During this time some
prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of
them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe
famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the
reign of Claudius.) Acts
11:27-28
Much of
the prophecy in the Bible pointed to the fulfillment of the Messianic
mystery. Once that was done, does God
still speak to people about future events like he did with Joseph and a famine
and Elijah and a drought?
In Acts
11, God told a man named Agabus about a famine that would happen during the
reign of Claudius throughout the Roman empire.
This prediction brought attention and glory to God and motivated the
church to help. Agabus shows up again in
Acts 21, prophesying about Paul’s arrest.
After we had been there a
number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over
to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The
Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the
owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’” Acts 21:10-11
And
then, also in Acts, Philip had four daughters who also had the gift of
prophesy.
We continued our voyage from
Tyre and landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and sisters and
stayed with them for a day. Leaving the next day, we
reached Caesarea and stayed at the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the
Seven. He had four unmarried
daughters who prophesied. Acts 21:7-9
Some say that by the time
Revelation was finally written, there was no more need for prophecy and that
our Bible gives us all the direction we need.
True, but what’s to say that God can’t do speak today through
people? We must always be cautious and
check people’s motivations. Many want
power through their predictions, not glory given completely to God.