The Gift of Prophecy - Jack Deere

Here are some main points from this book that I thought you would like to read:



Why does God speak to his people, especially to his prophets, in visionary language? Why not just sit them down in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee and put the message into their minds?
Because there is more to us than just a mind. We are also spirit and flesh. And we have emotions that powerfully affect our behavior. Sometimes a pictures is worth a thousand words. Where we might ignore a worn-out warning, a graphic dream can shake us out of a complacent state. Or a vision of future joy may cause us to endure a present hardship long after we would have forgotten a prosaic promise.
We also live in a world that is filled with mystery and with other spiritual beings very different from us. And although we are created in God's image, bearing a certain similarity to him, he is infinitely more dissimilar (see Isa. 55:8-9). There are realms of truth and experience that transcend human understanding. God's mysterious visitations and visions allow us to experience these realms.




DISCERNING GOD'S VOICE:


Jesus used stories about everyday life to reveal divine truth. God will illumine anything in the natural world to speak to us if we have trained our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to receive.



God sometimes speaks through "fleeces" (see Judg. 6:36-40). I think it can be appropriate to lay out a fleece when we have to make a decision, especially when we have come to an impasse. We have prayed and waited, but we are still uncertain.
I have three cautions regarding this method of proving God's will. First, make sure the fleece is supernatural and cannot be manipulated by anyone concerned in the decision. Second, use fleeces sparingly and as a last resort. Excessive use of fleeces indicates a view of God that makes him more like a personal genie than a sovereign, almighty God. If we succumb to that view of God, it will lead to a loss of intimacy with him. Third, remember that fleeces are a lower, less personal form of revelation. When we use a fleece, we are confessing either that God has not spoken to us, or that we could not hear him with our hearts, or that what he did say to us has not given us the confidence to act.



There is no spiritual experience that will eliminate our need to walk by faith every single day.



Since it is the Father's holy love that lies behind all revelation, sending it, protecting it, and interpreting it, we must become immersed in that love. For God will trust his secrets and the secrets of others to those who love him and all that he has created.




1)The Bible is the first test through which our subjective experience must pass. If my impression contradicts the Bible, then I discard it.
2)Although the voice of God may contradict one or our interpretations of Scripture, it will never contradict the Bible, no matter what our hearts tell us.
3)His words bring Hope, not Despair.
4)We must learn to recognize the character of the Lord's voice.
5)If we read the Bible with the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we will learn to recognize the character of the Lord's voice.
6)If we are following the voice of God, we can expect to experiance the fruit of the Spirit, especially peace (see Phil. 4:9).



If God's thoughts and acts differ enormously from ours, two indisputable facts follow. First, the most important things in life can only be understood by divine revelation. The unaided human intellect, no matter how brilliant, will not be able to penetrate the ways of God. Second, when the divine revelation comes, it may seem wrong to us initially.



These four tests of the voice (that is speaking to us)-Scripture, its character, its fruit, and its content-help us to recognize God's voice. But perhaps you've already noticed these tests have a fatal flaw. That flaw lies in the human heart that tries to use these tests for its own benefit.




EMBRACING OUR WEAKNESS:

A current-day prophet: "The Lord put the gift (of prophecy) into a plain vessel so the people would never confuse the two, never be tempted to give the glory to me instead of to God.""The price I pay for my gift is living with the disappointment of people and enduring the embarrassment of being deserted by the anointing." (This was said to Jack Deere when Paul Cain was explaining to him why God doesn't always use him.)



1)Paul Cain had learned the same secret as the apostle Paul-the power of Christ rests on the people who embrace their weaknesses (see 2 Cor. 12:9-10).
2)Many of us are distressed by our weaknesses, viewing them as permanent liabilities. But humble people see their weaknesses as opportunities for the power of Christ to rest on them.
3)The Scripture declares that the humble hear and understand the voice of God.
4)Humility is one of the main character qualities of all great prophets. Humility is the pathway to intimacy with God.
5)If we are humble, God will "look" on us, that is, be intimate with us. If we are proud, we will not hear his voice. He will deal with us at a distance.
6)Humility is not the denial of our attributes. It is believing in our hearts that our best qualities are not good enough to cause us to deserve God's attention, or even to gain us the lowest position of service to him.
7)Humility is seeing ourselves not in comparison with one another but in the light of God's greatness.
8)Humility is almost always acquired in the desert. The desert is the cure for both personal and prophetic pride. The greater the prophetic gifting, the greater and more severe the time in the desrt will be. Welcome the desert. It means the gift of humility is being imparted and that promotion or restoration is on the way.