The PCF Blog

“The Holy Spirit – giving you spiritual gifts” (2). – The gift of prophecy

We want to address ourselves to five questions today:

• 1. Is Prophecy for today?
• 2. What is Prophecy?
• 3. How does it work?
• 4. Who can Prophesy?
• 5. How can I do it?

NB Prophecy and Scripture. Scripture is the inspired infallible authoritative word of God. All prophetic gifts today stand under the authority of the Bible and subject to it.

To deal with the initial question:

• 1. Is Prophecy for today?

We will just treat this briefly as it was covered in depth in the last session when we looked at the “cessationist debate”. Notes about this are on the blog. The position we adopt is the “non-cessationist” position which is summarised thus:

• All the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for the whole of the church age.
• God gives them to individuals as he sees fit
• They are given to build the body of Christ
• The body of Christ can not reach maturity without them
• We should therefore seek them and exercise them

In obedience to the word of God, therefore we earnestly desire to function in the gifts of the Holy Spirit – especially to prophesy 1 Corinthians 14:1
[ Gifts of Prophecy and Tongues ] Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.

 2. What is Prophecy?

This is an absolutely critical question: if we want to exercise this, we have to know what it is! The difficulty with this arises because, like many words, the meaning can be different according to the context.

For example in much of the Bible it clearly refers to the inspiration of scripture:

²⁰Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. ²¹For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (1 Peter 1 v20-21)

But we also have examples in Old and New testaments of people who were prophesying but were clearly NOT writing scripture: Saul prophesied, along with many others – and their utterances never came to be recorded in Scripture. Philip had four daughters church is who prophesied – but their words were not Scripture. Agabus was recognised as a prophet, but his words were not recorded in scripture. In the church in Corinth Paul said that “two or three prophets should speak” – but they were not writing words of Scripture.

Vine says prophecy  “signifies the speaking forth of the mind and counsel of God” 

Grudem says “By the time of the New Testament, the word “prophet” meant “one who had supernatural knowledge” or simply “spokesman” (Grudem)

Both of these definition are useful and indicate that there is a wider meaning to prophecy than the anointing that enabled people to write scripture.

• So our working definition of prophecy is:
• “The speaking out of something revealed by the Holy Spirit”
•  By this definition the believer is acting as a spokesman, or reporter, of something that God has given them.

 3. How does Prophecy Work?

It is possible to miss the blessing by being over-analytical – but a brief analysis of how the gift operates will help us here.

     God

 Revelation

Processing 

   Choice

Utterance

Evaluation

In the above flowchart, we start with God. God possesses every piece of knowledge, information, encouragement, rebuke and wisdom. There is nothing that he does not possess (in accordance with his character). So he is perfectly able, and willing, to give pieces of his revelation to his children. This is “revelation”. It can come by something gently coming to mind, a Scripture, a vision a picture – or a myriad of other ways.

When that happens, this individual processes it, evaluates it and makes a choice as to whether or not to share it, in what way, to whom and when. Utterance is when they decide to share it in their own words (as a spokesman, or reporter, not a medium), and the process of evaluation and testing by the leadership of the local church then follows.

This process is quite simple and it is clear that there is both a supernatural and a human element. The process commences with God – but the processing, delivery and testing is human.

4. Who Can Prophesy?

The passage from Romans 12 may help:

Romans 12 v.3-8

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. ⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his^[b]faith. ⁷If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

It is clear that there is a gift of prophecy – in other words there are some for whom the use of the gift is a regular occurrence and they are effective in it. However that deos not restrict it’s use to those who are gifted, any more than showing mercy or giving generously is limited to those who are gifted. In other words – you can prophesy – and shuld aspire to do so!

So finally – how?

• 5. How Can I Prophesy?

Believe that this is for today – God will not enable you to prophesy unless you believe that it is possible for Him to do so. Many cessationists when they use phrases like “God laid it on my heart” or “God quickened this Scripture to me” are in fact  prophesying, although they would dispute it!

