Saturday, February 19, 2011

Best Place at the Banquet

Luke 14:7-10 is relevant to sharing prophecy and vison.

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, Jesus told them this parable: When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests.
Prophetic people are often tempted to find a higher place at the banquet for their words and vision. They do this in various ways.
  • Turning the text into the first person.
  • Using King James English
  • Adding proof texts
  • Quoting big name prophets
  • Getting them onto the best prophetic lists.
  • Adding dramatic graphics
  • Playing sombre music in the background.
Pushy prophets manipulating their words to the top table hurt the gospel.

The authority of the prophetic comes from the witness of the Spirit in the heart of the reader/hearer.

It is best to present our words and visions in a humble way near the bottom of the table. Then the Holy Spirit can move them up to the top of the table if he wishes.

2 comments:

Gene said...

I agree with your list.

The only thing I would quibble with is when a prophecy has a deep textual content that relates almost exactly to some passage, is there a harm in quoting it? I see that with Micah and Isaiah. AND JESUS.
It is written....etc

So, the proof text may not be wrong in my opinion. I wonder why you would feel it is?

Ron McK said...

Gene
I have no problem with texts that are illustrative. They should be used if they apply. They are only wrong when used as "proof" texts to make the word look better ie they are decorative. This is applies to everything on the list.