Listen to God's Warnings
1 Kings 17:1
"And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, 'As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.'"Isaiah 30:21
"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it,' whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left."1 Corinthians 14:1
"... desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy."
Elijah asked God to stop the rain to wake up the people of Israel. And He did. What a wake-up call! We can also pray that God will allow things to happen that will awaken many Christians once again. These are things that make us aware of where we stand spiritually. The coronavirus pandemic has revealed a lot – but it has also woken up some believers.
But God didn't just close the heavens back then. He first announced the whole thing through prophetic ministry – and He used Elijah to do so. Incidentally, the Lord often did this: when the people strayed from Him and began to practice idolatry, He sent prophets who called the people to repentanceWhile remorse (Greek metamellomai) means to regret a previous act or behavior and to have a different way of thinking about it, Repentance (Greek metanoia) goes further than that: It... More and conversion. However, this was a task that meant great suffering for the prophets and often even brought them martyrdom – at the hands of those who called them to repentanceWhile remorse (Greek metamellomai) means to regret a previous act or behavior and to have a different way of thinking about it, Repentance (Greek metanoia) goes further than that: It... More.
This is why Stephen says to the Jews in Acts 7: "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?" (Acts 7:52).
What is the situation today? Today, there are no longer any prophets who, like Moses or Elijah, for example, were publicly appointed by God and who were divinely inspired to predict the future or who could say: "Thus says the Lord."
What still exists today, however, is a prophetic ministry. This is also called prophecyProphecy includes any message that God saw fit to pass on to his people or anyone from the nations. Romans 16:26 speaks of the New Testament Scriptures as "prophetic writings."... More in the New Testament. This means that believers speak to the hearts and consciences of others on behalf of God or under the guidance of the Holy SpiritThe Holy Spirit is God, a divine person in the Trinity of God; in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit works, for example, in creation or on individuals. The Holy... More. It is, therefore, about having the right word at exactly the right time that the Lord lays on someone's heart and that speaks into the lives of others.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:1 that we should strive to prophesy – even if we may sometimes not even realize it ourselves when God speaks through us.
This can be encouragement or exhortation. Both are needed. God uses prophetic ministry to make His will clear to us in a particular situation or to point out things in our lives that we need to put right.