• Believe that it is for you – the Romans Scripture shows that this is something that all believers – including you – are able to do
• Actively desire it and pray for it -1 Cortinthian 14 v 1 requires you to desire to do this,
• Be available -   you are a player, not a spectator – our meetings need to be team events, not spectator sports!
• Recognise that you are spiritually qualified – we often feel that we are not spiritually qualified to minister in any way. But when God says that we are qualified – we have no right to doubt it! The perfect life of Jesus has been ascribed to us – we are qualified!
• Keep short accounts with God..and others. Notwithstanding the point above, sin comes between ourselves and God. But when cleared up by confession we are quite able to hear God. One of the greatest barriers to hearing God is unforgiveness – make sure that there is nothing standing in the way of you hearing God.
• Be expectant – every day expect God to use you to speak his word, Come to every meeting with a sense of expectancy  
• Seek to build and to bless – remember that prophecy is to build up others
• DEVELOP YOUR OWN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!!!!! - nothing equips us to prophesy more than a close walk with Him. The normal disciplines of the Christian life, prayer, the word, obedience, fellowship are critical to anyone who would move in prophecy.
• Learn to know the voice of God – how does God speak to you? Learn to hear his voice and respond to it.
• Be bold and take risks –ultimately, if we want to bless others there is a risk of embarrassment, it’s just a risk you have to take.
• Speak in English – these are your words directed to others for them to understand. Make sure they are in plain English – not super-spiritual gobbledegook
•  Avoid the first person –you are speaking as a spokesman, not a medium: therefore phrases like “The Lord says:…” are inappropriate, and indicate that the prophecy has already been judged, The suggested formula is a phrase like: “I feel the Lord may want to remind us…”
• Offer in humility and submission “God opposes the proud…”
• Invite and submit to evaluation – the evaluation and testing of prophecy is a key element of the process. If someone does not welcome this, then their contribution is not wanted.

• Recommended Reading
• “Surprised by the Power of the Spirit” Jack Deere  (1993)
• “Surprised by the Voice of God”   Jack Deere (1996)
• “The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Testament and today” Wayne Grudem (1998)

Notes on: “The Holy Spirit and You” – the Holy Spirit – giving you spiritual gifts (1)

The rest of this series will focus on the vital area of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Today we start our treatment of this subject under four headings:

1.       Natural – or Spiritual?

It is an undisputed fact that God gives gifts to his church in order to build up the church. Normally when we talk about the gifts of the Spirit, we are talking about the miraculous gifts that we can see in the Acts and elsewhere. Other gifts tend to be described as “natural gifts”. However, the word of God does not seem to make such a distinction. Consider this passage from Romans 12

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. ⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his^[b]faith. ⁷If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.  

Here, the apostle appears to put what we would describe as “natural” gifts in the same list as “spiritual” ones to – which could cause us to wonder whether God really makes a distinction! I think we have to regard a gift of, say, hospitality, or music or flower arranging, as being every bit as spiritual as tongues or prophecy. So all of us who have gift (which is all of us) should recognise that whatever it is, it comes from God, and it is given to us by god for us to build up the church. Are we using those gifts?

As Peter says:

¹⁰Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. ¹¹If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

2.       For today – or not?

One of the monster debates in the church for the last hundred years has been the question as to what are called the “charismatic” gifts of the Spirit are still functioning today. Before we go on to consider them we must settle this point.

At this point we ought to pause and consider that whatever issue we are considering and debating it needs to be settled ONLY by reference to the written word of God. Experience – good or bad is not the test of truth – the Word of God is.

Let us first of all consider the “Cessationist” position which could be summarised as follows:

“The more miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit (prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, casting out demons etc.) were given as signs to authenticate the message of the apostles. When the apostles died and the canon of Scripture had been completed, there was no more need for these gifts. They are therefore not for today”

The reasons given for this belief, by and large, are as follows:

1. Gifts were to authenticate the apostles and their message. We now have their message authenticated in Scripture. Therefore gifts no longer needed. (Hebrew 2 v 3-4)

2.  I Corinthians 13 tells us they will cease. (1    Corinthians 13 v.8-12)

3.  History tells us that they have ceased – there is, they say, no reliable record of these gifts after the apostolic age; this is because the gifts ceased, and any current demonstration of them is therefore a deception.

4.  Just look at those Charismatics! – the way that charismatic Christians behave, they say, is a further indicator that gifts demonstrated today are not genuine.  

