The Inside Track

When you hear the word prophecy, what comes to your mind? A fanatic on the street corner screaming, “Repent, doomsday is near!” A news story about some religious cult selling their possessions, gathering and waiting for the “rapture?” December 21, 2012 when according to the Mayan calendar the world would come to an end?

While most of us probably associate these extreme or fringe behaviors with the concept of prophecy, in reality we all engage in some type of prophecy-seeking on a regular basis. You see, in its simplest definition, prophecy is a prediction of what is to come, and we all want to be able to predict certain future events. For example, did you listen to the weather report today? We often call it a prediction or forecast and we do our technological best to predict what the weather will be like in the future.

With the Super Bowl coming up in a little over a week, you can get all kinds of odds from sportscasters on who will come out on top, the San Francisco 49ers or the Baltimore Ravens, and what their point spread will be. Odds are a way of prophesying the outcome of the game in advance.

If you've been listening to the news lately, you are aware that we are in the middle of a bad flu season this year. The flu vaccine is developed each year based on statistical predictions of how the virus will mutate over time. It's actually a very prophetic enterprise, and if accurate, the vaccine is effective. However if the “scientific prophecy” is inaccurate, the vaccine won't provide protection.

If you follow the stock market at all, you are aware of the many different methods used to forecast what the market will do. With just these few examples, it's obvious that we continually attempt to predict future events. We want to be “in the know,” and have “the inside track” on events that are important to us. And frequently we temporarily assume the role of a prophet, saying things such as: “I hate to say I told you so, but…,” “I'll bet anything that…,” or “Mark my words….”

So we all are prophecy-seekers and we sometimes act as prophets ourselves. We want information about future probabilities, but how can we determine the accuracy of the predictions we hear? How can we know if we’re listening to “the right inside track?”

Father God understands our desire to know about important future events, and He has always spoken to people through prophecy. In Numbers 12:6 it says, “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal Myself to them in visions. I speak to them in dreams.” The Bible contains approximately 2000 prophecies, three quarters of which have already been fulfilled without error. The remaining 500 are prophecies about future events yet to occur.

But not all prophecy from God is contained in the Bible. Father God continues to use prophets to speak to His people personally. In Joel 2:28, He promised that after Christ came, He would pour out the Holy Spirit on people, and that they would prophesy, have prophetic dreams and see visions. This has been going on for the last 2000 years and continues today.

Want to get “the inside track” on what God is saying through His prophets now?

Come join us this Sunday for the last day of our Prophetic Conference, as we have contemporary prophets share what God is revealing to them. Tony Kim will be speaking at 9 AM and Kris Vallotton at 11 AM.

Pastor Che