Scripture
“Instead the Lord will choose one of your own people to be a prophet just like me.”
Observation
Part of God's gracious provision to us is that of prophets- people who hear the voice of God and speak on behalf of Him.
God's promise here is that there will always be such a person.
The test of the prophet is two- fold
1. Does he or she speak truly of what is to pass? I read yesterday that if you exclude all the events which anyone could reasonably expect to happen (such as floods in Asia in the monsoon season), the predictions of the top clairvoyants for 2008 were nearly all wrong.
2. Does he or she speak on behalf of some other god? Clairvoyants, psychics etc are false prophets because they do not even claim to speak on behalf of the God of the bible and so christians have no business listening to them.
Application
It is easy to go to wither extreme with prophets- we can either gullibly swallow everything that every person who calls themselves a prophet might spout forth. Or we can, as many christians do, throw out the baby with the bath water, and dismiss all talk of prophecy and other spiritual gifts.
Paul tells us: “Do not quench the Holy Spirit or ignore prophecies. Put everything to the test. Accept what is good and have nothing to do with evil.” (1 Thess. 5:19-22)
Prayer
Holy Spirit, come and fill me. Activate the gift of prophecy in your church. Let us all hear your sweet voice. And grant us the gift of discernment of spirits so that we can hold on to what is good and reject what is not from you. Amen.
Very difficult to discern sometimes.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, which is why we need to learn to listen to that "still small voice."
ReplyDelete