ARE ALL CALLED TO PROPHESY?

Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1 (NASB) 

• If you are not experiencing and enjoying God’s love for you every day, your Christianity can become a dead religion. 

GOD IS LOVE.

So many of us live at this level of dead religion, that the world has started to believe that one religion is as good as another. 
This is tragic.

God sent His only eternal Son to live as a man on this earth to show us what He is like.

When Jesus lived as a human like us on earth, He loved the Bible and studied the Hebrew scriptures but He never descended to the level of being a mere religious expert. 

He loved to spend time in the presence of His Heavenly Father.

When Jesus began preaching, He always faithfully explained the Scriptures. He believed the Bible was the Word of God but He didn’t just teach Bible courses, as many do today.

When the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread, Jesus relied on the Scriptures to resist the devil.

And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" Mt 4:3-4 (NASB) 

Jesus was quoting the Hebrew scripture but He was also teaching spiritual truth.

We do not sustain our spiritual life only by reading and knowing what the Bible says.

• Jesus speaks of “every word that PROCEEDS (or IS PROCEEDING) out of the mouth of God.”

• The Bible is not just a collection of more or less inspired religious texts but the FULLY INSPIRED WORD, which proceeds out of the mouth of God Himself. 

• But Jesus did not just rely on the written text which was inspired when it was written. He listened to the Spirit of His Father who inspired the Bible writers.

If your spiritual ears are not open to hear the voice of God speaking through His words, you are in danger of living a dead religious life. 

Jesus never relied only on the inspired written text but always listened to the WORDS PROCEEDING (NOW) FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.

Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? 

The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. John 14:10 (NIV)  

Jesus was the eternal Son of God before He was born in Bethlehem. When He lived as a man on earth, He did not stop being God but He chose to live with the limitations of human flesh. 

• He relied on the Spirit of Father God living inside Him. 

• He listened to God to know what to do and how to speak.

Bible knowledge alone cannot tell you when to correct and when to encourage. Every person you meet is unique and every situation is different.

We are called to FOLLOW JESUS, to be like Him, to live like Him.That means loving the Bible and learning to know the scriptures. But don’t stop there.

Jesus lived a totally supernatural life, constantly aware of the presence of the Spirit of His Father who lived inside Him, inside His body, in union with His Spirit and His soul.

• You are called to live in the same way, filled with the Holy Spirit, hearing the voice of God in your spirit every day, following the supernatural inspiration and leading of the Holy Spirit, hearing what God says to you and sharing God’s inspirational encouragement with others.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 (NIV) 

Jesus does not say His exceptional holy ones will hear His voice but His sheep, all His followers.

"'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Acts 2:17 (NIV) 

Peter does not say “your pastors and leaders will prophesy” but rather YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS WILL PROPHESY, your grandchildren, your young converts, your church members.