Getting Prophecies 3

In ‘Getting Prophecies 1’ we read a number of Bible stories showing how prophecy works. People who received messages from the Lord in the Bible did nothing to ready themselves for the message, nor did they sit down quietly each morning practising their ‘gift of prophecy’. Neither did they listen for the voice of God in their own minds, recording the sentences or pictures they saw in their heads. Rather prophecy is consistently described as a miraculous event totally of the Lord’s origin. It does not appear scriptural that we can ‘get’ a message from the Lord at will.

In ‘Getting Prophecies 2’ we examine the verses most commonly used in the Family to justify their particular doctrine of getting prophecies at will. Looking at the textual context of Jeremiah 33:3 and Amos 3:7 we find a much larger picture than is espoused in the Family and we begin to understand a lot more about how prophecy works.

On this page, we’ll look at the story of the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit, including Acts 2:17-18, as well as several other verses which are given as justification of Family teaching.

I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh…

Acts 2:17-18

17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.

18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.

These verses are from the famous outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Jerusalem was crowded with people, who came running when they heard the sound of the mighty rushing wind that filled the house where the apostles were. Tongues of fire sat on the apostles’ heads and they all started speaking in different languages. These were real languages, not merely a confusion of sounds, as the foreigners in Jerusalem heard their own native languages from the apostles’ mouths.

Peter explained to the crowd that this was the fulfilment of a prophecy in Joel chapter two. Before we latch onto the words ‘in the last days’ in verse 17 and say that these verses really apply to the days we are now living, we should remember that Peter was no longer stumbling around, blurting out the first thing that came into his head, as he had done on occasion previously. Peter was now full of the Holy Spirit Who was empowering him to speak the words that would bring people to salvation. This was the point of Peter’s transformation. He was moved by the Holy Spirit, or rather, the Holy Spirit had begun a mighty work and Peter was being swept along in its irresistible flow. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was like a river of living water (John 7:38,39). The Holy Spirit was now a mighty flood that no one could stand against. The apostles spoke in a variety of languages ‘as the Spirit gave them utterance’. They did not get quiet to hear from God which sounds and syllables they should utter; there was no time to prepare nor quiet place to do it. They just opened their mouths and the Holy Spirit spoke through them.

The same thing was happening with Peter. He opened his mouth and the Holy Spirit spoke these words through him. To put it plainly, the incidents on the day of Pentecost really were the fulfilment of the prophecy in Joel.

The day of Pentecost signified the beginning of the Christian era. This was the point when Christians were first empowered to actually live as Christians, full of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we might say that the prophecy in Joel is fulfilled in all Christians who live a Holy Spirit filled life, starting at the day of Pentecost and continuing until now. There is nothing in this passage to suggest that these verses were fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, then would be fulfilled again on a separate occasion in the ‘last days’ just before Jesus’ return. The Holy Spirit said that this was the fulfilment. It is perfectly reasonable to accept that the fulfilment extended from the day of Pentecost until now, but not that these verses are fulfilled on two separate occasions, one in Acts chapter two, and the other in these last days.

Accepting that we are still living in the fulfilment of this prophecy, let’s take a closer look at what it said.

Acts 2:16-21

16 “But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.

19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

One very striking point about this prophecy is that there is not the slightest indication that anyone would decide to ‘hear from the Lord’ or that the Holy Spirit would be giving personal prophecies on demand. This passage does not say that if we had a question we could ask the Lord and He would oblige with a personal message.

Rather, this is a powerful statement that the Holy Spirit will manifest Himself with great signs and wonders. God will pour out the Holy Spirit, God will make people prophesy, God will show Himself. No one will ‘call down the Holy Spirit’ because this is the point when the Holy Spirit was given. From this day onward, God was going to show Himself in a variety of amazing ways. We don’t draw the Holy Spirit; God pours it out. We don’t have to try to see visions, God will just do it. In fact, the minute we put ourselves into the position of trying to get a prophecy or trying to see a vision in order to hear from God, we are destined to fail, because prophecy originates from God. If we say, ‘I’d like to get a prophecy,’ then whatever ‘message’ we get has inevitably originated from ourselves, not God. Trying to get a prophecy in order to hear from God is exactly the same as trying to get a dream to hear from God: it just doesn’t work! Do these verses mean that every dream is a message from God? No, of course not. Everything here points to God doing amazing things that are totally beyond our control. The Holy Spirit would overwhelm us in order to get the message through, just as He would show wonders in the heavens.

