Cynical About Prophecy?

Many of us wonder if prophecy is more trouble than it’s worth. First we have to judge it; there are true and false prophets. Then it’s subject to so many conditions that we don’t know if it will come to pass or not.

It can look maddeningly convenient for the prophets: if they prophesy something that looks great and powerful, they look great and powerful too; if they prophesy something that doesn’t happen, they can blame it on someone else’s lack of responding to God.

Do prophecies ever come to pass? Sometimes it almost seems that the emperor has no clothes, and the church is in a conspiracy of silence, refusing to acknowledge our nakedness.

Before we allow ourselves such a cynical view, I want to ask you a question: how many of the promises of scripture are coming to pass in your life?

II Peter 1:16-21 says the prophetic word of scripture is more sure than the prophetic experiences any of us may have; this includes his own experience on the Mount Of Transfiguration. That being so, how much of it is coming to pass in your life?

Matthew brings out something wonderful about Jesus: again and again in His life, things happened “that it might be fulfilled which was written.” What is happening in your life that fulfills what is written?

I can’t list all of God’s promises here; there are too many. But as I travel from church to church and minister prophetically, I meet some people who are used to seeing God’s word come to pass in their lives: promises of healing, provision, grace to resist temptation, answered prayer, the manifest presence of God when they worship. Others find the biblical promises of God elusive.

Usually, I find that the same people who see the written word of God come to pass also know how to obtain the promises given by the prophets of today. They recognize that the promises in scripture are conditional; they have cultivated the discipline of positioning themselves to receive what God has promised.

Likewise, the people who complain the most about the prophecies of today that are not coming to pass have few if any testimonies of biblical promises that have come to pass in their lives. If they do have a testimony, it’s usually a single event many years ago.

All of us know that the Father wants to conform us to the image of His Son. One aspect of Jesus’ character is that He came so prophecy could be fulfilled. If you and I become more like Him, more and more prophecies will be fulfilled in our lives.

So I want to challenge you: before you allow yourself to become cynical about the modern prophets, make sure you develop a track record of seeing Bible prophecies and promises fulfilled in your life.

In most cases, you will find that the language of today’s prophets sounds like the language of the Bible. And if you have cultivated the art of receiving what God has promised in scripture, you will be the kind of person who is likely to obtain what modern prophets are proclaiming.

The Bible commands us to despise not prophesying; it commands us to prove all things and hold fast what is good. God is good, and His words towards us are good. Prove His words – the words of scripture, and the words of today’s prophets – by meeting the conditions necessary for them to come to pass in your life.

But if the words of scripture aren’t coming to pass in your life, you have no right to throw stones at today’s prophets if they give words that don’t come to pass.

Stan Smith :: © 2009, GospelSmith :: www.GospelSmith.com

Wage Warfare With Prophecy

Paul’s letters to Timothy suggest that personal prophecy doesn’t just automatically come to pass; we must embrace it. In three places, Paul names several correct responses to personal prophecy: to wage warfare with it, to be careful not to neglect it, and to stir up gifts that are imparted through prophecy.

Paul’s words imply that personal prophecy in Timothy’s life could go unfulfilled if he did not respond properly. Take a closer look at what Paul told Timothy to do.

Wage warfare with prophecy, having faith and a good conscience. (I Timothy 1:18-19) How do we wage warfare? The recipe is in Ephesians 6:10-18, where Paul writes about spiritual warfare.

Verse 18 mentions a key to warfare: “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” And verse 17 notes that our weapon is the sword of the Spirit, which is the rhema or spoken word of God. In other words, we wage war by praying for what God has spoken.

But there is another dimension to our warfare: faith and a good conscience. We can forfeit the blessing God promises us if we allow ourselves to live with a defiled conscience. This is why the rest of Paul’s teaching about warfare in Ephesians 6 says we must wear the armor of righteousness, salvation, truth…

Jeremiah’s visit to the potter’s house taught him the same thing: God’s promises of blessing depend on our staying clean and righteous before Him.

Don’t neglect the gifts imparted through prophecy, but meditate on them and give yourself to them. (I Timothy 4:14-15) Sometimes a prophecy of blessing can die of neglect. If God imparts gifts, we need to embrace them wholeheartedly.

How? First Paul tells us to meditate on them, to ponder them repeatedly, to consider what the scripture says about them and examples of people who have moved in the same gifts. Then Paul tells us to give ourselves to them. This means that at some point, we have to step out, expecting the gifts to work. Faith without works is dead.

A prophecy can impart spiritual gifts – if we will do our part to receive them. Otherwise, God-given promises may not come to pass.

