At Parachute Music Festival in the weekend I took part in Life FM’s panel for the live version of their talkback show, The Forum. One question was asked about prophecy and whether or not the practice of prophecy in pentecostal/charismatic churches lines up with what appears in the Bible. I was tired and slammed the former without a lot of grace but did not get much time to unpack what I said, so here are my thoughts unpacked a little more.
In my view what’s called prophecy in many churches is more akin to shady fortune telling than it is to biblical prophecy and it saddens me. I’ll explain with an example and contrast it to what I now believe should be the prevailing view of prophecy.
Years ago I once attended a workshop at a pentecostal/charismatic conference. The workshop was intended to train attendees in prophecy and since I have a deep admiration for the biblical prophets, I wanted to learn more.
What was being taught was not biblical prophecy. It consisted of one person standing facing a wall while another stood up. The identity of the person who stood up remained unknown to the person facing the wall and the latter was asked to speak whatever came into their mind about the person standing up – ‘discerning the voice of God.’ Of course, the more accurate, the more gifted the person was seen to be.
Where this differs from what normally happens is that the person could not see the individual they were talking to/about in the way someone ‘bringing a word from God’ often would and therefore didn’t get to ‘read’ the individual or crowd.
This sort of ‘prophecy’ is mostly about saying something to a person or group that is supposedly a direct message from God. It is supposed to illuminate something in their life that they need to hear whether it be a present affirmation or challenge, or a future prediction. It is most celebrated when the person giving the ‘prophecy’ has no attachment to, or knowledge of the person or group it is being spoken to and therefore the more accurate and detailed it is, the better – much like a clairvoyant, palm reader, card reader or any other fortune teller. It is no accident that it most often takes place with audiences.
Contrast this to a much simpler and in my view, more biblical view of prophecy. I view the biblical prophets as people who were well versed in God, his decrees and the people they were called to speak to. They knew what God had asked of his people and his leaders and they knew what consequences God had set in place if that guidance was not followed, and what would happen if it was. At its most basic they would challenge the people and leaders with these truths when it was demanded of them. On the odd occasion they spoke out of revealed knowledge apart from what had already been decreed, but such revelations were not the norm and certainly not the prevailing arch of prophecy.
Biblical prophecy is very basic and follows a few simple proclamations – Who God is, what the people/person has done and what the consequences will be. This usually flowed from a call on someone’s life to act as a such a mediator.
With this in mind, if you look at what most of the prophets said to various people and groups, it corresponded with earlier writings declaring God’s desire for his people and what would happen if they do or do not follow that desire. Simple. This demands three things of the ‘prophet’ – that they know God, know what he has said and know the people to be spoken too. This lines up with the vague mentions of prophecy in the New Testament as well.
This leads to a big difference in how the two forms of prophecy are carried out. To be celebrated, the modern view of prophecy often used demands that the person sharing the prophecy remains distant from those it is being given to – that no real relationship be formed. If a relationship were to be formed then the ‘prophet’ can be accused of speaking from knowledge of that person and the deck of cards falls over.
On the other hand, the other form demands relationship. It demands that the ‘prophet’ get close for it is within that relationship that the ‘prophet’ can talk from an intimate knowledge of God into the live(s) of the person/people being spoken to because the receiver is known and therefore their life is known.
For instance, if I know that a church is struggling in a certain area, I can step in and based on what I know of God, life, faith etc I can speak directly to that issue, affirming or challenging as is needed and explaining where things will head based on current practice. The same goes with individuals. The closer the relationship the more this can be done. This is biblical prophecy – demanding relationship, community and closeness, while negating the celebrity and status of what is masquerading as biblical prophecy in far too many places.
Another example of how it works can be seen in environmentalism where Christians have a lot to say. Use it as an example. Biblical prophecy comes at the issue with an understanding about what God requires of us in terms of being good stewards of what he has gifted us, it declares the consequences of treating this creation poorly (there are many verses related to this in the Old Testament) and it challenges the whole of humanity towards a better way. When Christians step into the environmental issue based on this, they are being prophetic in the biblical sense. It’s based on knowledge of God, what he has said, how humanity is acting and a willingness to speak out.
This does not exclude exceptions based on revelation that appear in the Bible, but lets not take the exception, make it a norm and create shows and celebrity around it when the less glamorous, more simple, but more demanding form of biblical prophecy offers something much deeper and a whole lot more relevant to the wider world in which we exist.