Prophecy & Discernment

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12:10b and 14:29-33 and Isaiah 50:4-8

Video Link: https://youtu.be/wI5nRcJp3fM

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 12 Oct 2025 – Prophecy & Discernment by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

• Introduction
• Prophecy
• Discernment
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

On the wall in the Sprig & Fern (here in Tawa) they have a daily word puzzle on the blackboard. The board is divided into nine squares with a letter in each square. The letters are jumbled. The goal is to rearrange the letters to spell a word.

Last time we were there the letters spelled ‘bumblebee’. The three e’s and three b’s made it quite tricky. Because it’s a Sunday morning and because I’m kind, I have set something a little less challenging. What word can you spell with the letters: R T S I P L A U I ?

To give you a clue, our current sermon series features this word. [Wait]

That’s right, ‘spiritual’, as in spiritual gifts.

In First Corinthians 12, Paul lists nine spiritual gifts. Paul’s list is not exhaustive; it is an ad hoc sample. Today we continue our series on spiritual gifts by focusing on the gifts of prophecy and discernment. From First Corinthians 12, verse 7 we read…

⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits…

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Prophecy:

Here’s another word jumble for you. What nine-letter word do the letters: R T P E P O H C I spell? Again, the clue is in today’s sermon. We are focusing on one of these spiritual gifts this morning. [Wait] That’s right, ‘prophetic’.

Prophetic is the adjective and prophecy is the noun. I had to go with prophetic because prophecy only has eight letters. As I said earlier, one of the spiritual gifts we are looking at today is the gift of prophecy. So what is prophecy?

In the Bible, prophecy is a direct message from God for a particular situation, and a prophet is someone who can conveys a message from God. With prophecy, God is communicating directly with people, through people. 

Often the prophet communicates God’s message using words, like when Jesus told his disciples plainly that he would be handed over to the authorities to be killed, then on the third day be raised from the dead. Or when Isaiah predicted the return of the exiles using poetic words and parables.

If the circumstances of the world in which we live look like a jumble of misplaced letters, the prophet is divinely inspired to rearrange the letters into a word which makes sense of a particular situation.

Other times though, when words don’t seem to penetrate the hardness of people’s hearts, the prophet communicates God’s message using signs, like when Jeremiah wept for Jerusalem as a sign of the city’s coming destruction. Or when Jesus cleared the temple of merchants and money changers. That sign conveyed the message that God was not happy with how corrupt the temple system had become.

We could say the prophet is like a sign language interpreter. Unlike most people, who are deaf to God’s word, the prophet can hear God’s voice and communicate what God is saying in a language the rest of us can understand.    

Divinely inspired prophecy is timely. Messages from God are usually relevant to some issue in the present, but at the same time, the message draws on God’s saving activity in the past and has real implications for the future.

For example, when Jesus fed the 5000 in the wilderness, he was making a prophetic statement which was timely. The feeding miracle reminds us of the past when Moses led the people of Israel through the wilderness after their exodus from slavery in Egypt. But it also says something vitally important for the present and the future: Jesus is the new Moses who comes to enact a new kind of exodus, setting people free from slavery to sin and death.  

The Bible is peppered with prophets, both men and women from the Old and New Testaments. People like Miriam and Moses, Deborah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, Huldah, Daniel, Simeon and Anna, John the Baptist and the daughters of Philip the evangelist, to name just a few.

Sometimes the message from God was a word of judgement (a warning to repent) and other times it was a word of hope (an encouragement that salvation was coming).

Isaiah had this to say about prophecy…

⁴ The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. ⁵ The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears;

These verses tell us the prophetic message comes from the Lord God Almighty. It is not something the prophet dreams up themselves. The prophet spends time listening to God in order to understand what God wants them to say. 

We also note the purpose or Kaupapa of prophecy: to sustain the weary.

In the context of Isaiah, the weary are most likely those who are oppressed by injustice and exhausted from the suffering caused by wrong-doing. The weary are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

When the weary hear the prophet say that God is going to bring an end to injustice and judge the oppressor, this gives the people hope and strength to endure.

We should not miss the fact here that prophecy is a double-edged sword.

The same word that sustains the weary also rebukes the powerful. A word of hope for one is a word of judgment for another.

Isaiah goes on to say…
I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away. ⁶ I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. ⁷ Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. ⁸ He who vindicates me is near.

These verses show the courage and obedience of the prophet in declaring God’s message to a hostile audience. You see, the prophet has a choice.

