Matthew 23:34 - ...behold, I am sending you prophets...
Jesus promised that he would send all religious people prophets in order to guide them into taking the right course with God for their lives. But at the same time He prophesied that many of these religious people would reject them and their God-sent messages because they just wouldn't believe them.
Hebrews 3:19 - So we see that they were not able to enter (into truth) because of (their) unbelief.
So for those who can accept and believe in prophets and prophecies as being viable gifts from God for today, we will here discuss how God speaks to us thru prophecies.
God may elect to speak to any one of His Christians or to groups of them by sending a prophet or an apostle to prophesy His message to them. This is a very important means of personal communication from God which he makes available to all of His believers.
I Corinthians 14:22b - ...prophecy is for...those who believe.
Prophecy is so important that Moses desired that all of God's children would be given the gift of becoming a prophet!
Numbers 11:29 - Would that ALL of the LORD'S people were prophets...!
The apostle Paul joined Moses with a similar desire for all Christians to become prophets because he was also shown by God the importance of the bringing forth of inspired messages to help the brethren.
I Corinthians 14:1 -5 - ...desire earnestly (to be given) spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation (and)...one who prophesies edifies the church.
How I wish that you ALL...would prophesy.
Paul points out how the gift of a prophetic message from God can spiritually improve each Christian who receives and believes it.
I Corinthians 14:6b - what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy...?
Paul also points out that prophetic messages are a given through His prophets as a sign from God to demonstrate that He is personally attentive to each of His Christians.
I Corinthians 14:22b - ...prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.
Paul exhorts Christians everywhere to allow the prophets in their churches to bring forth messages for everyone, one at a time in an orderly manner, at any given church meeting.
I Corinthians 14:29 - 31 - Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted.
He points out that in a church meeting, when the gift of prophecy is allowed to be fully practiced in such an orderly fashion by all those who are present, the effect will be so spiritually powerful that if unbelievers are visiting, they will perceive and believe that God is truly present within that meeting!
I Corinthians 14:24 - But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called into account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.
One time a few brothers and I went in my van to the home of a Catholic family. After ministering for a while to the wife and her grown kids we said our goodbyes and climbed into the van to leave. Just as we were about to drive off the husband, who had been drinking in the back yard while we were there, staggered out front and called for us to stop, which we did. We slid the side door open for him and he stumbled up into the van with us to talk with us. As he got in, his feet were muddied and he tracked that mud onto the van's floor carpet.
When he noticed it he apologized profusely but we reassured him that it wasn't important and that we'd easily clean it right up at the gas station to which we were going. So he thanked us for coming and talking with his family (they had 3 boys with cases of muscular dystrophy who had already died). He said that he admired our faith and that he too believed in Jesus for his salvation but he couldn't be the way that we were himself (he was known as a womanizer). He was very nice though and he wished us all well on our trip back.
Just then one of the prophetic brothers was moved to say to him, "You have a lot of nightmares don't you?" Startled, he replied, "How did you know about that?" to which the brother answered,"The thought just came into my mind and I felt moved to ask it of you." So we all looked at him with compassion and testified to him that he might want to repent of his sins and begin to seek the Lord in His life.
He was drunk so he peered a bit dazedly and slowly at each of us before proclaiming, "God is really with all of you guys! That's the only way you'd know about my nightmares. You're probably right, maybe I should start going back to church. This way of life of mine stinks!" Then he began crying and he thanked each of us for coming and stumbled back out of the van and waved goodbye through his tears as we left.
A bit later we were all discussing the subject of whether people in his condition were really saved, especially considering the stereotype of so many Catholics carousing around all week and then going to church on Sunday. One of the brother's was thumbing around in his Bible as the discussion ensued when all of a sudden he said, "Hey guys, maybe the Lord is giving us our answer in this verse...
John 13:10 - ...He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean...
"Maybe God is saying to us here that this fellow's muddy feet were His sign to us to declare that this man is saved in his heart but he just needs to clean up his walk with the Lord. Maybe the mud on his feet and this verse are our sign from God that even though no drunkard or immoral person can enter the kingdom of heaven, this man just needs to change his attitude and his behavior about these sins and he'll make it. What do you all think?" Well, after further discussion we all ended up agreeing that God had enlightened us to the truth on this man's heart salvation with his muddy feet and this verse.
The first point to be made about this testimony is that when we all prophesied to him together one of the secrets of his heart was revealed and he did just what I Corinthians 14:24 above said he'd do by declaring that God was certainly among us.
Hebrews 4:12 - the Word of God is living and active...
The second point I'd like to to make about this testimony is that God then sent us a Word of wisdom in a verse from the Scriptures to enlighten all of us about the truth of this man's salvation and that offered all of us hope for our friends and loved ones who we see as being backslidden and astray.
