Give ear, O ye heavens, and I shall speak; and hear O earth the words of my mouth. (Deut. 32:1)

Above is the first line (if you’re not familiar with it) from the song of Moses. (A lot of Christians think the song of Moses was the song at the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1-21) – that was a song of victory over the enemies, but it was not ‘the song of Moses.’ It may be considered the song of Miriam.)

Later passages of scripture reference the song of Moses; Revelation 15:3, speaking of the end of days declates that those who have victory over the Beast (from the sea) will sing the song of Moses. In fact, the True song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 could be considered one of the first comprehensive end-time prophecies of scripture; that is we consider the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation to be two books chiefly dealing with end-time event predictions; likewise the song of Moses (which song, again, constitutes victory over the Beast from the sea according to Revelation 15:3.)

Okay… how does any of this have to do with instruction in hearing God?

The title of this post was taken from 1 Corinthians 14:39 – Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak with tongues.

This the last of several statement Paul makes through 1 Corinthians 12-14 which directs believers to seek to have spiritual gifts, and especially the gift of prophecy. Paul’s statements in this direction pretty clearly negate the cursory view that some take of spiritual gifts, namely that each believer recieves 1, and only 1, and that that is given by God’s sovereign choice, alone. This supposition is taken from 1 Cor. 12:11 – But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, DIVIDING TO EVERY MAN SEVERALLY AS HE WILL.

By this last statement he assumption is made that spiritual gifts are only given sovereignly according to the mind of the Spirit of God, however, that misplaces Paul’s later statements directing us to ‘desire spiritual gifts but rather that ye may prophesy’ (1 Cor. 14:1), ‘let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue PRAY that he may interpret’ (14:13) whereby we know it is lawful, and directed of us to PRAY FOR other spiritual gifts, and as we’ve already pointed out: ‘covet [zealously desire] to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.’ (14:39)

As I have often pointed out, prophecy is the primary sign that the Old Testament prophets indicated would give evidence to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days; Joel’s famous prophecy which Peter quoted on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) states 4 times that prophecy, or prophetic gifts such as dreams and visions are the signs of the Spirit’s coming. Moses, himself predicted the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the day that the Sanhedrin was appointed, saying:

Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them! (Numbers 11:29b)

This ‘prophetic nature’ of God’s people is confirmed, also in the Revelation when the angel told John that ALL THE BRETHREN (that is all God’s people, who follow Christ – as Moses desired) HAVE the Spirit of Prophecy (Rev. 19:10b). And even that only further confirms the words of Christ, Himself, who declared:

My sheep HEAR MY VOICE… (John 10:27)

There is not such a great disconnect between biblical prophecy, and the gift of prophecy as many seem to believe.

In our day, according to scripture, there arises deceptions of every kind, and those deceptions will increase. There are also prophecies of a great last days deception which will lead to a great falling away [of many in the church] (2 Thess. 2:3).

Of late I have been posting a good deal about being in fellowship with the Spirit of God. This is to gaurd us (myself included) from the influence of deception, which even now is permeating the earth – and, yes beloved, also the church by-and-large.

How can we be in the voice of God, and avoid deception when even the most spiritual, and godly people we know may be unwittingly decieved, and decieving others?

Our fellowship with Christ must precede our fellowship with any man, and our honoring of His word must be above the teaching of any man. So it is with me, if my teaching does not line up entirely with God’s word disregard it (Is. 8:20), but if it does, pay close attention.

In these days a form of prophecy is in vogue which is merely positive speaking; I have evwn been through some of the prophecy classes that certain Neo-Pentecostal groups teach, and I tell you they will teach you to share false prophecies. Have you ever heard: ‘Prophesy the opposite’? I.e. they’re saying if you get a word that is negative, prophesy in a positive way instead: declare the opposite. Actually this comes from a misnomer in teaching on 1 Cor. 14:3 – He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. This verse is taken legalistically as an instruction on prophesy rather than as an explanation of its purpose (which it actually is); they will the verse to teach that all new testament prophecy must be positive (the error in this should be readily evident).