The prophet has some say over when and how they communicate the message God has given them.

Of course, when you speak truth to evil people, you can usually expect some push back. The prophet’s message is not benign or ambiguous. The oppressor understands clearly what the Lord is saying through the prophet and the prophet suffers for their obedience in speaking the truth. You need a thick skin to be a prophet.

Whatever suffering and humiliation the prophet may endure, they know in their heart of hearts that God is near. A specific word from the Lord makes God’s presence felt. The prophet has complete faith in God to vindicate them by making their message come true.

These verses from Isaiah are talking about Jesus. Jesus is the greatest of all the prophets, for Jesus fulfils the law and the prophets. Jesus set his face like flint as he confronted the corrupt religious leadership of his day and went to the cross in obedience to God the Father. And God vindicated Jesus by making his words come true and raising him from the dead.

Okay, so if prophecy is a direct message from God, then does that mean preaching is prophecy? Is what I’m doing now a prophetic message from the Lord for you? Well, preaching and teaching from the Bible can sometimes be prophetic, but not usually.

Often you listen to a sermon and go away thinking, that was interesting. I now have a better understanding of what that passage of Scripture means and how it applies to my life. The sermon is helpful, and it nourishes your faith, but it does not necessarily contain a direct prophetic word for your specifically.

Occasionally though you will listen to a sermon and something in the message, maybe an illustration, maybe a verse of Scripture or a particular phrase, whatever it is, resonates with you at a deeper more personal level. Perhaps it comforts you or maybe it cuts you to the core. Either way, something in your spirit knows that God’s Spirit is communicating with you directly.       

You might go away from the sermon thinking the preacher had some kind of inside knowledge on your life. How did they know?  

Let me reassure you, I am not a prophet. I do not know what goes on in your life beyond what you share with me. Even then, I don’t remember everything you tell me. My experience in life is different from yours and so the connections I make with Scripture are likely to be different from the connections you make.

Besides, I don’t target individuals in my preaching. That is not who I am.

Having said that, God does know what is going on in your life and he may well speak to you personally through the sermon, without the preacher being aware of it. In that situation the sermon has become a prophetic word for you. If that happens you need to listen and ask God to confirm his message.

Jesus’ preaching often had a prophetic quality. I think of the sermon on the mount when Jesus gave us the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. And so on. Talk about words to sustain the weary.   

Okay, to recap so far, prophecy is a direct message from God for a particular situation. Prophets communicate God’s message using words and signs. Divinely inspired prophecy is timely. And prophecy is a double-edged sword; it sustains the weary with hope and it convicts the oppressor with judgement.   

The implication here is that a genuine word of prophecy is life giving.

As Jesus said, people cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.   

By the same token, false prophecy can be extremely harmful. And so prophecy needs discernment.

Discernment:

Here’s another word to unscramble. (This one comes with a picture clue.)

What two words can you make with the letters R T S E U S Q E A? (Wait)

That’s right, Set Square.

A ‘set square’ or simply a ‘square’ is used by carpenters and engineers to check whether something is square. If the angle is not straight or true, the set square will reveal this. It will also show you when the object you are measuring is true.

Some tools get the job done. Hammers, screwdrivers, saws, they all make stuff happen. Other tools, like set squares, measuring tapes and spirit levels are needed to ensure the job is done properly.  

Prophecy is like a hammer or a screwdriver or a saw. Prophecy makes things happen. Discernment is more like a set square or a spirit level or a measuring tape. Discernment is needed to check how true the prophecy is. Discernment tells you whether you can rely on the prophecy or not. Prophecy needs discernment.

In First Corinthians 12, verse 10, Paul lists the spiritual gift of distinguishing between spirits alongside the gift of prophecy. Distinguishing between spirits is about discerning the spiritual origins of something. It’s about measuring whether or not something is from the Holy Spirit or the human spirit or an evil spirit.  

For example, in Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 

Here Jesus exercises the gift of discernment. Jesus distinguishes between spirits. He identifies Peter’s statement as coming from God the Father in heaven.

Just a few verses later, Jesus goes on to say he must suffer and die and on the third day be raised to life.

²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Once again Jesus exercised the gift of discernment. Jesus distinguished the origin of the spirit. Peter’s words on this occasion did not come from the Holy Spirit. Peter may have meant well, but he was not aware that his good intentions were tempting Jesus to disobey God the Father.

Years ago, when I was training for ministry in Auckland, I asked my mentor, Walter Lang: what is the most important spiritual gift for a pastor to have? Walter had served as a church minister for 40 years. Quick as a flash, Walter said, ‘discernment’.

