By Bishop Dave Chikosi
What happened to the Malaysian airplane? Why don’t these prophets come forward and tell us? Let them tell us where the plane is and we will know for sure they are not fake.”
The social media is awash with this prophecy-on-demand mentality. People seem to think that the prophecy button can be switched on and off at will by the individual who has the gift.
Evidently they have never read that the (nine) gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which prophecy is but one, are all given “by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills” (1 Cor 12:11). As He, the Spirit wills, not as the individual wills.
It’s amazing how many Christians think that when Jesus walked on earth, He operated as God. To be sure, Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. But He set aside His deity and chose to function as a man, with all the limitations and weaknesses that choice entailed.
The first thing necessitated by his decision to become a man (the theological term is ‘incarnation’) was that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38).
If He was going to function as God on earth, why does He need to be anointed? God does not need to be anointed.
Jesus operated on earth as a Prophet under the Old Covenant. Moses had promised Israel that God would one day “raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him” (Deut 18:15).
This is why some of the statements Jesus made have no direct relevance for the church today. But that’s another topic for another day.
But I say all that about Jesus to say this: as a prophet under the Old Covenant, Jesus did not know everything. Now there’s a shocker, guaranteed to raise the hair on the back of religious folk. But it is nevertheless true.
When it came to the end times (the theological term is ‘eschatology’), Jesus categorically states: “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:34).
As a prophet under the Old Covenant Jesus did not know when the world would come to an end. Period. He wasn’t too proud to profess His ignorance in this matter.
The prophet Elisha was also one who was not too proud to admit he just didn’t know some things. Here is an interesting account to that end:
“When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why” (2 Kings 4:27).
Elisha the man of God simply didn’t know what was going on with this woman. We have to stop this nonsense of thinking that if you misplace your underwear at home your local prophet is obligated to give you a prophecy-on-demand to help you locate the darn thing. Good grief!
Prophets are not politicians. They don t have to come up with a press statement every time some world event happens. If they have something from the Lord, then we praise God!
But if nothing has been revealed to them, stop trying to pressure them into lying. Back off.
(Bishop Dave Chikosi has a new 2014 book project entitled: “Supersize Me Lord!” Excerpts can be viewed at this pre-publication website: http://www.supersizemelord.com)
