By OLUMOFIN Kehinde Benjamin

Since we began studying the gifts (spiritual gifts) we have studied quite a number without saying so much about the individual who bear them, but the spiritual gift of prophecy is a bit different.

We can rarely talk about this gift, without one or two references to the prophets who are blessed with the gift. That was why instead of making the title, SPIRITUAL GIFT OF PROPHECY, we rather say, THE PROPHETS AND THE SPIRITUAL GIFT OF PROPHECY.

If there is a time in the history of the world, when the gift of prophecy is of very importance in our collective lives, especially for us upon which the end of the world has come, that time is now. I have heard people asking, considering many proclamations and prophecies that have been declared by people who claimed they heard from God, seems not to have found fulfillment as proclaimed.

Why are there so many unfulfilled and sometimes very contradictory prophecies all over social media? They ask. Is God contradicting Himself? How can they all say they are hearing from and speaking on behalf of the same God, and yet their messages are sometimes contradictory? Some have even concluded all prophecies are fake, and the “prophets” as bunch of hungry men faking God’s name to deceive and derail their followers. So many things has been said by many in anger and frustration because the system failed them and are also disappointed in the church, for the roles some leaders play in God’s Name, when everything seems to have fallen to nothingness.

Some unanswered questions include: “Does everyone who speak, actually speak of a truth in God’s Name?” Or if by chance, are there few who actually heard God right among the lot, and where are the fulfilment of their prophecies, if any at all? Questions like these are proof of our need to learn about the gift of prophecy, how it works, the need for prophets in a nation or community and in the church, and the need to understand how prophecies work, for a people and for individuals.

1. Let’s begin with THE PROPHET AND HIS PROPHECY.

Let’s begin to look at it from the national scale. Why are there so many prophets speaking in God’s Name but not many of the prophecies are finding fulfillment, at least in the ways the words have gone out?

For a start, please take note, not everyone who spoke in God’s Name heard from God or are sent by Him. Many will speak for themselves and in the manner they led themselves in order to deceive the gullible and make gain for themselves. Many are also under the influence of strange spirits which they have submitted themselves to, and by the spirit of divination, are speaking great words in God’s Name, whose damnation is certain and whose gains will perish with them. They are foxes sent to learn the way of the sheep and by deception, lead many into their determined error. By their fruits and failed prophecies they shall be known.

Do we then conclude that once a prophecy “fails”, God has not spoken it? No, that is not the position of the Scripture. Once a word or words of prophecies has gone out from God, it carry in it, the power to self-fulfill. No prophecy from God will fail, even when it seems to have “failed” in the present, and in the lifetime of those who heard it, for sure in its time, as determined by God, it will find fulfillment.

Man may know God’s mind but they often don’t know God’s timing concerning a matter. The most important part of prophecy is not just the message but the TIMING. This is where God always hide his awesomeness and absolute control over all. Otherwise, many prophets will play God but that God may be God, He may show a prophet vital secrets but the TIMING is all His.

A good example is Abraham. God gave Him the promise of a son but hid the time for its fulfillment from him. That uncertainties in TIMING is what will keep the receiver and the prophet in the place of prayers, faith and trust. Otherwise, there is no need to hope and have faith for a promise you already have and are sure of the time for its fulfillment. This is where many prophets and their prophecies miss the mark. When God says tomorrow, His tomorrow can be a thousand years in man’s calendar and can be 24 hours. He owns time, and time and season submit to Him.

Please don’t forget this. The message in a prophecy is for the prophet and his audience, but God alone owns the TIMING.

Let me support this with two examples.

God asked king Ahaz of Judah to ask for a sign when he was told the conspiracy of Syria and Ephraim that rose against him in battle “shall not stand”. He believed God and respectfully declined the need for any sign, but God knew his mind, so He promised him a sign and what was the sign God promised to give him? God said, “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:1-14).

Ahaz lived out his reign, but the sign was never fulfilled until several hundreds of years later when a virgin betrothed to a pious Joseph was found with child. Many who heard Prophet Isaiah speak to king Ahaz must have wondered if the prophet was just excited and wanting to gain national attention when no virgin gave birth to a son in their life time. They may have possibly concluded those words as one of the many unfulfilled or failed prophecies, by a prophet who craved national attention but history has proved it otherwise.

If God said it, it will come to pass, the timing is in His hand.

