We decided we had not dealt with 6.7.96 of Episode 2 where a Kerry
Southey tape had spoken of the different functions of a prophet.
During the week Anne had come across 'What is a Prophet' in a 1986
issue of Prophecy Today magazine (goodness knows why such an ancient
magazine should have been at the top of the pile!!). By reading the
article out to the group it threw some enlightenment on the origins of
God's prophets in the Bible and the functions.
'He (Aaron) shall be a mouth for you (Moses)' Ex 4:15,16.
(Numbers 11:16,17 and 24-30) God took some of the Spirit he had given
to Moses and put it on the elders. They all prophesied in the Tent
of Meeting but also two of them who hadn't attended also prophesied in
the camp. Prophesying is only possible when the Spirit of God has
come upon God's man/woman.
Moses' magnanimous reply to Joshua when he wanted to shut up the two who weren't at the meeting : 'I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them!' This desire of Moses was years later taken up by the prophet, Joel, as he foretold the day when, as a result of the universal outpouring of God's Spirit, the whole people of God would become a prophetic people - Joel 2 : 28,29. These are the words quoted by Peter as he tried to explain the extraordinary happenings of the Day of Pentecost, just a few weeks after Jesus had returned to heaven.
No longer was prophesy limited to certain individuals among God's people. Men, women, old, young, rich, poor - the NT makes it clear that not all of the Lord's people would have the ministry of a prophet (1 Cor 12 : 29) but all were able, and were encouraged, to prophesy. (1 Cor 14 : 1 and 5)
Prophets were :
As well as describing the process of prophesying, the OT gives some insight into how the prophets received their word from God. A study of the opening verses of the sixteen prophetic books of the OT will divide up the prophets into
Last Sunday morning Anne J had asked Mary L to give her testimony at a Praise & Testimony service she was leading on the 29th September and Mary had gone home to put her thoughts on paper. She felt very strongly as she was writing that the words were God's, not her own. At the evening service Christopher had opened it up for anyone to give their testimony. Mary felt that she ought to go out and share what she had written. After the service Mary suddenly realised that she wouldn't be available on the 29th and so wouldn't have been able to have given her testimony then so the words were obviously for that night. God had worked it all out ahead of her.
We discussed b) above. Was this an instance? Does b) mean
'testimony' in our modern words?
Released the prophetic? Released the words?
1 Cor 14 : 4 He who prophesies edifies the church.
Strengthening, encouraging and comforting.
Episode 3
Unity - prayer - righteousness - reaching the lost.
We got stuck on unity.
Kathleen brought Exodus 20 : 18 'When the people heard the thunder
and the trumpet blast and saw the lightning and the smoking mountain,
they trembled with fear and stood a long way off'.
v.20 Only Moses went near the dark cloud where God was.
Last week we had said 'if there is ever anything which troubles us,
write it down and the Lord will gradually open it up'.
Two Sunday evenings ago we had prayed for Kathleen in the manse. The
Spirit was heavy upon her. She couldn't see but she could feel
tangible darkness/blackness which she was a bit scared of. God had
shown her now that He was in the darkness and she should have trusted
Him.
Moses replied to the people's fears 'Don't be afraid; God has only
come to test you and make you keep on obeying Him, so that you will
not sin.'
The people stood afar off. V.19 They said to Moses "If you speak to
us, we will listen; but we are afraid that, if God speaks to us, we
will die."
This seems to be happening in our church. Folk are seeing things
happen but they haven't moved towards it, they are standing afar off.
We need to get them closer to God.
It was emphasized that the church has to have a desire for a personal
walk with God, there doesn't seem to be a hunger as yet but there is
certainly a softening of hearts.
Christopher had preached last Sunday morning on 'Friendship
Evangelism' as being the most effective way of bringing people closer
to God. 'successful evangelism is primarily relational', he kept
saying.
A church that prays together, plays together.
We have got to get the church folks together more
and we must certainly pray more for our church. We have to speak
about what is going on in our life to others.
It is how we are with each other. We must show love so that those
around us will see and want to know God for themselves.
Pauline talks about God's wrath.
Susan mentions Jeremiah 30 : 23-24
'The Lord's anger is a storm, a furious wind that will rage over the
heads of the wicked. It will not end until He has done all that He
intends to do. In days to come His people will understand this
clearly.'
These two verses (23-24) come at the end of a chapter headed 'The
Restoration of Israel' which is full of God's promises to His people.
His people need to repent.
The Lord's will be done!
We agree wholeheartedly with Pauline: we do need to speak out,
verbalize and proclaim what He's given us.
We all feel that Episode 3 is very heavy, oppressive at times and getting more intense as it goes on, full of spiritual warfare.
Dave's strange picture of a lobster pot intrigued us, Peterhead being
a fishing town.
Was it a pot (cooking) he saw, or was it a lobster basket? We
certainly wanted to ask Dave lots of questions. After a lovely time
of discussion about this lobster pot, we decided that we shouldn't try
to dissect other people's pictures and add our own theories. That
decision was quite a sacrifice, however......
Was it empty? Was there a lobster in it? Was God the basket
and the lobster the church? in these baskets the lobster gets in but
cannot get out again!
Cleansed and attractive to those outside the kingdom - did this mean
that, because the basket is open weave, the water (Holy Spirit) has
free access.
When you cook a lobster you have to keep rinsing and soaking the salt
water off it - but then again, it is only the pot which is mentioned
and we're away with the lobster again....
We had a lovely time of speculation.................
it was definitely a sacrifice to give the lobster pot back to Dave !!
Mike : We must serve Christ, not try to manipulate Him to serve us. (1 Cor 10) Mike's thoughts on it are a confirmation of our own thoughts - the symbolism is definitely powerful. Standing in / with the Lord is serious business.
Take authority over the enemy. God is giving us a deeper understanding of this. We mustn't just pray words but we must be authoritative - back to Eph 6 : 10-20 (put on the armour) The devil will try to deceive and say we are not able but you don't go into a battle unless you are prepared. WE MUST BE PREPARED WITH OUR ARMOUR ON.
CELEBRATION in Wales is presumably the equivalent of our PRAISE TIME in Peterhead. Worship lays a platform for the prophetic to be released This was certainly true of Praise Time. Mary L felt that Christopher had laid the platform for her to give her testimony on Sunday evening by opening up the service to the people.
Pauline's word about digging a channel for the river to flow, to burst
the dam, to expect greater things of God.
We were away again - trying to work out how / where this channel was
in relation to the dam. Oh that Pauline had been there to answer our
questions. Maybe one day!!
Was the dam a reservoir? Was the dam a beaver's dam or a tree fallen
into the river which was stopping the flow? Where / how was the
channel being dug? Was the river bed under the fallen tree being dug
out to let the water flow through?
WE MUST NOT TRY TO DISSECT SOMEONE ELSE'S PICTURE!
Pauline's dragon! Frances had twice had a reference to a dragon. We must ask her exactly what it was. Kathleen points out Rev 20:2 The dragon is the devil. Wales is full of dragons, being their national emblem. What would the equivalent be in Scotland? It was great to know that the devil can be wounded by us and that it is possible to inflict more damage on him than he can on us. Thank you, Pauline. Fear has to be dealt with and we decide that it really makes a difference when you understand what is coming from where. God will stand beside us in the fight.
There is power in the name of Jesus. Anne J thinks that the devil has a heyday when people pray and end off by saying 'For Jesus' sake' instead of 'In Jesus' name!'
aj/13.9.96