READ: 2 Kings 7:1-20
“Despise not prophesyings. ” – 1 Thessalonians 5:20
Despise not prophesying! Be particularly careful when an authority figure is prophesying blessings or curses. Prophesying means to speak forth by divine inspiration, to foretell future events and to declare a thing that can only come to pass by divine authority. Prophesying is to speak words under the inspiration and direction of the Holy Spirit.
Many people despise prophecies, predictions and declarations of faith that come from the mouth of authority figures. That is a spiritual mistake. The Bible teaches us not to despise or look down on such declarations. God inspires His servants to speak forth words that you must only say “Amen” to.
Do not think to yourself that a word that is spoken by an authority figure is powerless and will not happen. Once, a man of God destroyed his spiritual father’s church and took over his property. The spiritual father pronounced, “The day you mount the pulpit in that church you will die.” The day came for this pastor to mount the pulpit; it was a Sunday, and he preached his Sunday sermon. On the Monday following and the weeks after, he boasted, “You see, I am still alive. I did not die.” Such boasting is ill advised.
When Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden they were given a solemn warning, “In the day that you eat of this tree, you will surely die.” They did not die physically in twenty-four hours. They lived to a good old age of over nine hundred years. With God, a thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years. According to God’s calculation, they actually did die in the day they ate of the tree.