Friars Corner: God’s prophets still speak today
Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR
Numbers 11:25-19; Psalms 19:8, 10; James 5:1-6; Mark 9:38-43
There are several themes in the readings this Sunday. In the first reading, Moses chose 70 leading men of Israel to help him manage and guide the huge number of Jews who had left Egypt and were wandering in the wilderness. God took some of the Holy Spirit that was on Moses and put it on all of those men. They were called prophets.
The charism of Prophecy
I am going to share several thoughts about prophecy and prophets. This is probably the only time in our three-year cycle of Sunday readings that we look at this. Religious prophecy is a gift of God whereby a person speaks God’s message to others. It is part of many blessings God gives us. We call some of these charisms. The (New) Catechism of the Catholic Church says about “charism”: paragraph 79: “Whether extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good of others and to the needs of the world.”
800: “Charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all members of the Church as well. They are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and for the holiness of the entire Body of Christ, provided they really are genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit and are used in full conformity with authentic prompting of this same Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure of all charisms.”
801: “It is in this sense that discernment of charisms is always necessary. No charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church’s shepherds…. Their office is to test all things and hold fast to what is good… so that all the diverse and complementary charisms work together ‘for the common good.’”
Words of God
Our English word Prophecy comes from the Greek meaning “one who speaks before others,” and for us, one who gives God’s message. We often think of fortune tellers or future things. Yet in recent Charismatic circles, it means hearing a “now, current, word or words of God“ for our current direction. We need to hear what God want us to do now for our lives.
In his book on charisms, A Key to Charismatic Renewal In The Catholic Church, Msgr. Vincent M. Walsh tells us: “Prophecy IS THE POWER TO SPEAK GOD’S MESSAGE and has emerged as a new and powerful way for God to influence, direct and console his people” (today). He goes on to say that we need this gift for further growth in our Christian life yet we need proper discernment as to what truly comes from God, our own human mind or from evil spirits or as is popular today, “fake news.”
Fr. Robert DeGrandis, S.S.J, is one of our great teachers of these charisms in the last half-century. Many believe this priest did the most in teaching people simply about how many of these charisms work and then he prayed over people to receive that gift or ministry in the church. This is Fr. DeGrandis’ famous definition of prophecy. It is the “forthtelling of the mind of God.”
Do we expect God to speak to us?
The Lord wants to speak to us frequently, telling us how much he loves and wants to daily feed and bless us. Are we expecting God to speak to us and are we listening? We need to take time to put aside worldly things, like turning off the TV. and going to our quiet prayer place, to visit a church, read the New Testament or go to a prayer meeting. Then we are very likely to begin to hear God really speaking to us personally of his love, healing, concern and direction.
This is one prophetic message given at a prayer meeting in New Orleans and similar ones are given at meetings all over the world:
My people, know that I love you. Know that I have called you by name. Know that I desire to fill you with all the gifts of my Holy Spirit. Know, my people, that you are my hands, that you are my feet, that you are my words. Open yourselves up and I will fill you. My people, I am teaching you; I am training you that you may go forth in my name, in my glory to heal my wounded world. My people, know that I delight in each and every one of you.
DeGrandis’ Guidelines
Fr. DeGrandis gives several guidelines in receiving a prophetic message for others.
1) We need to believe God wants to speak to us and through us to others.
2) We need to be willing and open to cooperate with God.
3) There are various feelings of a chattering in our mouth, a warmth in our heart or a sense of urgency to speak a message yet being afraid of what people will say.
4) Ask God if this is really a message from him. You may only have the first few words and have to step out in faith. As you speak, the rest will flow.
5) God usually speaks in the first person as in “I will do this” or that “We will.” Then we know it is from God. In proper English, we know we should say I shall or we shall. God does not speak that way. He says I will.
6) You can often tell which person of the Blessed Trinity is speaking the message. I lost my earthly father about fifteen years ago. God, Our Father, mostly speaks through me. Rarely is it Jesus.
7) In prayer meetings, there is an order to those meetings. There is a time when messages are spoken to the whole group.
8) Often, at a meeting, as you give God’s prophetic message it is confirmed by a few other people even though you have not spoken to them before the meeting.
9) There are s few in a group meeting that get only a mental picture as a message as “I see Jesus’ heart with flames of love flowing out.” They get no words with the picture.
My prayer for you
I pray this is helpful for some of you. After Fr. Bob DeGrandis’ example, I pray over all of you who are reading this, that the Holy Spirit anoint your mind and heart to receive this gift of Prophecy and not be afraid to use it. If God wants to give you other new gifts, I pray he will lead you to a place where you can learn what that new gift is and how to use it to build up the “Body of Christ,” his church. Be open, God loves you intently and we cannot stop the Trinity (Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit) from loving us. Our choice is to believe and accept their love or we reject it. God gave us free will when we were created.
May the Holy Spirit draw you closer to the loving heart of Jesus to fill you up so you can experience Trinity’s great joy and then go forth to radiate Their love to those you live with and see each day.
Have a blessed week beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
(© 2018 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)
