CHAPTER THREE

Prophecy

WE ARE NOW entering upon the study of "the greater gifts", and it may be well to begin by the consideration of a misapprehension, which is responsible for a great deal of spiritual poverty. We are inclined to think that the real prophets of Israel were far superior to us, and much nearer to God than we are, and that we cannot expect, e.g., to prophesy as they did. This is a false humility which directly contradicts the words of Our Lord. When the disciples of John Baptist came to question Him, he stated that John was a prophet and more than a prophet, and indeed that of men born of women there had not arisen a greater than he; but He immediately went on to assert that the least in the Kingdom of God was greater than John Baptist, because born of God, and therefore as a Son of God he was more privileged than any son of man, or even any angel. And He warned the disciples to call no man on earth father, for God in Heaven was now their Father; and to forget this would be to shut their minds to the glory of what had happened to them.

       It is right to think as poorly as we will of our past selves, but not to minimise the exceeding grace of Our Lord, who is not ashamed to call us brethren. If God then used His servants as prophets, for Moses was faithful in all his house as

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a servant, should we think it strange that He should so use His Sons? Every Son of God who is baptized in the Spirit is not only one of Our Lord's Brethren, but is also indwelt by the Third Person of The Trinity. Why should he therefore think it extraordinary to prophesy? It is indeed only too easy to become shortsighted and live as men, as Paul says, so that we only see Mr. or Mrs. "So-and-So", and overlook the marvellous truth that they are members of The Royal Family, and Heirs of God, and that the Spirit of Prophecy is resident in their bodies.

       But whatever our doctrine may have been, in practice we have found it tremendously difficult to believe that God The Spirit is within us. If we were fully to believe this, we should expect Him continually to manifest Himself in our Assemblies in all the Nine Gifts when needed. The Baptism in The Spirit was not offered to every believing Israelite; they were but servants, and it was their Lord who chose whom He would, often against their will, as Moses or Ezekiel, to do His Work. But from His own Family God will withhold no good thing but will freely give us all; and it depends upon us, not Him, whether we accept the Spirit and His gifts or not. Therefore we are exhorted to covet them.

What is a Prophet?

       We may now return to the subject of this article, Prophecy. The word "prophet" simply means one who is the mouthpiece of another, who for some reason or another is not able to speak for himself. Thus God said to Moses, who pleaded his inability to speak to Pharaoh, that his brother

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Aaron should be his "prophet" (Exod. 7:1). Moses was to put the words which he had from God into Aaron's mouth. A prophet then is the mouthpiece of another; and Christian prophets are the mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit who entered them at their baptism in The Holy Spirit. As Paul points out in 1 Cor. 14:25, an unbeliever to whom God speaks through a prophet will report, not how wonderful the prophet is, but that "God is in you of a truth", since the prophet has revealed to him secrets that only God could know. This gift of prophecy is then one which we are all to covet.

       There can be no greater blessing than to be a prophet and thus enable God to speak whatever He may want to say at any particular moment. All the Children of God are, of course, able to speak for God, if they only repeat the words which He has caused to be written in the Bible. But this is not prophecy, and does not make a man a prophet. A prophet is not a preacher of revealed truth, but is a man through whom God can speak words which He wants said at any particular moment to any particular person or persons. It is an utterance of words which the Holy Ghost wishes to say at that time and place, and will, of course, have a definite aim in the mind of God, which may or may not be known to the prophet. For no prophecy ever comes by the will of man, but of God. When these words have been uttered the prophet's work is done. It remains for those in authority in the Assembly to sift what has been said and take notice of it. For since prophecy is the words of God in the mouth of a prophet it is worthy of the greatest attention, as are all the

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words of God. If the Bible is the staple food of all Christians throughout the whole age, then prophecy is the day-to-day conversation of the Spirit to any individual or Church to which He wishes to speak. As Our Lord said, "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name there am I in the midst."

The Uses of Prophecy

       It may then be helpful here to look at some of the uses of prophecy given in the New Testament after Pentecost.

