Blessed with every spiritual blessing... in Christ

1 Corinthians 14

Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. ² For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. ³ But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. ⁴ One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. ⁵ Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying.

⁶ But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? ⁷ Yet even lifeless things, either flute or harp, in producing a sound, if they do not produce a distinction in the tones, how will it be known what is played on the flute or on the harp? ⁸ For if the bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? ⁹ So also you, unless you utter by the tongue speech that is clear, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. ¹⁰ There are, perhaps, a great many kinds of languages in the world, and no kind is without meaning. ¹¹ If then I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be to the one who speaks a barbarian, and the one who speaks will be a barbarian to me. ¹² So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.

¹³ Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also...

²⁶ What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. .. ²⁸ but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. ²⁹ Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. ³⁰ But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. ³¹ For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; ³² and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; ³³ for God is not a God of confusion but of peace,...

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth in this letter. As he continues the themes of the importance of spiritual gifts in and to the body. He follows his exhortation about agape love, which we looked at yesterday with this exhortation regarding what are  two of the more controversial, misunderstood and sometimes misused gifts of the Spirit.  He begins the exhortation by saying "Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts".  We are to earnestly desire these spiritual gifts. Why then is there so much controversy surrounding them? Why has much of the church today determined that it is better to leave the gifts of prophecy and tongues in the past, saying that it's not for today?

The first thing I think we need to look at when we consider spiritual gifts in particular, but really the walking out of our faith as a whole is that there are three distinct areas of our life in which we live out and express our faith. There is first of all our personal relationship with God. This includes our devotional time, our personal worship time, our prayer time and our connection with Him throughout the day. Second there is our interaction with other believers, both in our daily life and within the setting of the church, whatever that looks like for us. Third there is our interaction with unbelievers, those who have not yet recieved or experienced the revelation that Jesus is the Christ. It is important that we keep these different aspects of our faith in mind because our faith should be expressed in the way that is most God honoring and glorifying for the situation we are in.

We can only briefly touch on these gifts, tongues and prophecy, here but hopefully we can end up with a little more comfort and understanding of these gifts and their place in our lives and in the church. Let's first talk about tongues. To begin with we need to understand and acknowledge that there are two seperate manifestations of tongues that Paul is talking about. There is the gift of tongues and interpretation that he speaks of within the church. This would be in an application like at Pentacost when miraculously God eneabled people from many nations and langauges to hear and understand the words which were being spoken by the disciples. God, through the Holy Spirit can enable some one to speak in a langauge that is unfamiliar to them but understood by another. The other form of tongues which Paul speaks of is that of praying and singing in the spirit. This is something Paul says he does and encourages us to do. The scriptural backing for this comes in part from Romans 8: ²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. There is a time in our prayer for ourselves or for others that we may not know how or what to pray. Our yielding to the Holy Spirit within us allows us to continue to pray and intercede at a level beyond our own understanding. Our personal worship can bring us to the place as well where we can no longer adequately express with our own words the glory of God we experience. Like Paul we pray in the spirit and sing in the spirit.

As for prophecy, Paul says that it is intended for "edification and exhortation and consolation."  This does not seem to line up with much of what we see and understand about the prophets who were active in the Old Testament times. These prophets often brought hard words of correction and warning to the people or promises for a future time. In order to understand the application for prophecy today we need to recognize the different covenant which we currently live under than the one the prophets of old lived under. They lived under the law. That was God's instument for relationship with people. The prophet then, speaking the words of God, spoke in the frame work of the law. We live in God's new covenant. The covenant of grace given through Jesus. Consequently God speaks today through prophets through the frame work of that covenant of grace. This doesn't mean that there would not or should not be words of discipline or correction. The heart of the prophetic voice always though is to fulfill God's purpose and His desire, as it's stated in 2 Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That all should come to repentance,  edification and exhortation and consolation, that's the heart of the prophetic voice of God to people today.

Just as the prophets of old looked forward to the time of grace which we now live in and spoke God's words about this time. As we draw nearer the end of this age toward the return of Jesus, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, there will possibly be a prophetic voice speaking of the coming kingdom. Even this though is spoken as good news. It's not the end of all things. It is the begining of God's perfectly restored creation.

Again this was not intended to be the final word or even any word in the debate about these precious Holy Spirit gifts that we have been given. This was meant to edify, exhort and console. I pray that you are blessed. My prayer for each of you is the same as Paul's prayer to the Ephesians. Ephesians 1:

 ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love ⁵ He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight ⁹ He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him ¹⁰ with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him ¹¹ also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, ¹² to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. ¹³ In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, ¹⁴ who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.   Amen