by Nate Howard
Sometimes it may seem easier to avoid talking about things that could cause discomfort, awkwardness, or disagreement. But humble, thoughtful dialogue has the potential to result in new insight and freedom.
I’m grateful for the openness in our family of churches to have these kinds of conversations around important biblical subjects, like prophesy. So in an attempt to spur on the healthy conversation I want to include a number of quotes from two authors who write on prophesy — each from a different perspective.
Prophets reveal to us the present priorities of the Lord for our lives. Prophets shed light on the mysteries of our lives or make sense of our pain. Prophets tell us the things we cannot see. (Jack Deere)
1 Corinthians 14:36 makes it very unlikely that anyone at Corinth, even any prophet, was able to speak with absolute divine authority. (Wayne Grudem)
Revelation is God making known to us what we did not know or what we could not have known through our natural senses. (Jack Deere)
We should encourage ourselves not to make the same mistake some made in the early church by overvaluing prophecy and thinking of prophecies as the very words of God. For if that happens (as it sometimes does today), then prophecy will be rejected altogether by some (who see it as a competitor with Scripture as a source of God’s words for our lives) and too highly esteemed by others (who see it as the actual words of God and fail to exercise proper discernment over it, sometimes giving prophecy more importance than Scripture in their daily lives, and sometimes even being led astray by the mistaken, human interpretations that come with it). (Wayne Grudem)
On why God may speak to us prophetically: There is more to us than just a mind. We are also spirit and flesh. And we have emotions that powerfully affect our behavior. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. When we might ignore a worn-out warning, a graphic dream can shake us out of a complacent state. Or a vision of future joy may cause us to endure a present hardship long after we would have forgotten a prosaic promise. (Jack Deere)
The mistake in my method was this: I had failed to distinguish between revelation (what is said), interpretation (what it means) and application (what we do about it). These three factors are involved every time God speaks to us. If the revelation is from God, then it must be true because God cannot lie (see Heb. 6:18). However, we can have a true revelation and give it a wrong interpretation. Furthermore, we can have a true revelation, a correct interpretation and a wrong application. We have to be right at all three stages if the message from the Lord is going to benefit someone. (Jack Deere)
The prophet who is always careful to indicate the level of certainty of his message is not only wise but also mature. (Jack Deere)
What authority does prophecy carry? The same authority as that of any other Christian activity in the church, like leadership, counseling, teaching. . . . If it is true, it will prove to be true. Spiritual people will respond warmly to it. Wise and proven leaders will approve and confirm it. The enlightened conscience will embrace it. (Wayne Grudem)
Always seeing what is wrong with people is not a gift; it’s an obsession. It is frequently the sign of a rigid, angry, controlling personality disorder that causes pain for everyone involved. Faultfinding and anger are not the signs of a prophetic calling, but rather of a wounded heart that has refused God’s healing mercy. (Jack Deere)
The prophecy we find in 1 Corinthians, while it may have been prompted by a “revelation” from God, had only the authority of the merely human words in which it was spoken. The prophet could err, could misinterpret, and could be questioned or challenged at any point. (Wayne Grudem)
It seems to me that often those who hold a “cessationist” view (that prophecy has ceased and is not for today) are arguing against a view of prophecy which no responsible charismatic holds. Charismatic writer Donald Bridge puts it well: If prophecy is assumed to be directly inspired by God, authoritative and infallible, then clearly there can be no prophecy today. The Bible is complete. (Wayne Grudem)
There is a danger that prophecy will be over-valued, and there is the opposite danger that it will be rejected altogether. To avoid both of those common errors, we should understand the authority of prophecy correctly, as something that God can use to bring things to our attention, but as something that nonetheless can contain human interpretation and mistakes. It must therefore be subject to Scripture and must be regulated and tested according to Paul’s instructions. (Wayne Grudem)
Let’s continue the conversation about New Testament prophesy - even when it is uncomfortable, awkward or we may disagree.
If you are interested in engaging in these kind of conversations, then I would encourage you to take part in the 2021 prophetic development track “Growing in the Prophetic.” You can learn more about this track and all the others at www.epdalliance.org/development. Sign ups for this track are open now.