‘Your sons and daughters shall prophesy’ because they cannot help themselves, because the Holy Spirit pours through them because the Holy Spirit overwhelms them and forces His message out, not because they decided they wanted to hear from the Lord that day!

Notice also the obviously miraculous nature of the fulfilment of this prophecy: the sound of the mighty rushing wind (loud enough to be heard all over Jerusalem), the apostles speaking in languages without having learned them, visible tongues of fire, ‘wonders in the heavens and in the earth’, the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood. The same must also apply to the prophesying, the visions and the dreams also mentioned. All come as a miraculous manifestation of the Holy Spirit, not in any way of our own volition, and certainly not because we want to hear from God. A prophecy must be a totally miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, or it is not a prophecy. In the same way that when God wants to turn the moon to blood He does it, so when He wants to give a message, He just does it, and it depends neither on the cycle of the moon nor the will of the prophet. He has no trouble getting His message out, regardless of what His chosen prophet is doing at the time, or how yielded they are or whether they are even saved or not! If God wants to speak, He will! He spoke to unsaved Saul, who was riding off to imprison and kill Christians. He spoke through Balaam’s donkey and forced that ungodly man to speak the words of God. He spoke to Ananias in Acts chapter nine, who was most unyielded at the time, arguing with the Lord about the specific instructions He received (Acts 9:13).

The point is that when God wants to speak, nothing or no one can stop Him. Likewise there is nothing anyone can do to make Him speak, just as there is nothing anyone can do to make Him turn the sun dark or make Him give us the miraculous knowledge of the language of a country we are travelling to. We cannot make God speak to us, and He did not say that He would speak whenever we readied our mind to ‘hear’ His words. He said that it is He Who would pour out His Spirit, not we who would pull the Spirit upon us.

The conclusion we can draw from Acts chapter two is that prophecy must literally be a miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, or it is not really prophecy.

Before they spring forth I tell you…

Isa 42:9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

Unfortunately in the Family, there has not been taught an effective method of Bible study. We can use this verse to illustrate the point. It is easy enough to read this verse and interpret it to mean, “God will always reveal the future to us. In fact we can insist that He will tell us the future because in this verse He promised to do so.”

There are a number of problems with this method of Bible interpretation.

Bible context is ignored. We have no idea whatsoever who God was talking to, or when, or why.
Specific fulfilment is ignored. We have no idea whether this particular prophecy was talking about a certain future event or whether God was speaking generally. We don’t know if this specific prophecy was fulfilled or not, because we don’t know what it was talking about.
Additional meaning is inserted. The verse does not in fact say that this is the way God always does it; we are reading extra meaning into the verse if we declare this to be a general principle of the God’s method of operation.
Application is reassigned. Without knowing to whom this verse was given, we apply it to ourselves in our own situation. Personally applying the Bible is only legitimate once we understand want God wants, and this is not possible from reading one individual verse.
Interpretation depends on other shaky doctrines. We are leaning for support on other doctrines which are similarly based on individual verses taken out of context. Insisting that God answer is a doctrine based on a verse taken out of context in Isaiah 45 where it says ‘Command ye Me’. Replaced into context we see that God was actually rebuking His people for their presumption in telling Him what to do . ‘Who do you think you are, you who command Me what to do?!’ For more see ‘Commanding God’.
Authority has been usurped. We have not been given authority to ‘remind God of His word’ as if He were rather forgetful or as if He could not act unless we gave Him the go-ahead. The Bible says that God is all powerful, He is in control and He is not dependant on us for any of His actions.

How should Family members study the Bible? First, we should put away our memory books, which consist of hundreds of verses removed from context. Memorising Scripture is indeed a good thing to do, but applying and understanding Scripture cannot happen if we only read individual verses. Second, we should open our Bible and read the chapter that contains the verse in question. What is the theme of the entire passage? What are the main points within that theme? Who is God talking to and why? What are other related passages (passages, not individual verses) on the same theme? How does this relate to the overall theme of the entire Bible, that of our eternal salvation through Jesus Christ’s atonement for our sins?

Let’s replace Isaiah 42:9 into context and see what we can learn.

Isa 42:1-9

1 “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, my Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

2 He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

3 A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; he will bring forth justice for truth.

4 He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law.”

5 Thus says God the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:

6 “I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles,

7 To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

8 I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.

9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

The first thing we notice about this passage is that it is a specific prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ. Given about 700 years before the life of Christ, these verses talk plainly about the life and ministry of the coming Messiah. This prophecy is mentioned in the book of Matthew as being fulfilled in Jesus.

