THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY IN EVERY DISPENSATION

^[p. 135] THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY IN EVERY DISPENSATION

1 Corinthians 14: 23 - 25; Jude 14, 15; Genesis 20: 7 (first sentence)

What is in mind is to speak about prophecy, and, in order to show its applicability to the present time, I would cite a passage from Revelation which says that “the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 19: 10), the spirit of it. So that, whilst there may be no ground for assuming that there are prophets today, we may assume that there is the spirit of prophecy, and that suffices. It certainly existed as spoken of in the book of Revelation, a book intended for the saints in our dispensation peculiarly and having special application at the present time. Another thought that comes out in Revelation, which helps as to the spirit of prophecy is in the word to John in chapter 10. It will be remembered that in that chapter our Lord Jesus is seen under the figure of a strong angel come down, putting his right foot on the sea and his left on the land, with a little opened book in His hand. That little opened book contained what would be an occasion or cause for bitter feelings on the part of all those who love God and love His people, for it implied much suffering for them. The history of Western Europe, as it is about to be fulfilled, dear brethren, will involve much suffering for God’s people at the time, the history indeed of the world, speaking generally, and the prophet is directed to take the little book out of the hand of the angel, that is, out of the hand of Christ as the rightful Proprietor of the earth, who is about to deal with all that is contrary to Him, and the prophet was to take it and eat it, which he did. It was sweet, he tells us, in his mouth, but in his belly ^[p. 136] bitter. He valued it as disclosing the divine mind, but felt it in its consequences, as Elisha of old felt what the king of Syria would do to his people, although it was the mind of God that he should do it. The man of God wept, and John feels bitterly what should be occasioned by the contents of the book as carried out, and it is said to him, “Thou must prophesy again as to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings” (Revelation 10: 11). That is, as we feel things, as we feel what the mind of God implies, what His just government implies, we are morally qualified to prophesy. We may do it once and become disqualified, for God is patient with His servants and gives them opportunities, but it always tests as we have opportunities, and in answering to the test our opportunities continue, otherwise we may be deprived of them. Hence the word is, “Thou must prophesy again”. One would not like to be deprived of any advantage in service, any opportunity, for want of feeling. God looks for feeling servants, and as they feel things with Him, they continue to serve, they are morally qualified, so that, as acquiring such feelings, dear brethren, we may hope for not only the spirit of prophecy, but prophecy itself.

So I selected first of all this passage in Corinthians, because it deals with prophecy as exercised among christians. The Lord has revived the practice contemplated in this chapter, He has revived the thought of the chapter, and brethren have adopted it with considerable encouragement, and I believe that, as it is understood and the necessity for it, there will be more encouragement. As we feel things as they exist, as we judge things as they exist, as we discern the needs amongst the saints as they exist, we shall prophesy again, and these meetings will take on greater significance. They not only require feeling, but also confidence in one another and the esteeming of each other better than oneself, so that, if there be something ^[p. 137] revealed to one sitting by, we give way. Heaven is in charge of all these matters; and by the Spirit a sure representation of heaven here may intervene suddenly with something urgent, for we have the word “the Spirit speaks expressly” (1 Timothy 4: 1). There are general communications and express ones; we must be ready for both. So that if the whole assembly come together in one place according to this chapter, there is scope for the Spirit to speak, and for that, as I said, there must not only be feeling, but confidence in one another and an esteeming of each other better than ourselves, a readiness thus to give way as the Spirit moves. The assembly is assumed in this epistle to be a spiritually delicate, sensitive instrument, so to speak, its members interdependent upon one another, the Spirit actuating all in perfect unity, and in the dignity of the anointing. So that in considering this chapter, dear brethren, the idea of prophecy strikes you. I think the word for it, in different forms, is found something like ten times in this chapter, showing how much it is in the mind of the Spirit, and how it was intended to come down as an assembly furnishing and provision. We have no mention of elders in the epistle. What is stressed is the organism, involving that each member, each christian, is sensibly responsive, and intelligently so too, and feelingly so, so that there is no room for inertness, but intelligent energetic sympathy, whether we may speak or otherwise; for in this very chapter the sisters are enjoined to be silent in the assemblies. That does not mean that they do not contribute, far otherwise! The appointed gifts will draw upon them automatically, so to speak; in virtue of the organism it must be so. What is in mind in all this stress upon prophecy is, of course, the edifying of the assembly, but that God may be known as in us, and that it is of a truth, not only to ourselves but to others, for the point of view in this ^[p. 138] epistle is that the doors are open, not as in John 20 closed for fear of the Jews. They are open, and, in the power of the anointing, the assembly is preserved from evil intrusion; so much so that, in the spirit of prophecy, an unbeliever (or unbelievers, or those who are simple) coming in, falls down, he is convicted of all and judged of all; he falls down! A mighty triumphant result of the service, of prophecy, not that there is gift there simply, but that God is there, beloved. Much greater than gift!

