Taking Control of Your Future

Taking Control of Your Future

God's people are a people of prophecy. God called us out by prophecy, builds us up by prophecy, sends us out by prophecy, and blesses us so much through prophecy. This is why prophecy is such an important subject in the Kingdom of God. We are made by prophecy, but a lot of us don't understand what prophecy really is. When I say we are a people of prophecy, it's the same as saying we are a people of promise. In Romans 9:8 Paul said, "They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."

What the promise refers to here is the Word. Now, the prophecy I'm talking about is the prophecy of the Word, and it has a two-fold application: foretelling and forth-telling. "Foretelling" is not the same as fortune-telling, palm-reading, star-gazing, crystal-gazing or zodiac sign reading. To foretell, according to the scriptures, means to tell ahead of time things in the mind of God concerning a person or people, places or events.

"Forth-telling," on the other hand, means to speak forth, tell out or tell forward what is in the mind of God. It's the declaration of events in the mind of God or the declaration of a particular Word from God to an individual, people, place, or event for a particular time. Prophecy, therefore, is in two categories. The one category is the ministry of a prophet, while the other is the use of the gift of prophecy, which is given to any believer who has the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit wills.

The Gift of Prophecy
Paul talks in detail about the gift of prophecy (and the prophetic office) in 1 Corinthians 14. In verse 29, he said, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge." He also said, "If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace," that is, "Let him finish speaking."

This is talking about prophets specifically, but in the next verse, he says, "For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted" (1 Corinthians 14:31). He let us know that everyone of us can prophesy. But everybody who prophesies is not necessarily a prophet. To be a prophet, you have to be called into that ministry office. However, you can be given a prophetic utterance without being a prophet. That's up to God; anybody can speak for Him when He enables them to. After all, He made a dumb ass speak.

The gift of prophecy is for exhortation, comfort, and edification. Unlike the operation of the prophetic office, this utterance doesn't necessarily have to do with a revelation or have a revelation behind it. In using the gift of prophecy, you speak according to the proportion of faith. That's why a minister of God can tell you, "You're going to receive a special blessing this week!" Then he realizes he uttered the word by faith, and says, "That's a prophecy; you're going to get it!" He didn't need to have any special revelation to say that.

Words of Power
This is an important point about prophecy: it is a word of power spoken to either foretell events or bring forth God's Word into a situation in the now. To prophesy, therefore, would mean to speak words of power, words filled with the ability of God to cause changes and make things to happen. Whether you're foretelling events or speaking forth the mind of God concerning issues, persons, places or events, as long as it comes to pass, it's a word of power. To be able to tell things ahead of time or tell forth something that's in the mind of God, and for those things to come to pass, there must be ability in your words, there must be power to back them up and make them work. This means such words must contain a divine ability to make them come to pass. They must be from God and be inspired by His Spirit. That's what prophecy is, because you spoke ahead of time and your words came to pass! So when we prophesy, we're speaking words of power that affect our bodies, families, and finances; words that order the course of our lives today and shape our future.

Culled from the book…… Prophecy: Understanding the Power That Controls Your Future