Paul sums up his exhortation on the subject of prophesying by encouraging all Christians to greatly desire that they may become gifted by God with the power to prophesy!
I Corinthians 14:39 - Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.
Thru prophecy God will give each of His saved people and / or the leaders of His local churches; guidance and direction in regards to their life's affairs and needs and doctrines.
Manifestation Prophecy
I Corinthians 9:1b - ...have I not seen Jesus our Lord?
I had been praying for years for some detailed guidance from God about finding the truth of His will in so many issues that were pertinent to my life. Yet I believed that Jesus wouldn't come and visit me to instruct me because His reappearance upon the earth is reserved for His 2nd coming. But, because of the many doctrinal errors that I felt that I was perceiving in every Bible teacher's teachings which I had been encountering, I just wished that somehow He would come and instruct me Himself. I wanted to really know the truth of His Word about the many doctrines around today that seemed to me to contradict it. Well, did He have a surprise for me!
One beautiful spring morning He did an entirely unexpected and totally thrilling thing for me. He led me (unbeknownst to me) to drive out to a local park in my van with one of the young sisters in our fellowship to pray for a while. I was in the driver's seat and she was sitting on the couch in the back of the van when we each started to pray silently to the Lord.
All of a sudden I heard her call my name! But her voice was different? It was somehow very commanding! So I opened my eyes and turned to look at her. Well, there she was sitting in the center of the couch and she had an extremely noble upright quality to her posture! So, unsure of what was happening, I asked her, "Did you call me?" to which she responded, "Jim, I the Lord Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, have called the two of you to come out here this morning so that I could talk with you and answer your questions!"
I John 4:2 - This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God...Instantly I knew that this was not her speaking but that it was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself somehow possessing her and speaking thru her mouth! Her voice was somehow the most regal voice imaginable and her demeanor was utterly majestic.
John 7:46 - ...No man speaks as this man speaks!
This was definitely not her voice or manner! So instantly, tears of joy began flying from my eyes like machine gun bullets! I knew that somehow thru her I was being addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself right there in my van in that park! For Him to converse with me is what I had hoped to happen for so long but it was being done in a fashion of which I had never heard or read anywhere.
So thru my tears I timidly asked, "Is that you Lord?" to which He responded, "Yes it is I. I've been sent here today in response to your many prayers to My Father asking for Me to help you find the truths for which you are longing." Well at this statement I was struck speechless! So, in awe, I just kept looking at Him (in her) but He kept her eyes shut while He calmly and patiently sat there, waiting for me to recover from my initial shock over all of this.
It took a while but eventually I stopped crying enough to lamely ask Him where she was? He then explained that He had her spirit in a pleasant place while both she and I were experiencing this gift from God which He called Manifestation Prophecy. He explained that this is a supernatural gift wherein His Holy Spirit possesses a vessel (hers in this case) and uses it to converse in human form with the brethren.
He then said that He came in this manner to me alone because He had given me enough faith to believe that it was Him so doing. He said that when we were done conversing, I was to go back to my brethren in the fellowship and help them to also believe in this gift. He said that I was to tell them that if they could have the faith for this gift, He would come thru her again that evening to converse with them also!
Needless to say I was thrilled beyond belief at His appearance but there was of course a tiny doubt within me about the genuineness of such a manifestation. Could she be faking it for some strange reason or could Satan be possessing her and tricking me? After all, the Scriptures say that the devil can come as an angel of light! So I proceeded to ask Him in her a few questions that I felt that she, in her newly embraced but still uneducated faith, could not possibly know.
One question that I asked was about the greatness of His original disciples / apostles compared to other Christians. He surprised me by telling me how those men saw Him and walked with Him and experienced all that He had to say and all of His miracles for years and they still had trouble really believing in Him. Yet thereafter, all Christians have just read a book of words or heard preaching and testimonies of Him and thru that alone they have been able to firmly believe in Him. So why would God consider the original apostles any greater than those who never saw Him and yet still believed?
J0hn 20:29 - ... Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
This answer and this verse has been food for thought for me ever since He spoke it to me, especially because I believe that I also am now one of those He refers to as having seen Him. But technically, the truth is that I didn't really see Him in His own flesh. My encounter with Him as His Holy Spirit manifested in her in this special way is still a matter of my own personal faith that it was truly from God.
Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him!
That is the brilliance of God in rewarding me with this Manifestation Prophecy gift because it is an encounter with God that must still be accepted by faith, even after testing it (but not testing God) with pointed questions (which I made of the Spirit manifesting within the person)!Another question that I asked of Him manifesting in her was where the original autographs of the Scriptures are now? She could not have possibly known the answer to this question since she probably never even heard of the term Biblical autographs. So I felt that it was a good test of the validity of the Manifestation. He in her blew me away and proved that she was not the one giving me the answer by saying very matter of factly, "In Heaven."
