The following teaching is the eighth in the series entitled, Empowered for Ministry, presented by the Rev. John W. Howe. The title is, Prophecy, and the scripture reference is 1 Corinthians chapter 14. You might like to turn to 1 Corinthians 14. I'm going to be dipping into this a bit as we go along. and this is sort of occasional teaching.

We haven't been doing this on a regular basis week by week, but over the past couple of months we've been studying the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those that are particularly mentioned in this part of 1 Corinthians, those are not all the gifts of the Spirit. I've said many times there are at least 30 that are mentioned in the New Testament, but these are key gifts of the Holy Spirit that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 12 and then talks about them for the next couple of chapters.

And we've been looking at those, those gifts for ministry, as they're described in 1 Corinthians, and as they're demonstrated in the ministry of Jesus himself. And tonight we want to come to the gift of prophecy. Interestingly enough, nowhere in the New Testament, at least nowhere that I'm aware, does it say that Jesus prophesied.

You might have a verse at your fingertips, and please don't interrupt me right now, but speak to me quietly after the service. I'll correct the tape quietly. Nowhere that I'm aware of.

I went through the concordance. I'm not aware of any particular place where it said, and then Jesus prophesied, you know, thus and so. It says that sort of thing about many, many other people.

It doesn't, to my knowledge, say it anywhere of Jesus. Nevertheless, it is abundantly clear that other people thought of Jesus, perceived him, spoke of him as a prophet, and that he saw himself the same way. That's one of the titles, one of the offices, one of the ministries that he acclaimed and acknowledged for himself.

Just a couple of examples. The woman at the well. You remember how he engages her in conversation and confronts her in the midst of sexual compromise.

She's brought up short and she says, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Or at the feeding of the 5,000, it says the people explain, this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world. And that's a reference, when it speaks about the prophet, it's a reference back to the fact that Moses, just before he died, made a promise that God would be sending a prophet like unto Moses, but even greater.

A greater than Moses. A prophet. And so when it speaks of the prophet, that's what it has in mind.

It says the people explain, this is indeed the prophet, not just a prophet. The one that Moses said would come. when Jesus said in John chapter 7 if anyone thirsts let him come unto me and drink as the scripture says out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water some of the people replied this really is the prophet so they were voicing that about him when the Pharisees questioned the blind man who had been healed what do you say about him since he He has opened your eyes.

The blind man, the previously blind man, said he is a prophet. People widely recognize Jesus as a prophet or the prophet. And Jesus' own wry comment in Nazareth when his own hometown friends and neighbors basically rejected his ministry.

Do you remember what he said? About himself, a prophet is not without honor except in his own hometown. So he clearly owned that, claimed that, took that for himself.

Now, I can't prove this, but I submit to you that the reason that it nowhere says, and then Jesus prophesied thus and so, the reason it nowhere says that is that you couldn't distinguish the prophetic words of Jesus from any others. Or put it another way, everything he said was prophetic. I can't absolutely prove that because scripture doesn't say that.

But I submit to you that that's the case. Listen to a couple of things that he did say. The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority.

Now that's a blanket statement about all of his teaching. The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Isn't that interesting?

The Father's work is being expressed in my words. That's a powerful statement. You could meditate on that for three or four weeks.

For I have not spoken on my own authority. The Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak. Tom Skinner is fond of saying that Jesus is the only man who never did anything of his own authority.

Never did anything. He said, I can do nothing of my own accord but only what I see the Father doing, right? He did nothing of himself.

He spoke nothing of himself. The words that I speak, the Father who has sent me has given me. He said in another place, I can do nothing on my own authority.

As I hear, I judge. So I want to submit to you that Jesus didn't merely prophesy. He was prophecy incarnate.

You with me? If what he just said over and over and over was completely true, then every word that came out of his mouth was directed and inspired and anointed by God. The words that I speak, I do not speak on my own authority.

The Father who has sent me has given me commandment and I've spoken his word. He didn't just merely prophesy from time to time like you and I, or even the greatest of the prophets might do from time to time. Every word that came out of his mouth had the character of prophecy about it.

And indeed, that's what it says, doesn't it? The word became flesh. He was prophecy incarnate.

Listen to the way the writer to the Hebrews put it. In many and various ways, God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets. That's how God has spoken.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by a son. He has spoken to us by sending his son. His son is his word.

His word became flesh. The son is prophecy incarnate. And so once again, perhaps more dramatically than with regard to any of the other gifts that we've looked at so far, if you want to know what the gifts of the Spirit are, how they look, how they manifest themselves, how they operate, then look at Jesus.

He manifests more clearly and more perfectly than anyone else, the gifts of the Spirit. But, once again, also, as we look at him, don't just look at him and stand in awe of him. look at him as a model for our own ministry.