Before commenting on these arguments, one has to acknowledge that some of the most godly men and women of our times have been Cessationists. So the following points are made with deep respect and not a little humility.  

1. The problem with arguing that the miraculous gifts were given to authenticate the apostles and their companions is that it is an argument from silence! The Bible simply does not say that. If it is argued from the Hebrews 2 passage that these things have all passed away  -then we would have to say that ALL the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit have also passed away – the gift of teaching included.
2. A close examination of the 1 Corinthians 13 passage shows that the time of the gifts ceasing is not specified – but does seem to happen when “ we see face to face” In other words, the gifts will cease when the Lord returns. The completion of the canon of Scripture is not suggested as a possible time for the conclusion of the miraculous.
3. This is an argument from experience – or rather from lack of experience, and therefore not admissible. In any case the premise behind it is highly questionable.
4. Whilst sharing the outrage of Cessationists at the outrageous behaviour of some Charismatics – we could equally point to the behaviour of some Cessationists! This is an argument from (bad) experience and therefore not admissible.

In short, whilst respecting the position of Cessationists, we have to say that the position is not supported by scripture.

In the absence of biblical evidence to the contrary we are quite entitled to say that all the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament are for today. PCF therefore endorses the Non-Cessationist/Pentecostal/Charismatic view which is broadly as below:

• All the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for the whole of the church age.
• God gives them to individuals as he sees fit
• They are given to build the body of Christ
• The body of Christ cannot reach maturity without them
• We should therefore seek them and exercise them

3.       Body Building

We are about to commence our treatment of the individual gifts of the Holy Spirit, starting with the Ministry gifts of Ephesians 4. Looking at this passage, we can see

^11”It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  ¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. ¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

The emboldened sections make it clear – the whole subject of the gifts is about building up the body.  If that is true it must follow that the body cannot reach maturity without everything that God has for us.

4.       The Ministry Gifts

1. The purpose of the gifts. It is every interesting that the gifts are “to prepare God’s people for works of service” In other words, the function of the ministry gifts is to equip the body that the body does the job! It is the body that is on the pedestal – not a ministry
2. .      The nature of the ministry gifts
   1. Apostles – not apostles in the sense of the 12 apostles of the Lamb but the ongoing gift of the Lord Jesus to his church of pioneers, initiators, leaders to drive his work forward. (NB the Greek work for apostle can also be translated missionary!) There is no suggestion that the ministry of the 12 continues today or that anyone has the authority of the 12 – the word refers to  those sent by Jesus to pioneer, plant and build.
   2. Prophet – again, not prophets in the sense of writers of Scripture – but those who hear the “now” word of God, and bring it to his people
   3. Evangelist  – those who equip the body of Christ for outreach and mission
   4. Pastor – those who shepherd, care for and discipline the flock
   5. Teacher – those who expound the written word of God.

3. The Variety of Ministry Gifts – look at the diversity of these gifts! It is way beyond one person (except Jesus) to fulfil all these functions. Only a plural ministry team can function as God intends

4. The Need for Ministry gifts. The fact is that the church will not be brought to maturity until all of these gifts are recognised and released in the body of Christ

Our dear sister, Iris Sherlock, went to be with the Lord on 29th January 2010, at the age of 90.

Iris had been a much-loved and appreciated member of PCF since 1996, and right until her last day, was tirelessly witnessing for and serving the Lord she had known since she was a little girl. Our hearts are full of sadness at the loss of this great saint, but we rejoice in her promotion to glory, and look forward to seeing her again,

It will be our privilege to conduct her funeral at 1.30pm on Wednesday 10 February at Poole crematorium followed by a thanksgiving service at PCF at 2.30pm.

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints”

John MacDiarmid and Gez Jones were privileged with work with the Aberystwyth Christian Union for their mission week “Do you Know Him”. A series of  social events, informal lunchbars and gospel talks exposed the University campus to the good news about Jesus. Many contacts were made, many were challenged about the relevance of Jesus to their lives and we hear of individuals trusting Christ for the first time.

Thanks to the CU at Aber for giving us the opportunity to be a part of this exciting event and to all at PCF for their prayer support. Continue to pray that the seeds sown will bear fruit, and for the CU as they follow up on all the contacts made.