Stir up the spiritual gift imparted through prophecy and the laying on of hands. (II Timothy 1:6-7) Sometimes we can experience an initial splash of a new gift, but soon we lapse into old routines and the gift is lost. But if God gives you a brief taste of a new gift, He is looking for you to stir yourself to get into a steady flow.

How do we stir up the gifts? Sometimes we have to command ourselves to get with it, just as David commanded himself to bless the Lord in Psalm 103. Sometimes we have to put ourselves in a position to use the gifts. In one way or another, we have to stir ourselves to move with God.

But again, Paul’s point here is that prophecy often does not come to pass automatically. We have to make an effort to embrace what God is promising.

So prophecy gives us (1) a basis for waging warfare, and (2) a good reason to maintain a good conscience. It gives us (3) something to meditate about and a (4) something to act upon. Then once we have tasted a measure of fulfillment, it gives us (5) something to stir up until it becomes part of our daily life.

But if we don’t embrace what God promises, the word may not come to pass – not because the prophet made a mistake, but because we didn’t bother to receive what God tried to give us.

Stan Smith :: © 2009, GospelSmith :: www.GospelSmith.com

Is All Prophecy Conditional?

Prophecies that make predictions about history are always conditional, and therefore they may or may not come to pass.  Messianic prophecies are unconditional, and they will surely come to pass.  We can see this difference in three short prophecies in Amos 7.

In verse 1, Amos saw a vision of a swarm of locusts devouring the crops.  In verse 2 he prayed for that God would forgive the land.  In verse 3, “the Lord relented.”

It was as simple as 1-2-3.  God spoke in a vision, but the word did not come to pass.

Verses 4-6 follow the same pattern, but this time it was fire instead of locusts:  “It consumed the great deep and devoured the territory.”  Again, prayer turned the judgment away and this vision too did not come to pass.

But in verses 7-9, God spoke differently as He showed a vision of a plumb line.  What did it represent?  In Amos’s generation, it represented the unchanging character of God.  To our generation, it additionally represents Jesus Himself.  Jesus is the standard by which everything and everyone is judged.

These nine verses in Amos 7 help us understand how prophecy works, and why a true prophet may give a true word that doesn’t come to pass.
Jeremiah 18 – the word at the potter’s house – shows that predictive prophecy is conditional.  God told Jeremiah that His promise of blessing can fail if a righteous person falls into sin, and promises of judgment will be turned away if sinners repent.

God used strong words in Jeremiah 18.  In verses 8 and 10, God said, “I will relent” or even “I will repent” – it depends on the translation – of what He had said He would do, whether good or bad.  It’s a Hebrew word that means He will turn or change direction; this is always in response to man’s changes of direction.

But from another perspective, God never changes direction.  He consistently moves in righteousness and towards righteousness.  If you read Jeremiah 18, it becomes obvious that God is not mocked:  if we choose righteousness, He will bless; if we choose wickedness, He will judge.
Ironically, many of us think “real” prophecy is the kind of predictions that God may or may not bring to pass; we are much less eager to hear prophecies that reveal Jesus.  It’s more exciting to hear a prediction because it seems so powerful and supernatural.

We are like children.  We love our desserts, but need parents who will make us eat our vegetables.

So if we’re seeing a lot of prophecies that aren’t coming to pass, one reason may be that we aren’t paying much attention to the ones that surely will.  But God is speaking them.  Day after day He is revealing the character of Jesus to the church.  Those of us who center in first-love find these words far more enthralling than predictions of what will happen next in history.

What is first-love all about?  It’s about God’s first and main commandment. It’s about centering on Jesus, and keeping our eye single towards Him.  This is the true purpose of prophecy, for Revelation 19:10 says the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.

This doesn’t mean God won’t talk about elections or earthquakes, but remember the lessons of Amos 7.  When God speaks of something that will happen in human history, judgments can be averted if people repent and make intercession.  But when God reveals the character of Jesus, He is revealing Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  These are the only prophecies that are unconditional, and that will surely come to pass.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

“Isn’t Prophecy Supposed To Come To Pass…?”

Prophetic ministry is like walking a tightrope:  it doesn’t work if we get in the habit of making mistakes.

No other ministry demands so much attention to accuracy.  Deuteronomy 18:21-22 sets a standard for true prophecy:

And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

My wife and I have been doing a lot of heart searching after a string of prophecies in 2008 that have not come to pass.

The first was about an earthquake in California – it was supposed to be the big one, and somehow it got attached to 8-8-08.  It didn’t happen.

The second was about the Lakeland Outpouring:  many of the prophecies were aborted when Todd Bentley’s issues came to light.

The third was about the presidential election.  I knew a lot of people who were hanging on to words that did not come to pass.

