Chapter IV: No Prophetic Utterance Was of the Prophet's Own Will, but the

PROPHET SPOKE FROM GOD AND THE PROPHET WAS CARRIED ALONG BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AND NOT BY HIS OWN IMPULSE OR REASONING IN WHAT HE SAID

The fourth thing that the Bible makes perfectly clear is, that _not one single prophetic utterance was of the prophet's own will (i.e., it was not in any sense merely what he wished to say), but in every instance the Prophet spoke from God, and the Prophet was carried along in the prophetic utterance by the Holy Spirit, regardless of his own will or thought_. We find this stated practically in so many words in 2 Pet. 1:21 where we read: +"For no prophecy+ (literally, _not a prophecy_) +ever came+ (literally, was brought) +by the will of man; but men spake from God being moved+ (literally, carried along, or borne) +by the Holy Spirit."+ There can be no honest mistaking of the meaning of this language. The Prophet never thought that there was something that needed to be said and therefore said it, but God took possession of the prophet, _carried him along_ in his utterance, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he spake, not from his own consciousness, and not from his own reasoning, nor from his own intuition, but "_from God_." As God's messenger he spoke what God told him to say.