Practicing Prophecy

“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” (1 Cor 14:1) 

I have yet to meet a Christian who would bat an eye at Paul’s first admonition – “pursue love.” Most would also be completely on board with desiring “the spiritual gifts.” But what in the world is up with “especially that you may prophesy”? 

Exhorting the entire church to earnestly desire the gift of prophecy forbids dismissal via avoidance no less than rejection via disinterest. Strengthening the church, the bride of Christ, is too important to the Bridegroom for him to leave her “upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation” through the gift of prophecy on the table of optional exercises (1 Cor 14:3). 

The Master Builder does not give every member of his body the same spiritual gifts. Yet every one of us is called to “desire” the gift of prophecy, to be leaning forward with attentive eagerness to build up the church through the words the Holy Spirit prompts us to speak. So how does that work? How do you “receive” a prophetic word and “share” a prophetic word? How are prophetic words related to God’s written Word? And how can I know we know if God is simply speaking to us or if he wants to speak to his people through us?

If you’ve wrestled with any of those questions, join us next Sunday, Aug 15, for a panel discussion in the Seminar Room at 12:15pm. I’m going to briefly sketch what the Bible teaches us about the gift of prophecy and interview a group of men and women in our church who have faithfully exercised the gift of prophecy for many years. Pizza will be provided along with ample opportunity for Q&A.