This talk is from a November 16, 1973, community meeting. Paul DeCelles used Old Testament examples to answer the question, “What is prophecy supposed to do?” He discussed the role of prophecy in forming attitudes of mind and heart and in directing us in how we should live. At the end he reviewed recent prophecies.Details: Paul DeCelles, 1973. 21 minutes
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
PAUL: The prepared teaching tonight will be given by me. [Laughter.]
Recently, I guess it was a couple of months ago, at one of our community meetings, we talked— I gave a few words of exhortation about how we ought to be more open to the gift of prophecy in our midst. That we should be eager, you know, to prophesy when the Lord moves us. And I made a few remarks that had the effect of kind of opening a floodgate. There were something like 12 prophecies lickety-split right after that. [Laughter.] Then we—after we listened to what the Lord was saying to us and prayed some more, we went to, we had our break. And during the break, I had suggested that everybody try to talk with each—you know, everybody talking with each other—about what the prophecies meant, and what do you—what you got out of it.
Well, afterwards, I had a chance to talk—a lot of us got together and had a chance to talk at the pastoral team meeting about some of the things that people had been getting out of prophecy that were shared just generally, you know, in the talk. And some things became very clear. One of them is that we don’t get very much out of prophecy generally. I mean, none of us. That’s not, I don’t mean that as a universal statement, but the thing is that, by and large, the Lord’s prophecy is, I’d say, an exceedingly pleasant experience, but it doesn’t have very much more than that involved with our lives right now. So we prayed a great deal about that and talked, occasionally, and tried to understand what prophecy is supposed to do. And that’s—the fruit of that prayer and consideration is the talk that I want to give tonight.
First of all, it’s useful to distinguish between prophecy, as we understand it, and prophets. And it might help us a little bit to understand more of what’s going on if we begin to activate the idea of . . . What, can’t you hear? Oh, okay [cough]. . . of what [laughter]. He was doing something like this. [Paul presumably gestures and all continue laughing]. Like, itching ears. [More laughter.]
The difference between what one would kind of think of as prophecy versus, say, a prophet, is something like this: You can imagine any one of us sitting around at a community meeting or wherever else, and all of a sudden kind of get seized by the Spirit of the Lord and be used by him to proclaim something that He wants said right then. You’re kind of a picture of, almost—I don’t mean this in any disrespectful way at all—but kind of a sense of a medium, like—or something like that, or Balaam’s ass maybe, you know, where you just kind of get taken over for a moment and you proclaim this, and the only reason that God used you at all and the extent to which he used you was that you were a tongue and a mouth, kind of thing. And you can think a prophecy is something which kind of comes through people like that. And then you, it doesn’t matter who said that or anything like that, particularly, it’s just that it needed to be said, the Lord said it.
That’s one kind of an idea of prophecy. I think that the Lord definitely does that. That that’s exactly what happens often. But in the New Testament, we also read, for example, in Ephesians 4, about “the prophet.” And when you think about the prophets in the Old Testament especially, a different kind of a picture begins to emerge. So I’d like to just describe a little bit about the way the Old Testament prophets behaved.
Let me just give you some facts. Old Testament prophets were welcome at the courts. That’s a very—well, you know, a little known fact, but it’s very useful. Old Testament prophets were considered an integral part of what was taking place in the king’s court, the kings of Israel.
In fact, if you look at what they were doing, in a lot of cases, what they were doing was a kind of lawyer’s work. They were doing a kind of commentary—for all the people, and sometimes very specific cases, individual cases would come up—and the prophet would say something about how that case ought to be handled. They were doing kind of “case law.” They were concerned with the social and moral attitudes of the people. And their involvement with the people was to form the moral and social behavior of the people, which is a lot more than simply giving a message from the Lord.
For example, the Lord would reveal to the prophet something that the people needed to hear, and then Jeremiah might say it 18 straight years. As the prophet would get something, and he would get it maybe again and again, but it was not always just, you know, a direct line from the Lord, kind of an interlinear translation or something where he would simply repeat this. But the prophet became a force informing the people so that they became, they took on the social customs which the Lord wanted them to have, and that they took on the moral behavior which the Lord wanted them to have.
