Pastor and 1st Lady Mims

Mims Chapel Church

Week 11, August 16, 2026

LESSON 11

Despise Not Prophesyings

Lesson Text:

2 Kings 7:1-11,16,17; 1 Corinthians 12:28;
Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:19-23; 1 John 4:1

Memory Verse
"Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold if the Lord would make windows in heaven might this thing be? And he said Behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof"
2 Kings 7:2

Key Terms
cessationist • a person with the view that certain miraculous gifts ceased with the close of the apostolic age and the appearance of the New Testament canon.

disparaging • regarding or representing someone or something as being of little worth.
siege • a military operation in which enemy forces surround a town or building, cutting off essential supplies, with the aim of compelling the surrender of those inside.

Suggested Emphasis

Disbelief of prophecy is characteristic of modernity. Even throughout the body of baptized believers there is a shocking skepticism about the efficacy of the prophetic word. Liberalism of course denies all that is supernatural; yet even many a Fundamentalist contends that the prophetic gift—although genuinely manifested in the bible days—has disappeared with the close of the apostolic age. These cessationists misread 1 Corinthians 13:8 and claim that Paul predicted the gift would fade away. They contort Hebrews 1:1,2 to support a conviction that God speaks through the closed canon of scripture to the exclusion of prophets.

Interestingly, there is no plainly worded passage that can be offered to support the notion that prophecy is dead, but several that affirm it is a gift to the church. 1 Corinthians 12:28 and Ephesians 4:11-13 similarly declare that prophets were given to us by God—that they have a Holy Ghost-inspired ministry of edification. We can even refer to the New Testament prophet Agabus as a model of how modern prophets edify, in his case by warning the church of approaching adversity (Acts 11:28, 21:10). God can still speak to the immediate situations of His people, as He did through Agabus, and it would not challenge the primacy of scripture as our guide and measure.

Emphasis 1:

The Doubter Won't Be Able
to Enjoy the Deliverance

It is difficult to ignore how doubters today resemble the trusted counselor to the king of Israel in 2 Kings 7. At that time, Samaria was enduring a lengthy siege that had brought a calamitous famine. The king and his court blamed Elisha (and, by extension, God) for provoking their Syrian enemy to come down upon them so hard. They were therefore dismissive of the prophet's prediction that provisions would be sold at the city gates in a day's time. The disparaging words of one unfortunate counselor caught the ear of Elisha, and the seer added to his prophecy that that man would see the deliverance but not be able to enjoy it.
To fulfill His promise, the Lord manifested the sound of a great host approaching, which convinced the Syrians that Hittite and Egyptian armies were descending on them. In a panic, the Syrians fled in the night, not bothering to gather their supplies. They left their tents, and their livestock, and their rations, to be found by four lepers that left the barricaded city in search of food.

Emphasis 2:

Elisha Was an Established Prophet

The remarkable events that led to the flight of the Syrian host would have been impossible for any human being to have imagined unaided by the Spirit. Nonetheless, the doubters should have recognized that Elisha was a tested prophet of the most-high God; he would not have spoken without divine authority. True to the words of the prophecy, Israel was able to spoil the tents of the Syrians, and to sell their abandoned supplies of flour and barley at the gates of Samaria. Moreover, the king's counselor was trampled by the crowds desperate to buy food, proving the prophecy against him personally also true.

Emphasis 3:

We Mustn't Disparage God's Word

It is frankly dangerous to despise proph-esyings. There needs to be a certain wariness of showing contempt for any variety of God's word. This does not mean we should lay ourselves bare to charlatans and frauds: We are instructed to "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God" (1 John 4:1). We have discussed how to test prophetic pronouncements (see Lesson 7). But we must not, in the process, become dismissive of the prophet's office, without risking the loss of a valuable conduit of information to believers.

Missions Application Questions

Which New Testament scriptures support the view of prophecy as a gift to the church?
How did the king's skeptical counselor bring destruction to himself?
What can the church do to avoid the extremes of rejecting all prophecy and embracing false prophets?

World Missions Prayer Points

Let us pray for the gift of prophecy to remain in the Church.
Let us pray for discernment to recognize and embrace genuine prophets and prophecy.
Let us pray that all people avoid the peril of despising prophecy.