What purpose does prophecy serve?

What is prophecy? Simply put, prophecy is God speaking. It is for God to speak, and for man to listen and discern what He is saying. In Amos 3:7 it says, For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The idea here is that God reveals what He is going to do BEFORE He does it. Prophecy then serves as a warning of things to come. Things that are certain to occur. As Joseph relays to Pharaoh when he interprets his dreams, This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do…And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass (Genesis 41:28,32).

It would seem obvious then, if we know what is going to happen, and to happen soon, we would heed the warning and prepare for the inevitable. However, it is concerning today that the church of Jesus Christ is asleep and largely blinded to the fact that we are in the end days. That being the case, the Church isn’t preparing for the eventual return of their Lord. The Church knows that Jesus is coming back, and for many, it couldn’t come any sooner. However, the overall mentality seems to be that Jesus will come back, ‘some day.’ They say, ‘one day He will return to take us out of here,’ and yet, for the most part, the Church is living their lives like He will not be returning anytime soon.

Jesus already corrected this problem when He gave the parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-29. In the parable, He clearly states that the master was going away on a long journey and gave his possessions to his servants to do business until he returned. The first two went immediately to work with what they were given, and the lazy servant buried his master’s talent in the ground. He knew the master would return ‘one day’ in the future and didn’t give it much thought. As days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, possibly even years, the lazy servant probably lived in denial that that master would never return. But one day, when he wasn’t expecting it, the master came back to settle accounts. Jesus is clearly warning us that He is coming back and will settle accounts with what He has given us to do.

The parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins that being Matthew 25 is even more daunting. This is probably the clearest warning of what is going to happen when He returns. While there are many interpretations as to what the virgins, lamps and oil represent, in the end, none of these things matter. It doesn’t matter what the virgins, lamps and oil represent. The only thing that matters is the clear warning at the end: the foolish virgins did not make it to the wedding of the bridegroom because they were not ready. They were not prepared.

Today, the modern contemporary Christian church is all too busy with selling experiences and not preparedness. The Church at large is not preparing its people for the soon and coming return of the Lord. The Bible is filled with prophecy, prophetic warnings of what is soon to come. We know it’s going to happen, but sadly, and for the most part, we are not prepared.