LESSON 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPHETIC REALM (PART I)

GOD'S BASIC DESIRE FOR INTERCOMMUNICATION AND FELLOWSHIP

God's very purpose for creating mankind was personal, intimate fellowship and intercommunication. In this last day as well, God has not become mute, but is adamant about maintaining communication and fellowship with His mankind creation.

He has always wanted to communicate with us. He is looking for those who will listen for His communication. He is speaking much more than most people are listening.

The problem is not that God is not speaking, but that most people are not listening and have not learned how to hear the Lord's divine communication.

God employs many means of communication, and certainly does not limit Himself to only one. He will use whatever means necessary to communicate His message, will, and purposes unto people. In the Bible He spoke through people, angels, a burning bush, through circumstances, through supernatural acts, and He even spoke through a dumb donkey once.

DIRECT COMMUNICATION in the Garden of Eden--Gen. 3:8-19

God walked and talked (fellowshipped) with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden prior to their disobedience and fall. Thus, Man in his original spiritual estate enjoyed direct, personal communication with God.

MAN DISOBEYED GOD'S WORD AND FELL, and thereby LOST their FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD and the DIVINE NATURE OF GOD (2 Pet. 1:4) and received the CARNAL NATURE OF SATAN (Eph. 2:1-3).

Is. 6:1-10 The consequence of the disobedience and fall of man was that human spiritual hearing and sight (insight) was greatly DULLED and man was rendered spiritually insensitive to the voice of God.

SECOND ADAM (JESUS) RESTORED OUR SPIRITUAL COMMUNICATION WITH GOD

1 Jn. 3:8 Jesus came as the Second Adam to REVERSE THE CURSE! He came to redeem man from the effects of sin which the first Adam brought upon all of mankind through his disobedience.

Mat. 27:50,51; 2 Cor. 3:14-16 By His substitutionary death, Jesus rent the veil that had been placed over our spiritual eyes through Adam's sin, restoring our ability to see into the spiritual realm.

1 Cor. 13:9-12 However, because the sin nature has not been totally eradicated from us, we still look through a dark glass dimly; know only in part; and prophesy only in part. Our knowledge is not yet complete, but is only partial. We only know that which God chooses to reveal to us by the Spirit. The attainment of true spiritual knowledge and understanding is progressive. Knowing how to hear from God is a process that no believer is perfected in yet, and never will be until we receive our full redemption.

Heb. 5:14 Understanding how to and becoming adept at RECOGNIZING RECOGNIZING the voice of the Lord is an on-going learning process, which is only perfected through years of practice in training one's spiritual senses. Fortunately, while we are in that process, the Lord has not limited Himself to inward intercommunication exclusively.

JESUS--the exact Expression of God.

Heb. 1:1,2 In the fulness of time, God spoke to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Yet, as we shall see later, this text is in no wise indicating that the need for prophetic people and prophecy was eliminated by the coming of Jesus. On the contrary, Jesus Himself established prophets and the prophetic in the Church.

1 Tim. 3:16 Jesus was God Himself manifest in the flesh.

Jn. 14:5,11; Col. 2:9 Jesus was the first and Preeminent Prophet, but was and is much more than a Prophet. He was the exact and complete expression of God Himself in bodily form. Jn. 1:1-14; 1 Jn. 1:1-3; Heb. 1:3 Jesus was the embodiment of the very word, will, and wisdom of God manifested on Earth.

Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 2:9,10 Jesus was the first-born of a new race of God-created beings, the Children of God, who are in the process of being conformed to His image and likeness.

THE HOLY SPIRIT--divine intercommunications.

Jn. 14:18,19 After Jesus' bodily ascension to Heaven, the fullness of God in bodily form was no longer visible to the world.

Jn. 16:7 However, Jesus did not leave us fatherless, i.e., without fatherly guidance and instruction--- He sent the Holy Spirit to be our "Paracletos" (Helper).

Jn. 16:13-15; Jn. 14:25,26 The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. His role is to guide us into all spiritual Truth.

1 Cor. 2:6-10 The very purpose of Jesus' vicarious death was to restore our fellowship with god and our spiritual hearing and insight. As a result, we now have the "mind of Christ" through the Spirit to know the mysteries and the very depths of God.

THE LOGOS (The Bible)--God in Written Form.

