I've been thinking about when the Bible was written and people having the gift of prophecy, wisdom and knowledge, and how people must have felt when they thought God was speaking to them and how to distinguish when God is speaking to you or it's just your own thoughts.

Here is an account from the internet of when one girl got this gift and what is was like for her, and then my comments after.  There was no copyright on this page, so I felt free to copy it here.  The original is at http://www.aubreyrhea.com/prophecy/
 

When I got the Gift of Prophecy by Aubrey O'Fallon

"Look at this sermon outline!" My boyfriend Steve exclaimed in church Wednesday night. "This is incredible. Aubrey, what can it mean?" Sure enough, the sermon was about the same verse Steve had not been able to get away from the past few days. Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you." First God woke him up in the middle of the night with ideas for a sermon he could someday give about the verse. On Sunday our home pastor had spoken on it. Last night we happened to turn on the 700 Club they were talking about it. And now this!
 

God seemed to really be trying to tell us something, but what was it? The pastor had asked us to list miracles we were going to ask God for on our sermon outline. I saw that Steve had written down his prayer that his parents, who had been divorced since he was 10, would get back together. "Maybe it’s because God wants you to ask more for Him to bring your parents back  together." I said "Maybe," Steve replied. But it somehow seemed it was more than that.  And, it seemed there should be a way to find out.

I remembered when I was visiting Steve in Virginia last month his pastor’s wife Nora told me, "Steve will be so blessed the day you have a prophecy over him like he prophesies over you." Oh, how I wanted to do that for him, but I wondered if I ever would. I didn’t know if I even understood what prophecy was or how one did it. But, tonight for the first time it seemed Steve needed a prophecy. I wondered if he was thinking what I was thinking. Wouldn’t it be so nice if God would give me a word for him about this?
 

Well, it turned out Steve was thinking the same thing. When we got home Steve turned to me and said, "We’re going to pray for you to receive the gift of prophecy tonight, and you’re going to tell me what God’s been trying to say to me." Just as always, Steve was so sure it was going to work out. I never wanted to dampen the enthusiasm I loved so much about him.  "Wow, okay." I said and smiled, trying to look excited when I  really felt a little nervous.

Then I realized what might help me feel more comfortable with it. "Before we do this, can you explain to me exactly what prophecy is?" I asked. It seemed like such a big, scary thing. Steve got out his Bible and read to me from 1Corinthians 14. "Desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophecy…One who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy." Steve explained that this verse showed that God desired every Christian to be a prophet; the gift was available to us all. Also, that Christian prophecy didn't usually mean the ability to foretell future events. One with the gift of prophecy is inspired by God to speak words over other Christians that encourage, correct, and comfort them.

"Do you feel comfortable with it now?" Steve asked me. Now that I understood it didn’t seem so big and scary. "Yes, I think so," I replied. "Just think about God and not yourself, Aubrey, and you’ll do fine. Concentrate on how awesome and powerful He is."
 

After we had prayed a while Steve put his hands on my shoulders and prayed "Lord, now I ask that You will give Aubrey the gift of prophecy, which You have promised in Your word. She desires this gift and I ask that You will honor her faith that it can be hers. That she will open her mouth now and speak Your words through her…" As Steve was praying I felt a nervousness and excitement growing in my stomach. Was I really going to be able to do this? But then I felt God saying, "Just relax, Aubrey, and trust in Me," and a peace washed over me. God was my friend. I talked to Him all the time. "Yes, you have been able to hear My voice when you pray for quite awhile now," He said. "This is no different. It’s just like you are hearing my voice now, except I’ll be speaking to you things I want Steve to hear."

Steve had stopped praying now and I realized it was my turn. "Lord, I want to affirm that I believe You are powerful enough to give me this gift and it is Your will for me to have it," I said. "Put your hands on my shoulders," Steve said. I did and continued my prayer. "Now I pray that You will reveal to me Your purpose in presenting Steve with that verse from Matthew at every turn." I made my mind as quiet as I could, listening for the familiar sound of God’s voice. "I believe you can do this God, please speak to me." I prayed silently. "Tell him I am pleased with him." God said. "Is that all?" I thought. "Only one sentence?" Somehow it didn’t seem very inspired, and didn’t even seem to relate. "Just trust Me and say it." God replied. I still sat there silently for a while, waiting and asking for something more to come, but nothing did. I began to feel uneasy in the prolonged silence and a little desperate. Where did God’s voice go? Finally I realized He was waiting for me to obey before He would give me anything else to say.
 

