As you study God’s word, there are things that clearly make sense and there are things that clearly do not make sense.
We embrace all that is true which requires that we sometimes embrace the mysterious, unknown nature of what is true. Some things we know, some we know in part. The key is holding onto both, experiencing the tension of clarity and mystery.
One biblical topic of great mystery is the gift of prophecy. Today, I’m sharing a blog that touches on the mystery of prophecy. It’s written by Joel Repic, Director of Church Planting for the C&MA Western PA District and one of the pastors at the Gospel Tabernacle in Aliquippa, PA. This coming Saturday (May 8, 2021) Joel Repic and Steve Rossi will be leading us in a prophetic training day. Click here for more information
Nate Howard
Prophecy, Pandemic, and Comfort
by Joel Repic (https://www.hopeisprotest.com/)
I’m part of a family on mission that believes God is still speaking today. We trust His written Word more than any other kind of revelation (as we like to say, “We’re Bible people.”). But we also believe God’s Spirit speaks in a variety of ways as attested in those same Scriptures that we love to honor and obey (read 1 Corinthians 12-14).
When God’s Spirit reveals something spontaneously to someone and they share it with another, we call that “prophecy.” The Apostle Paul says that prophecy has a purpose among the people of God:
(1 Corinthians 14:3) But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging, and comfort.
Years ago I was at a conference in Atlanta with some friends where God was moving powerfully. Someone in the gathering was deaf and got their hearing restored. You know, wild stuff like that.
In the middle of one of the services, a woman sitting next to me who I didn’t know leaned over to me and my friends and whispered, “I see a fetus. Someone here is going to have another baby.” I leaned back in my seat almost as if to let the word zip by my face and hit my friends instead. My wife and I thought we were done having children. We had two kids and thought that was all God had for our family. Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention to this strange experience. Who was this odd woman, anyway?
Then in the months that followed two people in our church approached Chelsea and told her they had dreams that she was pregnant. Again, we laughed it off. One of the people who shared the dream was new to our church and new to the thought that God could speak in these ways. Before delivering the contents of the dream to Chelsea, he said something like, “I normally wouldn’t pay attention to a dream like this, but you people seem to pay attention to these kinds of things.”
After that, nothing. Life went on as usual. Our two kids got older.
Then years later while I was in Georgia getting ready to speak at a college, my wife called me from home. Yep, you guessed it.
“I’m pregnant.”
Truly a surprise. There would be nine years between our oldest child and this new baby. Of course, we were happy, but we also felt overwhelmed. This was a lot to process.
But then, we remembered. A lady I didn’t know said she saw a fetus. And then there were the two dreams. I guess God had told us this all along. Why would He do that?
Here’s another, more recent story.
A few weeks ago in one of our worship gatherings (before the reality of this pandemic with its quarantines set it on any of us), a woman stood up and shared something God had put on her heart in prayer. She spoke of a season of slowing down that would come and of a need to lean in and listen to God during this time. She said God was calling us to trust Him and to just do “the next right thing” with Him. (Yes, she also referenced Frozen II. Of course, I knew the reference - I’m a father of two young girls).
Right around the same time another woman from our church sent me the contents of a dream she had at night. It was of a train traveling through the American countryside. The train and the track got totally dismantled, and the dream was accompanied by a sense that God was about to do some major rearranging in our nation and the American church.
At the time, neither of these made much sense to me. A few weeks ago, things were speeding up in ministry, not slowing down. And sure, trains are cool. But I didn’t get it.
Then today, in the midst of the slowness created by pandemic and questions about what society and church and mission must now look like in this strange season, both of these prophetic words felt oddly familiar and near. Why would God speak like that?
Finally, here’s an ancient story.
A Jewish man named Daniel and his people were captive in the Babylonian empire when a hand appeared at a royal feast and wrote on the plaster wall:
(Daniel 5:25) “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN”
After the Babylonian astrologers and magicians failed at discerning an interpretation, the Babylonian king called for Daniel. He interpreted the dream:
(Daniel 5:26-28) “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Um. Chills.
That night, the Persian empire conquered the Babylonian one (Daniel 5:30-31). Why would God speak this word through Daniel before the attack happened?
Prophecy is a fascinating study in Scripture. God speaks in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes. Old Testament and New Testament prophecy are not quite the same thing. Prophecy isn’t always about the future (in fact, many times it’s actually about the present). And I’m sure you understand like I do that there are many things that happen in life for which God seemingly gives absolutely no forewarning whatsoever.
But why is it that from time to time one of God’s servants picks up on a hint of how He’s working? Like detecting in our ears a distant voice on the wind, sometimes God whispers His secrets to women and men who are listening.
But why?
I’m certain there are many reasons we could name, but this afternoon I’m thinking about one particular purpose mentioned by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians: comfort.
The fall of Babylon didn’t just mean something for the Babylonians who didn’t honor God; it also meant many things for the Jewish people held in captivity there. Their worlds were about to be turned upside down too - in a way that was really outside of Daniel’s control or the control of his people. It must have been frightening to be such a small and insignificant people in the midst of such historic and tumultuous events.
But God had spoken to the Babylonian monarch, and Daniel got to listen in.
This historic nation-shaking wasn’t some freak accident. This wasn’t a surprise to God or His purposes. I’m sure Daniel knew all of this prior to a hand appearing and writing on the wall of a dinner party, but I’m also sure after this strange experience he really knew it. The soon-coming attack of the Persians was not a fluke of history. God was at work somehow even in this time, and somehow His purpose still remained after the regime change. That must have been comforting for God’s people - to know that there was a greater reality at work than the stuff that eventually gets recorded in history books.
See, God loves to speak for our comfort.
Weeks ago, I didn’t pick up on pandemic themes in the train dream and the Frozen II reference, and maybe I still don’t fully understand what these messages mean. As Paul says, we see only in part (1 Corinthians 13:12). And before I received these words from these individuals, yes, I knew God’s purposes are not thwarted by pandemics. The Scriptures are enough to convince me of that.
And yet, I’m comforted today.
I’m comforted because God knew about this before we did. Even in the inconvenience and tragedies, the economic instability, the change in ministry designs and structures, the uncertainty about the future - He knew. More than that, I think maybe He wanted to whisper a bit of it to us. Part of the comfort comes from actually being included in what He’s doing. I’m comforted because in recent months our structures at the Gospel Tab and Greenhouse Network became perfectly suited for a time such as this - a time we couldn’t have seen coming. I’m confident of God’s purposes in all of this. And those prophetic words (as well as so many others I didn’t report here) have helped. This afternoon, I’m standing on the Scriptures, but I’m also taking comfort in these prophetic messages.
I know some don’t have room in their theology for these kinds of experiences. I know others might think it’s strange that God would speak something of a season of quarantine and upheaval to a small community of Jesus-followers in Aliquippa (did Daniel think it strange he was being included in revelation about empires?). And I know that some people think they’ve heard things from God and what they share is just wrong or weird.
But I also know that in the weeks following the discovery of Chelsea’s pregnancy, a peace settled in on us as we recalled that odd woman at the conference and those unusual dreams. God knew. We hadn’t planned things a certain way, but God’s purposes were absolutely at work. And when I held my baby girl in my arms months later, I was reminded that God doesn’t just speak about the shaking of empires.
He speaks about new birth as well.
