When we are born again, by faith in Jesus Christ, many wonderful things take place within us. We are forgiven of our sins and cleansed in Jesus’ blood. We are adopted into God’s family. Our spirit comes alive and we are able to relate to God and God’s truth in wonderful new ways. We receive the Holy Spirit inside us, so God is now a living part of our life journey. The direction of our life moves from heading to destruction to heading to heaven and eternity with God. We become a new creation and old things pass away with all things becoming new. A new continuous process of being transformed starts inside us.
Adding to all that, you actually become a prophetic person. You are connected with heaven and to things that are not understood or seen by natural eyes. That enables you to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit of God.
Let me give you the background to that. In the Old Testament, before Christ came and the church was established, there were rare men and women who could hear directly from God. Those people were prophets, like Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Joel and Samuel. When people wanted to know what God thought about something they would go to a prophet, if there was one available, to find out what God had to say.
In the time of Moses God took some of the load that Moses carried and shared it with seventy elders in the nation of Israel. Those seventy men were to come to the Tabernacle tent to receive an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Two men, Eldad and Medad, didn’t make it to the Tabernacle and they were overcome by the Spirit in the camp and prophesied. When word came to Moses about these two men Joshua wanted to go and stop them. Moses’ reply indicates that it is God’s desire that all of God’s people would prophesy.
“I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would place His Spirit on all of them!” Numbers 11:29
This vision of all of God’s people being prophets was amplified centuries later by the prophet Joel, who said that in the last days all of God’s people would prophesy.
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my menservants and maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28,29
This prophecy was fulfilled over four hundred years later, on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples and they spoke in tongues and prophesied, as recorded in Acts 2.
A crowd gathered and the people wondered what was going on. Peter explained it by quoting Joel’s prophecy.
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams; even on my menservants and maidservants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.” Acts 2:17,18
Notice that the ability to prophesy would no longer be for the select few, as in Old Testament times, but all Christians would be blessed with that capacity. God’s menservants and maidservants are Christians. We all get to be in touch with heaven and to be aware of what God is doing and saying.
Separate to this is a special gift of the Holy Spirit for bringing prophetic messages as described in 1Corinthians 12 and 14, and separate yet again is a calling by God to be a Prophet who has to care for the welfare of the church, as mentioned in Ephesians 4.
My focus here is not on you going around with a ‘word from God’ for everyone, or being able to call yourself a ‘Prophet’, but on the wonderful truth that as a child of God, God wants you to be in touch with Heaven and to know what God is saying and doing in your life and beyond.
A friend told me yesterday about how this worked for him. He was about to ask someone to assist him in a project. It seemed like a perfectly good idea and he sat down to do it. However when he went to contact the person he suddenly experienced a very strong feeling of discomfort. He almost felt ill. He kept trying to make the call and the feeling of alarm persisted, so he decided God was trying to tell him not to make the call. A few days later he heard news that showed it would have been very unwise for him to have sought that man’s assistance.
My friend started with natural human logic. But God knows things we don’t know, so God can direct us with heavenly insight. Each of us, as Christians now have that kind of connection with God, making us a prophetic people. We may not ever have a message for someone, or say anything in public, but we are in touch with the heavenly realm and are enriched by that connection.
That’s how we can be led by the Holy Spirit and walk in the Spirit. We are able to sense God’s leading, caution or prompting as we journey through life. You may sense a need to pray for someone or about something, or a prompt to connect with someone or assist them. You may feel conviction about something God wants you to put right.
Being guided by God’s peace in your heart is a common way we experience knowing things with God’s help.
These and many other expressions of our connection with God are what make you a ‘prophetic person’, one who is able to hear directly from God, not needing a go-between to do it for you.
I encourage you to listen to God, and His Word, and to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as you step into the wonderful reality that You Are A Prophet.