1. For evangelization (1 Cor. 14:24, 25). The Holy Spirit can use a prophet to enter the secrets of the heart and convince a man that God is speaking to him. What limitless possibilities lie here for the local Assembly! There is no need to ask an Evangelist to come; he will be better employed amongst those for whom no Church is available. But every Church in which there are prophets can expect The Spirit to speak directly to the sinner in a way that cannot be mistaken.

2. For building up, exhorting and comforting the Assembly (1 Cor. 14:3). There will from time to time come into any Assembly members with hidden conflicts, fears and needs, which not even the best Pastor can, or ought, to know. But again through a prophet, the Holy Spirit can reach where man cannot, and can say the very thing that needs saying. The letters to the seven Churches supply many examples of this use of prophecy. The messengers of the seven Churches, sent no doubt to convey the love of the Churches to John in his prison—for there was no public postal system in those days—took back with them

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what the Lord wished to say to each Church in its own peculiar situation at the time. Thus the Churches were built up or exhorted or comforted as the need might be. So too Timothy was told not to allow the spiritual gift he had received through prophecy and the laying on of Paul's hands to lie dormant, but to rekindle it and go forward bravely (1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6).

3. Prophecies are also given us to enable us to fight a good fight against the devil (1 Tim. 1:18). They come either to warn us of great opposition or to encourage us with great promises, or both. Our Lord pointed out on the way to Emmaus the Old Testament predictions which had shown Him a plain but fearful path, in the light of which He spoke of what He would do after death with as much certainty as if He were already alive again. It was through their ignorance and unbelief that the apostles were so much in the dark and therefore defeated. It was through the prophecies which continually met him on His way to Jerusalem that Paul was not overwhelmed. Unfortunately, Paul had bound himself by an oath (Acts 20:22) against the Scripture of James 5:12, and found himself obliged (Deut. 23:21) not only to disregard the prophecies which would have restrained him, but also to play the hypocrite at James' suggestion (Acts 21:20-26) and enter into the deserted Temple at Jerusalem, as if the Lord were still there, and the Law of Moses was still in operation. This obliged the Lord to take him prisoner and lead him out of Jerusalem, never to return there, so that he described himself as "The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles" (Eph. 3:1). It is a dangerous thing to disregard

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prophecy, and Paul had left the Gentiles, as at Ephesus, to hurry back to an obsolete Jewish Festival. Yet his sufferings in Jerusalem did not come as an unexpected shock, but as a trial of which he had had full warning, and against which he was fully armed, the reason for which he fully understood. Never again would he visit the infidel Temple at Jerusalem, of which Our Lord had foretold the destruction.

4. Finally our Lord uses His prophets to foretell future events, as Agabus foretold the famine that was to come, and thus enabled the Church to make preparation for it. So also Paul was able to foretell the happy conclusion of the shipwreck upon an island, and his trial before Caesar (Acts 27:23-26) and thus save the desperate situation. So the Camden Town Assembly, threatened with the requisition of their Hall by the Local Council, for which they paid rent, were told through prophecy that they could either have their own Hall or another. They chose to retain their own, and then were told that the Lord would give it to them. They laid hold upon these promises as the Word of God through a prophet, and both promises were, against all likelihood humanly speaking, wonderfully performed. Their Hall was at the very last moment derequisitioned, and then was freely given to them by the owners! I can myself testify that every major event in my Pentecostal life has been clearly foretold in prophecy long before it occurred, so that even in the worst trials I have had, as Peter says (2 Pet. 1:19), "a light shining in a dark place." Mr. Howard Carter used to tell us at the Bible School that The Lord had said to him in prophecy that he should have heaps

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upon heaps of money for the School, some of which should come upon camels! And, indeed, much came through the generosity of an Eastern merchant! The Lord is not less present in His Church than He was in His Nation! As there were many prophets in Israel, and Moses said, "Would to God all the Lord's People were prophets" (Num. 11:24-29), so Paul took it for granted that even in Corinth there would be more prophets than could all speak in the same meeting!

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