Well now, I want to show that this service of prophecy has marked God in all His dispensations; hence I read in Jude because he refers to Enoch representing this service in the antediluvian world; God had it then. I have no doubt it was there in others besides Enoch, but it was there, and points to what I have been saying, that God would assert Himself. Indeed the principle is seen in His first movement as sin came in, the enemy attacked and God would be at no disadvantage from the moral point of view, so that His voice is heard walking in the garden, not His steps, but His voice. Then we find that Adam, as clothed by God (wonderful grace that he was clothed by God!) calls, we are told, his wife’s name Eve, meaning that she was the mother of all living, meaning life. That has a prophetic significance, that, instead of death, there should be life; a very great fact. Adam knew that; he had been accustomed to give names now, he had indeed given Eve a name before, but not this one; nor is she brought to him here to give her a name as she was before; it is his own matter, evidently the outcome of light in his soul, this name that he gives his wife, Eve. And no doubt Seth was on this line of prophesying in calling his son’s name Enosh. It was the announcement of a man who knew, who was with God manifestly, and would let it be known that he was with God, and that his son was not going to be brought ^[p. 139] up for this world, he was a poor dying creature. How that asserted, in its measure, God, that is God in His government, and the light shone and men began, we are told, “to call on the name of Jehovah”. An excellent result! But Enoch is the one whom the Spirit of God specially mentions as prophesying in regard to certain persons, indeed of persons that we have to do with today, for Jude is dealing with the apostasy in christendom. Not with the antediluvian apostasy in Cain and his descendants, but with the apostasy that we have to do with, beloved brethren. The Spirit of God conveniently brings Enoch in and tells us that he prophesied of these, showing how long a look-out God had and how He made provision and served us by an antediluvian prophet. May we not assume that there was much of this service rendered by this man Enoch? It is not mentioned here as something exceptional with him, something that was unusual to him. It is mentioned in the most remarkable way that Enoch, “the seventh from Adam, prophesied also as to these”, the Spirit of God alluding to his spiritual history, the seventh from Adam; that is, a man of exercise, an accumulative kind of man who would profit by, and observe, the government of God. His name indeed is indicative of discipline, and where discipline is, and accepted from God, we may be sure that we shall speak of God and represent God and bring Him in, in the way of rebuke of evil. For if I, through discipline, disallow evil in myself, I am not going to license it in others. So that he had a judgment about the conditions that prevailed, he was walking with God; how could he walk with God without a judgment of things? He judged things and he spoke of them, and he is brought in to serve us by the apostle Jude. He says, “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads”, a lone man, as far as Scripture records, speaks of holy myriads and the Lord coming with them to ^[p. 140] deal with evil. So that Enoch is brought in as a great help to us and a stimulus too, so that we should, as walking with God, or professing to walk with God, have a judgment about things, not only as among the brethren, but among the nations. For we must have an eye for what is current if we are with God, the mystery of iniquity having been working all these centuries. Hence in that book of Revelation, God says He “has judged your judgment upon her”. We may be sure that the flood had some reference to Enoch, that God judged his judgment on the antediluvian wickedness. May we not assume, beloved, that Enoch spoke to God about these things? He did; he walked with God, he pleased God. God does not walk with dumb people. He says, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well” (Exodus 4: 14). Need I say that God heard him speak? Not such speaking as the world expects, as, for instance, among the Greeks, but such speaking as God values. “I know that he can speak well”, God says; and so, “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him”. But we have the testimony of him brought down the ages by the Spirit of God. “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied also as to these, saying, Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all; and to convict all the ungodly of them of all their works of ungodliness, which they have wrought ungodlily, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”. Note the word ‘ungodly’ in these verses.

