CHAPTER FOUR

Some Problems of Prophecy

SO FAR WE have been considering prophecy from the positive angle: but there are many questions that arise in practice that need an answer. Since prophecy is such a powerful weapon in our spiritual warfare it is obvious that Satan will use every means to blunt it, or discredit it, or turn it in some way against its possessor. This he has indeed done with much success, until today it is treated with scant respect.

       It is clear from the Scriptures that there are many false prophets gone out into the world, and that therefore we are not to believe any spirit without testing it. 1 John 4:1-3 shows us one of the tests which is to be applied. But this is nothing new. God's people have always had to discriminate between true and false prophets. The Israelites had at times many more false prophets than true ones in their midst; but they were nevertheless expected to be able to recognise the true ones, and follow them. From Elijah who faced hundreds of false prophets in Israel, (1 Kings 18) and Micaiah fighting a lone battle before Ahab, (2 Chron. 18), to Jeremiah in the last fatal days of Jerusalem, (Jer. Chapters 28 and 29), the conflict between the true and false continued: but God's people were equipped to recognise which was which, and to

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obey the true. Moses in Deut. 13:1-5 and 18:17-22 laid down the rules for safety. Any prophet, such as in our times a Spiritist or Mormon, who seeks to lead away from the truth which God has revealed in His Word is not to be accepted, even if he backs up his error with a sign which comes to pass; and any prophet who gives a sign which fails to come to pass is likewise to be rejected. At this particular point in history there is about to be staged in Jerusalem the last gigantic fight between false and true prophets (Rev. 11 and 13): the former will even bring down fire from heaven: but in this great conflict the two witnesses will be recognisable by the fact that they stand for the Word of God in contrast to the false prophets who seek to deny it.

       In 1933 a student at the Hampstead Bible School prophesied of the tapers which were burning so brightly at that time and in whose light we were all rejoicing, that they would all go out, and that the Lord would send a wind to blow away the ashes, after which He would light lamps. In a short time those lovely tapers were no longer burning and have had no successors; and today we are to look forward to the raising up, not of more tapers, but of Churches ablaze with the Gifts of the Spirit to the blessing of all around. At the beginning there were no Churches; they sprang from the light of the tapers; but today there are many Churches, which could burst into flames at the touch of the Holy Ghost. Lamps are brighter than tapers, and we are to look forward to even more blessed things in the future than we enjoyed in the past.

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Deadly Scepticism and its Answer

       We are warned however in the Scriptures that there is a very real danger of quenching the Spirit and making nothing of prophesying (1 Thess 5:20), so that either, as is very common, there is no prophesying at all in the Assembly nor any desire for it; or, if there is, it is passed by, as were Ezekiel's prophecies, as a pleasant song without any practical value. We hear, but do nothing about it. (Ezek. 33:30-33). This spirit unfortunately leads to a general undervaluing of the prophetic gift. Apparently even Timothy had fallen into this error, and needed to stir up his gift instead of neglecting it. (2 Tim. 1:6; 1 Tim. 4:14).

       When The Spirit speaks it is important that His words should be correctly received. In the Old Testament we are given examples of Baruch (Jer. 36, and Isaiah 30:8, and Habakkuk 2:2) being told to write down prophetic words, and the existence of the Old Testament prophecies in the Bible is the evidence that they were so written. Since prophecy should be "judged" by "the others" it is difficult to see how this could take place unless the words had in some way or other been correctly reported. A shorthand writer, if there should be one in the Assembly, could be a great help in this way. In ordinary practice however, no attempt is made either to capture or judge what is said. It is taken almost for granted that no real attention need be paid to it, and certainly nothing to be done because of it. There lies behind this practice a profound spirit of scepticism, which robs all prophetic ministry of its power, and yet is by its nature illogical. Either prophecy is God speaking through a man or it isn't. If it isn't, then it is a

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dangerous fraud and ought to be forbidden: if it is, it is worthy of the greatest attention. Are the words of The Lord ever to be lightly regarded, does He ever say things which may safely be ignored? It is clear from the Bible that prophecy needs to be considered by those to whom The Lord is speaking, and this cannot be done unless we are sure what has been said.

       This scepticism, which today is bearing such deadly fruit, arises from our failure to judge prophecy scripturally and give it its proper place. It is true that there are difficulties connected with the prophetic gift, but there always were, and there is an answer for each of them.