Another thing that the prophets did—well before departing from that, there’s a moral to that for us. I think that the Lord wants that kind of gift of prophet and prophecy operative now. That it is not enough for those who prophesy to simply give the prophecy and then kind of go on their merry way. That the Lord has kind of entrusted a certain burden to you and a certain responsibility that His word about that matter, which you’ve spoken, gets enacted, that it’s understood, that it’s implemented, and that people begin to behave accordingly. Now you can see why it becomes very important to know who your prophets are, because prophets become very influential people in the community, in the formation of the social customs and the moral attitudes. So in the various epistles, you see some remarks like, “Well, you should know who the prophet is.” “Prophecy should be tested and all the gifts should be tested,” and so on. And the thing that’s coming through there is that this is not something which is just to, kind of, be enjoyed—it’s something which forms us. And not in some entirely mysterious, deep way in our hearts, but it is supposed to direct us.
I’m not talking now so much about prophecy which says, “Tomorrow we’re supposed to . . .”—say, we were sitting here and somebody gave a prophecy which said, “Tomorrow we’re all supposed to move to Mishawaka.” Now that’s a different kind of prophecy from the one I’m talking about. I’m talking about the kind of prophecy which is formative of the attitudes of heart and mind, and influential about the way we live. Those things need to be reiterated. The point needs to be made again and again. And the Lord does not mean only for you to give the prophecy once and let it lie.
That’s one thing. Now, this, I think, really has to be tested. We’re all going to have to be sensitive to this kind of a different, slightly different way of exercising the gift of prophecy and receiving the gift of prophecy.
Another point I’d like to make is concerning the apparent unclearness of some prophecies. Some prophecies sound beautiful. They involve beautiful green trees beside mountains with flowing water, and marvelous things like that, and everybody likes to hear those, but when you talk with people about, what does that mean . . . “I don’t know!” You know, “I don’t know what that meant.” There’s a kind of a sense of analogy which is developed, as we give the prophecy which the Lord wants us to give. And when you listen to some of these prophecies, the way the Lord has been speaking to us, the thing that strikes me is how similar to some parables that the Lord gave they are.
Which brings up another area that we have some difficulty understanding, like, what are we supposed to do with the parables in the New Testament? Because a lot of times we don’t understand them either. In fact, there is a kind of a—this is a little heavy, isn’t it?—but it’s, there’s kind of a connection between parables and prophecy. And I’d like to just take a few minutes and draw that out, because I think it can be immensely useful for how we should make an effort, what direction, what kinds of lines our minds ought to be working along in order to understand what the Lord is saying to us in prophecy.
There is a prophecy in the Old Testament which I’d like to mention in particular, which was a parable. And it’s—as a case, it just illustrates the point I want to make. David, you know, had fallen in love with Bathsheba. And so he had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah sent to the front line and the thickest fight of the fighting, and then had all the troops supporting him withdraw, so that he was sure to be killed. He says, in fact, “Make sure that he is struck down and dies.” So after that happens, he marries Bathsheba.
Then Nathan, who had earlier prophesied—and this is in the Second Book of Samuel, for those of you who might be interested, chapter 12. Nathan had previously, you know, he was known as a prophet. Nathan shows up and he tells a parable.
And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children, and used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him. But he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” Nathan said to David, “You are the man.”
Now, that’s a great way to teach. [Paul and all laugh.] You can see a lot of different ways to try to argue people into accepting a certain position. But parables are a way of proving points, which do the following kind of thing. They, first of all, paint a picture which is fairly simple, which contains the essence of the problem of the case to be solved, and put it out in front of you as an objective thing with which you are not personally emotionally involved. It’s a very simple thing, but it’s so simple a case, like this case, that anybody would be able to say with David, what a terrible man that man was, and what should happen to him. So that you see the thing out there without your own involvement saying, you know, feeling any condemnation. And then comes the hooker, which is that you are the man.
And I think the Lord is doing that with us to some degree in prophecy. He puts something out there, in a way which doesn’t necessarily appeal to our intellect very clearly. We can’t sit and analyze precisely step by step what he’s saying, but we get the general picture. And for me, I understand precisely what that message means to me. And different people listening to the same prophecy will get different messages out that will directly apply to their lives. Because, while I have’’t done what David did to Uriah and Bathsheba, I’ve done things where that kind of thing, that same parable, if somebody came up to me and, and told me that parable, I would be able to say that I am indeed that man. And each one of us has the possibility of listening to this different way of having what the Lord’s ideas are explained to us.
