“Above all, you must realise that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.”
2 Peter 1:20-21 NLT
Peter wrote a very clear statement about Biblical prophecy. He was, of course, referring to messages in what we Christians call the Old Testament, and he said that the old prophets didn’t make up what they said. It was all inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the prophets directly “spoke from God”. There are those sceptics, even Christians, who suggest that Old Testament prophecies are too vague, or could mean anything, or they try to rubbish them in some way. Or just ignore them or even say the foretelling was fiction. But in doing so they impoverish their understanding of God and His care for His people. To take an example, we read in Isaiah 7:14, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)“. God knew exactly the time when Jesus would come to this planet. He knew the manner of His coming, and He revealed to the prophet Isaiah what would happen. Now there have been people who claim to be Christians but who have denied, or cast doubts on the fact that the virgin birth actually happened, in spite of the Scriptures supporting it. The Anglican Bishop of Durham, David Jenkins, famously said, “I wouldn’t put it past God to arrange a virgin birth if he wanted. But I don’t think he did.” Another minister called Robert Meyers is quoted as having said, “A beautiful, but obviously contrived, tale is the virgin birth, which may have been used to cover a scandal”. And there are other so called theologians who have made similar comments. Why do they so vehemently want to deny Biblical prophecy? Why, when the virgin birth of Jesus, proclaiming as it does the fusion of the Spirit and the human, confirms Jesus as both God and man? Those today who would deny the virgin birth contradict the clear prophetic and factual teaching of Scripture, call into question other miracles recorded in the Bible, and open the door to a denial of Christ’s full deity or His full humanity.
What do we pilgrims think about such things? In 1 Corinthians 12:10 we read that the Holy Spirit provides the ability to prophesy. It is one of the gracious gifts God provides. “He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy … “. And it is true today. Churches sensitive to the workings of the Holy Spirit will experience all of God’s gifts, including the giving of prophetic messages. There have been some recent examples of God giving a message to His people, but, sadly, there have been many more occasions when a “prophecy” turns out to be nothing more than from their own thoughts. In Old Testament times, a prophet was vulnerable to negative consequences if his prophecy was wrong. Jesus warned us about false prophets. We read in Matthew 7:15-16, “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
A true prophet did indeed communicate God’s words and thoughts to their generation, by the power of the Holy Spirit working within them. Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet. He tried to refuse the assignment, as we read in Jeremiah 1:4-6, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’ ‘Alas, Sovereign Lord,’ I said, ‘I do not know how to speak; I am too young.’” But God wasn’t fazed by Jeremiah’s youthfulness. Jeremiah 1:7-9, “But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am too young.” You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth.” That was the start of a difficulty prophetic ministry for Jeremiah. We read that he was persecuted by his family, whipped, put in the stocks, attacked by a mob, threatened by the king, and ridiculed. And after a 40-year ministry he was reputedly stoned to death, though his end wasn’t recorded in the Bible.
At a time of great political instability following the death of King Uzziah, Isaiah went to the Temple, a place of prayer and security. But he had an amazing vision of the Lord there, and was immediately struck by his sinfulness. We read in Isaiah 6:5, “Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”” He volunteered to be “a messenger to this people” (Isaiah 6:8), but his prophetic assignment wasn’t to be easy. We read what the impact of his prophecies would be in Isaiah 6:9-10, “And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.”” Oh dear! Not for Isaiah a low key prophetic message in a church service on a Sunday morning!
We pilgrims have many ways to take a prophetic message to the world around us. We do it by our words and actions. And by so doing, we are the salt and light in our communities in the way that Jesus commissioned us to be. Prophecies don’t have to start with “Thus saith the Lord …”. They start with a relationship with God.
Dear Heavenly Father. May we ever be open to Your Words, and ever willing to deliver them. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 