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Prophetic Voices

Prophetic Voices
Words of Faith 7-20-16
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2016
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
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Acts 21
[7] We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day. [8] Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven. [9] He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
[10] After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. [11] Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.' "
[12] When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. [13] Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." [14] When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done."

Paul and his entourage finally landed on the coast of what is now Israel and then traveled down to the coastal city of Caesarea. Here they stayed with Philip the Evangelist who had apparently settled there after evangelizing Samaria and the coast of Palestine. Paul stayed several days probably to time his arrival in Jerusalem with the feast of Pentecost.
This was a visit marked by prophecy. We learn several things about prophecy from this text.
1) The gift of prophecy operated in the early church. There is no reason to believe that prophecy does not operate today with the understanding that the canon of Scripture is closed and there is no modern prophecy which rises to the level of Scripture or ever supercedes the authority of Scripture.
2) The Holy Spirit gave the gift of prophecy to both men and women. Paul’s restriction of women speaking among gathered believers appears to have been aimed at particular Gentile situations specifically in Ephesus and Corinth in which there was confusion due to the influence of paganism. Paul did not forbid Philip’s daughters from prophesying. This is not surprising since Paul had declared that that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for we are all one in Him (Galatians 3:28).
3) Some prophecy was recorded as Scripture but other prophecy did not rise to such timeless authority. Agabus was recorded but Philip’s daughters were not. Some prophecy may have been simply a ministry of encouragement and edification. The daughters of Philip “prophesied continuously” according to the Greek here, yet none of their prophecy was recorded for inclusion in Scripture.
4) Some prophecy predicted future events while other prophecy likely did not. The prophetic history of Israel recorded in Scripture reveals that most of prophecy spoke to current events and only a small portion spoke to future events.
5) A Prophetic warning does not necessarily indicate that the Lord’s will is for us to retreat. Paul understood the dangers ahead yet was absolutely certain of God’s leading that he should proceed to Jerusalem no matter the danger.
How do we respond to this Scripture?
We should live listening for the prophetic. Paul did. He devoted most of a chapter to Corinth (14) to the topic in the context of worship. We should rejoice that this is the age in which God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy (Acts 2:17-18).” We have no need to fear the prophetic voices of our time.
Of course, the first place of listening is in Scripture itself. In Scripture we have 4000 years of God speaking to His people! We can know the validity of modern voices because they will coincide with the teaching of Scripture.
We should also be careful. Jesus warned us to watch out for false prophets who come in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ferocious wolves. They are recognized by their fruit. The first sign of a false prophet is that they will contradict Scripture but there will also be acts of the sinful nature rather than the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:19-23).
We should also remember that the prophetic gifting is mostly an expression of the Spirit that encourages or speaks convicting truth regarding day to day issues. Some prophecy looks into the future but even this must not be misconstrued as a reason to fear or back away from the future.

Lord, root me in Your Word. Give me a heart that is open to what You are saying to Your people today. Give me discernment to hear Your voice among the many that speak today. I am listening. In Jesus’ name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2001, 2016
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.