5×5×5 Bible Plan
Read: I Corinthians 14
Meditation: I Corinthians 14:4-5
“Proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength.”
Shift Your Focus… I grew up in a tradition that embraced all the gifts of the Spirit, and actively welcomed their expression in our church services. Judging from the church’s collective reaction to a “move of the Spirit,” the gift of prophecy seemed to rank at the top of these expressions.
What I witnessed in both the drama surrounding a prophetic outburst as well as the congregation’s response to it led me to the conclusion that this gift was, for one thing, a very spooky, quite mysterious gift. A corollary to that conclusion was that the one speaking the prophecy must therefore have attained some high-ranking level of spirituality to be used in such a manner, i.e., they were a bit “spooky” too!
Another observation led me to conclude that the manifestation of a prophetic gift was synonymous with either predicting the future or revealing a secret sin or a deep dark struggle of someone sitting in the church service, and although we never knew whom that person might be, it was sure fun trying to guess. In retrospect, neither of those outcomes—prediction and revelation—occurred, at least to my knowledge.
To be sure, if the Holy Spirit wants to reveal either an upcoming event or a personal struggle, he is free to do that—and the church ought to embrace that aspect of the prophetic. But I think the more healthy and helpful approach to practicing the prophetic in the church would be to take the mystery out of it and look at it as a much more practical gift. I agree with Eugene Peterson’s rendering of this verse in The Message version of the Bible, which defines the prophetic gifts simply as “proclaiming God’s truth to the church in its common language brings the whole church into growth and strength.”
If we embrace that definition of this gift, then we’ll see prophecy as not just reserved for the few spiritual elite, but as something the common Christian can be used in as well. We will also understand that an expression of the prophetic gift will be more authentic if it is delivered in the “common language” of the church rather than the special “God language” that often is worked up for a prophecy. Not only that, prophecy will not be relegated to foretelling the future, but in foretelling truth; not revealing secret spiritual stuff, but affirming what should be commonly known and embrace. Finally, this definition of the prophetic gift shows us that an authentic prophetic word should bring growth and strength to the congregation. If it weirds people out, spooks the saints, and causes the cringe factor, it is likely that the prophetic expression was either inappropriate and off the mark, or it was delivered in a way that was over-the-top, inartful, and inauthentic.
So, and this is just my opinion, but I am convinced of it, we ought to demystify prophecy (and the other utterance gifts as well). We would enjoy them and be edified by them much more often than we are now.
“The gift of prophecy is not a new revelation, but a clearer understanding of already-given truth.” ~Ray Melugin
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.