Another reason aside miscalculating God’s timing why prophecy may look as if it has failed, and some will summarize the word spoken and the prophets as ‘fake’ (If there is anything one should be very careful about, is to speak evil of anyone who claims he “heard from God”); is a nation or people receive what they deserve, sometimes, both true and fake prophets are working for God, even when the later thought he’s doing his master’s will. Many fake prophets actually think they are working against God, against His purpose and against His people but unfortunately for them, they are helping to fulfill God’s mind without them even knowing it (read Revelation 17:12-17).

Not all prophets speak for God, as many may claim they do, but not all of them heard from God before they start running to speak in his Name. However, no one is speaking or has spoken in God’s Name that God is unaware of. God sometimes allows the true and the fake prophets to speak, same time, same season, to same people but for different motives, under different spirits and with contradictory messages. So He may have opportunity to bring judgment upon an individual or group of persons or upon an erring nation.

Now, this will leads us to the second example.

God was determined to destroy King Ahab, and He called a meeting in heaven to discuss the modality of his sentence and death. Both good and evil spirits were in attendance. After much deliberations, an evil spirit, asked to be allowed to go as lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab’s fake prophets, who he readily listens to. They will speak in God’s Name but was not speaking for God. God permitted it, so long His determined judgment upon Ahab did not miss him. But He offered a way of escape which Ahab did not listen to through another true prophet, who Ahab rejected. He believed his fake prophets, and was eventually led to the same place God had prepared an agonizing and shameful end for him (1 Kings 22:19-23).

When prophecies are many and contradictory, God is set to judge a people or some powerful persons, who have lived in wickedness and have had their cups of iniquity filled up and some certain evil are set upon them sooner than they realize. While they say peace, peace and those who sympathize with them mock true prophets who spoke in God’s Name, whose words they might thought have failed, then suddenly their destruction will come upon them and there will be no escape for them. Don’t join others to mock anyone who speaks in God’s Name, just because you think his words have failed and he may not have spoken in God’s Name as he claimed.

If God is determined to destroy the enemies of his people, none of those who sympathize with them will go unpunished too. That was exactly the fate of Korah and all the men who stood by him in his rebellion against Moses and against his words (Numbers 16:16-35). The prophet and his prophecies are two complicated entities, be very careful when you speak about either of them. Have your facts, and be sure of them. I pray God to have mercy where we have erred in these things, due to our ignorance and little understanding, in Jesus Christ Name. Amen!

Prophecies can also be delayed by the influence of demons who are bent on making God a liar, but they can only delay the fulfillment of God’s word, they can’t stop it. When God is set to bring to pass a prophecy, no one can stop Him. Devils can do their worse, when God is set to move, no one can stop Him.

Lack of sufficient prayer, is another reason prophecy fails. Men pray too little, yet expect God to do much. Great miracles are birthed by great importunate prayers (Luke 11:5-13; 18:2-8). God wants to move but He won’t intervene in the affairs of men, unless someone ask Him. That is where prayer comes in.

Prophecies are determined mind of God for a person or a people but He won’t accomplished them until we indicate our desire to have them by asking in prayers. The need to pray until words of a prophecy and or promises are fulfilled cannot be over emphasized. Aside the prayers of the prophet who spoke, the receiver who heard it, must pray and eagerly wait for fulfillment, if indeed we expect results. Prophecies prosper and do well in an atmosphere of faith and prayers, unceasing and unending, until every words are fulfilled, as the Spirit of the Lord has spoken it, else we should be ready for a long disappointing wait for the answers that was promised.

Now let’s talk about THE PROPHET AND THE SPIRITUAL GIFT OF PROPHECY

One of the most controversial gift a person can bear on his shoulder is the gift of prophecy. A prophet can be praised to the highest heaven today and in the next, be condemned by the same people who once sang his praise when the going were suitable for them. That was how they treated Jesus Christ, so if any who bears the responsibility of speaking in His Name will suffer in like manner, Christ Himself have given us his example and that is sufficient for us.

Prophecy as a gift can make people to love you and it’s a gift that can make people to hate you and revile you especially if you are a prophet sent to a backsliding people or nation. Prophecy is not only about future events alone, prophets are often sent to deliver God’s message of love and peace and of judgment as well.

All believers are prophets. You shall decree a thing and shall be established (Job 22:28) is a call to the prophetic for everyone who believes. And also, everyone who believes and have the Testimony (the Gospel and Grace) of Jesus Christ is a prophet, “for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”. Revelation 19:10. That confirm the fact that all believers are prophets and bear the gift of prophecy at some minimal level.

