vladimirgrebenar 
Prophecy is the third vocal charism received as grace by those who are strongly open-hearted to do the will of God. Prophecy is speech in the name of God, and prophets are persons who speak in the name of God. Prophecy is proof that God speaks and builds those who love Him, and these are messages most often aimed at building a community of believers. The person with this gift has a responsibility to convey those messages to the community of believers. In addition, the Lord through this charism can give a direct message for the life of the person prophesying or for the life of another person prayed for by the person with this gift.
For example, when the great king David intended on his own to build a great temple to God in Jerusalem, he asked the prophet Nathan what he thought of this endeavor, because he was a prophet. Nathan, guided by reason without listening to the will of God, replied to David: “Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the Lord is with thee“ (2 Sam. 7:3). However, that same night, Nathan received a warning from the Lord to return and convey to king David that it was not God’s will. Prophets and prophecies occupied a very important place in Old Testament times, but they play an equally important role in the time of the Church. For believers, they are an example of living in faith, and for those who have not known the love of God, prophets are often a call to conversion, unfortunately for many people considered enemies, because their lives, deeds and words warn them to change their lives.
To prophesy means to be very close to God and to hear with the inner sense of the heart the word of the Lord. We know the importance of prophecy for living in the faith already from the early days of the Bible when Joshua prayed to Moses to silence the two Israelites in the prophet camp, because Joshua thought that such a great gift should not belong to ordinary people, but only to God’s chosen individuals. Moses’ answer is a picture of what the Church’s mission is and a universal call to Christians: “And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’S people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” (Num. 11:29).
In the Old Testament, we read that God called individuals to be prophets, and they could not resist that call because the power of the Spirit led them to speak to the people: “Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak” (Jer. 1:4-7).
When it comes to prophetic speech, it can be directed in at least three directions: a) prophecy, b) calling, and c) proclamation. Many people think that prophecy is only a prediction, or a hint of future events that will follow. However, this is not entirely true, although many biblical prophecies foretell what will follow in due time, such as the prophecy of the prophet Jonah who admonished the inhabitants of the pagan city of Nineveh about what follows if they do not turn from evil towards good: “And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4).
Some Old Testament prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah in the future as it happened centuries later, such as the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). Prophecy is often a calling to an individual to do concrete things for the Lord or to go in a certain direction in life, such as a calling to the prophet Elijah: “And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria” (1 Kings 19:15). Prophecy can be a proclamation of a positive event that will happen if an individual or community of believers does God’s will to the end, because God has promised a blessed outcome: “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God” (Deut. 28:2).
In the New Testament, prophets and prophecies are given even greater significance than in the Old Testament. The descent of the Spirit on Pentecost and the birth of the Church imply that this great gift was poured out into the hearts of many believers, not just a small number of the elect. Thus, the sigh of Moses “when all the people would become a prophet” and David’s desire that “God would dwell in the temple” through faith in Jesus come true, because Christians are called to be prophets and temples of the Holy Spirit and to speak in God’s name. Indeed, even today one can exclaim “if the whole Church became a prophet,” because this realization is still happening and has not been completed due to the lukewarm faith and rationalism that has crept into the mission called evangelization.
Prophecy is not the rationalization, philosophizing, and proving of faith in Jesus by logical methods and scientific works, although even this can sometimes be useful to strengthen faith by arguments. Prophecy is the power of God that breaks the chains and shackles of the heart, the delusions of consciousness and the darkness of the subconscious, and brings to light the deeply hidden truth about the lost man: “But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth“ (1 Cor. 14:24-25).
When was the last time we saw a Christian community pray like this and have unbelievers turn to the Lord in their presence? Prophets today, as in the first days of the Church, are persons inspired by the Holy Spirit to build up other people through speech: “But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church” (1 Cor. 14:3-4). Prophecy is a very important charism for people who have some kind of social responsibility in the Church, politics, science and entrepreneurship. Prophecy is the most important charism for St. Paul: “desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy!” (1 Cor. 14:1).
Prophecy is a strong understanding of the will of God and the charism of the subtle inner feeling that God desires in the concrete circumstances of life. This charism is an extremely important help from God in launching initiatives for the kingdom of heaven. Such initiatives are also the launching of business ventures that God wants, so the prophetic word should play a key role in deciding on this life adventure. Praying for the grace of prophecy is extremely important so that the person praying knows whether the business venture is the will of God, because if it is, it will surely bring great results.
God promises exactly such an outcome when initiatives are started by his will: “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it“ (Isa. 55:11). Sometimes man turns to God with this intention, and sometimes God surprises man by calling for an initiative. One such example is the prophecy of Jeremiah, who not only received messages of admonition for the Jews to conversion, but in the midst of the most difficult circumstances for him and the people received messages of hope in the new age and what to do about future work.
Because he publicly and boldly prophesied that, because of the unbelief of the king and the people, the city of Jerusalem would fall under the siege of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and that the Israelites would go into captivity and King Zedekiah and his family would end up in slavery, he fell into disfavor. Jeremiah was imprisoned in the prison court of King Zedekiah in Jerusalem during the siege of Jerusalem.
During his captivity, one day a prophetic word came to him in prayer: “The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it. So Hanameel mine uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord” (Jer. 32:6-8).
Jeremiah obeyed the Lord and bought the land of Anathoth in the time before the fall of Jerusalem, while the mighty army of Babylon besieged the city and the shadows of death loomed over the king and the people. Jeremiah then received two messages of hope from the Lord concerning business activities: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land” (Jer. 32:15). And the second time: “Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, shall be an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down” (Jer. 33:12). When Jerusalem fell under the siege of the Babylonian army, Jeremiah was given full freedom by order of King Nebuchadnezzar and did not end up in slavery with most of the people and King Zedekiah, but remained in Israel with a small remnant of the people.
Jeremiah’s business prophecy was an inspiration to Croatian entrepreneur Marijan Bušić, who testified in front of entrepreneurship students at the Faculty of Economics in Osijek in 2009 that he bought machines in 1991 and started a business venture with today’s world-famous Croatian tie brand Croata, while at the same time 80 kilometers long column of heavy weapons moved from the east to put under siege the Republic of Croatia. The testimony of this entrepreneur for the Lord and the inspiration of Jeremiah’s business story were a strong impetus for the author of this article to successfully start his business ten years later and testify in word and deed: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful“ (Heb. 4:12).