Understanding and Operating in Personal Prophecy
1 Corinthians 14:24-25 “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all. (25) And thus, the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.”
In the previous section we discussed general prophecies that are addressed to the whole congregation. In this section we want to discuss prophecies that are addressed to specific individuals. In other words these are personal prophecies. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul speaks about the secrets of men’s hearts being revealed through the gift of prophecy. And so we see that prophecy can also be used to display an element of the gift of the word of knowledge, for it is through the gift of the word of knowledge that God reveals the secrets of men’s hearts. But I want you to notice in this passage that Paul is speaking about prophecies that are spoken out in the church. Paul is not talking about one on one ministry in this passage, for he says “If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all”. In other words these are prophesies that convict an unbeliever or uninformed person that are in the meeting. The individuals prophesying however will not know that the words they are speaking are being directed at anyone specifically, for they will be speaking to the church as a whole. Nevertheless, there may be incidents when the Holy Spirit will impress upon the one prophesying, to say that God is addressing His message to one individual or even a group of individuals, but nevertheless the prophet will not know specifically who the individual is. And so we see that the Holy Spirit can speak directly to individuals in a meeting even through general prophecy spoken to the whole congregation.
1 Timothy 4:14 “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.”
We have seen in the previous passage of scripture that it is scriptural for the Holy Spirit to single out individuals in a meeting and speak directly to them through the gift of prophecy. And we saw that in those instances there is an element of the gift of the word of knowledge that is displayed in those prophecies. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see this same principle being applied, for in this example the apostle Paul informs us that when the elders laid their hands on Timothy that one of them prophesied over him. When that elder prophesied, he declared what spiritual gift the Holy Spirit was imparting to Timothy through the laying on of hands. In other words the gift of the word of knowledge was displayed through the elder’s prophetic word given. The only difference here is that this was a one on one prophecy that was given, and not a general prophecy given to the whole church. And so we see that it is scriptural for prophets to be led by the Lord to speak prophetic words directly to individuals in the church.
Acts 21:10-11 “And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. (11) When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'”
We have already looked at the above quoted passage of scripture in an earlier section; nevertheless we will re-examine it in this section because this is a very clear account in scripture of one on one prophecy being used in the church. In this account the prophet Agabus had been led by the Holy Spirit to come to Paul and prophesy over him. In the prophetic word delivered Agabus gave the apostle Paul a very clear word of knowledge, for he revealed to Paul what would happen to him once he reached Jerusalem. We know that the prophetic word given was accurate, because that is exactly what transpired when Paul finally got to Jerusalem i.e. the Jews delivered Paul into the hands of the Gentiles. Something else of interest in this account is the way that Agabus delivered his prophecy, for the scripture says that he took Paul's belt and bound his own hands and feet. In another example of prophecy given by Agabus the scripture says that he “showed by the Spirit” (Acts 11:28). And so we see that Agabus was used by the Holy Spirit in a very demonstrative way when he prophesied. Because God used Agabus in this manner it is entirely possible that He will use prophets today in a similar fashion, but obviously not all prophets will be used in this same manner. Nevertheless, from the examples examined in this section it is very clear that personal prophecy is entirely scriptural.
To summarize; from our examination of the scriptures quoted in this section we have established that it is scriptural for personal prophecies to be delivered in the church. We have seen that the Holy Spirit can speak directly to individuals in a meeting through the use of a general prophecy given to the whole congregation. We have also seen that the Holy Spirit uses prophets to prophesy in a one on one format in order to speak directly to an individual through the gift of prophecy.
Michael E.B. Maher
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