To Listen or Not to Listen to Prophecy…That’s the Question (Part 7)

 

 

In the late 1980’s, I attended a large meeting where Dr. Bill Hamon taught on prophecy. He had a unique way to encourage people to prophesy. “I want everyone to pair up with someone you don’t know,” he said, waiting for everyone to follow his directions.

The lady sitting next to me agreed to be my partner.

“Okay,” said Hamon, “I want each of the pair to give a personal prophecy to the other person. I will wait until everyone is done.”

My partner’s eyes were the size of pie plates. “I prophesy. What about you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. Why don’t you go first?” she whispered.

I prayed and prophesied to her. “Your words were just what I needed. Thanks.”

“Okay, now you prophesy to me,” I said.

Again, she shook her head. “I’ve never prophesied and never have thought about doing it.”

“We need to be obedient. If you make a mistake, I won’t tell anyone. So, just open your mouth and prophesy.”

She looked around and shrugged her shoulders. “Why not?” she said. Then, she spoke a long prophecy to me, which answered some important questions for my life.

“Wow! That was awesome,” I said.

“I can’t wait to pray and prophesy to other people,” she replied.

The best way to encourage people to prophesy is to have them speak personal prophecies to other people. This can be done in a small group, a church, or just two people sitting alone somewhere.

All you have to remember is that you are obeying:

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Will all be able to prophesy? Probably not, but if all give an honest effort, there will be numerous surprised believers speaking words of prophecy who will be encouraged to prophesy even more in the future.

Why is there such an emphasis on prophecy for today’s believers?

(Continued in Part 8)