Prophets are also seer. They see, they hear and they speak the message of God to the people, not only about the future but also about the mind of God for the present. They can be given the message of peace, impending danger and judgment, blessings and even curses. Every word of a true prophet will come to pass, either now or later, in the life time of those who heard it or much after the prophets and his audience are all gone, and his prophecies possibly forgotten.

That a prophecy fails to come to pass at the time Human being were expecting it to, does not mean God did not inspire it. God did not work to fulfill his will or do his own word to appease human expectations. God is sovereign, he has no human advisers and has no need of any.

Prophecies can be specific to a situation, a person, a tribe or family or a nation. Prophecy can be general to all people of a particular generation or people of all times and generations. As I said, all believers are prophets, just as all believers are miracle workers, are all called to heal the sick, manifest the words of wisdom etc., so are all believers expected to function at some point in their individual Christian journey in all the spiritual gifts in one way or another.

However, it is expected that every believer should manifest and operate with at least one primary spiritual gift (main gift) and any other or all other can be secondary spiritual gifts. For example, David was a Prophet-King of Israel. His primary physical assignment was to be the king and a judge over God’s people but his primary spiritual office was the office of a prophet and from time to time, he manifest the gift of the words of wisdom in all his Psalms and songs. The same way, God has ordained prophets in the church.

We are all prophets but at best as secondary spiritual gifts while there are people ordained specifically among us, as prophets with the gifts of prophecies as their primary spiritual gift. A prophet can also have the gifts of interpretation of dreams, discerning of spirit and interpretation of tongues and many more as secondary spiritual gifts.

In a believers life, his primary spiritual gift is the most important, any other gifts are added advantage to help him do his assignment successfully. The secondary gifts should never be allowed to overshadow the primary spiritual gifts. Once a believer allows his secondary spiritual gifts to override his primary spiritual gift, he risk the possibility of running into spiritual error and also risk the possibility of absconding his primary field of assignment and stray into the assignment of another while abandoning his own work, to pursue self-glory and gain.

As a believer, you are expected to know and differentiate between your primary spiritual gift and other spiritual gifts. Just like any other spiritual gifts, the gifts of prophecy and the prophet won’t do much without a life of prayers and in-depth understanding of the Word. All prophets are lovers of prayer and are expected to be lovers of the Word too. This way, such can withstand the hordes of darkness that are sent to corrupt their gifts and prophecies. All spiritual gifts will do better with words and prayers.

Like all other spiritual gifts, gift of prophecy are not primarily for personal use, they are to edify and benefit the Body of Christ and the society at large.

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE A CALL TO BE A PROPHET?

1. You will have an absolute, and a very uncommon trust in the Word of God.

2. You will be a lover of prayer. No one can succeed in the office of a prophet, without sliding into error from time to time, without regular and consistent prayer life.

3. If you discover you are often uncomfortable with the norms, especially when such is a subtle threat to the Word of God and the gospel of Jesus.

4. If you often see things others do not see, spiritual secrets or hear deep things of God others are not privilege to see, you are likely have been called into the office of a prophet.

THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD

Isaiah 11:1-3.

1. The Spirit of wisdom

2. The Spirit of the Lord

3. The Spirit of understanding

4. The Spirit of counsel

5. The Spirit of power

6. The Spirit of knowledge

7. The Spirit of the fear of the Lord.

All believers need the seven spirits of God to make impact. Please make praying for the manifestations of these wonderful spirits in your life once you discover you carry any spiritual gifts, and of greater need to pray and be possessed by these spirits is if you desire or have noticed you have been anointed and blessed to operate in the office of a prophet.

Prophets can sincerely and in all honesty misinterpret what they see and what they hear without the help of the seven spirits of God. And no word of prophecy or a prophet or both should be exalted above the written word of God, by those who heard the prophet or by the prophet himself. God is a jealous God, He won’t share His glory with anyone, irrespective of the status or spiritual office he/she occupies.

Have you discovered your spiritual gifts yet, either primary or secondary spiritual gifts? You can’t keep God and your generation waiting for ever. Prayerfully find out what spiritual gifts God has deposited in you and or in any of your loved ones. We are all waiting for your manifestation.

“For the earnest expectation of the creature (all created things) waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19.

If you carry the gift of prophecy, you must know that the whole creature is waiting for your manifestation, and you can’t keep them waiting for ever.

This lecture was originally delivered on the 3pG Christian Ministry “Telegram Interactive Page” on Friday 31st March 2023 during a Live Chat by OLUMOFIN Kehinde Benjamin, The Group Admin.