That's the point I'm trying to make in this whole series. Look at him as a model for our own ministry as well. Now I find it interesting that the gift that Jesus manifested more continuously than any other, prophecy.

He healed from time to time. He wasn't continuously healing. He was prophecy incarnate.

The gift that he manifested more continuously than any other is the same gift that Paul commends to us more highly than any other. And here we come to 1 Corinthians 14. Make love your name and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts that we've been thinking about these several weeks, especially that you may prophesy.

now that tells us lots of things all at once the context in which all of the gifts are to be operative is the context of love their purpose is to build up we're going to see that a little bit more clearly in just a moment it's not gifts over against love it's not a choice well i'll take the gifts and you take the love no no it's both make love your aim and within that context earnestly desire the gifts. They're not just options for the great saints among us. We're all to be earnestly desiring the gifts of the Spirit. All of them.

Especially prophecy. Now I said in an earlier point, the most important gift is the one that's needed. I mean, if you have the most fantastic gift of healing in the world, but I'm in good health, that doesn't do me a whole lot of good.

Whereas I may need a lot of help in balancing my checkbook and the gift of administration or perhaps the gift of exhortation or perhaps the gift of generosity. You follow what I'm saying? The gift that's most important is the one that's needed at the moment.

And yet Paul does commend this one especially. And the reason is clear because this one, generally speaking, benefits the greatest number of members of the body of Christ. Okay, it edifies the greatest number.

Let me give you a little quiz. How many of you are prophets? Got one.

One bold person. Anyone else? Two, three.

How many of you have ever prophesied? A few more hands. How many of you desire this gift eagerly?

Those of you who did not raise your hand on that last one are disobedient to scripture. That's an apostolic commandment. Earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you might prophesy.

Now, of course, bringing forth a prophecy is not the same thing as being a prophet. But like every other gift and ministry, the one emerges out of the other. You become an evangelist by exercising the gift in the ministry of evangelism.

You go out and try to share the gospel with your friends. And after you've done that 700 or 800 times, maybe that gift begins to be refined, and maybe folks begin to recognize you're an evangelist. You with me?

You get some very glassy looks there. Let me challenge you. There are some evangelists sitting here in this room tonight who have never led anybody to Christ.

Do you know that? Because you've been sitting on a gift that God would like to develop in you and through you. And the only way he can do that is by your taking the risk of going out and sharing the gospel with somebody and maybe getting yourself in more deeply know how to handle, then you'll have to go back and talk to Joe Kitts about it, and read two or three books, and then try again, and fall on your face again, and try again, and you follow what I'm saying?

You may become, indeed, what God wants you to be if you're called to be an evangelist, but the only way you're going to get there is by exercising the ministry of an evangelist. Billy Graham, looking back on 25 years of being the world's most renowned evangelist in his thinking back to those first sermons he gave, and says they are really awful. It's amazing that God used them, but he was faithful, you see.

You become a teacher by teaching. You become a pastor by pastoring. You become a counselor by counseling.

And we're encouraged to try out these various ministries and see whether there's an anointing there. And if indeed God begins to use that in our lives and use it with consistency, it may very well be that others as well as ourselves begin to recognize that's a ministry in which I'm supposed to major, and it may even be that the church would begin to recognize you're a prophet. When you speak prophetically, we can take that as being something really to sit up and pay attention to.

If you don't already desire it, if you didn't raise your hand, Let me really urge you to re-examine your priorities. Re-examine your priorities, because Paul says, especially prophecy. It may be that there's some sort of false humility in your life.

Not me. Poor little old me. Surely God couldn't speak through me.

Well, of course he could. None of the gifts operate on the basis of your having earned it. If they did, they wouldn't be gifts.

It's not a matter of your worthiness. It's a matter of your availability. Lord, if you want to bring forth a word of prophecy through me, I am available to you.

And that's risky business, isn't it? That's scary, isn't it? Let me ask you another question.

How many of you have ever been in a situation, maybe just one-on-one, maybe a small group, or maybe a group as large as this, when you've had something stirring inside you that you thought maybe was from God, maybe you were supposed to say a word to somebody, but you weren't sure, and you didn't want to be thought a fool, and you didn't want to make a mistake, and so you held back. Anybody? See what you're saying is I'm not prepared to look like an ass.

But there's very good precedent for that becoming. Some of you didn't laugh. God spoke in the Old Testament out of Balaam's donkey.

and there's a very real sense in which you've got to be willing you've got to be willing to be wrong, you've got to be willing to make a fool of yourself you've got to take the risk now that is very scary if you're in a group this big I'll come back to that in a moment I'd like to give you some very practical suggestions remember the motive, make love your aim earnestly desire the spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy for one who speaks in a tongue this is the contrast that runs through most of this chapter that tongue speaking by itself will only edify you one that speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God for no one you can put in else no one else understands him but he utters mysteries in the spirit on the other hand he who prophesies speaks to men for their up building and encouragement and consolation. Those are the purposes of prophecy. Did you notice that?

