Gifts and Prophesy
Greetings to everyone at the Festive Season and wishing everyone a happy New Year as we continue to face some daunting challenges ahead.
Isaiah gave a brilliant prophecy of the life of Jesus Christ some seven hundred years before the event, and the subsequent Apostles all had glowing accounts of his work.
Prophecy is one of the nine gifts mentioned in 1Corinithians, in 1 Peter and Ephesians, but more have been identified. Everyone who has become born in Christ and a servant of Jesus will have received at least one spiritual gift that is predominating, such as Giving.
These are supplements to our natural talents that are usually recognised. So how do we discover our holy gifts? Look at what you are good at and what I am passionate about. What do I want to do and what have I done before? Contemplation and prayer should also help here.
Galatians 5:22-23 says that the behaviour patterns, the so-called
'fruits of the spirit', result from the presence of the Holy Spirit. Fruits are the attitude of the believer.
Another aspect, the 'gifts of the spirit', deals with action in service. The ideal is to combine both the fruits and gifts of the spirit at the same time. Your person gift has great importance for the following reasons: It helps you understand God's will for your life. You get to know what God has not called you to do. It relieves you from just serving out of duty. It fills a deep void in your life. It adds to your self-acceptance (a very helpful thing). If we seriously look into this matter, it improves our lives as well as the life and Ministry of the church.
St Paul had an excellent example of the gifts of Healing, Exhortation, and Teaching, yet he was of poor appearance and not a good speaker.
Speaking of the Prophet Isaiah, he wrote about Jesus, about his virgin birth and the reason for his life, this underpinning what we Christians believe today.
Prophecy is not about fortune-telling; it is about conversations with God. Isaiah provides much information about the problems of the Jews and how God dealt with these situations in a patient and wise way. We have limited outside information so the Bible is an important historical record.
Isaiah was married and had two children, but we know little concerning him, other than what he reveals in his writings. He was also called the son of Amoz.
QUOTES FROM ISAIAH: 1: 2-3 says, Listen Heaven and Earth, God is speaking! The children that I brought up have turned against me. Even a farmer's animals know who owns them and they know who feeds them. But my special people called Israel do not recognise me. Nor do they appreciate me.
This is about the time of the judgement of God's people. The result of disobedience was the destruction of Jerusalem, the desolation of the land, and the people's exile to Babylon.
v:11: God's complaint was about the blood of sacrificed animals where the present sacrifices in God's Holy Temple meant nothing to the people who brought them. So, their sacrifices meant nothing to God.
v:18-20 God said let us discuss a new start together, it's as if your evil life has stained you a deep red. I can make you as clean as new snow. Even if your stain is of the deepest red, I can make you as white as wool. Let me help you. If you are willing to obey me, you will eat all the crops of the land. But if you refuse to obey me, your
enemies will destroy you. I am the Lord. I have spoken.
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH has been in question for about two centuries, mainly concerning prophecy, but
it's not due to any new discoveries,
but asserts the popularized new
theory that is aligned with science and materialism. (a mistake).
This new theory is refuted in the New Testament that quotes the prophets, as fulfilled in the early life of Jesus. For example, chapter 53 is about Calvary, describing the sufferings of the servant and the glory which followed. In accepting the Bible as God's word and the conception of prophecy, the unity of Isaiah is not discredited but a well accredited fact. This concludes my discussion on the notable gift of prophecy, so we are reacquainted on these matters, just as Paul had urged.
Blessings to everyone.
STUART R. DUNSTAN