In the Bible, prophecy refers to much more than simply foretelling events of the future. According to 2 Peter 1:21 any time the Holy Spirit uses a person to speak the truth it is considered prophecy.
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God Wants To Talk
• Greg Boyd
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In the Bible, prophecy refers to much more than simply foretelling events of the future. According to 2 Peter 1:21 any time the Holy Spirit uses a person to speak the truth it is considered prophecy. Prophecy is about what God is doing, not about what people want. In Luke 22:63-71 Jesus’ guards commanded him to prophesy regarding who was hitting him. They were mocking Jesus. Obviously Jesus felt no compulsion to participate with their game.
We sometimes try to force God to do “magic” on our behalf by setting up scenarios and assuming that we’ve locked God into our game somehow. Greg gave the example of an atheist who says, “If God is real, strike me dead right now…The fact that I’m alive proves there is no God.” But actually, all this proves is that God isn’t locked into our games. God makes up the rules, not us. Likewise, Christians will try get God to answer questions for them by setting up either/or scenarios. For example: “God, if you want me to marry this man, have him call me today…if he calls I’ll say ‘yes,’ if not, I’ll say, ‘no’.” Again, God makes up the rules not us.
2 Peter 1:21 gives a clear definition of prophecy. Acts 2:17-18 expresses the importance of prophecy and shows that it is available to all Christians. Paul, in 1 Cor. 14:1,5 encourages us to seek the spiritual gifts—including and especially prophecy—because it builds up the body of Christ.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Holy Spirit, Presence of God, Spiritual Gifts
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Focus Scripture:
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Luke 22:63-71
The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” And they said many other insulting things to him.
Jesus Before Pilate and Herod
At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us."
Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God."
They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?"
He replied, “You say that I am."
Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips."
7 thoughts on “God Wants To Talk”
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"I am a podrishioner that just wanted to say thanks for sharing Woodland Hills through podcasts and videos. This is my place to get a spiritual refill, and it’s where I get most of my teaching from. Since I've starting following you four years ago, my view on God, myself and other people has radically been changed. Thanks so much, and keep sharing the Kingdom!"
– Knut-Inge, from Norway
Great Sermon Greg,
This has been something on my heart (developing spiritual gifts) but I sometimes wonder if what comes on my heart is from God or not. This came at the perfect time.
What a beautiful prophetic word from Pastor Boyd about the prophetic. This is timely as the word “prophecy” is thrown around a lot in the body these days with little understanding. We need teachers like Greg AS MUCH as we need people with the prophetic gifting. Thank You!
Thank you, Pastor Boyd. I ended up watching a few of your Youtube videos tonight thanks to a comment on Facebook. One of them led me to this site. I just want to say that I haven’t felt the word of God in my heart like this since I was a child. I have been struggling with a lot of questions about things that seem to conflict in the Bible. You have answered them for me. I feel like my faith has been completely renewed. You broke through that intellectual barrier I’d put up and cleared the way for God to touch my heart. I only wish there was a church like yours in my area. I will be coming back to watch more sermons.
I can only say that without even hearing it yet, thank you. I have been discovering the reality of the Holy Spirit and the gifts these last few years and I have a hard time finding true belief in Holy Spirit in many churches. Even the ones that teach it! So thank you, I will be sure to check it out!
Peace
Dear Sir, I found your website on the internet and found this sermon interesting. You see, I have had “visions” that have proven to come true. Not just visions, but the Spirit has spoken to my spirit several times. The first time I experienced it, I didn’t know what it was…but, the experience has happened several times since then. I am a medical doctor. I have knowledge of what is “normal” and “abnormal”. These experiences were not “normal” for me…for my religious tradition has taught that the Holy Spirit completed His work with the completion of the New Testament canon. As you can see, I am at a delima as what to do…Do I say anything to my fellowship and disrupt their understanding of how the Spirit works today or do I keep it to myself?
Hi Brenda,
As you can tell from Greg’s sermon, we at Woodland Hills are convinced that God does continue to speak to the church in ways very much like what we read about in the New Testament. We believe that, while the Bible is foundational to our knowledge of God, we also continue to need more specific guidance from God in our everyday life. And for this purpose, God continues to give the church gifts of prophetic word, words of knowledge, etc. How you should deal with your own experiences of these things in the context of your church community when it does not believe such gifts still operate today is a delicate matter. Perhaps the apostle Paul’s words say it best when he reminds us to “speak the truth in love.” A humble, gentle conversation about what you’ve experienced may be the very thing God could use to get your church thinking about these things in a new way. But the most important thing is for you to seek God about how to proceed on this matter. God’s blessing upon you as you do.
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