SPIRITUALITY
Prophecy is God’s desire to manifest Himself in our lives with a fore knowledge. In order words, it is God’s plan to reveal something of His purpose to a person that they may honour Him through their testimonies.
A prophetic encounter is therefore a very crucial meeting prepared by heaven that we will do well to understand how to receive or respond to it. We will use two cases to demonstrate people’s attitude to prophecy. Most of the other prophetic encounters were also like them. So pay attention.
Prophecy through the ages
God has never left us. He is omnipresent. That means He is everywhere. God is present inside and outside and quietly goes about the business of maintaining His creation. However, on occasions, He has had to manifest Himself to mankind through physical appearance. On such occasions He sends angels or prophets. Depending on how important that prophetic mission is, He could send multiple agents.
Angels still appear to humans please be vigilant so you don’t HURT their feelings.
He sent angels to appear physically to Manoah’s wife, Samson’s mother; to Joshua, Moses successor; to Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah; to Jacob and to Abraham as well as to many other people. These lot saw the Angels and spoke face to face with them. So because Angels still appear to humans, please be vigilant so you don’t HURT their feelings if they visit you.
At other times, He sent prophets. Samuel, Nathan, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, and John Baptist were prophets sent at various times to deliver messages to their generations. An encounter with a prophet is just as important. Each prophet had a mandate or core message they delivered.
The prophetic mandate
A prophetic mandate is a very serious spiritual assignment… It involves the temporary disruption of the norm; so God takes these encounters seriously. You too should.
Every prophecy is accompanied by a Prophetic Mandate. This is the core message that God intends to deliver so that there would be no doubt who is doing it.
A prophetic mandate is a very serious spiritual assignment. It involves God violating the physical appearances of things as we know them. It involves the temporary disruption of the norm; so God takes these encounters seriously. You too should. If God should suspend the normal to reach you, it is a very serious matter. You don’t want to be on the wrong of His anger.
Having said that, it is crucial to ask what should be your attitude to the prophetic? We will discuss that shortly.
For now let’s discuss two angelic visitations in the Bible. The first was Angel Gabriel’s visit to Zachariah, the father of John. The second was the visit of the same Angel to Mary. In these two encounters, there are two different reactions and I want you to pay attention to that.
Gabriel visits Zachariah
And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
Luke 1:11
This visitation was in an isolated space that was silent and private. Prophetic encounters often appear in privacy. You should note that.
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