Now I go on to Abraham to show that, whilst with Enoch we have the condemnation of the world, and Noah is but the counterpart of Enoch, he condemned the world by the building of the ark; with Abraham we have the world, as I might say, in reconciliation, not for condemnation, although Sodom ^[p. 141] was condemned and that as a testimony, but Abraham is called out, and God says, “I will ... bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing ... and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12: 2, 3). How would Abraham look at the world? He would look out upon it with an evangelical eye, as we should now. Whilst we have our judgment of the world as it is exposed, yet it is in reconciliation; God has not changed His mind, the gospel is on that ground. So that there is another phase of our position, dear brethren, and the prophetic ministry has that in mind, that God is amongst us, that God is here in the assembly as a Saviour God, a very great matter. And so God says to Abimelech of Abraham, “He is a prophet”. It never occurred to Abimelech doubtless that he was any such thing, nor does it occur to our neighbours, our business acquaintances and the world generally, that anything of the kind attaches to us; but God lets people know about us. Is it not a matter of great interest to Him that there are people in this city who know Him, and who love Him, and who pray to Him constantly? Is that not a matter of great consequence to Him? It is one of the greatest things to Him, and this city is taken up in that relation. They are few, to be sure, as the psalmist says, “They were a few men in number, of small account, and strangers in it. And they went from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to oppress them, and reproved kings for their sakes, Saying, Touch not mine anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm” (Psalm 105: 12 - 15). That is the position today, the world is in reconciliation. That is to say, God is holding it in that way so as to present Christ to it as a Saviour, so that there should be nothing to prejudice the gospel, and surely we should bear that in mind that we should not prejudice the gospel, but ^[p. 142] that, on the contrary, we pray for kings and all in authority, and for our neighbours and business acquaintances; we let them know that we are their friends. God says, “He is a prophet, and will pray for thee;” if God tells the people in this city that there are those in it who will pray for them, as it were, how sorrowful if they do not! But Abraham did, he actually did pray for Abimelech, and God answered him for Abimelech; God was dealing with that man Abimelech. He says, ‘I knew your mind; I kept you from sinning against Me’. Do you not think God is doing that now? I do. God is a faithful Creator, He is the “preserver of all men”, and He operates in men and speaks to men in His own way, and He tells them about the prophets. He tells them about those who pray and He says, ‘Do not do them any harm’. Is that not the secret of what we have today, that we are free to meet as we are now and speak to one another, no man forbidding it? What is the secret of that? God says, ‘Do not do them any harm;’ He has His own way of doing that. It does not say God told Abraham to pray for Abimelech, He knew he would; so he prayed for him and God answered him, so Abimelech’s household was healed and they were to bear, that is to say, there was to be a continuance of those men. They are not looked at as enemies, but as in reconciliation. God is their God and would bless them, and He would have us to be a blessing.

