Prophecy inspired by the Holy Spirit

II Peter 1:20-21 (NLT)

Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.

In II Peter 1:12-19 Peter wrote about the promise of Christ’s coming again.  This is the great hope of all believers like a bright light shining in the darkness.  Peter emphasized that the prophecies about Jesus’ return were made more certain by his witness of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountaintop (Matt 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-9 and Luke 9:28-36).  He then wrote these two verses that strongly assert (“you must realize….”) that all writers of the holy Scriptures were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write what they did.  They did not write at all from a human perspective. 

Have you ever been inspired to write (or say) something where you gave no thought to what you were going to write, it just poured out from your pen to paper?  Were I a full time preacher I’m sure that I would have lots of examples of divinely-inspired preaching.  I like to believe that an excellent sermon I hear from my own pastor or from another pastor visiting a new church or watching on TV or listening on the radio is the result of divine inspiration, that the person preaching just let the Holy Spirit in him blurt out what needed to be said.  When you read certain devotional books---like Charles Cowman’s Streams in the Desert (first published in 1925, revised 2008, Zondervan)---you have to believe that those writers wrote what the Holy Spirit told them to write, it was not from their own intellect. 

I can share some simple experiences where I felt divinely inspired to write or speak without having a clue of how and what would come off my pen or out of my mouth.  My daughter was part of a high school show choir that performed at a national contest at the DisneyWorld Epcot Center, but had no hopes of winning or even placing.  Well, they ended up as Grand Champions.  I was so emotionally inspired by what I and many others had witnessed that I went back to our hotel room and started writing.  Yes, I wrote what was stored in my mind, but how I wrote and what flowed out of my pen was as close as I have experienced to divine inspiration.  No, I wasn’t writing about God, but I felt that I experienced something of what the biblical writers felt when they wrote what the Holy Spirit told them to write.  I’m sure that many of you reading this have had a similar experience, e.g. writing a thank you note, a meaningful Christmas card, a letter to a loved one, etc.    

My other experiences involved instances that we all have nightmares about---speaking in front of a large audience but being totally unprepared.  At a high school alumni reunion, not just my class, but all classes, lots of alumni present, but a main speaker for some reason didn’t show up.  It’s a long story but I was literally pushed to go on stage and say a few words about whatever came to my mind.  Oh, indeed, some people might say that I was saying nothing but a lot of hot air, but I remember praying as I was walking onto the stage that the Lord would give me something to say.  Twenty minutes later I finished my speech!  You might disagree, but to me, I experienced divine inspiration!!  Other examples have included instances where I lost or forgot notes before leading a Bible class or other presentation or being asked to respond to questions where I simply had to rely on the Holy Spirit to give me the proper words to say. Again, you might know exactly what I’m talking about. 

I Peter 1:20-21 is not only teaching about biblical writers being divinely inspired, but also it is teaching that no prophecy of Scripture is to be skewed to mean whatever anyone wants it to mean.  All false teaching in church history is the result of self-absorbed people thinking that they have an inside track on what the Scriptures are saying and they twist Scripture to support whatever they want to believe.  Indeed, Peter wrote about false teaching in II Peter 2:1.  False teaching is not denying that prophecies come from God, but they twist their meaning to fit their own beliefs.  You see this a lot from people who claim to know when the Second Coming of Christ will occur.

I like the following statement, even though it goes against what I was long taught (and perhaps you too): “All Scripture has one interpretation, as designed by God, but has many applications”.  Scripture never changes although over time men and women try to twist it to mean what they want it to mean.   What God intended the Scriptures to say and mean when He first spoke to Biblical writers to write them down, they mean the same thing today.

“All Scripture is inspired by God……” II Timothy 3:16.  Always remember this as you spend time studying and learning from the Scriptures.