If you’re going to live a spiritual life, it will be a prophecy that directs you on how to live. If you’re going to live by prophecy, you must know what prophecy is. The Bible teaches us that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10. When you consider the testimony of Jesus, it becomes much clearer about what prophecy is. It’s the testimony of Jesus, which is the testimony of you being Christ. That’s the whole point of following Jesus, isn’t it, to be restored to His image and His likeness.
Prophecy has often been considered a prediction of something that will happen in your future. It gives you an end place that you will arrive at and find a reward waiting there. The prize is either good or evil, depending on the nature of the prophecy. If the prophecy is good, there is a celebration to glorify the fulfillment of the prophecy. If the prophecy speaks of evil, it can mean that destruction or disaster awaits you in the end, and in that case, there is no celebration but sorrow instead. Prophecy can also be given as a warning to bring you to repentance and change your course. In this case, prophecy works by showing you that there will be consequences if you remain going in the wrong direction.
In all cases, the focus is generally always on the end of the prophecy. It focuses on where it comes to pass and not on the journey it took to get there. But what is a prophecy without the journey to fulfill it? God’s story has taught us that you can’t have an ending without the beginning. Prophecy does indeed tell you the future, but it does a lot more than that. By understanding prophecy, you not only understand tomorrow, but it will also bring today into focus. Today is where we need to begin to see who we are and where we will fulfill our prophecy. It means that what we do today will create our tomorrow, even if we don’t always know exactly who we are or understand the moment we live in. Prophecy is what makes your tomorrow and is your guide to the end.
“Prophecy creates your tomorrow by telling you what to do today.”
In a physical sense, people choose their careers. If you decide to be a doctor, you don’t just sit at home waiting to become a doctor, thinking that one day it just automatically happens. You also don’t study to be a fireman and believe you will become a doctor. No, you study and prepare, and even volunteer your time, on your way to becoming a doctor. You start your journey to becoming a doctor the day you make up your mind to be a doctor. Prophecy will work similarly, except it is God who chooses your career, so to speak, and gives you the power to become it.
“Prophecy must be a part of your life today for it to come to pass tomorrow.
When you look at testimonies in the Bible, you don’t just hear about events that happen suddenly; you hear about the things that lead up to these events. In this, you realize that prophecy wasn’t something that was told to you, and then while you waited, it just suddenly happened. It’s more like prophecy is told you, and when spoken, it creates the path for you to walk in so you can attain the fulfillment of it. In the case of evil, prophecy can even warn and cause you to turn from your path and avoid the destruction awaiting you at the end. That means prophecy can change your testimony to something new. All of these things already show us how vital prophecy is. But since the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, let’s use Jesus as an example of a testimony.
The testimony of Jesus
As I said earlier, it would be easy to say that prophecy is just the future and then sit back and wait on God to come down from heaven and fulfill the prophecy for you without any action on your part. But imagine if Jesus was born into the world and then grew up only to sit under a tree and say, “I’m waiting for my Father to save the world”. Prophecy would have never come to pass, nor would Jesus ever have a testimony. A testimony requires you to act on what God has said to you. In action, you establish your testimony of becoming a Christ, an anointed one.
While on the earth, God told Jesus Who He was and what He needed to do, and He did it with faithfulness every day. He believed it and lived by it, and it became His life. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of saving the world by doing what God told Him. He fulfilled the prophecy of becoming the Son of God and the King of Israel. On the earth, His fulfillment started on day one when He was born. This birth shows us that Jesus chose to follow prophecy while still in heaven. That’s where prophecy originates. His willingness to descend to the world and become a servant in the flesh created the life He lived on the earth. Just by being born on earth, Jesus was already walking in prophecy. That’s the same perception that you need to have about your life.
The prophets of the Old Testament also gave many prophecies to create the expectation of the coming of Jesus. These same prophecies will be the ones that come alive in you and will create the arrival of your glorious sonship with Him. That’s why you should be aware of the prophecies of Jesus so that you also know what you will become in Him. You will walk in the same image and likeness of Christ. That’s what prophecy creates in you.
Prophecy puts the vision in your eyes to see the path you are to walk in so that you can be faithful to it.
Prophecy is not just waiting for the future. It’s not just waiting for God to do the work for you. Prophecy is the creation of your testimony, and joining yourself to it will bring it to pass. When it is fulfilled, you know who you are, where you are going, and what you need to do. Prophecy is a testimony of who you are. You can’t have a testimony unless you walk in the prophecy God gave you. An established testimony represents the person that you say you are. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy because God anointed Jesus, and He went about doing good and healing all that were sick and oppressed of the devil. What a testimony Jesus had because He could walk in the spirit of prophecy and fulfill His Father’s will. He is a doer, and His testimony is the proof of the spirit of prophecy.
Remember that when you receive prophecy, it instructs you on what to do and what direction you need to go. If a prophecy is present, you can never say, “I don’t know what to do”. If you do, it means that you did not hear the prophecy correctly. Within the prophecy is the answer to everything you need to get started in the direction you need to go. To fulfill prophecy requires you to continue on a path where you have to endure, overcome, and complete some good works to make the prophecy come to pass. When it’s all said and done, you will not be doing your works; you will be doing God’s work and fulfilling His prophecy in your life. So get busy being obedient and faithful to the prophecy you’ve received.
Finally, to finish the question of what is the purpose of prophecy? We refer to the prophet Jeremiah who sums it up nicely. Jeremiah 29:11-13.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then you will call upon me, and you will go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And you will seek me, and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.
He says that the Lord (by prophecy) gives you an expected end, which creates in you, today, the prayer that will cause Him to hear you and bring the prophecy to pass. (That’s powerful!)
If you live your life by prophecy, you will be the testimony of Jesus Christ.