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Some Comments on Prophetic Scriptures Yet to Be Fulfilled by Bill Hamon and Acts 3 verses 19 to 21, Part 5
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We will continue with the topic of the gifts of the Spirit here in Part 5, with the emphasis on the gift of prophecy, and especially with the question whether all Christians can, and should, prophesy in the paper "Some Comments on 'Prophetic Scriptures Yet To Be Fulfilled' by Bill Hamon and Acts 3:19-21 with Mal. 4:5, 6; Matt. 17:11; Rev. 10:7; and 11:15."
We should all be open to be used in any gift of the Spirit at any time, as God would lead (for the glory of God and for the good of the body of Christ, including ministering to those outside of the body of Christ); we do not want to limit God in any way. However, if I understand the apostle Paul here, and I'm confident that I do, he is speaking of Christians being used on a regular basis in particular gifts/ministries. This way we can become proficient (specialists) in the use of our gifts (the gifts God uses us in), which enhances fruitfulness and order in the church, with each Christian (and especially those in the five-fold ministry [Eph. 4:11]) having their recognized roles to fulfill and being proficient at them. As I mentioned, God has important assignments for each of us to fulfill by His enabling grace. Some are anointed by God with special ministries like intercessory prayer; I trust we can see how important that gift is. God doesn't make us one member of the body of Christ one day, like an eye, or a hand, or an internal organ, and then make us a different member the next day. God is a God of order.
I'll quote part of what Hamon says about all Christians prophesying on pages 146, 147. (Unless otherwise noted, I am always quoting from his 2010 book, "Prophetic Scriptures Yet to Be Fulfilled.") "The Prophetic Movement brought the revelation of how to activate saints into their spiritual gifts of prophecy, word of knowledge, and wisdom. The Apostolic Movement did the same for the saints in the power gifts of healings, faith, and working of miracles. ... The core teaching on activation was that all saints can be prophetic in that they can hear the voice of God and minister the mind of Christ to others. ... Emphasis was given to the Scriptures that state, 'You can all prophesy one by one' [1 Cor. 14:31], 'desire spiritual gifts [but especially that you may prophesy]' [1 Cor. 14:1], but 'desire earnestly to prophesy' [1 Cor. 14:39], and 'let us prophesy in proportion to our faith' [Rom. 12:6], not by physical sensations or emotions of the soul." In an endnote Hamon listed the verses that I included in brackets. These verses have been widely used by many Pentecostals and Charismatics to try to demonstrate that all Christians (all those who have received [or yielded to] the Holy Spirit in that dimension of His work) can (and should) prophesy (I heard all of this back in the 60s), but I don't believe any of these verses teach that viewpoint.
As I mentioned, each of these verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 14 is discussed, in context, in my paper on 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14, and Rom. 12:1-8 are discussed in my "A Paper on Faith." I won't repeat those discussions here, except to point out that 1 Cor. 14:29-33 confirm that the words "you can all prophesy one by one" were addressed to the "prophets" (the word "prophets" is used in verses 29 and 32); they were not addressed to all the Christians. One problem that the apostle Paul was dealing with when he wrote these verses was that the prophets were not sharing the floor with the other prophets (see verse 30), and in verse 29 he had already made the necessary point that there was a definite limit to how much of a meeting would be devoted to the ministry of the prophets (he said "let two or three prophets speak"), even as he had made the point, in verses 27, 28, that there must be a definite limit on how much of a meeting would be devoted to speaking with tongues, tongues that are to be interpreted: he said, "If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must interpret."
As I mentioned, I believe the gifts of the Spirit are for today, including the gift of prophecy, but, in general, I have been disappointed with much I have observed the last 45 years. For one thing, I would estimate that about half of the prophecy I have heard (and I haven't heard all that much prophecy, because I haven't been around many churches, or meetings, where there was a lot of prophesying going on) was of the Spirit and about half was of the flesh. Most such "prophecies of the flesh" are quite innocent and couldn't do much damage. In some cases a Christian who has been taught that the New Testament teaches that they can, and should, prophesy has a thought and passes it on as what God is saying. But the potential is there for great damage, and it is a serious disservice to God, to call a message prophecy (a message that came from God for that occasion) if it isn't.
I'll give an example of what apparently was a prophecy of the flesh, a "prophecy" that came from a Christian, not the Holy Spirit. There was this well-to-do Christian family that started having some medical and financial troubles. In the middle of this trial, they turned to God and became born-again Christians. They were encouraged to go to a local Charismatic church for prayer, prophesy, etc. As you can imagine, they greatly rejoiced when they were informed through "prophecy" that their financial problems were over and that they would see the turnaround soon.
The problem was that shortly afterward they had to watch while their luxury cars were being driven away and their house was being repossessed, etc. I never heard a follow up on what happened to that family, but a "prophecy" like the one they received has a lot of power to confuse the issue and make people wonder about God, and especially for those not well grounded in Christianity. Hopefully that family continued to press on in God. We never have a good reason to turn from God. He is faithful, and He isn't responsible for many things that some Christians do. We are responsible to put Him and His Word first place in our hearts and lives. We are the ones on trial, not Him! Examples of unfortunate things like this happening through "prophecies" that aren't from God could be multiplied to a very large number, and some of them are far worse than the example I gave.
One thing I have observed over the years is that oftentimes many of the prophecies you hear at certain churches, or groups of churches, or different segments of the body of Christ just happen to confirm and emphasize the particular doctrines and practices of that church, group of churches, or those different segments of the body of Christ. It makes one wonder if all those prophecies came from the Holy Spirit. I'm confident that some of them didn't.
With all these problems (and potential problems) with the gift of prophecy, why don't we just reject that gift. I don't think God has given us that option, but we certainly need to do everything we can do to prevent misusing the gift. Bill Hamon tries to do that, but he believes that the Bible teaches that all Christians can (and should) prophesy.
If we tell Christians that the Bible authorizes them to prophesy, and it turns out that this idea didn't come from God and His Word, but from a misinterpretation of His Word, we have opened a door that should not have been opened, and it is bound to result in considerable damage. If God wants all Christians to prophesy, that's fine with me (cf. Num. 11:29), and I want to teach what He wants me to teach and do what He wants me to do, but as I mentioned, I don't believe the New Testament teaches that all are given the grace to prophesy. I realize that I'm not infallible, but I certainly can't see a Biblical basis to tell all Christians that God wants them to prophesy.
I'll give an example of the kind of things that concern me. I know of a church that invited a prophet to minister. The first thing the prophet said, after he had been introduced, was that he could guarantee that everybody there could have visions and revelations that morning. I don't see any scriptural basis for that guarantee, and what about the immature Christians or non-Christians at that meeting? It seems to me that for some people that could easily prove to be an open door for demons, not to mention the flesh.
It turned out that after that prophet had ministered at that church for several months, he left the church over matters of who had the authority, and finances, taking as many members of the church with him that he could when he left. (I don't know the prophet's side of the story.) I tried to speak with that prophet several times while he was at that church to discuss the verses that he used to back up the idea that all Christians can, and should, prophesy, but he never found time to speak with me. It was at the bookstore of that church, by the way, that I first came across Bill Hamon's books. They began selling his books when the prophet came to that church. I know that prophet had been to some of Bill Hamon's meetings, but I don't believe he was fully associated with that ministry.
I could go on with incidents that I have learned about (and I know that at least most of them are true), like "prophets" coming up with new doctrines, including doctrines dealing with end-time prophecy (I don't believe we need any new doctrines), or "prophets" using their gift to take advantage of women to whom they were "ministering
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