The Prophetic Gift and the Prophet

Dr. Self discusses the confusion about the gift of prophecy in this show and clarifies the sometimes controversial topic. Can anyone prophesy? Is a person who prophesies to be called a prophet? What happens if a person gives a prophetic word that is not true? These questions will be answered in this show. Don't forget to subscribe and share. 

1Co 14:39 Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy and do not forbid to speak in tongues.  

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Show host bio - 

Dr. Ray Self founded Spirit Wind Ministries Inc. and the International College of Ministry. He holds a Doctorate in Christian Psychology and a Doctorate in Theology. He currently resides in Winter Park, Florida. He is married to Dr. Christie Self and has three sons and a daughter. 

Transcript

Hey, welcome to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. This show has been one that's been on my heart for a while. On social media, I see a lot of discussion about the gift of Prophecy and a lot of uh, confusion, and a lot of put-down, and a, a lot of false information about it. I want to bring some clarity to the prophetic gift in this show. I'm going to do my best, I'm going to do it prayerfully. If this show is blessing you, uh, would you please consider partnering with us? You can do that at icmcollege.org/donate. I would appreciate it very much. Um, thanks for listening, this— be sure and subscribe and share this with as many people as possible, help me get the word out. Thanks for listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self.

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Hey, I'm Dr. Ray, and this is Self Talk. Thanks for being a part of this show, and um, I pray that I'll be led by the Holy Spirit in this show because I've heard so much on social media that's been very disturbing about the gift of prophecy. Uh, I was just listening to someone recently who is very irritating, talking about uh, “Well, these people are giving these uh, prophetic words and you know, they, they're, they're not accurate.” And you know, they went back to Deuteronomy, where they would literally want to stone these people and call them false prophets. Well, that's not exactly accurate. Let, let me explain, okay? There is a gift that we're all called the desire called The Gift of Prophecy. There also is something else called a prophet, okay? A person called to be a prophet. But the gift of prophecy and the call to be a prophet are two separate things, and let me show this to you in scripture. In 1 Corinthians 14:1, the Bible says something very, very clear, and I love when the Bible is clear about something because when it's clear, we really need to pay attention. 1 Corinthians 14:1, “Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” Now, in this scripture, Paul is saying pursue love - we should always do that, God is love, right? It's the great commandment. Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor, desire spiritual gifts. 

So he's talking about spiritual gifts, and especially one gift, the gift of prophecy, okay? Then he goes on and says, “The one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God, for no one understands it; but in the spirit he speaks mysteries. But the one who prophesies speaks to men for edification, exhortation, consolation.” Now, so he's talking about a gift of prophecy. When you go back into Corinthians 12, there's a chapter that's called the, the chapter of the manifestation gifts, but you start at verse 7, it says, “To one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.” Then it goes on to explain these gifts, “to one is given a word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the effecting of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing of spirits, to another—” kinds– “various kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues.” So these are spiritual gifts. There– there's actually nine of them mentioned there. You know, healing, uh, discernment, tongues, interpretation of tongues, faith, and one of the gifts is prophecy. Now, it's interesting where, in the gift of healing, I mean, how many times have we prayed for somebody to be healed - and, and I've prayed for people to be healed, and I've seen them get healed right in front of my eyes. But I prayed for, other times I put my hands, I prayed for them to be healed. I said, “Lord, your word says that by His stripes we are healed and um, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke this disease,” and they're not healed. “Oh no, I must be a false healer. I'm a false Christian.” So it's interesting, in the same passage, it talks about gifts of prophecy. So if someone says, “I think I have a prophetic word from the Lord and I hear the Lord saying,” you know,  “blah blah blah, la la la.” And this doesn't come true, “Oh my gosh, they're a false prophet. We know what the word of God says about false prophets. These are the end– signs of the end times.” No, this is a spiritual gift that doesn't always work because we're imperfect people. 

Now, I believe in Ephesians 4:11, a scripture called the five-fold ministry, uh, commonly called the five-fold ministry. It talks about He who uh, “descended is also He who ascended,” talking about Christ, “and He gave gifts to men. He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as teachers, some as pastors, some as evangelists.” Now, these to me, I think, in context, could be called positions of authority, or leadership positions, pastor, apostle, evangelist, prophet, okay? Now, that is a leadership gift position, and the reason I say that is because in context with that scripture, he's saying He gave some as apostles and some as pastors - we know that those are leadership positions in the body of Christ, and it mentions prophet. Well, that mention of prophet is commonly called the Office of the Prophet, the Office of the Apostle, the Office of the Pastor. But in Corinthians, it's talking about a gift, a manifestation gift, a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. I have the Holy Spirit in me; you have the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit is the manifestation. He, He manifests gifts through believers, okay? 

