the Corinthian church during Paul's time and he addressed it in this very letter to the Corinthians.

1CO 4:6 "Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.
7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?"

In other words, if God has gifted you don't act as though you created this ability yourself. A gift is a gift. It's something someone else gives you that did not belong to you before and that you didn't earn or deserve now.

When God gives gifts to His people we are to humbly acknowledge it as a gift of grace and use it to glorify Him and edify the body of Christ.

Each person in the body of Christ has been given gifts for service by God Himself. Not everyone has the same gift any more than an orchestra is only made up of one instrument. Each serves a purpose and each is very important. And if God gives each of us a gift to be used in the body then we must use those gifts because it pleases God.

1CO 12:14 "Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.
17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
19 If they were all one part, where would the body be?
20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body."

And so not every member of the body will have the gift of teaching, nor will all have the gift of mercy or the gift of healing, nor the gift of prophecy.

But the gift of prophecy in the N.T. church is very important. Unfortunately, it is also misunderstood.

Some in the church today have placed it in the same category as the prophets of the O.T. who spoke the very words of God which were not to be questioned. Some Christians today will often preface their prophetic utterance with the phrase, "Thus saith the Lord" and proceed to speak with an authority which God did not intend with this gift today.

The O.T. prophets and the N.T. apostles were chosen by God to give us His very word with all authority. The Scriptures are complete. We are neither to add to or subtract from God's written word.

This necessarily means that the N.T. gift of prophecy cannot carry with it the same authority as the written word of God which we have in our possession. If this were the case then the Scriptures would be an open-ended book.

This is one of the reasons that those who practice the N.T. gift of prophecy, as though it were the equivalent of O.T. prophecy, find themselves presuming a type of revelation which can be, in practice, on an equal par with the written word of God, which the Lord delivered to us by His prophets and apostles.

This is why certain of the teachings coming out of some Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches places more emphasis on these revelations from God than on the written word.

I'll give you a practical example of how this has happened today. Within the Calvary Chapel movement, quite a few years back, there were a couple of Calvary Chapel churches who felt that they needed to hear a fresh word from God and then essentially base their walk with Christ on this fresh word, sometimes referred to as a rhema word.

Rhema simply being the Greek word for word or message. And as they got this fresh message or word from God they began to seek prophetic utterances more and more to where they became the primary focus.

And so prophecy became a very important topic and they found themselves spending more time following, what they considered prophetic promptings, rather than God's written word itself. Out of those couple of Calvary Chapels came the Vineyard churches who are not associated with Calvary Chapel.

Because of their placing the "Prophetic word" on a near equal footing with God’s written word, at least in practice, they have become involved in such unbiblical teachings as the Inner Healing movement which is an attempt to go back to your past and invite Jesus to come to you at whatever age you were and have Him heal you of whatever problem you had or have.

A lot of psychological influence is in that, together with New Age teachings, which are very similar and very popular in the New Age Movement.

There is also the Holy Laughter Movement found in many of the Vineyard churches, along with many Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, which will dedicate entire worship services to "Laughing in the Spirit" and excluding biblical worship and the word of God altogether.

When the word of God is diminished we open ourselves up to all sorts of strange teachings which are supposedly "revealed" by the Spirit. And what we end up with is anything other than the true practice of the gift of prophecy.

Again, to suggest that the gift of prophecy is the equivalent to O.T. prophecy denies the closing of the Canons of Scripture by God when the last part of the N.T. was delivered, and allows us to add to the word which the apostle John warned we must never do.

The N.T. gift of prophecy must never be used to take the place of Scripture, nor should it be placed as the most important gift in the church, outside of Scripture.

But instead of a knee-jerk response to such abuses, where some churches want nothing to do with the gift of prophecy, or any other supernatural gift from the Spirit, where they deny their existence by teaching they were only for the first Century church, we must teach the whole counsel of God’s word and teach the proper use of such gifts.

Next week we'll take the time to find out what the N.T. gift of prophecy actually is and how we should use it in the church as we seek Christ and His Spirit to edify and build up the Body in His power, according to His will found in His word.

God has been very gracious and merciful to not only give us eternal life in Christ, but to also give us the tools we need, as He distributes them, so that we may more effectively be servants of our Most High God.

As Paul instructs Timothy, we do not despise prophetic utterances. But we must do all according to God's word. I think you'll be encouraged by this gift as we study it and find God using it in our midst which He has done on several occasions.

Next week we'll address such questions as: Is teaching in the church the same as prophecy? Why are women allowed to prophesy but not to have authority over the church? Can a N.T. prophet prophesy at will? How do we know if someone has the gift of prophecy? Where and when in the church should this gift be used? Does the N.T. prophet ever make mistakes in his or her prophecy and what is the penalty if they do so? Why is the gift of prophesy important to the church?

You and I are called to be Christ's Ambassadors. You and I are indwelt and hopefully filled continually with His Spirit for the purpose of service to Him. Whatever service He may have you in presently or is prompting you towards now, do it with the attitude that Paul had with the gifts He’s given you.

COL 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

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