debbie mendoza

Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel To His servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7 NASB)

My introduction to prophets and prophecy

As a baby Christian I knew people who called themselves prophets. Their words drove me to the Bible repeatedly, and there I searched for an understanding of the gifts and fruit of the Spirit.

After many months, I finally told them that I did not believe that they were prophets. That was the beginning of the end of those relationships. They felt that I was negating their very identity; but I saw them as the false prophets in Jeremiah 6 & 8, and Lord help me, but my spirit did not burn within me when they spoke, as it did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. (Luke 24:32).

So yes, I was a skeptic.

The turnaround

I stayed away from people who claim to have the gift of prophecy or who operate in the prophetic gift. I know it’s a real gift, but I also know that there are people who will take advantage of it to manipulate people. Some people speak what they call prophecy that is based solely on their perspective of the world. In other words, it is too difficult to tell who is really operating in the prophetic and who isn’t.

Yet the Bible says to listen to the prophets and to test the spirits. In my study of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I came across Paul’s discussion of the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14, and to may amazement, the gift of prophecy is considered the most important of the gifts, and that when we pray to the receive the gifts of the Spirit, prophecy is the one we should most pray for.

What is the gift of prophecy?

There are whole books written on this subject, and I am no expert. I’m just someone, like you, trying to figure things out for how they apply to us in daily living. As I understand it, this gift has two sides: the ability to speak about something that hasn’t yet happened, and, the ability to speak the truth of God forcefully and clearly.

Foretelling is what we usually think of when we hear the words prophet and prophecy; but when you read the words of the prophets in the Bible you see that there isn’t only the element of future, but also the imperative now. Prophecy sometimes demands change from us now. Here is a great resource if you would like to delve deeper into the understanding of prophets and the prophetic gift: Prophesy: Releasing God’s Voice by Ben Dixon

There are prophets among us

You know how sometimes you can be arguing a matter before God, and you go back and forth, and then you read something in the Bible that stops you in your tracks and clinches a matter for you? That must have been what it was like for Job and his friends discussing God and Job’s problems – then God speaks and puts things into perspective.

Here is the verse that made me acknowledge that even though I don’t have full understanding about prophets and prophecy, that I am not God, and I know hardly anything about life; that prophets are a reality, whether my rational mind wants to accept that fact or not.

Certainly the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret plan to His servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7 NASB). Some versions say, “His friends, the prophets”.

This verse, along with Paul’s teaching on the spiritual gifts, demonstrates that the gift of prophecy is real, no matter who believes in it or not. Because that is the case, Christians can be expectant that there are indeed prophets among us, but to be careful to choose who to listen to and who to believe. This is our commission in response: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1John 4:1 NASB)

A personal story

A while back, someone hesitatingly told me about something they felt the Lord told them about me while they were praying for me. It was a strong word of coming distress that I was to prepare for. What they said burned in spirit and I felt that this was a true word. That foretelling shook me, and made me wonder what bushes I should look behind. Who should I not trust? Who was I to be careful around?

As the months went by, the prophesied occurrence was nowhere to be seen; still, it sat at the back of my mind and gave me a heightened awareness of how to behave in certain circumstances, when to speak, and when to be quiet. It really was a companion that acted like my personal choir director.

Despite its constant presence in my life, when the prophecy came true I didn’t even notice.

Soon after it happened, and while I was still blissfully unaware that it had, two ladies at our church asked if they could pray for me following our Sunday gathering. I said, “Of course!”, thinking we’d be there for about five or ten minutes. They prayed for me for 45 minutes.

I sat in that chair wondering what was happening. I’m embarrassed to say I was thinking about my delayed lunch.

Soon, their prayers crept through my indifference and I began to hear their words. It felt like they were fighting a spiritual battle for me that I didn’t know needed to be fought. They told me about the authority I have in Jesus’ Name and that I should exercise it. One spoke about laying down the burdens I carried; even though for the life of me I couldn’t think what those burdens might be. For 45 minutes these two women took turns praying for me – and I had no idea why.

In a couple days it became very evident to me why that time of intercessory prayer had been necessary. Speaking in the imperative now, those women were prophetically giving me instruction on how to face the coming days and weeks, using only Scripture that was already familiar to me. I couldn’t see it while they prayed, but as the foretold prophecy rapidly unfolded around me, the words they spoke over me rang in my ears, giving me specific direction on how to handle the darkness that came into my life. They prepared me to take authority in Jesus’ Name and to lay down burdens I now easily recognized.

Takeaway

It is awesome and humbling to think that God would even care to warn and prepare us.

Just like He has done with me, He is already speaking to you through foretelling prophecies, and through voices warning of what to do today with the knowledge you already have.

As with anything, getting to a place where you can recognize truth when you hear it in prophecies and prophesying is a journey. It is a process of learning to hear the Holy Spirit clearly, instead of hearing what you want to hear. It is a matter of tuning in to Him, paying attention to your own gut responses, and seeing if the words of people operating in the prophetic gift become reality or not.

It is equivalent to learning how real currency feels so that you can immediately distinguish when you’re handling counterfeit.

Christian, I invite you to be open to this process of hearing the prophets who are already speaking into your life. Even though in your gut you’ve felt they spoke the truth, you may have refused to listen to them because prophecy in either of its forms doesn’t seem logical. You’ve looked at your life only through the lens of what you can see and touch, and it is a struggle for you to make room for this supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

The two sides of the prophetic work together in life. We need the foretelling to let us know God is not surprised by anything, and we need the imperative now for directions on how to get through whatever.

I pray that you’ll open your hearts to this side of the Holy Spirit, and that you too will be awestruck and humbled by how much God loves you – so much so that He will speak through the voices of ordinary humans to give you specific guidance for today, and to prepare you for the future.

Do not quench the Spirit, do not utterly reject prophecies, but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good (1 Thess 5:19-21 NASB)

© Debbie Mendoza, November 2021