15.What is prophecy? .

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A supernatural ability given to members of the Body of Christ so they may be able through the Spirit to build up, exhort, and comfort all the members of the Body. We recognize that in the case of prophecy, as is true also of speaking in tongues and the healing of the sick through prayer, all Christians should participate as part of the normal spiritual life of the believer. This is true also, though perhaps to a lesser extent, of the remaining six manifestations of the Holy Spirit listed in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians.

It happens, as both Scripture and experience teach us, that to some of the saints is given a depth of prophetic utterance, an anointing of prophetic power, that is not true of all Christians.

There was a great amount of prophecy under the old covenant and there is supposed to be a great amount of prophecy under the new covenant. The prophet was one of the ministries of the old covenant, and the prophet is listed along with the apostle as one of the ministries of the new covenant.

Many of the old covenant prophets apparently were attended by scribes who recorded their prophecies. Only the Revelation of the Apostle John is recorded as a prophecy given under the new covenant.

It is the will of the Holy Spirit that all Christians prophesy. "For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted" (I Corinthians 14:31). "For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).

When we seek the Lord with fervency and diligence, and begin to walk and live in the Spirit, the burden of prophecy is as near as our physical breath. The burden is heightened when we assemble with other believers.

But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth (I Corinthians 14:24,25).

The above passage describes the Holy Spirit’s concept of a normal Christian assembly. Such normality is in the process of being restored as we press into the glorious anointing of the harvest-rain revival.