Those are all positive. For they're upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.

Make love your aim and look to use this gift to upbuild, to edify, to console, to encourage. Even if the word is a hard one. Even if there's a warning or a rebuke in that word.

Its purpose is to build up, to edify. Notice the next line. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy.

He who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues unless someone interprets so that the church may be edified. He who prophesies speaks to men for their building and encouragement and consolation, and he edifies the church. The motive is love.

It's not self-righteousness. It's not spiritual one-upsmanship. It's not that other people would be impressed with what a great gift I've got.

The motive is to build up others. Secondly, come to the end of the passage, verse 32, The spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets. It's not a matter of going into some kind of a trance, being taken over and manipulated by God so that I'm out of control.

If somebody starts speaking in that fashion, I'm very suspect of that gift. The spirits of prophets are subject to the prophets. You don't get wildly out of control, louder and louder, going on and on, getting more and more hysterical.

That is not a sign that this gift is being exercised in a godly and biblical way. It may be just the flesh, or it may be a counterfeit. There's a lot of affectation that you run into sometimes.

There's a certain kind of prophesying that folks have learned, where they speak very, very rapidly and all on one note until they get out of breath, and then they take in a great gasping breath and start all over again. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not putting that down, but I'm saying it's unnecessary.

It's unnecessary. You don't have to do it that way. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

There's no reason that it all has to be in Elizabethan English. It doesn't have to be these and thous and what's and shouts and all that stuff. I mean, God doesn't speak Elizabethan English.

He prefers Hebrew. those are affectations those are learned patterns I'm not putting them down but they're not necessary let me make this suggestion that if you have that sense that maybe God is saying wants to say something through you offer that in humility offer that in humility if you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that what you're supposed to say is 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed I mean go ahead and say it mind you the guy that was commanded to say that turned out to be wrong right but if what you feel is maybe the Lord is calling us to repentance, then why don't you say exactly that? I sense that maybe the Lord is calling us to repentance.

You with me? Don't overstate the thing. Say it with a degree of humility.

if you're not absolutely sure of it then offer it with some tentativeness it doesn't have to be in the form of thus says the Lord unless you're if God has told you to put it in thus says the Lord then put it that way but you may be wrong but why not I sense in my spirit that the Lord is calling us to humility do others of you bear witness to that do you feel how much different that feels that can be just as much a word from the Lord and indeed it may be one that is far better received because you have not gotten in the way of it. It's been expressed with humility. Paul goes on to say, in the earlier chapter, he says our prophecy is imperfect.

Our prophecy is imperfect. So it is fairly seldom that you get it all absolutely correctly. So offer it in humility.

We see through a glass darkly. We don't see it completely clearly yet. Alright?

How does it come? In a whole bunch of ways. It may be just a few words.

A phrase. It may seem very incomplete. I think that most of the folks that I've talked with who have a developed gift of prophecy, most of the time that they start don't know where they're going to finish.

God has prompted them to begin and in obedience they begin and they trust him that he's going to see that through to his own purposes and sometimes they break off in mid-thought or mid-sentence have you ever been present when one person has started a prophecy stopped dead in the middle and somebody else finished it that's exciting there's an electricity there go as far as God would have you go last week we had a visit from a man that that has an extraordinarily well-developed gift of prophecy many of you are here jim kincaid from scotland and karen and i had an opportunity to pray with him later in the weekend and to pray along very personal lines and we asked if he had a sense of prompting from the lord of any words for us and it was very encouraging what he shared and at one point I was very interested. He said some very specific things and then he stopped and he said, I have a sense of what might be more, but I'm not going to go beyond my gift. I have a sense of where this might be going, but I'm not going to say more than the Lord is saying to me.

I thought, wow, that is a real mark, that he is listening to God. Many times I've seen where somebody has started in the spirit and ended in the flesh. I remember some years ago on a Sunday morning, a lovely lady started into a beautiful prophecy, and then it just got carried away, and she got more and more emotional, and she couldn't stop herself until finally I leaned over right into the microphone. I said, let's just be quiet before the Lord.

Boy, I had a lot of interesting reactions at the door that morning. A lot of people were horrified that I would interrupt a prophecy. Others were very grateful. We had one teenager say, wow, I was glad that the minister took authority over that thing. Do you know what happened that night? That lady came up to me and said, I want to thank you for stopping me because I was out of control.

She said, I started in the spirit and it got into the flesh and I'm grateful that you stopped me. That brings me to a further point. Prophecies need to be weighed and tested.

Look at verse 26. What then, brethren, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two, or at most three, and each in turn, and let one interpret. If there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silence in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak.

And let the others weigh what is said. There may be a well-intended prophecy that just misses it. Okay? We're not saying that's demonic.

It just missed it. It was inappropriate for this group. The person who got it misunderstood who it was for.

Maybe it was for themselves and they spoke it out to the meeting. So we sit there and we've heard this prophecy and it doesn't ring true. What do we do? Do we just say, Amen, thank you, Lord?

Maybe somebody says, that just doesn't ring true to me. Or, I think I have a different word from the Lord. I would share that with you.

Let it be weighed. Let it be tested. Our prophecy is imperfect.

and I'd add this final comment and this is going to really disturb a few of you the person who cannot or will not control his or her prophecy should be removed because the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets and the passage goes on to say God is not a God of confusion but of peace and when he's put a meeting under someone's authority that person may be wrong but that person is in authority and if that person says brother that's enough and the brother doesn't stop some other folks ought to help that brother out and I insist on that and so does every spiritual leader that I know of that I respect Catherine Kuhlmann would do that in all of her meetings you know the bigger the gift the more funny people show up to get in on it and you've got to discipline it now having said all of that you're really intimidated right I'm never going to ever open my mouth right let me suggest two places where we can really begin to develop this gift we begin by earnestly desiring it Lord not for my own spiritual aggrandizement but if it would please you I'm available if you want to bring forth a word of prophecy through me I'm available Lord I desire it I desire to be a vehicle a channel of blessing to others I think there are two places primarily where God would help us learn about this the first is a small group fellowship the shepherd groups are ideal where we know each other in a small group, we know each other intimately enough that we can take the risk and we can afford to make mistakes. And if that's not the quality of love in your shepherd group or your fellowship group, do something about it, because that's what it's about, that we'd get to the point of so trusting each other that we could say, I think God is saying this, and other folks would feel the freedom to say, it just doesn't ring true to me, and I wouldn't be all that out of shape because they said it. In small, loving, trusting fellowships where we really know each other, I would encourage us to begin to bring forth the words that we think God is giving.

I said it may be just a phrase or a few words. It may be otherwise. It may be an impression.

It may be a picture. We had a couple of mental pictures that were described here tonight. That is often the form of prophecy in Scripture.

The person seeing the picture doesn't even necessarily understand it. John said I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and suddenly and the whole book of Revelation unfolds he saw it as pictures I don't think John understood half of what he reported okay in a small group where we know and are known and love and can trust each other I think we can begin to experiment with that and the Lord can refine it the other place is in prayer ministry and many of us are already beginning to experience this at the post service ministry on Friday nights or on Sunday mornings or just in other places and other times as we're given the privilege of somebody saying would you pray with me, would you pray for me do you know what the biggest mistake a pastor makes is when somebody comes to see me I start counseling him or her out of my great wealth of wisdom. Usually that's a mistake.

Usually what I ought to do is have a pretty quick statement of the problem and then say, let's see if the Lord has a word for us on this. And when God speaks a word as we seek him for that, what a difference it makes. Now it's not out of the great depths of my wisdom, it's something fresh from the Lord.

I would encourage you if at Friday night, Sunday morning, or whenever if you have the privilege of somebody saying would you pray with me, would you pray for me rather than succumbing to the temptation to start getting into a big lengthy counseling deal just ask the Lord if he has a word and then share that again with humility I've often times been praying with somebody here at the rail and I've had an impression that the Lord was saying something and boy it sounds absolutely off the wall to me it doesn't even seem related to what they just said was the problem and I'll say I'm sensing something and this may be from the Lord I'm not sure that it is could I share it with you and if it's not don't worry about it do you hear the humility there that's not saying the Lord would say your problem is in another area you know here's what I'm sensing you know you've come to pray about this illness and I'm just I wonder is there a problem with your father you know somebody dissolves in tears you know and that's what the Lord wanted to do and maybe indeed that's related to the physical problem so I'm encouraging you number one be eagerly desirous not for being some important person but for being a channel of God's grace to have him speak a word through you to look for that particularly in small group fellowship and in praying one on one for somebody else and like everything else as you're faithful in a little God will entrust to you more and it may be very shortly that you would feel that awful feeling inside that maybe in the midst of this group of 500 people you're supposed to bring forth a word and we'll love you even if you're wrong that's okay let's bow our heads Father God we thank you for the example of Jesus who wasn't wrong in any of the words he spoke. And it would be our desire to become more and more like him. But Lord, we have this treasure in earthen vessels and we do make a lot of mistakes.

So Lord, give us humility in sharing what we think are the promptings from you. let us offer them in love to the other members of your body that they might be tested and confirmed or corrected and so let the body of Christ be edified and the members thereof be built up for your name's sake Amen