WHAT ABOUT THE GIFT OF PROPHECY?

 

There have been many debates in the social media whether Trump or Biden should win in the presidential election. That is because a lot of people have been listening to false prophets who claim that they heard the Lord telling them that Trump would serve the next term.

        Whether Trump or Biden will be the president of the United States of America is really none of my business. As God has even used Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar or even the Persian King Cyrus, there is no reason why God cannot use both of them to fulfill His blueprint which even Satan will never be able to guess or know. 

        What I am more interested is: "What does God say in His Word?" What is the role of the prophets both in the Old Testament and the present era? Are there still prophets today? What about prophecy as a gift of the Holy Spirit? 

Let me Illustrate 

        We have 66 books in the entire Bible. Many of us have not even read all 66 books of the Bible and if a Bible quiz is conducted today, how many of us will make it to the finalist? 

        Yet, we are so engrossed with the "prophecies" which the false prophets of today spew out by the day. Whether it is about the Corona Virus or the US presidential election, the Internet is packed with false prophets who would delve into all kinds of predictions that Trump will win. In the past, tele-evangelists were using the television box to hype up the doctrine of prosperity to siphon off funds from gullible believers, and people like Duplantis, only to spend on expensive private jets.

        I believe what is happening in the aftermath of the presidential election is: these false prophets have been exposed and now they are changing to a different tune to call for prayer with the hope that Trump will be installed as president come January 24. 

        Lev. 19:26 clearly spells out: ‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying."

        The word 'divination' in Hebrew used in this verse תְנַחֲשׁ֖וּ tenachashu has a root word נחשׁ which is exactly the same word for 'serpent'. This is the piel imperfect second masculine plural which can be translated as 'to practice divination.' In short, fortunetelling. 

        

        A lot of the false prophets of modern days  -- people like Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj and Steve Cocciolanti -- delve into predictions of what will happen. For example, Sadhu Sundar claimed that Trump would win the presidential election on Nov 3 and urged his followers to pray until Jan 24 when Trump is finally installed as president. Cociolanti, on the other hand, uses what he calls "Divine Code" to predict that Trump will have the victory. 

        Prophets in the Old Testament were involved in forthtelling rather than foretelling. They spoke God's Word to the nation. They spoke to the conscience of the people. They told the people to repent to God and return to God. This is what God is more interested to speak to His people, instead of telling them precisely the date and time when Christ would come. Even our Lord Jesus did not suggest any date or time when He would return, but said only the Father is privy to. 

        However, we have many people who call themselves prophets of God these days. They would make all sorts of predictions of what will happen in 2020, but God has exposed many of these New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) prophets and apostles. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed their prophecy of a good year for America to be nothing but a lie.  

Are there still prophets? 

        If we look at Ephesians 2:20, we read that in the original Greek text, the word, ἐποικοδομηθέντες used is an aorist passive participle. 

“ἐποικοδομηθέντες ἐπὶ τῷ θεμελίῳ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ προφητῶν, ὄντος ἀκρογωνιαίου αὐτοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ,”(Ephesians 2:20 GNT28-T)

        Translated, this is rendered in NASB as: 

“having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,” (Ephesians 2:20 NAS95)

        The Greek aorist verb means an action that has already happened. Although it may not tell when it was completed, the aorist verb tells us it is a "done deal." 

        The foundation of our faith is on both the apostles and the prophets, with Christ as the corner stone. There is no longer any need for the offices of prophets and apostles.

        In fact, I am happy that we now have a canonical Bible that was established once and for all by the church fathers. Otherwise, there will be many false prophets and apostles from the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) today who will claim that God spoke to them in a vision or God gave them a new revelation. Even with we have today, there are already many of these nuts calling themselves prophets and claiming that God wants them to speak to His people. 

What about the gift of prophecy? 

        The question then is, "What about the gift of prophecy spoken of Paul's epistles?" 

        I have a good illustration that will help you understand the difference between the gift of prophecy and the office of the prophets. For over 28 years, I been doing part time work as a stringer, writing for several newspapers. Although I was given a press tag like the journalists, I was stringing while holding on to a full-time job either as Laboratory Manager, Sales Manager, Senior Marketing Manager or Director of Corporate Communications. 

        Technically, I was not a journalist, but I did the work of churning out articles for the newspapers like the journalist would do as an occupation.  Likewise, someone who exercises the gift of prophecy is not necessarily a prophet. To exalt one as a prophet is to lift up one's status that is not intended in God's blueprint.

        Therefore, I have intentionally put together this blog post to speak to the conscience of the believers who have been following after these false prophets, with the hope of turning them back to God than to follow after these diviners (or fortunetellers). My job as a watchman is done for if you do not turn away from following after these false prophets, your blood is no longer on my head. 

        In short, I have exercised the gift of prophecy. So, does the gift of prophecy still exist? My answer is, "Why not?" I have illustrated to you exactly what it is about: to speak directly from the Word of God and to turn people back to God instead of following after the divners or those who claim to know the Divine Code. 

Revelations 2:4-5: "But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."