Hearing God in Prophecy The practice of prophecy

'The gift of prophecy grows like a muscle with regular exercise. In fact, the apostle Paul tells us to ‘try to excel in those [spiritual gifts] that build up the church’ (1 Cor. 14:12 NIV UK)… Those who work hard at developing their prophetic muscles, the way an athlete might train at the gym, will inevitably grow like Samuel in spiritual stature and strength.

We do this by walking closely with Jesus from day to day. We do it by acquainting ourselves with the sound of his voice through the quiet discipline of prayerful attentiveness towards his presence. We do it by finding our own Eli to encourage and coach us in hearing God’s voice. We do it too by welcoming feedback and learning from our mistakes. We also exercise the prophetic by diligently delivering the things God gives us to say with increasing levels of confidence, competence and consistency.

…Since all believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4; 19:6; Eph. 5:18), we can (and should) all receive and exercise his gifts, including prophecy. But our first attempts at prophecy can be scary, so it’s helpful to ask yourself, ‘Will the thing I think I’m seeing, hearing or sensing bring encouragement if I share it? Will it be edifying?’ And most important of all, ‘Does it sound like Jesus?’ A simple, memorable rule of thumb is therefore to apply the ABC filter:

• Affirming: Does this word fulfill the criteria of 1 Corinthians 14, by being strengthening, encouraging, comforting, edifying and upbuilding?
• Biblical: Is this word consistent with the broad teaching and witness of Scripture (not just a specific verse taken out of context…)?
• Christlike: Is this word consistent with the character, mission and message of Jesus?

The ABC filter is not perfect. There are times when a word from God may be deeply disruptive and not comforting at all (I’m sure you can think of examples in the Bible). But for those taking their first faltering steps in this area, it’s much less scary to start with encouraging and affirming words before you move on to the more challenging ones.’

Lord, I want to grow in the prophetic. Give me opportunities to encourage the people around me, and send people to encourage me, too.

Amen.