I Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another [divers] kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
I am assuming that you understand the use of the gift of prophecy.
God uses this kind of communication at times to speak to His people.
This form of communication from God can be very powerful. It can be very accurate and detailed.
HOWEVER it is not the predominant way that God speaks to us.
But it is a valid way, which God uses to communicate with us.
At times God will speak to you through a prophetic word given in a church service, there may be 300 people present but it is for you. At other times it may be for everyone there.
Familiarity breeds contempt
I Thessalonians 5:20 Despise not prophesying. Why did Paul say this? He was aware of the misuse and overuse of this gift, which had brought the people to despise it.
Amos 8:12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find [it].
Amos the prophet had prophesied the word of the Lord many times to Israel but they had not taken it seriously and processed it in their lives. The result was that God stopped speaking to them in this way.
Prophetic Over-Saturation
And you still run here and there for more prophetic words.
Don’t go looking for prophetic words.
God will speak to you this way when He chooses. When that happens it will be powerful and edifying.
Test it, it may not be God I Thessalonians 5:20 Despise not prophesyings. 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
All prophetic words must be judged 1) Is it scriptural in principle? 2) Is it conditional. If so note the conditions. 3) Does it bear witness with your spirit? 4) Note the spirit of the prophecy. Does it condemn or edify.
When God speaks a true word of prophecy into your life a change takes place in the spirit realm.
Most Christians do not know and understand this.
At least two things occur 1) Provision for the fulfilment of the prophecy is released. 2) That word over you will be contested by the devil.
What I am about to teach you now will cause you to take a true word of prophecy seriously.
It has A place but not THE place in our lives.
This occurs when you have more prophecies over your life than you can process.
I don’t know any prophets who get it 100% right all of the time. Because of this we are told to test all prophecy.
A genuine prophetic word over your life will cause you to be tried
The first factor requires a walk of faith for its fulfillment. The second requires determination and perseverance.
Psalms 105:19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
This verse of Scripture clearly portrays the principle, that a true word from God will bring trial into our lives.
You must understand this principle. If you don’t many of the true words of God over your life may not come to pass.
We see the commencement of this principle way back in the beginning of time in Eden.
After the fall of man a prophetic word was given about the head of Satan being crushed.
This prophetic word would influence greatly the course of history.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
That word generated fear in the heart of Lucifer.
It was a true word from God. This word said that from the seed (line) of this woman would come a person (Jesus) that would crush the head of the serpent Satan.
We will see that Satan would contest this prophecy by trying to wipe out the line from which Jesus would come from.
Right in the beginning Satan set out to wipe out this godly line.
Cain and Abel were born. Satan watched them very carefully, when he saw that Abel was the righteous son, he figured out very quickly the fact that the Royal Line would flow down through Abel.
Once this was determined Satan had Abel murdered.
John 8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
Genesis 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
Satan filled Cain’s heart with Jealousy and had Abel murdered.
Gods then brought division. Two ways two streams would develop in the Earth.
A godly line and an ungodly line.
Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and established his own ungodly society Gen 4:16-24.
God then raised up Seth to replace Abel. Seth in Hebrew means substitute.
Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, [said she], hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
Genesis 4:26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD. (This was a godly line)
Satan lost track of which family the line was flowing through.
There was only one thing Satan could do, that was to corrupt the whole of the human race.
Genesis 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Satan will contest your destiny and the words spoken over you, that are part of your destiny.
If we understand this, we will understand why certain events all through the Old Testament happened the way they did.
The Canaanitess multiplied quicker than the Sethites, but the Sethites were the godly line from which Jesus would come.
Genesis 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.
This Term Sons of God
In the Old Testament refers to Angels. See Job 1:6 on. The Septuagint renders Sons of God as “Angels” A race developed that was half-human and half-fallen Angel.
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Genesis 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare [children] to them, the same [became] mighty men which [were] of old, men of renown.
This union produced a genetic change and giants were born:
Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.
Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Genesis 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Satan knew that if wickedness increased to a certain level, God would have to destroy them. But Satan would loose again:
Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
The line was flowing through Noah he was pure and would repopulate the Earth after the flood.
After the Tower of Babel man was scattered across the face of the Earth. It was imposible for Satan to identify which family the line was flowing through.
Then God revealed where the line was: The line would flow down through Abraham to Mary.
Genesis 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
This prophecy over Abraham, exposed him to Satan.
Satan moved in and afflicted Sarah his wife and she was barren, she could not have children.
Eventually God healed Sarah and they had a son to carry on the line.
Isaac Marries Rebecca: Satan moved in and made her barren. God heals here and she becomes pregnant with twins.
Through one of these boys in her womb the line would flow.
Interesting: God had already chosen which boy would carry this line See Rom 9:10-13. It would be through Jacob.
So Jacob had to be born first. He had to have the first born rights.
Genesis 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If [it be] so, why [am] I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD.
The children were struggling over who would be born first. And God said this:
Satan’s main mission was to destroy the line from which the messiah would come
We have a diabolical satanic plan here that would have catastrophic consequences.
This prophecy over Abraham caused great trial and conflict in his life.
Genesis 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations [are] in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and [the one] people shall be stronger than [the other] people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
God new Satan would contest who would be the first born, so God reversed the roles. He changed the rules and Satan was beaten again.
Genesis 25:24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, [there were] twins in her womb.
Genesis 25:25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
Genesis 25:26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac [was] threescore years old when she bare them.
The conflict continued as they were being born. Jacob became the father of the Israelites.
The Next Crisis was with Jacob. Famine Joseph one of Jacobs’s sons would be used to avert this crisis.
God had given Joseph a prophetic word. Satan tries to murder him but one of the brothers intervenes and he is sold as a slave.
Psalms 105:19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
The Next Crisis comes in Egypt The whole family of Jacob the whole godly line come to Egypt and settled in Goshen. Seventy people in all
Exodus 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
Moses escapes and eventually over two Million people leave Egypt. The line is lost among this great throng of people and families.
Time Passes then God reveals where the line is.
Genesis 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him [shall] the gathering of the people [be].
This prophetic word reveals where the line will flow. The Sceptre speaks of Kingship Shiloh refers to the Messiah Gathering to him; Jesus
Through the kings of Judah David was God’s choice as a King. The attempts on his life were numerous. After he died the kings of Judah were methodically killed off, by the time we get to 2 Chron 22:1012 the whole line of Kings is destroyed except one young child.
II Chronicles 22:11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not.
He was hidden in the temple for six years.
The Next Crisis was in Esther’s time
Finally After 4000 Years Jesus is born
Satan had desperately tried to stop that
Jacob and his line were in grave Danger of dying through starvation. This would effectively wipe out the line.
Satan now tries to wipe out all the male children, thus bringing the line to an end.
Satan tried to wipe out the whole Nation. But God has Esther in a position of influence to avert this.
Mat 1 Records the genealogies From Abraham to Mary and Jesus is born. The seed of the woman is alive on the Earth.
Satan would try one last desperate ploy to stop it; Matthew 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Beth-lehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
Satan lost this battle also.
Finally Jesus cried “it is finished” The head of the serpent is crushed.
The Prophecy came in Eden and the conflict began.
As each received a clear true prophecy over them it was contested.
Abel Murdered, Abrahams wife Barren, Isaacs’s wife is Barren, Jacob, Famine, Kings of Judah, Esther, Jesus.
Now what about those prophetic words over your life?
The prophetic currency has been greatly devalued by a casual familiarity to prophesy. When God speaks we must listen and take it seriously> There will be a battle over it
We will be tried. The word of the Lord will cause you to be tried.
God does use the gift of prophecy to speak to us. It is a beautiful holy interaction of God with us, and must not be taken lightly.
We become responsible to follow through in faith and persistence.