Prophecy - The Spirit
Scripture Reading - Revelation 19:9-10 KJV
9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Today we will speak briefly about “Prophecy”. Generally biblical “prophecy” can be thought of in four ways. 1st “Prophecy” is the spoken Word of God, 2ndly “Prophecy” is a prediction of an event, situation and/or circumstance that will happen in the future. 3rdly “Prophecy” is a gift from God and 4thly “prophecy” is a spirit. In this lesson we will focus on “The Spirit of Prophecy”. In today’s verse we noticed that the testimony of Jesus is considered by God as “prophecy”. This lines up with the thought that inspired teaching and preaching is “prophecy” under the New Covenant. All born-again children of God know two basic truths. The first basic truth we firmly believe is that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that He is the Savoir of the world. Just because He is declared the Savoir of the World by God the Father, the Holy Spirit and the true children of God does not mean that people automatically are saved. No my dear faith friend, people must hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ to properly identify that they are a sinner in need of The Savoir and they must also believe the message of salvation by calling upon the Name of Jesus to be saved (born-again). This brings us two the second major truth all truly born-again Christians know and that truth is we must share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. On that note we identify the exact reason the Lord freely gave us “The Spirit of Prophecy”. Since we know the testimony of Jesus Christ is “the Spirit of Prophecy” we must also desire to “prophesy” in the Name of the Lord. The reason we (ihlcc) mention that true godly “prophecy glorifies Jesus” is because some people’s testimony glorifies their history, their long road to conversion rather than the goodness of God in their deliverance from a life of bondage. We never want to minimize the hardships people have faced before coming to Jesus Christ but that should never be our point of emphasis because the goodness of God leads men unto repentance (Romans 2:4). When we spend too much time talking about our past we can leave people with an impression of us when we ought to leave people with a good impression of Jesus. Whatever your background was your future is much brighter and better in Jesus Christ. Therefore your personal testimony should always be about glorifying Jesus Christ. Your yielding to “the Spirit of Prophecy’ should not only be about what He did in your life but also what He is doing right now in your life to glorify His Name. Yes, many people have been delivered from horrible situations but if people need to know Jesus saves, heals and delivers it is vitally important for those same people to know how to be healed, saved and delivered. So all Christians must be open to this “Spirit of Prophecy” to effectively share the message of Jesus concerning God’s plan for salvation. You see, our dear faith friend, it is not just what you say but also how you say it that counts. What we (ihlcc) mean by that is when people sense the presence of God in your testimony or your message to them that is “the Spirit of Prophecy”. We all know the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus as His current day ministry on earth. Therefore one could conclude that the Precious Holy Spirit is this “Spirit of Prophecy”. Yes, we (ihlcc) do believe that the Holy Spirit and “the Spirit of Prophecy” are one in the same but the most important thing we believe is that all men need to hear “the Spirit of Prophecy” speaking to them to accept Jesus Christ into their life. Then believe that “prophecy” by receiving Jesus Christ into their life and then receive the Holy Spirit in His fullness to be able to more effectively “prophesy” to others. We are all commissioned to share Jesus Christ so we are all ministers of “the Spirit of Prophecy” under the guidelines of the New Testament. We must thank God for this ministry of reconciliation. Amen!