As I have mentioned before, I have the gift/curse of prophesy. As I have also clarified, prophets speak to the church, and only on occasion do they speak into the future, most often speaking instead about where the Body of Christ--the Church is falling short. Prophecy is seldom well received (see Matt 5:12). And, of course, like any gift, it can be applied at the wrong time. I confess to this from 11 July communion.
We give a brief teaching from an assigned Scripture, before we administer the elements. The Scripture I was assigned came from I Thess 5: " 9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." The part I messed up was, "...whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him." Now, that's a pretty positive phrase referring to our being with our L^rd whether we be alive or dead. Hard to mess up, right?
Well, except, speaking prophetically, I reminded the congregation that Jesus was always with them.
Nothing wrong with that, you observe correctly.
But then I applied that Scripture as a threat, that even in our sinful acts, Jesus is there watching us. Whereas that is true, I had prophetically taken the great news of Christ with us and truned it into a guilt-inducing threat attempting to induce better behavior.
Welcome to the gift/curse of prophecy.
You're welcome.
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