Last week, I wrote a few thoughts about prophecy, and, specifically, what prophecy is and what it is not. You might be asking why God uses other people to prophesy encouragement and direction toward the testimony of Jesus instead of just talking to us about it. After all, we hear God’s voice as His children (John 10:27). We live under the New Covenant, where we all have access to God. Well, there are a few reasons why God might speak to you in prophecy instead of to you directly.
First, God loves to have us all participate in the testimony of Jesus. The gospel isn’t just about us. Having others come alongside us takes our relationship with God from “me and Jesus” to community, to building each other up (2 Corinthians 1:4). In a healthy group, this is a beautiful thing, because it allows everyone to experience the testimony of Jesus. For example, I remember someone prophesying over someone I loved about inner healing in her life. I got to rejoice in her healing with her because not only had she received healing for her heart, but I and those around us got to watch it happen through prophecy. We all experienced the love of God by watching Him heal her – and we got to walk the healing out with her within the realm of community, encouraging her to remember her healing and live from that place of healing.
Second, we tend to have our own agendas and things we think are important (not necessarily a bad or wrong thing), and someone prophesying to us can help us realize what God is breathing on in this season or what God feels is important. Could He just speak to us? Of course! But sometimes, He chooses to use someone else – at the very least, so it will stick in our minds that God thinks this topic is important.
Third, with prophecy often comes power. When the words of the Lord are spoken over a person, power is released to confirm and complete what He is saying. I remember a day many years ago when someone prophesied over me. It wasn’t directional, per se, though it was encouraging. But that prophecy carried the power of God. My life changed that day, not because I implicitly accepted what the guy said (believe me, I didn’t), but because of the power of God that came with the prophecy. In a similar vein, I’ve heard people prophesy to an individual, “God loves you.” Everyone around them was thinking, “She’s been going to Sunday school since she was an infant; she knows that!” But with the prophecy came power, and for the first time in this woman’s life, she understood just how much God loved her. It was transformational. Not because of what someone said, but because of the power that came with what they said.
I believe this is a massive reason why God sense prophesy – whether it’s individual direction, group instruction, or highlighting what God is doing in a person. When God gives a prophecy, it comes with the power to help the individual or group learn, be encouraged, or otherwise carry out what God is saying.
Fourth, prophecy can act as a stake in the ground. When the attack comes (as it does, whether there is prophecy or not), I can remember, “God said this!” I try to write down the prophesies and things God says word for word – this way, I can pray exactly what He said to me or He told someone else to say to me to remember what God said.
Fifth, prophecy is for the community to hear and uphold. Paul said, “I wish you could all prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:5), so this is something that can be common and done in a group setting. When those who know the person hear what God says about them, they have the power and the knowledge to treat that person the way that God is speaking about them. This is the true beauty of prophecy – not only is God speaking, but He is defining how others get to see the person, as well.
Even in the community setting, remember to take any prophetic utterance to God. I don’t care how compelling it was. I don’t care who said it. I don’t care if the prophet got all the details right. I care whether or not God is speaking it. There will be times when prophets are wrong. There will be times when prophets are right, but they gave the prophecy wrong. There will be times when it’s, “yes, but not yet.” And of course, there are times when three sentences explain what you’ve been trying to understand for three years (yes, I’ve been there, generally if not three sentences and three years specifically).
It’s the responsibility of the prophet to check to make sure he or she has heard from God. But even more, it is your responsibility to weigh the prophecy to see if it is truly from God. It is also your responsibility to allow God to do what He wants with any prophecy. He will lead you to and through any prophecy, but it may not look exactly like you expected when it was first spoken.