One could go on at length to point out that this principle of prophecy is in all the dispensations, so that when we come down to the ministry, that is to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, we have it again. While God is to be known evangelically, He is to be known ministerially, if you understand me. He is not known ministerially in the hierarchy of this country, nor in any hierarchy, today; it is a question of what the ministers are that He identifies ^[p. 143] Himself with. Moses and Aaron represent the ministers, Moses was a highly disciplined man. Aaron was too, although we have no mention of his discipline. We only get his name, as he was eighty-three years old, but he is given to Moses as a man who can speak well, and withal, a man who has a brother’s heart, a very great matter in ministry so that I am not a rival of my brother in my service. God is not in that, we may be sure, but He is with ministers who love one another who support one another, and who serve together. The first great service rendered by Moses and Aaron brought out worship from the saints; could anything justify the selection more than that? God was with them, so much so that He says to Moses, “I have made thee God to Pharaoh” (not ‘a God’ ). The reality of the presence of God will be there, and He says, “Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet”. The word may not be so full, but there it is, Aaron would speak instead of Moses, but Moses would be God. What a testimony was presented to Pharaoh, and was it not grace? It was, but still with a view to judgment, alas, for, “For this very cause have I raised thee up”, says God, “to shew thee my power” (Exodus 9: 16). But still, there was the testimony that God was there, in a prophetic way, in these two men.

Now that is God, dear brethren, known in the ministry; and significantly Moses says in Deuteronomy 18: 15, “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me”. So did he answer to the mind of God that he was a full type, we might say, of Christ personally, He is to be “like me”. And this prophet is not like Sinai; it is not the way things were at Sinai for he is to be, raised up “from the midst of thee”, and Jehovah said, “He shall speak unto them all that I shall command him”. And so right down we get it; in the book of Judges we get it; in Samuel we get it, in relation to royalty, indeed the idea ^[p. 144] greatly increases under the kings. That is to say, God would keep Himself before men, that He was there. How one could illustrate this from such men as Nathan, and Gad, and Samuel, and a host of others, even unnamed prophets. One says, “I hid a hundred men of Jehovah’s prophets by fifty in a cave” (1 Kings 18: 13). Such was the abundance of the prophetic testimony on God’s part that He would assert Himself in all the dispensation; and right down in post-captivity days. What men we have in Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and others; until we come to New Testament times when we have a prophetess and others; and then the great Prophet! How one’s heart rests with satisfaction in the great Prophet, that is Jesus! And hence it goes on, the Holy Spirit coming down, and the exalted Christ above “has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers” (Ephesians 4: 11); that is the order. The prophets have a part in the foundation, but the spirit of prophecy runs on. You can well understand that the meeting contemplated in this chapter in 1 Corinthians does not refer to foundational work. The foundation had been laid, Paul says so expressly: “As a wise architect, I have laid the foundation, but another builds upon it” (1 Corinthians 3: 10); and the building went on in this chapter, the prophetic ministry to edify; but how? That God was there, that we are not working without God: “Unless Jehovah build the house, in vain do its builders labour in it; unless Jehovah keep the city, the keeper watcheth in vain” (Psalm 127: 1). The prophet brings God in, and he would say to every meeting, ‘If God be not here the meeting is useless’. We must bring God in, and that is the point God would have us to understand, that He asserts His rights and His place amongst us. The prophet considers for God and his ministry brings God in; the effect is that even an unbeliever falls down and acknowledges “that God is indeed amongst you”. And it is “indeed;” it is no mere theoretic idea that God is among us; how great a fact that is! It is not beyond us, we are proving it, dear brethren, but let it continue; as I was saying. “Thou must prophesy again”, we have always to look out for ‘again’. As the Lord may be pleased to leave us here a few years longer, who is to carry on? It is well to keep that in mind; and, if the testimony is to be continued it is in the spirit of prophecy, the testimony of Jesus. And if I am to serve in this way, I must be with God, like Enoch, like Abraham, like Moses, and like all the prophets. Many of them are called ‘men of God’, the idea runs alongside prophecy. How can I represent God save as I am with God? And, as I am with God, I say I must bring God in, and it is the prophet who brings God in, in this sense, that is in ministry. So that, dear brethren, these meetings that are alluded to are, to my mind, very significant and very important. They are to be taken up, I believe, from the standpoint of my remarks, from the standpoint of these scriptures. It is a question of God asserting Himself as with His people; not simply helping His people, but that He has rights amongst them, that He likes to be with them, and that He wishes to be known as with them. It is the salvation of people to know that He is with us, so may God bless these meetings that He may be with us until the end.