"Okay Lord, here goes…" I thought. "I umm… I feel the Lord is saying He is pleased with you Steve." The moment I opened my mouth and said the words, I felt the next sentence come, and so on. "The Lord says, ‘I have been showing you this verse about asking to encourage you that I am pleased with your faith for miracles. You are on the right track, Steve. I am hearing your prayers and I want you to ask Me for even more things…’"
As I spoke I noticed Steve’s shoulders begin to shake under my hands. He was crying. What I was saying was making a deep impression! I had never made him cry before and the moment was very moving to me. "Thank You, Lord." I heard him whisper. "I always have trouble believing God is actually pleased with me, Aubrey. It felt so good to hear that," Steve said. "It seems most of the time when people prophecy over me they tell me that exact thing. I always need so badly to be reminded." "Wow," I said, "So it really was from the Lord. That wasn’t half as hard as I thought it would be!" What an evening this was turning out to be!

But God wasn’t done yet. Just then my mom came into the living room. "Your sister Ceara is feeling sick in bed and we thought the whole family should pray over her," she said. "What’s wrong with her?" I asked. "Her muscles won’t stop twitching all over. We think she might have been tired and overexerted them today. Do you think you can come with the rest of us and pray?"
 

The family gathered around my sister’s bed and each took turns praying for her to be healed. I could feel her muscles twitching under my hands, felt them relax completely at one point, but then come back again. "How odd," I thought to myself, but didn’t say anything. The prayer seemed to be winding down and my dad still hadn’t said a word. "I think Dennis should close for us," I heard Steve say. My dad seemed really reluctant to begin but then got into it more during the course of his prayer. We ended and Ceara said she felt a little better, but it was still there. We encouraged her to keep praying and not worry cause God had everything under control, and went back out to the family room.

"You know, I don’t know why this happened," my dad said a little later, "and I’m a little ashamed to admit it to you, but from the very beginning I felt this resistance to the idea of praying for Ceara. I tried to shake it, but it persisted. I think that might be why she doesn’t feel better. Maybe we should go in and pray for her again." "I think she’ll be okay," Steve said. "God still heard our prayer. What seems more important is finding out where this resistance is coming from."

"Aubrey just got the gift of prophecy tonight!" He added. "Let’s see if God gives her a word for you." Oh my Gosh, God was working over time tonight! How exciting this was. "Is that okay with you Aubrey?" "Sure!" I said. I’d come to realize working in prophecy was fun. However, I did wonder what dad might think of what God gave me to say. This one seemed like it might be a correction, and that would be hard to give to your father. But dad was open to the idea, so we went ahead.
 

The word came even easier this time. I knew to trust God no matter how weird the opening phrase sounded to me. "The Lord says to you Dad that there is a fear in you of change happening too fast. You would rather grow gradually, and tonight it seems to you that everything is happening too quickly. But I want to encourage you that sometimes I do work fast. And when I do, you have to trust Me more, but that is nothing to be afraid of,
because I am completely worthy of your trust and will never hurt you. I want you to leap out in faith and trust Me to catch you." "I do have a fear of quick change Aubrey, thank you, I will take what you said to heart," my dad said when we were done.

"That’s good," Steve told me, "Remember whenever you prophecy you need to check with the person to see if you said applies. No one is perfect and it is possible you could mistake your own thoughts for God’s some time." I nodded at the good advice.

While mom, dad and Steve continued talking I reflected on how much God had accomplished in one night. It was amazing! I realized for myself too that night just how fast He can indeed work. And I knew there was no reason to not trust Him for much more. When I face challenges in the future, I hold close to me the memory of what He did that night to remind me just what an awesome God He is.

*******************************

My Comments:

Speaking as someone who feels she had these gifts once, and speaking as someone who believes in creating your own reality, I have some questions.

First, Steve acknowledges that it is possible to mistake your own thoughts for God's some of the time.  I never hear New Testament writers acknowledging this.  If you even question that something in the New Testament is not from God, you get slammed.  I think it's a legitimate question, for any book that is claimed to come from God.  Could the writers of the New Testament have mistaken some of their own thoughts for God's?

Speaking from the experience of hearing God's voice, it IS EXTRAORDINARILY difficult to filter out what is your own thought and what is not.   In the Old Testament, in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah, it is acknowledged that prophets can prophesy from the visions of their own minds.  But the New Testament never even mentions this.  It just said that the words of the speaker should be confirmed with signs and wonders.

Well, knowing what I know now about quantum physics and the ability of each person to manifest their own thoughts and feelings, I know that each and every person has the ability to create reality, which appears to others that you have done something miraculous, so that doesn't prove that a person is speaking for God at all.

I really feel that God wants to speak to each individual about their OWN lives, and that we should not be trying to tell someone else what God is saying to them.

My first reaction is that Steve always hears from others what he wants or needs to hear, so he is creating that thought stream for the other person to hear.  He could just as easily hear it for himself.  But he believes that he cannot understand what God is telling him without help, and this reality becomes so.

