The Spirit of Prophecy Testifies of Fullness in Christ

THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY TESTIFIES OF FULLNESS IN CHRIST. Some prophetic words about 2020 did not come true. Some did. Many, especially those about Trump winning the election, still bear watching and praying over until Inauguration Day. God can move at the last moment, as He did when Moses divided the Red Sea (Ex. 14).

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it’” (Ex. 14:15-16). In his soul, Moses hesitated and cried out to God. He had told the Israelites to stand and watch God save them.

But God told Moses to tell the Israelites to go forward. He was to divide the Red Sea himself by stretching out his staff. Moses’ spirit then overruled his soul and obeyed.

What happens, though, when your spirit goes astray? In our previous article, Dividing Soul & Spirit to Find What is Really from God, we saw how the soul can go astray. It needs the spirit to tell it when it is looking for love in the wrong places.

The spirit, connected with the indwelling Holy Spirit, needs to keep telling the soul to turn to God. But what happens when the spirit goes astray after another spirit?

This occurred with Eve and the serpent—the master deceiving spirit. He said she could be like God—more spiritual—if she ate of the fruit. She believed him. Suddenly her heart and mind also desired the pleasure and the wisdom which serpent offered. And her will cooperated.

The curse that Jesus reversed

She ate the fruit. So did Adam. They fell into sin, and the whole world fell with them, under the domain of the deceptive “ruler of the world” (Jn. 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).

Jesus came as a man to reverse that fall, and to redeem the world.

He had a human nature as well as a divine nature. Like us, He started a weak baby, and needed “to grow and to become strong in spirit” (Lk. 1:80). And like us, He depended on God’s Spirit, God’s heart, God’s mind and God’s will in everything.

But unlike us, He fully cooperated with God. “Whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does” (Jn. 5:19). Jesus resisted every temptation from Satan to act against His Father’s will.

He was “troubled in spirit” when He told His disciples that one of them would betray Him (Jn. 13:21). But at Gethsemane, Jesus denied His human will to be spared the cup of suffering. “Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” He became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Lk. 22:42; Php. 2:8).

Hebrews 5:8-9 says, “He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation”. Because He perfectly obeyed God in spirit, soul and body, He redeemed all men—in spirit, soul and body—who receive Him as Lord.

How the Holy Spirit sanctifies and fills us

We work out our salvation in cooperation with the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. As newborn babes in Christ we start with the milk of God’s love and basic truths (Heb. 5:12).

The more we love God back, with all our heart and soul—which includes our mind and strength—the more we will grow in His love, holiness, wisdom and power. To love God with all our heart and soul means to love Him from our innermost self through our whole being outwardly. In this way the Holy Spirit in us can fill us and overflow.

We need much training and practice to learn how to do this. Otherwise, we will remain like children, or fall back into old habits and old ways. “But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Heb. 5:14).

That is what 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 means when it says to examine prophetic words carefully: “hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”

Judging prophecy in the fivefold ministry

This training works best in the context of a fully functioning fivefold ministry. Each ministry should hold the others—including the prophetic ministry—accountable to equipping and training and building up the whole body rightly.

“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12).

In this context, “let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment” (1 Cor. 14:29). Prophets must let others “judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12), and separate the soulish from the spiritual. And they must “test the spirits” to see whether they testify of Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 4:1-3).

A mature prophet, who prophesies according to his faith (Rom. 12:6), should have enough faith to let his prophetic word be judged. In fact, he might consider judging it himself first, according to the following questions, before the others do.

Does it equip the saints, or discourage them (Eph. 4:12a)?

Does it build up the body, and uphold the unity of the faith (vv.12b-13a)? Or does tear down the body and spread disunity? Too often prophetic people seek to exalt one kind of ministry by disparaging another. Something has gone wrong in their thoughts and intentions. The other four ministries would be quick to detect this.
Does it promote the knowledge of the Son of God (v.13b)? Or does it promote the purposes of the prophet? The spirit of true prophecy is the testimony of Jesus (Rev. 19:10).
Does it lead the body to more maturity, as it seeks to attain to the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13c)? Or does it emphasize divisions and differences?

Growing together into oneness in Christ

Of course, those who judge the prophetic word should speak the truth in love. They should “hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21), and not dwell too long on whatever went wrong.

With all five ministries working together, we can “grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” (v.15).

Christ wants us to be “one body and one Spirit,” and “one heart and soul” with Him (v.4; Acts 4:32). As our souls align together with the Spirit of God in us, we will receive more of His love, His thoughts, and His directions to follow His ways.