Want to learn more about The Prophetic Gift? Use these Bible Studies for personal devotion, group Bible studies, or teaching a church class. Below are links to the lessons in this 13-part series.
Have there been times when you wished that you could
sit in the same room with God and talk with Him about your situation?
Most Christians would undoubtedly say, “Yes, I would love to talk
directly with God!” What if we asked God this same question and He
responded “Yes, I would love to give you some better guidance!” Does
this raise a new issue? Is there some aspect of your life about which
you are completely satisfied to be “unclear” when it comes to God’s
opinion? This is the first in our series of lessons by which we will
learn more about the ways in which God communicates with humans. Our
goal is to help to increase our awareness of God’s will. Let’s dive
into our lesson!
Why are the Ten Commandments the only message directly
written by God in stone (Deuteronomy 10:1-4)? If God wanted to give
precise rules, you would think He would always hand the prophet
instructions written on stone. Does the fact that God communicates in
many ways, some of them pretty unreliable, tell us something about
the nature of God’s message? Could it be that the prophets are part
of the message? If so, what, exactly, is the role of a prophet? Are
they perfect people? Let’s leap into our study of Bible prophets and
find out!
Have you ever considered that “prophecy” is a spiritual
gift much like teaching? We see all types of teachers, from poor to
great. Do only great teachers and great prophets have the spiritual
gift? Or, is the gift something given in different amounts?
Sometimes a person with a great gift knows it and wants to do things
their way. Is that how the church should operate? If the Holy Spirit
is speaking to them, shouldn’t we follow? How can we even tell the
difference between spiritual gifts and natural gifts that might not
be so spiritual? Let’s dive into our lesson and see what we can learn
about spiritual gifts and prophecy!
Throughout Biblical history, we find that God works
with a specific group of people to advance His kingdom. Is this still
true? Will it be true in the days before the close of earth’s
history? Since these are the people who speak for God, wouldn’t it
seem reasonable that the gift of prophecy would be a special gift to
this remnant group? Let’s dive into the Bible and see what it
teaches on this topic!
We have learned in our prior lessons that being a
prophet means that you communicate God’s messages to others. The
purest form of communication was when God wrote the Ten Commandments
with His own finger on stone. No chance for error in that. Next, we
learned that God spoke to Moses “face to face” (meaning Moses could
see God’s form). That is obviously a very high form of
communication. How do the other prophets obtain messages from God?
How do they package them for us? How are we to understand the
messages of those who have the gift of prophecy? Let’s dive into our
study of the Bible and see what we can learn!
There is a very curious thing these days in
Christianity. If a church claims a modern-day prophet, then
all other modern prophets are false prophets. If a church
does not have a modern-day prophet, then all modern prophets
are false prophets. Why is “false” the default setting for
modern prophets when Joel 2:28-29 and Romans 12:6 seem to
say the gift will be widespread? Let’s dive into our study
and see if common notions about evaluating prophets are
Biblical notions!
What, exactly does a prophet do? Is the job about
telling the future? Is it religious instruction? Is it finding
donkeys? Is it making us feel bad? Is it being God’s agent for all
sorts of things? Let’s dive into our Bibles and find out!
What authority is given to prophets? Are all prophets
given the same authority? Don’t all true prophets have the same
source? If the prophet perfectly relays the message from God, then
the answer is easy: the prophet’s message is God’s message. What if
the prophet is a “low faith” prophet (Romans 12:6)? What if the
prophet lies part of the time and tells the truth part of the time (1
Kings 13)? Let’s dive into the Bible and see what we can learn!
After last week’s study ended with one prophet being
eaten by a lion because the other prophet lied, you may wonder why we
are studying the integrity of the prophetic gift. Can true prophets
lie, cheat and steal? What do you remember about the Old Testament
patriarchs: did they lie, cheat and steal? Obviously, the patriarchs
were not perfect. Are prophets to do better? If the prophets don’t do
better, should we strike them off our “true prophet” list? Let’s
jump into our study and see what the Bible says about the integrity
of the prophets!
If someone asked me to teach a class about the messages
from my wife, I would have to do some thinking. My wife gives me all
sorts of messages. Is there a theme in the messages from your spouse
or your best friend? In general, my wife’s messages are positive and
not critical. They are fun and not harassing. I love to hear from
her. What about messages from God? Does He have a theme? Are they
fun or harassing messages? Is there a way to summarize all that He
says through the prophets? Let’s dive into the Bible and explore
this possibility together!
“That is your interpretation!” Have you ever heard
someone say that when they disagreed with you? Lawyers are masters
of suggesting that something should be interpreted in a way much
different than was originally meant. We even have U.S. Supreme Court
Justices who refer to a “living constitution.” If you are now in your
“sunset years” and you look nothing like you did when you were 18
years-old, you perfectly understand the “living constitution” concept
of changing the original meaning. For some people “interpreting” the
Bible is an excuse to ignore what God plainly said. At the same time,
there are a number of texts in the Bible which seem to be in clear
conflict with other texts. There are passages that are difficult to
understand. What do honest, humble Christians do in those situations?
Let’s plunge into the Bible and see what it suggests we should do!
What good are prophets? Since we have learned that
prophets give us messages from God, it seems the answer is obvious:
we get to hear God’s will. Ask yourself: “Are you sure you really
want to hear God’s will for your life?” Considering the reaction of
many to the Bible, I suspect the answer is “no” for some people.
Let’s dive into our Bible study this week and find out was blessings
are in store for those who desire to know and follow God’s will.
This week I was speaking to a young man whose church
has a living prophet. Because of the prophecy of Joel 2:28-29, that
is not something I would automatically reject. Instead, what I found
worthy of consideration was his statement that the words of the
prophet were as authoritative as the words of the Bible. What do you
think of that? If the prophet truly speaks for God, then that makes
logical sense. Does it make Biblical sense? How about practical
sense? Let’s dive into our study of the Bible and learn what level of
confidence we should have in the prophetic gift!
