Why desire the gift of prophecy?

Why desire the gift of prophecy?

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, the Apostle Paul says, ‘Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy’ (ESV).

The question is, why is the gift of prophecy so special?

In trying to answer this question, let me share a few thoughts about the New Testament gift of prophecy.

1. The Apostle Paul writes about the New Testament gift of prophecy as a lower level of prophetic revelation. It is not at all on the same high and perfect level of inspiration as the Prophetic and Apostolic writings of the Bible. As we will see, the New Testament gift of prophecy is not perfect but “in part” (1 Corinthians 13:9) and it needs to be tested and evaluated by the Scriptures, which are on a much higher level of inspiration and are perfect (See 1 Corinthians14:29, 37-38; 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22;  2 Timothy 3:15-17; Psalm 19:7; Romans 7:12).

We occasionally hear people who speak in a rather disparaging way about Bible teaching and then rave about a prophetic word that was given. Though some Bible preaching is below standard, we do need to beware of thinking that prophetic words are somehow better or more powerful than the Scriptures. In fact the exact opposite is true. It is the written “law of the Lord” that is “perfect” and always able to “revive the soul” (Psalm 19:7).

2. As was noted above, the gift of prophecy must be submitted to the words of Scripture.

1 Corinthians 14:37-38 says:

‘37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. ‘(ESV)

As a foundational Apostle of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:8-10), Paul was given God’s special ‘grace’ to write Scripture. His letters were recognized and included in the Bible as ‘a command of the Lord’. 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 spells out the need for people who move in the prophetic gifts to ‘acknowledge’ and ‘recognize’ the Scriptures. If such prophetic people don’t do this and if their prophecies are therefore inconsistent with the teaching of the Bible, then they are to be ‘not recognized’ and their prophecies not accepted.

3. The gift of prophecy is not perfect but is “in part”.

1 Corinthians 13:9 says:

“For we know in part and we prophesy in part.” (ESV)

As has been said, the Scriptures are ‘perfect’, not ‘in part’, but prophecies today are only partially right and that is why they need to be evaluated. So when we hear someone share a prophetic word, we need to listen for the good ‘part’, as it were. The person sharing the prophetic word may indulge in a bit of preaching or commentary that gets added to the ‘part’ that was given as a gift from God and occasionally, there may even be bits of the sharing that are ‘evil’ which must be rejected. This leads us to the next point.

4. Prophetic words must be carefully evaluated and the good parts kept.

1 Corinthians 14:29 says:

‘Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.’ (ESV)

1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 says:

‘20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.’ (ESV)

Most of the time, I think that we can leave this evaluating to the individual. I don’t think that church leaders need to give a comment on the value of every prophetic word that gets shared. If something ‘evil’ gets said, then a correction would be in order.

This evaluating must also be done in a loving context. This is why 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, is between 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14, the gifts chapters. If we do not encourage a loving environment in our church meetings, people will be too scared to share anything for fear of being corrected. My point is that we so value the gift of prophecy that we encourage people to have a go and share a word. If they get it a bit wrong, we just lovingly let it go (and say nothing). If they happen to get it badly wrong, we lovingly correct the error without making people too scared to ever have a go again.

5. This gift of prophecy is available to all Christians in the New Covenant

1 Cor. 14:31 says:

‘For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.’ (ESV)

This not to say that all will have a prophetic motivation or a prophetic ministry or even operate regularly in a prophetic sphere of ministry. The three big lists of gifts in the New Testament speak of spiritual gifts in three main ways. Romans 12:6-8 speaks about motivational gifts as the gifts we have and that God by his grace has given to us in a constituted way. Ephesians 4:11-12 is about the ministry gifts that we become. This passage is about leadership ministry gifts and different spheres of ministry for all God’s people.  1 Corinthians 12:7-11 is about manifestation gifts, the gifts we seek, which are given situationally and are not constituted. It is these manifestation gifts of prophecy that are available to all believers in Jesus. God can use any one of us to manifest a gift of prophecy in a given situation as needed.

6. The gift of prophecy is to be eagerly desired.

1 Cor. 14:1 says:

‘Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.’ (ESV)

1 Cor. 14:39 says:

‘So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy…’ (ESV)

It is not just a case of saying, ‘If God wants me to manifest this gift, He will give it to me.’ Some who are theoretically accepting of the spiritual gift of prophecy are actually not very keen to ever actually share a prophetic word. We need to move from a passive intellectual acceptance of the possibility of prophetic gifts to a passionate seeking that we ‘may prophesy’. Come to church asking God to give you a word of prophecy.

7. The gift of prophecy is not to be despised.

1 Thessalonians 5:20 says:

‘Do not despise prophecies.’ (ESV)

This seems to be the opposite extreme from those who value prophecies over Scripture. It may be because prophecy is only ‘in part’ and lower than the perfection of the Bible that some ‘despise prophecies’ as too simple or too obvious. For example, if someone shared a prophetic word about how God loves us, a person who despises prophecy may think that it is so obvious because the Bible tells us this. It may however be very encouraging for someone to be assured of God’s love.

8.  The gift of prophecy is to be desired because it is very useful in building up, lifting up and cheering up.

1 Corinthians 14:3 says:

‘The one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.’ (ESV)

This is the normal function of the gift of prophecy: to build up, encourage and comfort. This gift of prophecy may occasionally be corrective or directive, but this would be exceptional and therefore must be handled with much more care. In our church I feel that people can be given freedom to share words that build up, lift up and cheer up, but words that correct or direct may not be shared without first running it by an Elder. This is because a word of correction or direction that is wrong could do some serious damage!