Now, it is obviously not a good thing to go around condemning people, or publically calling out their sin, which things you may see as you pray over or minister to someone. But perhaps the greater problem with presentation in this way to begin with is that the gift of prophecy is not about us, but about ministering to others (1 Cor. 12:7). In these same circles people with ‘impressive giftings’ often become highly lauded as ‘Office Prophets, and often that is the reson that many seek to prophesy so much publically – to advance their ministry (so people will be impressed with their gift; to be fair, I don’t think most of them realize this is the dynamic taking place).

This tidbit I add because it is a common pitfall in these days. Many claiming to have ‘prophecy classes’ but who are teaching not from a biblical premise but merely on ‘positivity.’ We certainly want to be uplifting, but we don’t want to be merely flattering people with positive, comfortable things which is, itself, a biblical sign of false prophecy in the last days (2 Tim. 2:3 & 4; 2 Peter 2:2 & 3, etc.).

So how do we learn to prophesy, actually? My sheep hear my voice… but how? Let’s be taught of Christ:

‘IF a man love me, he will KEEP MY WORDS: and my father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.

He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

Ok… but aren’t we already talking about the church, and Christians who believe, and honor Christ’s word? (Well, first of all, many in the prophetic movement are turning to the new corruption of scripture called the ‘Passion Translation,’which is full of flowery and flattering language, both adding to and subtracting from the undefiled word of God; decieved into thinking this translation will help them activate their spiritual gifts, they despise Truth for hyper-spirituality – this is presently happening, whereby we know it is the last time (1 John 2:18). Like they mistake positivity for the prophetic, they mistake emotion (Passion) for the Spirit of God, but according to Jesus, it is our keeping His words that shows our love for Him, not our zeal for spirituality. Do not substitute the Truth for error because someone thinks their revelation is important it merits a rewrite of scripture; rather a person who does such is the very danger scriptural prophecy warns us of.)

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I shall speak; and hear O earth the words of my mouth.

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: (Deut. 32:1 & 2)

Moses begins to teach God’s people how the Spirit of prophecy works. Give heed to God’s word, meditate, on the Truth: let he word of God dwell in you richly; the more we are full of the word, the more tuned our ear will be to the way that He speaks.

Furthermore, the more that we heed God’s word, the more the Holy Spirit can teach us, personally, what it says. would you to understand the book of Revelation, or Daniel, or the song of Moses as it pertains to last day events?

You cannot learn this from heeding man’s teachings – for these are corrupted and fraught full of fables even as prophesied. The Spirit of prophecy’s main job is not giving personal words of prophecy (although that is a valid gift, and ministry); the Spirit of prophecies’ main purpose is to:

…teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever [Christ] has said unto you. (John 14:26)

The single, most pertinent thing we need to do if we covet to prophesy is to love God’s word so much that by contrast we hate all other things (Luke 14:26).

In the song of Moses, God declares plainly that the people who turn aside from the undefiled love of Christ will become God’s perpetual enemies. Again, according to Jesus, and God the Father, loving the words of Christ is loving Christ, and anyone who does not love His words does not love Him.

And according to His words: those that He taught Moses, those who heed His word will recieve it naturally as the tender plants recieve rain, and dew to water them. Rather than striving to be prophetic as a difficult thing to attain, we begin to be prophetic by the word being distiled upon us.

This is essential because often we may be stiving for something other than God’s word to us; we may want to be gifted in a certain way – perhaps because we saw it in someone else and want to emulate their gift. Ah, but the Spirit divideth to every man severally as He will. Or perhaps we want to get a word that tells us the truth in a certain matter, howbeit the Holy Spirit is the teacher, we may want a quick answer when simply heeding some Truth in scripture would be the answer.

Covet to prophesy.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. (John 15:7)

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: