The Spiritual Gift of Prophecy
Prophecy: A Spiritual Gift Definition
The Prophecy spiritual gift offers an unique ability to receive messages from the Holy Spirit and then communicate those messages to a Christian assembly. To this end, this prophetic gift takes many forms, including: Pastoral Preaching, a Word of Knowledge, or Foretelling Future Events. Please note: The words of a Prophet must always be supported by the Bible’s principles and teachings.
Prophecy as Foretelling Future Events, Gift Expression
Acts 21:10-11 offers an excellent example of the Prophecy spiritual gift used to foretell future events. To this end, the passages reads: “….a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, ‘The Holy spirit says, In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
Prophecy as Pastoral Preaching, Gift Expression
Prophetic Teaching Pastors study and expound God’s Word. They sense the message that the Holy Spirit wishes communicated to their local church. And so, in 2 Timothy 4:2-3, the Apostle Paul instruct Timothy, a Teaching Pastor, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine….” Likewise, 1 Corinthians 4:6b instructs Pastoral Teachers, “Do not go beyond what is written”. In addition, James 3:1 provides a warning to those who are teachers: “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly”.
Prophecy as Word of Knowledge, Gift Expression
The Prophecy spiritual gift will at times takes the form of a “Word of Knowledge”. So, A Word of Knowledge is a special insight given by God applied to particular people or groups. To this end, this special insight includes perceiving cases of spiritual oppression, sin bondage, evil intent, messages offering assurance, or spiritual direction.