Matt 12:16-21

16 Yet He warned them not to make Him known,

17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

18 “Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen, my Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He will declare justice to the Gentiles.

19 He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.

20 A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory;

21 And in His name Gentiles will trust.”

Now that we have seen that the theme of Isaiah 42 is the coming Messiah, how should we interpret verse 9, ‘before they spring forth I tell you of them’? Obviously, we cannot say that this verse is a general rule stating that this is the way that God always does things. He can show us the future if He chooses to, as He did in this chapter, and in many other chapters in the Bible, but He did not say that He will always show us the future or that He will tell us everything that He is going to do and He certainly did not give us permission to insist that He does.

Sometimes God does not show us exactly what the future will hold but chooses instead to give us the grace that will carry us through. His grace is sufficient for us. (2 Cor. 12:9)

We see that in Isaiah 42:9, God is saying that He is foretelling the Messiah that we may have divine proof that He is the Christ of God. It is a mistake to say that this verse sanctions the Family’s practice of ‘hearing from God’.

The prophet who has a dream…

Jer 23:28 “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD.

By now, we should be wary of jumping to conclusions about verses taken on their own, and with good reason. This particular verse has been interpreted to indicate that we are obliged to tell our dreams, it is a matter of our own faithfulness to write down and disseminate the messages we get from the Lord, be they dreams, prophecies, or visions. However in context we see the following:

Jer 23:25-32

25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’

26 “How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

27 “who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.

28 “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD.

29 “Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

30 “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor.

31 “Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’

32 “Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.

The entire passage is actually a strong rebuke to those who would spread ‘prophecies’ that they have received, claiming that the Lord has given them, when in fact He has not. Verse 31 specifically mentions those who say, “He says”, “The Lord has said it” or as in the Family, “Jesus speaking”. We see that the prophets in question speak lies in God’s name (verse 25). In verse 26 we see that they are either intentionally deceiving their hearers or else they are deceived themselves. Either way, the prophecies they give are lies. Verse 27 says that the result of this is that people are drawn away from the Lord.

Verse 28, which is a verse often quoted by the Family to give credence to the ‘hearing from God’ doctrine, actually contrasts the dream-tellers with those who faithfully speak God’s word.

Jer 23:28 Let these false prophets tell their dreams and let my true messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between chaff and wheat! (TLB)

God’s word is the Bible. This is a strong caution to be wary of those who proclaim that God has given them a new message. Look at verse 29: God’s word, the Bible is like a hammer that smashes the false messages in pieces. Whenever the Family, or anyone for that matter, declares that they have received a message from God, the first thing to do is to hold this message up against the Bible. Let the Bible work on it like a fire works on chaff or a hammer on rock. False messages will be destroyed by the Bible, and the false prophets should beware.

The warning contained in this passage about false prophets who proclaim messages that they claim God gave them is repeated in several other places in the Bible. It seems that God counts it as a serious thing when we speak in His name, and He strongly objects to people speaking in His name words that He did not say.

Jer 14:14 And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

Ezek 13:6 “They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ But the LORD has not sent them; yet they hope that the word may be confirmed.

In summary…

The various verses that the Family uses to justify their method of receiving prophecy have generally been taken out of context and have been used in ways that contrast sharply with the original biblical meaning.

There is a consistent message running through the Bible that true prophecy originates from the heart of God Who sends it to whom He desires. True prophecy is not dependant on the prophet and there is nothing the prophet can do to receive a new prophecy if God does not intend to give it. When God does speak, however, there will be absolutely no doubt as He is not limited in the slightest in His capacity to make His message known.

Prophecy is not something that ‘we can get’ at all. Either prophecy comes from God, originates with God, and is God’s idea all along, or it is not prophecy. We cannot sit down to ‘get a prophecy’ because the Bible does not give any credence to the idea that we can pull prophecies from God whenever we choose. Neither is there anything in the Bible to support the Family idea that ‘God is broadcasting all the time, and we just have to learn how to tune in’. When God speaks, He speaks, and it has nothing to do with our getting quiet to hear the voice of God in our mind.

If it doesn’t come by the power of the Holy Spirit, then it is safe to say that it isn’t a true prophecy at all.

2 Pet 1:21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

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