Continuing on with our “Life in the Spirit” series, you’ll enjoy this longer session in which we dig deeper into the ministry of prophecy today. How can we begin to move in prophecy and, if God speaks apart from His Word, how will I know it’s Him?

Click here to view or download class notes for this session (PDF).

EXCERPT: We can define New Testament prophecy as simply reporting something that God has spontaneously brought to your mind. It has its origin in the mind of God, not the mind of man. It’s not the same thing as preaching or teaching, which can certainly be anointed by the Spirit, but which results mostly from human preparation. The word “propheteia” in the Greek simply means speaking on behalf of another. In the New Covenant, prophecy is not equivalent to Scripture. They are not on the same level. Prophecy doesn’t carry the same authority as God’s Word. In fact, Scripture warns us that we know in part, and prophesy in part (1 Corinthians 13:9).In spite of how we commonly use the word prophecy in modern English, prophecy is not necessarily about foretelling things, but about “forthtelling”. That means speaking forth what God tells us, regardless of whether the message is predicting anything.

The Bible says, “…he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men” (1 Corinthians 14:3). These are the three ordinary and customary purposes of prophecy in the Church: to edify (build up or strengthen); to exhort (encourage); and to comfort – not necessarily to predict the future.

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