Well, of course they're in heaven! But when I asked that question I never even considered that fact because my evil heart was masking my true intentions that even I was not aware of. I was only conscious of the fact that this question was a test of the girl and of the Manifestation. That's why I was referring to the original earthly parchments.
I felt that this was a question that was merely testing the Manifestation Spirit, not the Lord Himself and He knew it.
I John 4:1 - ...do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
However, in giving me this particular answer, He revealed to me the evil motive stuck deep in my deceitful heart for asking this question. That motive was that I would have become exceedingly proud had He answered me by telling me of an earthly place in which to find them! After all, would not finding the original autographs of the Scriptures be the greatest discovery ever for mankind! And where would little old phony me have been when I in turn exposed the secret earthly location of these original autographs to the world? Wicked me would have been right in the center of that discovery, grabbing for glory while feigning humility!
Jeremiah 17:10 - I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Luke 24:32a (the brethren) said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He (Jesus) was speaking...?"
Knowing the pain that immediately hit me from this conviction of my deceitful heart's deep seated proud motive, He then reassured me to be at peace. He repeatedly exhorted me to peace during His manifestation because every question I posed to Him would bring an answer that I did not expect and that would force me to face my own deceitful heart's reasons for asking it! So pretty soon, in reverent fear, I ran out of questions to ask Him.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 - Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God...therefore let your words be few!
But I was so thrilled and excited at this wonderful, supernatural gift of His actually appearing to me to converse with me, that I didn't absorb all of the really deep stuff that was occurring at the time. Most of it came to me much later. That morning I was just out of my mind with joy at this amazing gift from God of the Lord's personal appearance to me! I was more excited than I've ever been before in my life!
Yet after a little less than an hour, the Lord in her suggested that we stop and He would leave her, but only until that evening when He promised to manifest back within her, if the brethren wanted Him to so appear to them. He also suggested that we write out our questions so that when He appeared, we wouldn't be nervous and forget them.
He then instructed me that the girl would need to be told all that had happened thru her because she was not aware of it. So I thanked Him profusely for visiting me, we said our goodbyes and He left her. Immediately, she blinked her eyes a couple of times and asked me what had happened. So I told her everything about the Lord's use of her to speak with me and she rejoiced exceedingly along with me about His visitation. Even though she was not there for it, she was greatly thankful that He chose her as His vessel thru whom to appear.
Then we drove back to the fellowship house and burst in excitedly to share our testimony of this wondrous event with all of the brethren. Of course they were skeptical at first, but so were Jesus original disciples when Mary Magdalene announced that Jesus had risen and conversed with her. After we all calmed down and could more quietly discuss the event, they all came around and agreed that they too wanted to talk directly with Jesus in this manner, just as I had.
So we all gathered together that evening and when we prayed for Him to come, He reappeared within her and we were all given answers to our many questions by Him for the next couple of hours. Then, when He left, we dissected everything that was discussed and came to the conclusion that this Manifestation was truly the Lord Jesus Christ! So, many times thereafter we prayed for Him to come again and He always did.
According to the Lord (speaking thru this girl), the Manifestation Prophecy gift was given to us only after we had done all that we could do in all of our own Bible studies to find the correct answers to our questions. After many times getting such manifestation appearances from Him, we have not asked for Him to come back in that manner any more because thru them He eventually resolved all of our questions.
He gave most of His answers to our questions by first starting with a question of His own, "What does your current faith tell you?" We'd then respond by telling Him where our thinking on that particular issue was and then He would discuss our position with us. But He never redirected us thru the Manifestation to some new position. He'd only encourage us to go on in our present faith and Bible studies while watching and waiting for God to send us new teachings or events or other prophecies by which to redirect us.
Romans 14:22 - The faith which you have (currently), have as your own conviction before God.Well, after a while we all began to understand that we should just sit, stand and walk in our current faith positions, whatever they were. As long as those positions were the best that we could come up with, whether they were right or wrong, God would be pleased with us. Then, if they were right, God would be faithful to strengthen us in that particular faith position or if they were wrong, He would somehow direct us into a new, better understanding and wisdom for them.
Also, He would also always manifest in her with the greeting , "Peace be with you. Yes, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." and He would always depart with similar words.
But when He led one of us to find this version of Col 3:15, we knew that we no longer needed for Him to manifest Himself in this manner amongst us anymore to answer our questions, because His peace in us is what proves to us that we already have the answer to that question that God wants us to have faith for at that time.
Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
The gift of manifestation prophecy was given to us initially to answer our questions because God had no earthly teacher to take us further along in our faith. But now that we knew how to interpret God's peace within us as being the umpire and the final decider of all of our doctrinal issues, this gift is only an occasionally manifested, just for those times when we feel the need to rest and comfort ourselves in His sweet, loving presence coming through a prophet!
Thank you.
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