You Might Have a Gift of the Prophetic...

When I say prophetic gift in the New Testament, I chose to use John Piper’s definition of this. “It is a Spirit-prompted, Spirit-sustained, utterance that is rooted in a true revelation (1 Corinthians 14:30), but is fallible because the prophet’s perception of the revelation, and thinking about the revelation, and report of the revelation are all fallible. It is thus similar to the gift of teaching which is Spirit-prompted, Spirit sustained, rooted in an infallible revelation (the Bible), and yet is fallible but very useful to the church.”

 

Piper later goes on to say that, “The New Testament gift of prophecy is a ‘third category’ of prophetic utterance between the categories of (1) verbally inspired, intrinsically authoritative, infallible speech spoken by the likes of Moses, Jesus and the apostles; and (2) the speech of false prophets spoken presumptuously, without inspiration and liable to condemnation (Deuteronomy 18:20). Those two categories (absolutely infallible vs. false) do not exhaust all the biblical teaching on prophecy.

 

I’ve provided Scripture where there are direct correlations. Others are based on principles that are clearly outlined based on the preponderance of patterns outlined in the Scriptures.

 

Based on study of Scriptures and observations of people I believe are given the ability, some of their characteristics are:

 

1.       You don't take a long time to open up (2 minutes at the most). (2 Timothy 4:2)

2.       You cogitate/dwell on thoughts and/or Scripture and how it applies to your life and other people’s lives for hours….and hours…and hours. (Philippians 4:8)

3.       You plan to do or say something weeks in advance…sometimes months. (2 Cor. 9:6, James 4:17)

4.       You care about everything/everyone, constantly.  To the point of mental lapses or blank-outs. (Philippians 2:4, Galatians 6:2, John 13:34-35)

5.       You speak about everything with authority/conviction and certainty. (Mark 13:9, 1 Peter 4:11)

6.       You want to help everyone and everything (Matthew 5:16, 5:42, Luke 12:33-34, John 15:12, James 1:17, etc.)

7.       You use intense language.  You wouldn't just say "you're being mean."  You would say "why are you hurting my feelings, you petty barbarian, you uncivilized rogue, you insufferable reprobate!?!" (Titus 2:15)

8.       You prefer private messaging but end up texting 500+ messages to the horror of recipient (Matthew 12:37).

9.       You pay undivided attention to each person you talk to.  No half-baking anything…ever. (Philippians 2:4)

10.   You bring up uncomfortable and potentially embarrassing topics into normal conversations.  Think divorce, sex lives, religion, politics, mental illness especially when it comes to issues concerning sin (Ephesians 4:25).

11.   You're moody and changeable.  One day you'll open your souls.  The next day you'll completely and utterly ignore people.

12.   You're earnest and sincere in everything you say, almost to the point of mental blood clots (Colossians 4:2-6).

13.   You brood…a lot.  It's unintentional and intimidating to onlookers and often misunderstood as arrogance. (Jeremiah 7)

14.   A tremendous desire for justice.

15.   You want to spend all day, every day, with what we love.  "Space" isn't a valid concept to us.

16.   You don't like having big social networks - they dilute our intensity too much.

17.   You're die-hard romantic idealist. 

18.   You easily become emotionally bonded to downtrodden or stricken characters in real life, books, TV shows and movies. 

19.   You crave meaningful intelligent, rational and logical conversations especially about the gospel.  There is no such thing as "small talk" or "frivolous banter". See Acts 2:14, 3:12, 4:8, 11:4)

20.   Everything is a task to be overcome/surmounted with meticulous attention given to detail.