So there is a manifestation gift called prophecy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 says we should all desire this gift. He said above all gifts. Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially you would prophesy. So in prayer some years ago, I was kind of pondering this and asking the Lord about this, and I said, “Lord, why did you say desire spiritual gifts but especially prophecy?” And then He sort of reminded me that the prophetic gift is the Lord speaking to the church, and it says here that the prophetic gift in 1 Corinthians 14, what does it do? It edifies, it comforts, it consoles us, it's got a tremendous uh…fact, “The one who prophesies,” 1 Corinthians 14:3, “speaks to men for edification, exhortation, and consolation, okay?” Then verse four– 1 Corinthians 14:4, “The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, the one who prophesies edifies the church–” builds up the church. So Paul and the Lord are saying we really should desire this gift because it builds up people, and it builds up– it builds up men, edifies men, it edifies the church. It's a very desirable gift because it has such a tremendous impact, and he says all of us should desire this gift. Of course, I have a logical question. Why would God ask us to desire a gift that we could never have? I just don't think that's, that's what a heavenly father would do. 

So my opinion is, I think a believer, any believer who has the Holy Spirit, has the ability through the Holy Spirit to give a prophetic word. Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice. They hear Me, and they follow Me.” Okay? A prophetic word is just God speaking to us. Now, so many times God speaks to us. He speaks to us through dreams, through impressions, through these gut feelings, through other people. God's always speaking. So if I am praying for you, and I'm around you and I hear the Lord tell me something about you and I relay that to you, that is a gift of prophecy operating. Now, if I miss it and I tell you something that's not accurate, what does that mean? It means, well, I missed it. You know, I'm, I'm fallible. But you have the Holy Spirit in you. You also have the ability to discern if what I'm saying is accurate or not because you have the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit in you comes into agreement with the Holy Spirit in me. When the Holy Spirit is speaking something that's true, if I speak something that's not true, the Holy Spirit in you goes, “No.” There's what we call a check in your spirit. I hope this makes sense to you. 

But this prophetic gift mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, along with the gift of healing, and the gift of faith, and the gift of miracles, and the gift of discerning the spirits. It's a gift that…the Bible says we should all desire this gift. Okay. Now, here comes someone who says, “I'm a prophet of God.” Well, I believe there still are prophets. I think there still are pastors. In the same verse, we see pastors, in Ephesians 4:11, apostles, I think there are still apostles, I think there are still pastors, I think the Bible's very clear on this. Unfortunately, a lot of my dear brothers and sisters in Christ believe oh no, that's passed away. That was only for that time. There are no more. Well, if you look at the Bible, it says He's given apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers. We still have pastors, don't we? We still have evangelists, don't we? Well, in the same verse, there are apostles and prophets, so they're still here, folks, they're still here. If you read the Bible in context, just let it say what it says. They're still around. Now, many people obviously claim to be prophets and apostles, and they're not, okay. And that's sad, that's sad. 

Now, we have a new covenant. We have the grace of God, we have the forgiveness of God, we have the Holy Spirit. Most people operating in the prophetic gift - I've been around this for years - are doing the best they know how. Yes, they make mistakes, but I'm telling you, you don't stone them, crucify them, throw them out of the church because they made a mistake. What if your pastor were to preach something that wasn't absolutely biblical? Would you throw him out of the church? You’d say, “Oh, he really missed that one.” What if an evangelist was um, evangelizing and somebody refused Christ? Would you say that's a false evangelist because he, he led someone– tried to lead someone to Christ, and they refused Him, so that guy is false? No, you wouldn't do that. But I just saw a guy recently going, “Oh, these people are giving these prophecies, they're false prophets, it's a sign of the end times.” People giving prophetic words that are just wrong, most of the time, are people making mistakes. Now, there are exceptions. People who claim to be a prophet and they're manipulating people for gain. That's rare, but it has happened. “I heard the Lord say you're to donate $1,000 because of this particular verse, and if you do that, your family is going to be blessed beyond measure,” and it's a manipulation. Even in that, I think, sometimes the person doing the manipulating thinks in his heart what he's saying is true, but actually he's manipulating us. 

