What is Prophecy and How Does It Work?
PROPHETIC WORD
WHAT IS PROPHECY?
Prophecy is “God making known the mystery (secret) of His will (of His plan, of His purpose) to His children. [And it is this:] In accordance with His good pleasure (His merciful intention) which He had previously purposed and set forth in Himself” (Ephesians 1:9, AMP). One must realize that Prophecy is portrayed in imagery in Hebrews 12: 2a, as a book authored by God waiting to be discovered by all humanity.
This book picturesque in Ephesians 1: 5, the author is seen to have taken a long hard thought about the contents of the book for eternity before piecing the content together. Hebrews 12: 2a strongly suggests that the author is also the executor of the content for anyone who makes a decision to know what the author planned to execute in his or her life.
The concept of prophecy is same as God conceiving the idea from the beginning in Genesis 1: 26 and did not stop at the conception; He spoke the idea into existence giving the concept, idea, and vision He knew and planned for an existence in the material world for all to see. Genesis 1: 26 says, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (KJV). Prophecy is God’s only way to conceive, and bring His plan into material existence through His creative word. Thus the expression, “No word, no material existence of life in the world”.
Through Prophecy, God determined before time the purpose, destiny, domain or territory of influence and position and role man would play in creation as a whole. Have you ever asked yourself the question: What am I doing here (that is, on earth)?
We see examples of this in Luke 1 and 2 as the angel Gabriel prophesied about the birth, territory of influence, purpose, destiny and role John the Baptist and Jesus would play before they were conceived. We see this played out in Genesis 15: 12-16, God telling Abraham 430 years before how his children would become slaves in a foreign land and be delivered through God’s intervention when it was clear to Abraham he and his wife Sarah were barren, old and had no possibility of having children.
HOW DOES PROPHECY WORK?
Prophecy is the word coming from the mouth of the Lord unto a person for the purpose of God revealing Himself and purpose to the world and the person.
What does God require to bring His word to pass? Hebrews 3: 19 says, “So we see that they were not able to enter [into the rest He prophesied to Abraham], because of their unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and rely on God [unbelief had shut them out]”. We see this lack of cooperation with the Prophetic word defined as unbelief, which is turning to human reasoning instead of acting in ways that shows that God who promised is able to perform what He said, Hebrews 10:23 “So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word or to do what He promised” (AMP & NLV).
The prophetic word demands our cooperation because the word spoken takes root first in our hearts, then is acknowledged and made receipt of with our mouth through confession and profession, Romans 10:8 and 10 says:
8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming; 10For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation.
The Prophetic word is the word from God sown into the good ground of one’s heart, Luke 8: 11, and 15:
11Now the meaning of the parable is this: “The seed is the Word of God. 15But as for that [seed] in the good soil, these are [the people] who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in a just (noble, virtuous) and worthy heart, and steadily bring forth fruit with patience” (AMP).
Therefore, one who is to enter into all that God through the prophetic word plans to execute must be careful not to fall into unbelief despite the word is theirs but they may disqualify themselves because they fail to cooperate with God’s plan of greatness like King Saul did in 1st Samuel 15 :22 and 23; and Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years until all the generation that came out of Egypt who through unbelief refused to enter and possess the land all died because they believed a different plan not spoken of by God (see Numbers 13-14). Hebrews 4:1-2, warns expressly about this,
1THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it. 2For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe).
Now consider this: Do you have access to the Prophetic word? Do you understand how it works? Are you ready to enter the place prepared by God for you before He created the world? Do you think you need the Prophet in your life?
If you answered Yes to all the questions, the reason is because your time of and for change has been long overdue and you need to act your faith, which is actually the definition of believing.
