Prophesying His Promises

Recently I was going through some of my worship playlists on Spotify and it was like a blast from the past. There were so many songs that I hadn’t heard in a while and it was so good to listen to them again. By past I mean like 4 months ago lol. During my searching of ‘old’ music, I came across one of my favorite albums, “People”, by Hillsong UNITED. People is a great album, and it’s very special to me especially, because I went to a Hillsong UNITED concert this past July. The songs started to spark some memories of that concert and it got me thinking of a very cool moment where lead singer and lyric artist, Joel Houston (my favorite Aussie), called a fan on stage with him to close out the last song of the night. This fan’s name was Charles. Or as Joel called him, “Cholls”. He brought him on stage and prophesied over him in front of over 20,000 people. I still remember thinking, “oh but what I would give for that to be me, standing with one of my role models, worshiping Jesus”. I can even remember some of the specific things that Joel said to Cholls. Just thinking of that sweet memory that was made gives me goosebumps. I often find myself thinking, “I wonder what Cholls is up to”, “I wonder if Cholls really does light up a room with his beautiful smile and lead others closer to Jesus”, “I wonder if he really does care more about what God thinks of him rather than what his peers think of him”. The more I wonder, the more I realize I probably won’t ever find out. Anyways, what is my point in sharing this story? Well, hear me out — I think that Christians need to prophesy more. At least this is what I’ve been learning recently, and here are my thoughts and applications from the Scripture I’ve been diving into. Now, when it comes to prophecy, there are two specific types. There is forth-telling prophecy and there is fore-telling Prophecy. I don’t think that we should go around telling people, “you’re going to be blessed by God and win the lottery”, or “God’s going to heal your concussion”. What I am suggesting is that fourth-telling prophecy is so important in our Christian communities. Prophecy is a spiritual gift. However, I am currently under the belief that certain spiritual gifts are meant for all of us believers. For example, spiritual discernment is something all Christians ought to practice; not just those who scored it on a spiritual gifts quiz they took on Google. Similarly, I believe that prophecy is something all Christians should practice. So, what is forth-telling prophecy? Forth-telling prophecy is edification by prophesying Biblical truth over someone. Now, why would this be necessary for today? Prophecy is very necessary, even today and here is a scripture behind my current belief. 1 Thessalonians 5:14 states, “And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all” (ESV). There are countless passages throughout the Word of God calling us as believers to encourage our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Here in 1 Thessalonians there is a great example. (Thanks Paul!) Later on in this chapter, he writes, “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (v. 20-22). He literally writes “do not despise prophecies”. Why does he, I thought. I was puzzled. That would be like him saying, “do not despise pleasing the Lord”. Like, why would he have to encourage followers of Christ to not despise something that is important to believers and spiritual growth. Then I realized, prophecy is something that can, more often than not, be taken and used and abused in many incorrect ways. For example, if I were to say, “Jimmy, God just told me that if you give to the Church, God will bless you with that brand new truck you’ve been wanting so bad”, so many fellow believers would “despise” me saying that. In other words, they would call me out on it. And that’s why Paul says “but test everything” in verse 21! “Testing everything” is also the practice of Spiritual discernment which (stated above) I also think is something all believers should practice, but back to prophecy... Prophecy is so important for the body of Christ to build each other up, however we must use it in a correct manner — which is prophesying God’s promises. When Jimmy is doubting God, then maybe prophesying the truth that God is in control (Ps. 27:1) would be a wise idea. Or if Jimmy feels distant from God or that God isn’t present in his life, prophesying that God is always with us and never leaves us (Ps. 46:1-3) would also be a wise decision. Simply put, prophesy His promises! Some of the times I’ve felt most loved and confident in God is when some of my friends prophesy over me, reminding me of who God is and what He has done. God made promises to us, and keeping them in mind to prophesy over fellow believers and yourself is something we all ought to do. That’s what I am learning right now! Thanks to our Jewish King for the spiritual gift of prophecy!

- Jack Hilsher