But you have the Holy Spirit, I have the Holy Spirit. I can discern. I can discern if something's not right. There's a check in my spirit, the Holy Spirit lets me know. I'm not saying I'm perfect, but here's the bottom line: every Christian, every Christian is called according to Corinthians…to desire the gift of prophecy. Now listen to these scriptures, “Pursue love,” 14:1, “yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” Then you go down to verse 39 of 1 Corinthians 14, 39, Paul talking to the church, to the church, you know, we're still the church. “Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done properly in an orderly manner.” There, he tells us again, to desire this gift. Is he telling all of us to be a prophet? No, he's not telling us all to be a prophet; he's telling us to prophesy. What is prophecy? We just hear God speak, and we hear God tell us, give us a message for another person. Maybe for ourself, or maybe for the church, or for the community. And I've seen this operate thousands of times, and I've seen it operate beautifully and wonderfully, I've seen it operate through me. And I've also seen people make mistakes and people blow it. But I don't worry about it because you– I can say, “You know what, I think he means well, but he's just off there.” It's like some preachers I hear. I think they mean well, but they're just off there. I've heard some famous preachers say some really awful stuff. I don't say, “Oh, he's a false preacher, he needs to be kicked out of the church.” I say, “No, he's just got some bad theology. Holy Spirit, just help him…reveal the truth to him,” okay? 

So there's a difference between the gift of prophecy, which is mentioned right along with the gift of healing, which we've all prayed for healing, the gift of discerning of spirits, we all like to do that, it's mentioned as one of the nine gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, and we're all called to desire that gift - it's a gift. And then there's the…the office of the prophet, which is a rare office. But I'll tell you something, I, I know people that I believe really are prophets. And I'll tell you what about a prophet. They live and breathe it, and they speak amazing things from the Lord that come true. But even people…called…as– to be– to the office of prophet still make mistakes. Peter made a mistake. In the Bible. Peter made a mistake. Remember when he wouldn't hang out with the, with the Gentiles when the, when the Jewish leaders came around? And then Paul had to rebuke him. Peter, who's supposed to be the first pope, right? He wasn't the first pope, but the Great Peter, Chief Apostle, he– even he makes mistakes, okay? Paul talked about mistakes he made, the things he would not do, he still does. We're human, so quit judging people, “Oh my God, he gave me a prophetic word, it’s not true. This guy is a heretic.” No, he's a person trying to do the best that he can, believing the Lord spoke to him. Now again, there are those that are really perverted, and they're misusing the gift for personal gain, okay? I get it. Those are rare. They are out there, unfortunately. 

But I hope this makes sense. There's a difference between the gift of prophecy that if you're listening to me and you're a Christian with the Holy Spirit, you're supposed to desire this gift. I don't think God would ask you to desire a gift He would never give you. Would you do that to your kids? Wouldn't do that to my kids. But I also think the office of the prophet in Ephesians 4:11, “He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as pastors, some as evangelists, some as teachers.” Those leadership positions, I think they're around. I think they're rare. I think there are a lot of people calling themselves prophets that are not prophets because they like the title. Makes them feel good, helps them feel legitimate, not illegitimate. Like all these people call themselves Apostle who are not Apostles because it makes them feel more legitimate, I guess. I don't know, I'm not going to judge them.

So I hope this makes sense, and um, but desire spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy is a commandment. A commandment from God. And…verse 39, 1 Corinthians 14, “...desire earnestly to prophesy.” What else? The Bible's pretty clear on it, isn't it? Anyway, hope this has blessed you. This is Dr. Ray Self and this is Self Talk. Thank you for listening.

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Well, that concludes episode 207. Thanks again for listening. I just pray this has been a blessing to you. You know, if you have any questions or any way I can help you out, you can email me at drrayself@gmail.com, d r r a y s e l f @gmail.com. Don't forget to check out uh, International College of Ministry. We're enrolling right now. We have scholarships available if you think you can't afford it. You know, God's called you, it's time to get equipped. icmcollege.org. The main thing is thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and share. I appreciate you very much, um, thanks again, this is Dr. Ray Self, let me know if anyone–