SO, WHY PROPHESY?

 1. So, Why Prophesy?

a) A prophet is someone who receives messages from the Lord and he passes them on to the people.

1 Samuel 3:21; 4:1 

Then the Lord began to give messages to him (Samuel) there at the Tabernacle in Shiloh, and he passed them on to the people of Israel. 

b) If a person claims to be a prophet and does not give any message from the Lord to the people, that person may well not be a prophet he claimed to be. Because a prophet is actually one functional role of the 5-fold ministry. It is totally unrelated to the personality of a person. 

c) In reality, the Lord will reveal his secret to his servants the prophets.

Amos 3:7 

"For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

d) A prophet carries a heavy responsibility. Any prophetic word he carries must be judged (evaluated) by elderly or the person receiving it.

e) How should you respond to a personal prophetic word?

@1. In any delivery of a prophetic word, two persons are involved. There's the person that is delivering the prophetic word and there's the person that is receiving the prophetic word. 

@2. You have the choice to accept or not accept the word. Just because somebody has delivered a word to you, you don't have to swallow it.

@3. The scripture says judge it, sift it, eat what's good and spit out the bones (1 Thessalonians 5:21). In other words, there may be a mix of God and the person's soul or flesh in the word. It's up to you now to learn how to judge it.

f) A prophetic word by itself is powerful. It shall come to pass if the Lord has spoken. There's no necessity for you to make it.

g) How do you know the word that the Lord has not spoken?

@1. When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:22)

h) So, why prophesy?

@1. The one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. (1 Corinthians 14:3)