[stephenkhoo]

EXERCISING THE GIFT OF PROPHECY AUTHENTICALLY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: DT 18:15-20; 1 COR 7:32-35; MARK 1:21-28

In the first reading, the Lord said to the people, “I will raise up a prophet like yourself for them from their own brothers; I will put my words into his mouth and he shall tell all I command him. The man who does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, shall be held answerable to me for it.” Indeed, the Word of God often comes to us through the prophets that He sends to us. It could be our siblings, parents, friends or Church. God sends prophets to help and enlighten us. The task of the prophet is to speak the Word of God.

The Word of God is necessary to help us discern and diagnose the cause of our unhappiness and misery. Listening to the Word enables us to enter into the depths of our souls, unmask the true motives of what we do and the fears that prompt us to take certain actions or follow certain directions in life. Many of our sins and illnesses spring from unconscious motives. A true prophet is not only responsible for helping us to discern right from wrong but to urge the good to be better and even to challenge those who are good for the wrong reasons. It is not enough to come to consciousness of our flagrant sins but to discern whether we are doing the right things for the right reasons. Do we use God and religion for our benefit or really for the glory of God and for the service of His people? Is our work really a service to our country and our family or merely for our selfish interests and aspirations? Those of us who serve in the Church or in public service and voluntary organizations must enter deeper into the motives of what we do. The necessity of living an authentic life is paramount in preventing us from hurting ourselves through repeated and reactive sins.

The married and single state of life in St Paul’s letter is a case in point. St Paul’s letter must be read within context. He was not condemning married life or disdaining the beauty of marriage, but it was said in view of the nearness of the Second Coming of Christ. The bible sanctifies marriage and Christ even raised it to a sacrament, the sign of God’s love. Surely, one can devote oneself to God whether we are married or even single but committed to the affairs of the world. It is a question of focus in what we do. Are we doing everything for the Lord or for self? Whether single or married, what is our motivation? Even choosing the single state of life can be for selfish reasons because we only want to love ourselves and we do not want to be responsible to others. We want to have our freedom and enjoyment. Marriage also can be entered into for selfish reasons too, not so much to love our spouse or even to have children but purely for security. So St Paul is not advocating marriage or remaining single but whether we are doing everything for the Lord and His people. If we devote what we do regardless of whether we are doing work within the Church or outside the Church, so long as we are doing for the glory of God and for His service, we are certainly focused. The only problem is when we forget that we are serving the Lord and this can certainly happen even whilst serving in Church ministry. This is why St Paul urges us to have singularity of purpose in life. If we are divided within ourselves, we cannot hope to find peace and joy. So long as there is division within us, so long as we are being torn by two desires, it would be impossible to find peace and integrity.

Indeed, the history of Israel and our own history show that it is because we lack integrity of life, resulting in a divided heart that desires to serve God and Mammon that causes us to suffer the consequences of our sins and folly. This was what the Lord told the people of Israel when they were unfaithful to the Covenant. The psalmist says, “Oh, that today you would hear his voice: “Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, where your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works.”

Precisely because of the confusion in our lives, being torn between worldly affairs and selfish needs, that we need to hear the Word of God so that we do not lose focus in what we do. To find direction and purpose in life, we must first be enlightened by the Word of God as to how we should direct our lives and live our lives in accordance with the gospel. Preceding the healing of the possessed man, we read that “as soon as the Sabbath came Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach.” Preaching is therefore an essential process of healing and liberation. The purpose of the Word of God is to awaken the listeners to their sinfulness and bring them to conversion of heart.

Finally, we read that Jesus’ “teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught with authority.” For restoration of the lives of people, we need to have prophets today who are courageous in proclaiming the Word of God. Prophecy is only second to the office of apostles. (cf Eph 4:11) All of us are called to be prophets to each other. Some of us are called to testify to what the Lord has done for us. Some are called to encourage and exhort others who need healing and restoration to return to the Lord. Indeed, it is not enough to proclaim the Word of God; it must be done with authority. Necessarily, we need to have convicted prophets.

What is the basis of Jesus’ authority? Jesus must have taught with such personal conviction and authority that the people came to believe Him for they knew that He spoke from the depths of His heart and His relationship with the Father. The authority of Jesus did not come from study, but from His personal relationship with His Father. This explains why He could preach with such authority since He spoke from His personal experience and not from some books that He studied or traditions passed down to Him, as was the case of the scribes and the Pharisees.

Secondly, the basis of His authority lies in the actions. Jesus did not only preach the Word of God but established that He has the Word of God by the way He commanded the Demon to leave the man. When the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him, they said, “Here is a teaching that is new,” they said, “and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.” Being a true prophet is more than just proclaiming the Word of God but living out the Word of God in one’s daily life. This is what commands the authority of His listeners. Without living the Word of God, preaching cannot inspire people for long, for they know that we are not being sincere in what we say. Hence, the prophet not only teaches and proclaims, in the final analysis, a true prophet can be distinguished from a false prophet by the way He conducts his life, the way he relates with others and the way he shows his devotion to God.

If we want to be true prophets to others so that we can help each other in the healing process, we too must intensify our relationship with the Lord. Unless we know the Lord personally, we cannot hear His words clearly for us and for His people. Otherwise, we can even become false prophets and the Lord warns us, “But the prophet who presumes to say in my name a thing I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” We must be careful that whilst exercising the gift of prophecy, we must also be clear of our motives otherwise, not only do we harm others, but we also harm ourselves. True prophets therefore must seek to live holy lives and be attentive to His word at prayer so that they can truly speak the Word of God and not their own ideas, or worse still, use and manipulate the Word of God for their personal benefits and interests. It is a great sin to use the Word of God especially to attack people for personal reasons.

Jesus gives us the true model of prophecy. He never acted out of selfish motives. He did not use His Divine Power for His own benefit but always for the good of His people. He worked miracles only to express His compassion and love for them. He never worked miracles for Himself. In the gospel, Jesus demonstrated His compassion for the man who was possessed by the demon. He was in deep sorrow that the man was suffering and afflicted by the demon. Hence, in a stern command, He ordered the demon to be “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Jesus’ only concern was to do His Father’s will, and be at the service of His people. We too must exercise the gift of prophecy in this manner, never for ourselves or to use the Word of God to get people to do the things we want them to do for our convenience, but rather solely for their good and their good alone.

Finally, let us not be prophets only of words but of deeds. In our very life, let us seek to do His Will, to strive to live out what we preach so that our very lives become a demonstration of the power of God at work in us. Let our very lives glorify God and be prophetic in itself. When others see how we live out what we preach, they will then listen to what we say; and through listening, they can be enlightened and begin the process of their own healing through our words and testimony of the power of God at work in us and the liberating truth of the Word of God.