When my wife was washing dishes after dinner, she sensed God impressing something on her heart.
She should buy flowers for someone—and it had to be that night. Flowers tonight, for whom? She didn’t know, she just knew it had to be then.
Colette left her dishes in the sink and drove to the flower store. Once inside, she thought God wanted her to buy three roses and a card. As Colette paid for them, a particular neighbor came to mind. She hadn’t seen her in a while, but yes, Colette felt very strongly the flowers were for her.
Colette sat inside the car, deciding what to write on the card. She asked God for a message and what she heard was, “I’m well pleased with you,” so she wrote that on the card. Then she drove to the neighbor’s house to deliver the goods.
The neighbor opened the door and Colette handed her the roses and card. Visibly surprised, the neighbor said thank you and quickly shut the door. Wait, there were so many questions. Why flowers? Why her? Why tonight?
But there would be no answers, just dirty dishes and hardened grease waiting at home.
However, a few days later, Colette saw the neighbor. She clutched Colette’s hands while tears dropped from her eyes. She told her story.
Just recently, her husband walked out on her after twenty years of marriage. For the first time in years, she was alone. But God had not forgotten her.
He sent flowers and a card. And the best part? It was that night because that night was her wedding anniversary. She would not be getting roses from her husband, so God sent her roses instead.
This is called prophecy, or prophetic prayer. There are many types of prayer, but in this type, you receive a message from God for someone else.
Why does God speak through prophecy? Here are six reasons why:
- God wants to get our attention. Sometimes we’re not listening. We get stuck in our routines. Or we don’t recognize when God is speaking. So God finds a way to blast through space and time by speaking through someone else.
- God cares about us. When God speaks a word, it reminds us that He cares. And not only cares for us, but loves us, even if we feel unworthy. With the world to run, God still makes time for each of us. God speaks because He’s involved.
- God’s nature is to communicate. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are highly social. God started creating the world with four words—“Let there be light.” Jesus is the Word of God (logos in Greek), which means divine speech or message (John 1.1). And the job of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the words of Jesus (John 16.13).
- God has more to say than is contained in the Bible. The Bible is the authoritative Word of God, but when it was canonized in 1546, God didn’t stop talking. He had other things to say, not to contradict, but not to limit, either. For example, the Bible doesn’t say, “Pray for your waitress,” but sometimes God tells you to.
- Prophecy benefits the common good. First Corinthians 14.1 says to eagerly desire prophecy. Why? Because the purpose of spiritual gifts is to benefit the common good (1 Cor. 12.7). The common good is the believing Church AND the unbelieving world (1 Cor. 14.24). Prophecy is meant to strengthen, encourage, and comfort (1 Cor. 14.3), which all people need.
- Prophecy helps to bring us into healthy community. There are no lone cowboys in the Kingdom of God. God has given each of us a number of spiritual gifts. But not all of them. The collective Body contains all of them, but not the individual members. To receive all God has for us, we need each other.
Through prophecy, our neighbor received an awesome kiss from God.