The Spirit Of Prophecy

The Testimony of Jesus in our experience

“He (the angel) said to me, Write, Blessed are who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. He said to me, these are true words of God. I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, look don’t do it! I am a fellow bond servant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Yeshua. Worship God, for the testimony of Yeshua is the Spirit of Prophecy” -Revelation 19:9-10

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy found in Revelation, in a vision, where John saw the overthrow of evil and the triumph of the coming Jesus. John is recording an extended vision of the “last days” that the Holy Spirit is giving him. The angel that speaks to John breaks the “fourth wall” in a way because the angel speaks to John during his vision. The angel reminds John that the point of Revelation is the testimony of Jesus, not the worship of angels or spiritual experiences. Don’t extended prophecy, serves to illuminate the kingdom of God and the work of Jesus.

The point of the testimony is to reveal Jesus and our experience. Similarly, prophecy is to bring to light and make known the will of God in our experience. This is why the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In other words, the point of all prophecy, past, present and future is to make the heart of Jesus known in and through our experience.

The interesting thing about Revelation is that more than half of it uses are recycled images or scriptures from the Old Testament. This is because John is a Jew who is steep in Israel’s prophetic scriptures. In Revelation, the Holy Spirit uses this fact to convey spiritual realities to John and analogies that John can understand. The Holy Spirit uses what is familiar to John to communicate the heart of Jesus.

The divine message is coming through the human vessel of John. The message,, the Word of Jesus, but he communicates through the channel of John, who has his own set of beliefs, experiences, and world view. Prophecy is the partnering of the divine heart with the human imagination to bring into manifestation the message of Jesus.

The key is how we approach any prophetic text in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is the source, but the vessel is human. This means that the divine Word was communicated through the worldview and experience of humans. So yes, the Bible is divine in the sense that its origin is from heaven, but “human” and expression. It’s like Jesus, the scriptures are divinity “wrapped” in a human body.

I think this impacts the way we read the Old Testament. Remember, the Holy Spirit is the author of the Scriptures. Peter says this in verse 1 Peter 1:10-11 and 2 Peter 1:20-21, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching for who and what kind of time the Spirit of Messiah, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Messiah, and the glories that would follow them.”

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origins in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by thr Holy Spirit.”

The author is, the scripture were driven along and inspired by the Holy Spirit, in order to testify to the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah. The point of all scripture is reveal the person of Jesus.

Hebrews 13:8 tells us “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” We need to remember this when we are reading the Old Testament, the prophets, and the book of Revelation. Jesus uses the word of scripture to breathe life into our current experience. His purpose is to reveal Himself and our experience, through the scriptures.

The Bible exists for us as a means to communicate with the Living Word. Scripture and allegorical understandings have face value because they can reveal the presence of Jesus and our experience.