“I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth” (Revelation 11:3 HCSB).
We’ll begin our look at the witnesses of Revelation 11:3 with the second characteristic referenced here: prophecy. As mentioned earlier in our study of the church of Thyatira, a “prophet” is someone who possesses the unerring ability to offer God’s direction. This word also describes someone who conveys divinely inspired information regarding a specific circumstance or future event.
These individuals mentioned here in Revelation 11:3 will serve as God’s representatives during this interval. And much like an ambassador or spokesperson, these witnesses will communicate God’s message for a specific time period. However, their mission allows us to make a contemporary application as well.
While the ministry of these prophetic witnesses lay in the future, there are modern-day leaders who claim to fulfill a similar prophetic role today. With this in mind, the Scriptures encourage us to put those individuals to the test: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
That passage should also encourage us to follow the counsel given to us in the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians: “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 NIV). Much like a jeweler who inspects a gemstone to verify its authenticity, these verses remind us to examine the alleged prophecies we may encounter and measure them against the Biblical Scriptures.
This is especially true of those individuals or organizations that self-identify as “Christian” but derive their doctrinal beliefs from sources other than the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. In the words of a source quoted earlier, “The ability to prophesy may involve predicting future events, but its main purpose is to communicate God’s message to people, providing insight, warning, correction, and encouragement.” (1) That definition serves to describe the role of God’s witnesses here in Revelation 11.
Today, we might best associate the use of a prophetic gift with the ability to bring a fresh application of Biblical truth as prompted by the Holy Spirit. But before we leave this subject, there is one final concern to discuss. That concern involves those who tend to perceive their internal thoughts, feelings, or impressions as “a word from the Lord.”
While God may speak to us in that manner, we should be mindful of Proverbs 30:5-6 before making such an assumption: ”Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge In him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke-you and prove you a liar” (NIV). Thus, it may be preferable to say, ”I believe God has spoken to me’‘ in such situations. That caveat acknowledges the reality of human imperfection as we pursue a well-intentioned desire to hear from God.
(1) Life Application Study Bible [1 Corinthians 14:1] Copyright © 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1996, 2004 by Tyndale House Publishers Inc., all rights reserved.