In our Bible studies, we have reached 1 Corinthians 14, a chapter which gives practical advice on using the gifts of the Spirit in church meetings, in particular looking at the gifts of speaking in tongues, interpretation and prophecy. These are vast topics (whole books have been written on them!), but we began with an introduction to the topic of prophecy.
Prophecy could be defined as the revelation of God given to human messengers who communicate this message to other people. Max Turner defines it as ‘a type of oracular speech (i.e. an intelligible verbal message) believed to originate with God and to be communicated through an inspired human intermediary.’ (‘The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts’, P 184) Without this revelation of God and from God, given to us through a variety of means (including nature, through the Bible, through experience, through natural means and supernatural means), we would not have the opportunity to know God, for Christianity is explicitly a religion based on revelation, with Jesus God’s clearest revelation of His nature (see Jn 1:18, Heb 1:1-3). ‘Prophecy is the most common means God used to communicate with people throughout Biblical history. The story of prophecy is the story of God speaking to people through human messengers from Genesis to Revelation.’ (Wayne Grudem, ‘The Gift of Prophecy in the NT and Today’, P271)
The Old Testament gives us many examples of prophecy, with God revealing His love for people and the laws needed to live in right relationship with Him. Many prophets (or ‘seers’) are named in the Old Testament, including Abraham, Moses, Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, Gad, Samuel, Nathan, Elijah and Elisha, not to mention the ‘Major Prophets’ (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel) or the ‘Minor Prophets’ (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.) There are over 320 references to ‘prophet’ or ‘prophets’ in the Old Testament, their contribution giving us revelation about the nature of God, the covenant He made with Israel and glimpses into the ‘new covenant’ which would come through Jesus.