There are 3 spiritual benefits I want to highlight that I have gained from this scripture:
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience.
1 Timothy 1:18-19
1. Prophetic Words are Weapons
We don’t know what Timothy’s personal prophetic words were exactly but Paul was giving Timothy insight that his personal prophetic words were weapons specific for Timothy’s spiritual battle. Paul said, “that by them you may wage the good warfare”. The pronoun “them” refers to “the prophecies previously made about” Timothy. Paul was saying that Timothy’s prophecies should be used to fight his fight. This means that Timothy’s prophetic words were Timothy’s weapons. If Timothy’s personal prophecies were his weapons for his fight, then our personal prophetic words are also our weapons for our fight.
Are you using your personal prophetic words and promises from God for your spiritual battle?
2. Prophetic Words Connect You To Faith
…that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and good conscience
1 Timothy 1:19
When we use our prophetic words to “wage the good spiritual warfare”, then our personal prophetic words connect us to faith. Observe the word “holding”. Another translation used the word “keeping” and reads “keeping faith”. This word “holding” or “keeping” is an action that is continuous and carries the meaning of owning and possessing something. Understand this verse again with the idea of owning and possessing faith in the context of your personal prophetic words.
Paul is connecting the dots in this passage to Timothy that his prophetic words, if Timothy moved towards them, would keep him connected to faith. Timothy’s obedience to move towards what Paul was commanding him to do would cause Timothy to own faith, to possess faith. The same is true for us. As we move towards our prophetic identity and calling as we know it through our prophetic words, then we also will connect ourselves to a greater measure of faith.
3. Prophetic Words and a Good Conscience
…that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and good conscience.
1 Timothy 1:19
In the same breath along with “holding faith”, Paul also informs Timothy that he would not only own faith but that he would also stay connected to a “good conscience”. The underlying truth that Paul is communicating to Timothy is that Timothy is accountable to God according to the revelation given him. In this case, Timothy had received prophetic words some 13 years earlier while in a prayer meeting with Paul and some wise, prophetic elders (1 Timothy 4:14). These elders laid hands on Timothy and prophesied over him. In these prophetic words, Timothy received a certain level revelation of his own identity, calling and giftings in God (1 Timothy 4:14).
Paul knew that Timothy would be accountable to his true identity, the one he received revelation about at that prophetic prayer meeting. This is how prophetic revelation works. We are also accountable for the revelation the we receive through prophetic words. We also will be asked to give an account for the revelation we receive through any kind of encounter with God: dreams, visions, His still, small voice. However revelation comes, we are responsible to begin to partner with God to move towards who He has revealed us to be. In this process of alignment, we also can live in a good conscience by properly using our prophetic words.