The nature and significance of prophecy in Pentecostal-charismatic experience: an empirical-biblical study

Abstract

The notion of prophecy is a Leitmotiv, both in Scripture and in the Church. However, the popular form of prophecy that is witnessed in the Church today is the charismatic prophecy manifestations in the Pentecostal- charismatic movement. Although the latter is now billed as the fastest growing Christian movement in church history, and has brought to the fore the biblical notion of the charisms of the Holy Spirit, the subject of charismatic prophecy has received limited attention in Pentecostal studies. There is therefore a gap in knowledge. The present study is an attempt to address the lacuna; it is an empirical-biblical investigation of the nature and significance of prophecy in the Pentecostal- charismatic experience. The study presents a particular thesis: that charismatic prophecy, as observed in Pentecostal- charismatic congregational settings in the African context, is sacramental in its nature and parakletic in its functional significance. Thus, the charismatic prophecy experience is viewed as an intense moment of a participatory interface between the divine Spirit and the human spirit in which the divine Spirit infuses the human conscious dimension with revelatory impulses. The experience is parakletic in the sense that it edifies, encourages, and comforts the church in congregational settings.

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