0703. Prophecy

Prophecy

"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Act_2:4).

1. This passage shows one of the first results of Pentecost. "They all began to speak." If you will read Eph_5:17 and Eph_5:18 of the same chapter, you will note that "the speaking" was in fulfillment of a prophecy written in Joel: "I will pour My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and daughters shall prophesy." "And on My servants, and on My handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy." The word "prophesy" means to speak unto edification and instruction.

2. It is always true that those who are baptized with the Holy Ghost, will be ready to speak for Him. Peter was put in prison and afterward beaten and commanded that he should speak no more in Christ’s name. But Act_4:20 records Peter’s reply: "We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard." Nor can any, who really know God refrain from witnessing to His worth. Jeremiah in his discouragement said, "I will speak no more in His name." But Jeremiah could not keep back his testimony, for he added: "But His Words were within me as a burning fire, and I was weary with my withholding, and I could not stay."

In Acts 5 and Act_5:32, we read: "We are His witnesses as to these things and so also is the Holy Ghost." A witness is a person who has something to tell and is ready to tell it. The disciples ceased not to teach and to preach that Jesus was the Christ.

3. When the Apostle Paul was saved (Act_9:15), he was saved to bear Christ’s name to the Gentiles. No sooner was he baptized than he began straightway to proclaim Jesus, that He was the Son of God.

4. Peter, as described in Act_10:39-43 says, "We are witnesses of all things which He did. * * and He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify."

All through the Book of Acts, the saints are telling the story of Christ crucified, and raised from the dead. The Spirit-filled believer will not preach the latest novel, or the war, or some social propaganda for the betterment of mankind; He will preach Christ. Paul went into the city of Thessalonica and three Sabbath Days he reasoned out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that "Christ must needs have suffered and have risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus Whom I preach unto you, is the Christ." Paul said to Timothy, "Preach the Word." The Holy Spirit said unto Jeremiah, "He that hath My Word, let him speak it faithfully. May the Spirit of prophecy, of testimony, of witnessing for Christ, rest upon us all."

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR