God's Word Spoken by Prophets

The prophets of God spoke the Word of God. In 2 Samuel 23:2 says, "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue." This statement by David is verbal inspiration. Expressions such as this are found dozens of times the Bible. How could ordinary men know of events and persons about which they were writing (many times far into the future) unless they were truly guided by the Spirit? These men claimed no credit for their words of wisdom and salvation for themselves, but they always gave credit to the God of heaven whose mouthpiece they were. The apostle Paul stated, "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Corinthians 2:13). The inspired writers always gave the credit to one higher than themselves. They never claimed the wisdom which their writings portrayed.

For thousands of years God had planned the salvation of man. In addition, He planned the church from the very beginning of time. He also planned to send His only begotten Son to earth to save man. Later, when Christ ascended to the right hand of God where He is now king of kings, He sent the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles to reveal the truth -- a message that up until that time had been hidden in the mind of God. Paul stated, "and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 3:9). Also in this third chapter of Ephesians he said that God had revealed to him the mystery and that he wrote it down for man's understanding. The point is that when God revealed it to Paul, and Paul wrote it for all mankind, then we would have the message that was and truly is "God's power to save."

We only have this life that we are living to make sure that we are obedient to God (Hebrews 5:9). In the end, we will be judged by Jesus and we will give an account for all that we have done, good or bad (John 12:48; 2 Corinthians 5:10). I want to strongly encourage us to listen to the prophets, listen to the apostles, and listen to Jesus. Our eternal destiny depends on it.