It seems obvious to me that the New Testament writers heard in their minds those things they needed or wanted to hear and so wrote those down as inspired when they were simply thought projections.

That's why we can't look for our answers outside ourselves.  There is no other person on earth who can tell you what is right for you.  God / the universe has set up a system whereby all the answers we need are available to us.  Asking someone else for the answers short-circuits the self-discovery process and can lead to false conclusions.

That's also another reason we can't trust so-called "inspired" books.   Only trust your own honest communication with the universe.

Basing your life on what so-called "inspired" books or people say is to put obstacles in the way of healthy spirituality.  Remove those obstacles by accepting that all information you need to be spiritually whole is available to you personally through the non-local intelligence, the energy matrix set up to provide us with all levels of physical and spiritual knowledge.  Trust that within you is everything you need to access this information, and that you will not be spiritually healthy until you break free of the institutional myths nurtured by churches, schools, and other authorities and embrace your own individual spiritual truth. 

In addition, when Paul said "All scripture is inspired of God" what scripture was he referring to?  He certainly was NOT referring to his own letters, most of which had not been written yet. His letters were not considered scripture at that time.  Only decades later did anyone consider elevating those letters to the level of scripture. So we cannot consider Paul's writings "inspired." 

In Hebrews 8:10 it says " This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."  So because you are one of God's people, he writes his laws into your mind and heart. In other words, you don't have to go read them in a book or get them from someone else, you look into your own heart and what he wants you to know is there.

This is just what I was talking about earlier.  It is dangerous to base everything you believe on something someone else wrote or said.  God tells you directly, so there can be no mistake or mistranslation or misinterpretation. 

You don't have to be a scholar, or be able to translate manuscripts, or have any knowledge of anything. You just listen.

Here's how you do it:

By connecting with The Source we open ourselves to knowing all. We open ourselves
to finding the answers to any questions that we might have. We can
ask "What is my mission?" or "What should I do to attract abundance?"
or any other question we have and we will get the answer.

Despite what you may have been taught, you can connect directly with
The Source. You don't need a middle man like a Pastor, Priest,
Minister, Guru, etc. The Source is available to all of us. The
Source is a part of each of us. We are each equal in the eyes of The
Source. We are each worthy and deserving in the mind of The Source.
We are each Loved in the heart of The Source.

Here are the simple instructions for connecting:

CONNECTING INSTRUCTIONS

The following simple technique is a way for you to learn how to
successfully connect to your Source, God, Higher Self or Guidance,
or whatever name you give it, correctly, thefirst time and every time that fear
does not get in the way:

It is called the "Dear One technique".

First, I would suggest going to a quiet area where you can sit
comfortably in a relaxed state, somewhere where you won't be
bothered. Begin by repeating this statement 3 times, "I am now
connecting and receiving what is for my highest good from the highest
possible source." Allow yourself to be in the moment, put aside all
thoughts about the past or future. Being present in the here and now
insures that you are grounded.

Then, either on paper or set up on the computer in a Microsoft Word
program or something, write "Dear One,". Your Source is referring to you
as the "Dear One". From there, begin writing whatever message comes
through you however you receive it. Do not stop and judge the message,
and do not try to edit or spell correctly or anything. This is the other half of
the mind (the analytical side) trying to be in control. All that can be done when
you are finished. Keep writing whatever you are getting and do not stop until your
Sourcesigns off.

You may need to start out with something like, "The most important
thing for me to know right now is.", to get you started. Your mind
may try to get in the way or you may get flustered. Do not think
about things. Do not question. Do not wonder if you are doing it
right. The best motto for this is 'Just do it'. If something happens
to stop you, just start over again by writing "Dear One," and then
continue. When you are finished, you may receive a closing such
as "With Great Love" and then receive the name of the one who is
speaking to you. If you do this once or twice daily, it should
become more comfortable to do within a very short time.

Always COMMAND that only those who are for your highest good and
those who serve the Highest be allowed to connect through you. Some
may connect to their Higher Self, that part of them connected to
every other Soul and to the Creator Itself.

To strengthen your own inate talents of doing this, ask your Source
for an answer whenever you have a decision to make anytime or all of
the time throughout the day. Should I wear blue or green today?
Should I go this way or that way to work? Should I go to McDonalds or
Wendy's for lunch? Should I have the meat or vegetables?

If you can even get just a yes or no answer to such questions, with
time, you will be able to deal with any situation that confronts you
by simply asking the Source. Constant practice builds the ability to
hear, see, feel, and to trust.

The Source will rarely ever ask you to do something which is not a part
of your spiritual makeup. You always have the right and should
eventually learn to challenge whatever you are getting by
asking/commanding THREE times "In the name of the Highest, is what I
am getting correct?

With this technique, you never need to read another book or consult
another person or authority.  You have everything you need.