       (A) The prophet may be prophesying out of an evil heart. This is not a great difficulty, except in a large Meeting where the prophet is unknown. But there are two infallible signs whereby such a one can be detected:

       1. All Spirit-filled believers are immediately jarred by the prophecy and find themselves uneasy and unable to accept it. The Holy Spirit has borne witness to the deception.

       2. The false prophet, whether in or out of an Assembly, always has a harsh and overbearing spirit and insists on being accepted. Whereas the true prophet has a meek and gentle spirit as has His Lord, and in his prophecy has no axe of his own to grind, as the false prophet always has.

       (B) The meaning of the words may be misunderstood or misapplied. This is especially possible where no record of them is taken. An example of such a misunderstanding of the Lord's words is given in John 21:21-23 for our warning: and the whole Jewish Nation has misunderstood their own

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prophetic Scriptures, and fulfilled Isaiah 53 without realising it! The words of the Lord to Jacob in Gen. 28:10-22 said nothing about Laban or Leah, neither did Joseph envisage an Egyptian prison after his dreams! It must have seemed as if the predictions were false! God often speaks to try us! (Ps. 105:19).

       Again when the prophecy is given in the Assembly it is possible to apply to oneself words which are for someone else. If the prophecy is simply a statement of general truth all may apply it to themselves if they are helped by it. But if it seems to go further than this, and to be speaking to some individual in some detailed way, then the judging of it will make this clear, and the others will not apply it to themselves. Great care should be taken not to get into the habit of applying all prophecy to oneself without even judging it. We are not meant to govern our lives by words uttered to the whole Assembly, unless there is overwhelming evidence that the Lord is speaking to us alone, and in that case there will be confirmation in other ways.

       (C) The time factor may also easily mislead us, if we jump to conclusions. Where prophecy is received under a great anointing it is so vivid that one expects its fulfilment immediately. The Old Testament prophets were perplexed by this, (1 Pet. 1:10-12), and needed a further revelation to make matters plain (cf. Dan. 12:4-9). My own experience is that The Lord gives warning or promise, not days, but years before the actual fulfilment, and as the years pass by it is very possible to forget His words or doubt them. So I was warned through the mouths of two Missionary Students in 1932 that I was to go through a period of the thickest, blackest

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darkness; but it was not till 1936 that that fearful darkness suddenly overwhelmed me in a train on my way to a Convention, and never lifted till 1943, when equally suddenly I saw the small light which had been promised in the prophecies, and again spoke in tongues and magnified God, and slowly emerged into full light again. The time lapse had caused me to forget and misunderstand.

       (D) Finally, at times blessings promised through a prophet do not come to pass, because sin or unbelief have come in, as in the case of Israel's passage into Canaan, which was put off until the unbelievers had perished in the wilderness, or the tragic defeat at Ai in spite of God's promise that none should withstand them, a defeat which mightily upset Joshua, and caused him to reproach God! At that time The Lord made it plain that where there was sin He would not perform His word. One sinful family is enough to bring a whole nation or an entire Assembly to disaster!

       Some have drawn a distinction between the prophets mentioned in Eph. 4, and those of 1 Cor. 12-14, as if the former were a special class of greater dignity. But there is nothing in the original language to uphold this distinction. On the contrary it is the so-called lesser prophets of 1 Cor. who are placed directly after Apostles, as in 1 Cor. 12:28 and Eph. 4:11. There are of course differences between prophets both in Old and New Testaments, but that is not a difference of essence but of degree. Some prophets have the faith to utter words from God from which the others would shrink. A few years ago a sister from U.S.A. was the speaker at a Kingsway morning Convention Service. The Meeting was very hard and dry; but

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the sister prophesied that The Lord would pour out His Spirit upon us that morning. Anyone would have prophesied that The Lord would pour out His Spirit: a smaller number would have been willing to say "that day". But who would venture to say "that morning" when the Meeting was extremely dry? The sister preached, the Chairman was closing the Meeting, when all of a sudden down came the Spirit of God upon us and the Platform found themselves upon their knees, praising God with full hearts, and all the congregation was moved. That daring prophecy had come to pass! Let everyone prophesy according to the proportion of his faith (Roms. 12:6). All are mouthpieces of The Spirit, but all need equally to be "judged" by "the others".

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