On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. (Ac 19:5-6)
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1Co 14:1)
Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. (1Co 14:5)
For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged (1Co 14:31)
We had a great time in cellgroup last night. We met with the sole purpose of pressing into God, worshipping him, abiding in his presence, listening to the Spirit, and stepping out in the gifts as he prompted. One of the key words to us as a church (Living Rock Church) at the moment is to "go deeper in the river" — to increase our thirst for the living water of the Spirit, and to move on in our relationship with him. I started with some words of encouragement from the verses above.
In Acts 19, there was no time gap between the disciples being baptised in the Spirit and them prophesying. One of our group had already shared how he had come to the conviction that being a "new Christian" was "no excuse" and that God wanted to use him just as much as everybody else — fantastic revelation! In 1Corinthians 14, Paul again and again expresses his desire that all God's people should prophesy.
Guess what happened! Everyone prophesied! Every single one, even those who had never prophesied before. In fact the prophetic words flowed and flowed and flowed all night, as we kept listening and responding to what God was saying. It was 10:30 before we even knew it, and no-one cared a jot that we had run over! In fact I'm sure I speak for the group when I say that we are all in eager anticipation of our next meeting to go even deeper still!
Was also fantastic to have Chris Alton fellowshipping with us that night. Chris is a great friend, a man of God, a great teacher of the word, and someone at home in the movings of the Holy Spirit. I'd point you to his blog... but he doesn't have one YET!
[Really unsubtle hint Chris! ;-)]
4 comments:
I am so glad you had a great time! Also quite pleased you didn't have any angels as I would have been very jealous!!
We had coffee in Starbucks and bumped into someone I hadn't seen for ages.
No prophesying though...
; >
Hoping what you've taken hold of in your cell will start to overflow into the rest of the congreagations!!
Chris,
For the sake of clarity, perhaps you'd better define 'prophesy'. Most folk (even church folk) equate prophesy with 'predicting the future', but I don't think that's what you're talking about here...
Sure,
Prophecy, put simply, is two things: hearing God, and speaking out what you heard. This can involve communicating God's plans for the future, but more often it is communicating God's heart for the present.
Most people are of the impression that the first stage is the hardest; but as Christians, God is speaking to us all the time (Jn 10:27, Heb 3:7, Rev 2:7 etc) The challenge is discerning God's "voice" (I'm not talking about audible words) from our own thoughts and imaginings, and the conviction and courage to speak it out.
Prophecy is a gift to the Church. The Church by its very nature is prophetic. So it is my conviction that prophecy goes on far more than is realised. Even where it is not recognised, or even welcomed! It may not come with a "thus says the Lord" or an extravagant claim about the future. It can come through prayer, or through preaching — whenever men of faith give expression to what is on their heart there can (and indeed should!) be a prophetic aspect. But where prophecy is recognised, and both given and received as the word of God, it has its maximum effect as God intended.
If you have an ear to hear (spiritually), and a mouth to speak, you can prophesy. That's why Paul says we can all do it! Not all are prophets, but all can prophesy.
We are surely in the days of the out-pouring of His Spirit. Joel prophesied it in Joel 2:28-"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,..."
We experienced the first wave of its fulfilment at pentecost, and God is still pouring out His Spirit today.
Fill us Lord to the overflow, so that we can continue to prophesy (proclaim) your good news.
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