The Nature of God’s Voice in Prophesy

So many young prophets, or individuals, who think God is calling them to be a prophet take off in the wrong direction. They take the old testament model and assume prophesy consists of setting people straight, chewing them out, forecasting doom and gloom upon them . . . stuff like that.

Actually, when it comes to the gift of prophecy in the New Testament Church, the voice of God seems to be set in extreme contrast to the prophets’ voice in the old testament. There is one verse about prophecy in the New Testament that describes what God’s voice is to His church, or what the function of the gift of prophecy is.

1 Corinthians 14:3 (NKJV) says,

“But he who prophesies speaks edification,

exhortation, and comfort to men.”

Edification means, “the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually.” Exhortation, basically means encouragement. So we might say that the gift of prophecy is to help you become a better person, to encourage you, and to comfort you.

Take note that this kind of voice from God is in stark contrast to what young, inexperienced, and often self-appointed prophets sometimes deliver. Often the messages that come out of their mouths are filled with anger, and bent on slicing and dicing the recipient.

The voice of prophecy that Paul is describing here, really is totally in line with the nature of God, or what God is like.

In one of the previous posts on the subject of Learning to Hear the Voice of God, I talked about when I first began to journal, that is to write down what I felt God was saying to me. You may remember I said that when God began speaking to me, I discovered that He was always encouraging me.

There you go . . .  encouragement or exhortation is one of the three words Paul used to describe prophecy. The gift of prophecy given correctly, under the unction of the Holy Spirit, is God speaking to His church. And what does He do? He encourages them.

When you take all three words, you can say that He tells His kids how to become better persons, and He encourages and comforts them.

Isn’t this what a good parent does, a good father, for instance?

Does He sometimes reprove or correct us? Yes, of course, but again the New Testament makes it very clear that when he corrects us, it is because he loves us as sons and daughters.

Really, what we’re talking about here is the nature of God. The voice of prophecy, given correctly, is a verbal expression of the nature of God.

1 John 4:8 says that God is love. Get that deep down in your spirit. God is love! That’s who He is. When you really get ahold of that, it will help you immensely in learning to hear the voice of God. God loves you and wants the very best for you. The voice of prophecy in the New Testament is in total agreement with His nature, which is love. When you learn to hear His voice, you are hearing that same voice, the voice that comes through prophecy, and the overall purpose of that voice is to instruct you on how to become a better person, to encourage you, and to comfort you.

When you learn to hear the voice of God, that is the nature and character you will hear.

Log in next week for the next installment of Learning to Hear the Voice of God, posted right here!