Acts 21:7-14
We continued our voyage from Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day... After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'" When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done."
The work of the prophet is to reveal the heart of God to men; Prophet Agabus prophesied over Paul and confirmed God's plan in his life. God was sending Paul to Jerusalem to suffer, and Paul already knew that. God was merely using Agabus to confirm this. Perhaps you have also received a word of prophesy in the past. When you receive prophesy, you need to know that a prophet's words has three characteristics:
First, the prophet's words are often incomplete. Even if 99 of his prophecies are true, the 100th may not be true. Hence, we need to mediate over the words of the prophet multiple times in our heart. Sometimes we need to carefully discern the prophecy given to us, and ask the Spirit of God to confirm God's plan for our lives.
Secondly, the prophet's words can be progressive. They do not necessarily mean now, and may be pointing to sometime in the future. Just as God promised Abraham a son in the Old Testament, there were 25 years that had passed between the time Abraham received the prophecy till the time Isaac was born. The prophecy you receive may not be something that will happen right away, and may happen only sometime in the future.
Thirdly, the prophet's words can be conditional in nature. In order to receive the blessings of God through the prophet, we must first obey God. When the prophets say we have the gift of healing, we need to actually start exercising that gift in ministry. We must pray for others to be healed of their disease, so that we may see the gift of healing. When we obey, we can see the actual grace of God being poured out; As such, we need to learn to obey God in our everyday life. During the course of obeying, we can experience God's grace more abundantly.
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