The Nature of Prophecy ...continued

Examples of Prophecy and their problems

By William Kay (used with permission)

ANSWER 10

10. A woman in your congregation is seriously threatened with a miscarriage. She desperately wants another child. An older woman in the church says that God has given her the Scripture Joel 2.22 "the tree beareth her fruit" and so the miscarriage will not take place. The baby will be born.

Again, you need to look at the credibility of the woman who has been given the Scripture by God. I have known more than one instance where one woman is so keen for another to have a child that will power replaces faith. Unless I was absolutely sure of
(a) the spiritual maturity and credibility of the woman who believed she had been given the verse of Scripture and
(b) there being no tendency to mistake a strong desire for faith. I would be hesitant about placing confidence in the older woman's words.

I might even take the husband on one side and prepare him to face the worst. The situation outlined here is one that actually occurred. The older woman later caused a great deal of trouble in the church and the miscarriage did unfortunately, take place. There was no baby born. The older woman felt that her word had not been fulfilled because of lack of faith on the part of others.