2 Pet. 1:20,21; Eph. 3:5 The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Bible through Apostles and Prophets.

2 Tim. 3:15-17 The Bible is the complete revelation of the general will of God. The Bible is a closed canon, consisting of sixty-six books. In no way is it being said or inferred that prophetic ministry adds to or subtracts from the Bible; Scripture strictly prohibits that. Rather, prophets are often used by God as His special messengers to convey inspired illumination, instruction, and application concerning the Word of God (Eph. 3:1-10). Most people are not doing much of what is written in the sixty-six books that comprise the Bible, so we certainly don't need any more to be added to it.

THE PROPHETIC VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT--God Speaking Through Human Channels.

Rom. 8:14 "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are SONS of God."

This passage indicates that Born Again believers are to be led (guided) by the Holy Spirit. As we have seen, the Holy Spirit can lead us and communicate with us through the written Word of God (Logos) as well as by direct inward communication. But, He has not limited Himself to those two forms of communication. He also speaks to us through other human vessels.

The Greek word translated "sons" in this passage is the word "huios" which refers to "mature sons" as distinguished from mere children of God. While every Born Again believer is a "child of God," it takes some development over time to become a "mature son" of God. Those who have reached some level of maturity, begin to hear from God on their own; but "babes" do not, they aren't mature enough to do so.

Yet, even when we have begun to mature and even in the case of some of the most mature believers, there are times when, for various reasons, we simply cannot hear the pure Word of the Lord unto us for ourselves. It is at those times that we need to allow the Lord to communicate to us by the "prophetic voice of the Holy Spirit" through other believers of His choosing. This is one of many ways in which the Lord keeps us ever mindful of our need for one another and the realization that no believer will ever become self-sufficient or self-dependent in his relationship with God.

1 Cor. 3:16 We all need the other members of the Body of Christ! It is the collective "WE" of the Body of Christ who have "the mind of Christ," not any one individual believer independent of the rest of the Body! Individual completeness independent of other believers is neither a reality nor even a valid goal.

While it is certainly true that God desires to walk and talk with us directly in personal and intimate fellowship through the Bible and through inward communication from the Holy Spirit, that does not negate human channels of communication.

The coming of the Messiah, His sending of the Holy Spirit upon His departure, the birth of the Church, and even the writing of the Bible did not eliminate the need for or the validity of the prophetic voice of the Lord through human channels. In fact, the need for the prophetic voice of the Lord was irrevocably established as a valid and needful operation within the Church for the duration of the Church Age by Jesus Himself as the Head of the Church, by the Holy Spirit speaking through the New Testament writers, and by Holy Scripture itself.

Acts 2:17 Peter interpreted the "THOSE DAYS" of which the Prophet Joel prophesied as being the CHURCH AGE in his prophesy: "I will pour out of My Spirit IN THOSE DAYS, and your sons and your daughters shall PROPHESY."

1 Cor. 14:39 AFTER the Holy Spirit had come and AFTER the Birth of the Church on the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Paul by inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself commanded all believers throughout the Church Age to "covet to prophesy," thereby establishing the vocalization of the "Rhema Word of God" through human channels as a valid New Testament medium of communication from God for the duration of the Church Age.

1 Cor. 12:28, Eph. 4:7-11 Additionally, it was AFTER Jesus had come as the Messiah and completed His priestly mission when He was ascending on high to take His Seat at the right hand of God that He relegated the Fivefold ministry gifts, including prophets, as permanent functions within the Church. Thus, the motivation gift of prophecy (Rom 12:6), the manifestation gift of prophecy [which includes tongues and interpretation of tongues] (1 Cor.12:10), and the ministry gift of prophet were all established as valid New Testament giftings.

So God has set within the Body three major media of the voice of the Spirit:

the gift of prophecy as the voice of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the congregation;
spirit of prophecy as the testimony of Jesus Himself;
the ministry of the prophet as a special surrogate voice, speaking divine communication on behalf of God.

Steven Lambert, ThD is an ordained minister, apostolic prophet, Bible teacher, revivalist, and the author of numerous books and teaching publications, and editor/publisher of two newsletters, The Real Truth Digest and Prophetic Perspective Bulletin. Insight concerning Church government/order, the restoration of the prophetic and apostolic offices, and ministry issues are the hallmark of his ministry. This is a sample chapter from his prophetic course manual, The Restoration of the Prophetic Gifts & Office, which may be ordered online, or by E-mail at: orders@slm.org.

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