One Anothers Part V: Forthtelling vs Foretelling
- Dr. Victor Stanley
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
In Romans 12, Paul gives us a partial list of gifts. He encourages members in the Body of Christ to use them. Listing them, in Romans 12:6, he says,
“If prophecy, in proportion to our faith.”
In our current context, this is not the type of prophecy attributed to the prophets of old. During their time, the will of God had not been fully revealed. The role of the early church prophets was to reveal, reprove, and foretell with clarity. In context, I am defining prophecy, not as “Fore-telling” but as “Forth-telling.” To foretell is to reveal something that is not previously known.
It is something that cannot be known, except by divine or supernatural revelation.
Some have distorted the meaning of the word “prophecy.” So-called modern-day prophets claim to have some form of new revelation from God. Many times, it refers to some materialistic or self-fulfilling blessing. Some of it is like repackaged psychic readings. These modern-day prophets unwittingly undermine the Word of God. They unconsciously imply that their words carry more weight than God’s written Word.
On the other hand, to forthtell is to communicate a future that has already been revealed in the Word of God. Often it pertains to present and future blessings of the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, these are in reference to the same kingdom and blessings already spoken of in scripture. The bible is God’s revelation, and it also speaks of events that have not yet occurred.
Having noted these distinctions, recognize that Paul says, use your gift of forth-telling, according to how God has graciously given it to you. He goes on to say, use them “In proportion to our faith” (Rom. 12:6). This can be taken two ways. It can mean that God has measured out differing quantities of faith for each individual. Or it can mean that God has given every person the same portion of faith. Which means we can read the text as: “Let us use our gifts according to the faith that God has given to every one of us.” Whichever the case, the bottom line is that we are to use our gifts to edify one another.
Have you ever wondered why it seems that some Christians have such great faith? One of the answers as to why is that they use it. When you use it, as a weightlifter does with weights for his muscles, you build it up. As we use our giftings to build up one another, we will find that we are also building up ourselves in the faith. By the way, the same is true concerning our faith; when it is tested by the weight of challenge, it is built up. So, keep on building up one another in the faith.
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