I don’t know if that’s very clear. It’s basically a homiletic way of explaining. It’s a way of sermonizing. It’s not a discursive or reasoning kind of, or analytical way. It’s not like, well, you know, “God said this and then you did this, and therefore these two go together like this and let’s work it out and this is your trouble.” And “Boy, I—” you know, “—repent.” It’s not so much like that. It’s something which the Lord allows us to project. It’s out there, and each one of us can look at it and say, I feel myself a part of what that picture is. And I identify with that, rather clearly, what it means for my life. And then comes that blow, which is that I am that man, or the Lord wants me to do that, or the Lord wants me to live my life this way or change my moral attitudes in this particular way.
Now, I’d like to conclude with just a couple of remarks about . . . that there are different kinds of prophecies and people. All of us refer to prophets like Daniel Berrigan. We call Daniel Berrigan, perhaps we used to call Daniel Berrigan a prophet—I haven’t heard much from him lately—who I have no doubt is a very wonderful man, by the way. But there—we have kind of, different kinds of prophets. And it seems to me that the prophecies that we get, whether they’re from somebody like, say, David Wilkerson, or Graham Pulkingham or Kevin or Eileen or whoever they might be from, that the question is, what is the source of the inspiration rather than, even, what has been said?
Because you see, what I’m opening up here is that the Lord may be using some people to prophesy, to be prophets, where they may be telling us things that we would not ordinarily consider, necessarily, inspired. For example, somebody may tell us that we ought to live a different way and we may say, “Hey, you know, that’s not, that doesn’t have much about the love of God in it. It doesn’t tell me the dos and don’ts,” or something like that. It’s telling me something about a different way of living and that doesn’t seem like that’s exactly in the same—you follow me?—in the same kind of category, the same way of, the Lord has been teaching us in the past, yet it can very well be the case that what is being said is from the Lord. The question is not what the prophet says, but what is the source of his inspiration. Is it the Lord who is inspiring him, or is it The New York Times, say?
Another thing is that the action of prophecy, the prophecies themselves, should not be distinguished from, one from another by the ways in which they’re given. Like some people are quite eloquent in making it clear that this is a word from the Lord—different people do it in different ways. Sometimes people give prophecies and act as prophets of the Lord without ever making it particularly clear, you know, by the way in which they’re talking, that this is from the Lord. And I’m saying that’s not bad. That is, you do not distinguish what a prophecy is, whether it’s good for you or not, by the way in which it comes to you. The question is: it’s a good prophecy if it’s inspired by God. That’s the point. So some people may be speaking to us prophetically without saying, “The Lord told me,” and we need to take what seems like ordinary language sometimes—we need to take what is being said to us in an ordinary way with the force of prophecy. And I think we’ve touched on that before in various ways.
I think that, if we pray about some of these things I’ve said and try to think a little bit more about them, the Lord will open up a whole new kind of dimension, which I think is part of the five-fold anointing in Ephesians 4. It’s going to be something which will—it is, it already is. Like, the teachings and the various decisions that are made, say, by any of the coordinators, are very, very deeply influenced—the impact of the prophecies is just continual on the thinking there. That is, we try to listen to the prophecies and do what they say.
I think that all of us might relax a little bit. Don’t try to figure out the prophecies exactly, but rather see how you fit into them, and then get the point of what the Lord wants to teach you. That’s one thing. Be open to people telling you things about the way you live, socially and morally, even though it’s not in the form of “The Lord, thus spoke the Lord.” That indeed there may be the exercise of prophecy without that form. And as a whole, I think that if we develop along these lines a lot of the confusion about how to listen to and understand and apply the prophecies that are spoken at the meetings will be dispelled.
Some of the prophecies that the Lord has given us are things like this: That we should be a light to the nations, a walled city, a narrow door. I won’t read—I didn’t try to write out all this, but there was this image of a walled city and that we were going to the city through a narrow door. That we were climbing a steep, rough slope, and it was very difficult. We had to hold on to each other almost in single file. That it was necessary for us to drop bundles. That we were supposed to be taking care of the oppressed, inviting the hungry to eat food with us, eating with the poor and the needy. And all those prophecies we’ve had about God’s love for us and God’s love for them, that the Lord wanted us to bring them to him. He said, “Bring them to me so that I can touch them.” We had a prophecy about prayer and sacraments, and we continually are exhorted by the Lord to love one another. And the last one that I wrote down here was that “I am doing a new thing with you.” Now, there are many prophecies—we have had two tonight, and I just, I want to urge everybody to try to find out what the Lord is saying about the way I should change the way I live, how I should go about changing the way I live.
Praise the Lord.
Copyright © 2022 People of Praise, Inc.