I knew Walter from his time at Hamilton Central Baptist in the 80’s. In those days during worship, people would come out with a prophecy or a word of knowledge. Mostly, these words were encouraging or at least relatively benign. But there were one or two occasions when Walter had to stand up and say, ‘No, that was not from the Lord.’ Like prophecy, exercising the gift of discernment requires courage.

However, discernment is not just an individual gift. It is a shared gift. Discernment is like a measuring tape; just as you often need two people to hold the tape, one at each end, so too you need more than one person to discern the truth.

Walter recommended I share matters for discernment with others in church leadership, rather than trying to solve everything on my own.     

In First Corinthians 14, Paul gives his readers some practical instructions for the handling of prophecy in gathered worship. From verse 29 we read…

²⁹ Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. ³⁰ And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. ³¹ For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. ³² The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. ³³ For God is not a God of disorder but of peace…

Verse 29 talks about weighing the words of prophecy carefully. The Greek word translated as weighing carefully comes from the same word used in chapter 12 for distinguishing between spirits. It means to discern or judge rightly. [1]

The point is, we should not blindly accept all prophecy. The Spirit filled community of believers need to weigh and test prophecy to determine if it is true.

In verse 31, Paul talks about the purpose of prophecy being to instruct and encourage everyone in the church. Prophecy should edify and build up the community of faith. This echoes Isaiah’s thought that a word of prophecy sustains the weary.   

David Prior suggests several criteria for discerning whether or not a word of prophecy is legit… [2]

Firstly, does it glorify God? A genuine prophetic word turns our hearts and minds toward the goodness of God; it makes God larger (or more real) in our awareness. But if the word spoken promotes someone or something else over God or makes God smaller (or less real) in our minds, then it is not from the Holy Spirit.

Another question to ask in the discernment process is: Does the prophecy align with Scripture? For example, if someone says Jesus will return at such and such a time, we know the prophecy is false because Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour of his return. But if someone brings a word to encourage the church to act with justice and generosity to the poor, then we know it is in line with Scripture.  

We might also ask: Is the speaker in control of themselves? In First Corinthians 14, Paul instructs prophets to wait their turn and conduct themselves in an orderly way. If the speaker is unwilling to listen to others in the church, if they insist on talking over others, if they are ranting or manic, then what they have to say is not likely to be from the Holy Spirit.

Does the prophecy build up the church? In other words, does the message spoken encourage and help other believers? Does it strengthen faith in Jesus and calm fear? If the word spoken undermines the unity of the church or causes people to mistrust each other, then it is not from the Holy Spirit.

I would add one other test and that is the test of peace. Let peace be your guide. By peace, I mean a sense of rightness, a certain resonance that what is being said rings true, even if it is a bit challenging or confronting.

If you have a check in your spirit, a little red flag in the back of your mind, that you cannot quite put your finger on, then listen to your instinct. It could one of two things…

Either the prophecy is true and the problem is with you, in which case peace is found by accepting the prophecy and obeying God. Or the prophecy is false and the Holy Spirit is warning you to steer clear of it, in which case peace is found by rejecting the false prophecy.

If in doubt, ask God to reveal whether the problem is with you or the prophet. He will answer a prayer like that.

Conclusion:   

Hearing from God is vitally important for Christian faith. Prophecy is one of the ways we hear from God. However, prophecy needs discernment. The gifts of prophecy and discernment function best in community with other believers. So…

²⁴ …let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

There is a lot more we could say about prophecy, but that is enough for now.

Let us pray…

Gracious God, thank you for the many ways you speak to us. Fill us with your Spirit that we may hear you more clearly and obey you more faithfully. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.   

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1. What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
2. What is prophecy? What is the purpose of prophecy? Why is prophecy important?
3. How might a prophet receive a message from God? How did prophets in the Bible communicate God’s message?
4. Have you ever received a prophetic word, either for yourself or for someone else? What was the word? How did this word come to you? What did you do about it?
5. Discuss / reflect on the relationship between the gift of prophecy and the gift of distinguishing between spirits. Why does prophecy need discernment?
6. How might we discern whether a prophesy is from the Holy Spirit or not?
7. Why is it important to exercise the gifts of prophecy and discernment in the context of Christian community?  

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[1] Refer Gordon Fee’s NICNT, First Corinthians, page 596.

[2] Adapted from David Prior’s commentary on First Corinthians, page 251.