the prophetic aspect of faith

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Heb 11.1)

I've been thinking about the prophetic experience again. I've written about it before, mostly focusing on the prophetic role in relation to others, how that serves the community. But I think I'm seeing the prophetic experience as an important aspect of my own faith as well.

It's the waiting in faith that I often find so hard. I've written about "waiting on the Lord" many times, as expressions and means of reassurance in that struggle. Often holding to God's promises has been extremely helpful in my waiting. And I'm discovering that God's prophetic words to us are another form of his promises, not just revealing what will happen but assuring us of what God will do. That has been important to me at many crucial moments in my life, when waiting has been especially hard. "The assurance of things hoped for," the prophetic aspect of faith.

Not that we have to know everything that God is doing, or that we have any right to know. But Jesus told his followers, "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." (Jn 15.15) That's a gift, an act of grace, God letting us in on what he is doing. And not just in some general, universal sense, but also in the specific circumstances of our own lives. To help us wait, and also perhaps to help us cooperate with what God is doing. Again, this is not something God owes us. But I'm grateful God chooses not to leave his friends in the dark.