But prophetic people have something else in common with high-wire artists:  a safety net.

The safety net:  prophecy is conditional.

Scripture itself reveals that a prophecy can be the word of God without coming to pass.  Jonah’s story is an example.  God sent him to Nineveh and Jonah took the long way around to get there, but eventually he arrived and proclaimed:  “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed.”

It was God’s word, but it didn’t come to pass.  The king proclaimed three days of fasting and prayer and led the nation in repentance.  God turned away His judgment and the city was spared for more than a century.

Jeremiah’s trip to the potter’s house — see Jeremiah 18 — explains what happened to Jonah’s word in Nineveh.  Jeremiah watched as the potter took a malformed vessel, reworked the clay, and made a new vessel.  Then God spoke:

“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!  The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it…”

God went on to say that a nation that turns from righteousness can forfeit a promised blessing.  In other words, prophecy is almost always conditional, even if the prophet does not bother to explain the conditions.  God will turn away from judgment if we turn away from sin; He will withhold blessings if we turn away from righteousness.

Ezekiel 18 says God uses the same pattern with individuals.  His promise of blessing or warning of judgment can change if we turn towards Him in repentance or if we turn away.

For those of us who prophesy, this principle is a safety net if our words don’t come to pass.  God is the one who set the net there; if anything, more scriptures say prophecy is conditional than require that every word must come to pass.

Because of this principle, many prophetic people are saying prophecy is an invitation, not a prediction.  But others look on and wonder if there’s any point in prophecy – if the words are unlikely to come to pass anyway.

We’ve fallen into the net so many times that they’re starting to wonder if anyone knows how to walk on the high-wire.

God is giving us a hunger to see prophecy come to pass.

Frankly, the principles of the potter’s house easily explain the earthquake that didn’t happen, the glory that never quite got released in Lakeland, and the election that did not unfold as many had prophesied.  I don’t feel at all comfortable throwing stones at any of the people who gave these words or prayed over them.

But neither do I feel comfortable with our suave habit of falling into the net.  Granted, God put it there; it’s biblical to use it; it’s impossible to judge prophecy rightly without considering the unspoken conditions that go with it.

What ever became of the idea that God would simply speak, and the word would come to pass?  Do we have to expect that every word God speaks is negotiable?  Will He ever speak a word we can count on?

I Corinthians 12:4-6 implies that God will give us both kinds of words:

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.

Sometimes God will give a word like the one Jonah gave Nineveh.  It will be conditional, and it may or may not come to pass.  But sometimes He will give words that surely happen, even if it looks impossible:  they will be like Jesus’ word to Peter that he was to catch a fish and would find a coin in its mouth.  We can expect both kinds of prophecy because Paul made it clear that the God who gives prophecy (or any other gift) will give it in a variety of ways.

We’ve been experiencing one kind of word, and it’s biblical.  But we’re hungry for another kind of word as well.  We want to see someone cross the high-wire without falling into the net.

Jesus doesn’t just speak prophecy – He fulfills it.

“The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus.”  We’ve focused on one aspect of this – that Jesus will speak prophetic words through us.  But we may have been overlooking another side of Jesus:  He carefully fulfills prophetic words.

We find this in all four gospels, but especially in Matthew.  Matthew often said, “This was done to fulfill what is written…”  Jesus came not just to speak prophecy, but to fulfill prophecy.  He hasn’t changed.  He’s still interested in fulfilling prophecy, whether it be the written words of scripture or the living words spoken by believers today.

After He multiplied the loaves and fishes, He went around and gathered the leftovers so they would not go to waste.  Today He is gathering the leftover fragments of prophecy that others may have tossed aside.  He will not let the word of God return void.  He watches over it, to make sure it comes to pass.

I’m taking time for heart searching these days.  It can be biblical for prophecy to go unfulfilled if man does not do his part, but I see Jesus wanting to bring the word of God to pass.  Are our prophecies the kind of words He wants to fulfill?  Are they what God plans to do, or are they wishful thinking?

I’m not interested in criticizing everyone else’s ministry.  Satan is the one who accuses the brethren; I don’t want to help him with his work.  But I’m asking God to fill my mouth with words that He can be glad to watch over and bring to pass.  I’m asking Him to help me make it clear that a word is conditional, if it is; and that people will understand what the conditions are.

But I’m also trusting Him to know whether man will meet the conditions or not, and to take that into account when He speaks.  I sense that He would like to demonstrate that it is possible to get from one end of the high-wire to the other without falling into the net.

Are you hungry for something clearer in the prophetic?  If so, it’s a God-given hunger, and He wants to satisfy it.  “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

Stan Smith  ::  ©2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.gospelsmith.com