THIS IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES ON THE GIFT OF PROPHECY. Click here for the rest of the series.
“The critical event in the formation of a prophet was a transforming encounter with the Glory-Spirit from which the prophet emerged as a man reflecting the divine Glory. Scripture describes this creative act of the Spirit by a variety of verbs. Among these are verbs to rest or fall on, to take hold of , to lift up, to bring here or there, to enter into, to fill, and to invest. As thus acted upon by the Spirit, the prophet was so Spirit-conditioned that “man of the Spirit” could serve as a synonym for “prophet.””
When it comes to any semblance of understanding God, his plan, or his purpose for your life, we must begin by acknowledging all that we do not know.
The place we most often begin when it comes to our attempt to understand how to live, move, and have our being in God (Acts 17:28) tend to be what we know, rather than what we do not know.
But if 1 Corinthians 2:9 is to be believed:
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
And Paul’s instruction to Timothy is to be an example:
I Timothy 6:16 …who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
We must acknowledge there is a vast panorama, an infinitude that we do not know. And this must also apply to the manifestation of His Spirit (as 1 Corinthians 2 rightfully connects).
I recall a dream I had a few years ago (and yes, I do believe that dreams are one of the means through which God’s communicates to us). In the dream I was talking with a friend about the nature of teaching when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit. In this dream we knew that the bulk of teaching that had been circulating in regard to prophecy had largely been honed through the last three moves of prophetic ministry. The general understanding of the gift of prophecy (and the gifts of the Spirit) was based upon how people had failed to walk out the call on their life. This meant that the bulk of the teaching was based upon the failures of past moves. We were left wondering what the gifts were actually all about, since all anyone had been teaching was what not to do.
There is, of course, some merit to this approach. We do not want to repeat the mistakes that men and women in the past have made. Especially when they are easily avoidable. But to anchor our understanding on the movement of the Spirit by what you should avoid is no understanding at all. Again, we have to begin in admitting our lack, not our insight. It is one thing for me, as a husband, to avoid what would disintegrate my marriage. It is a much different thing for me to learn to love and esteem my wife in the unique way she is created by God.
“Though it has been thought worthy of the several gifts of the Spirit, or favored with revelations and heavenly mysteries; yet, by reason of its immense love for the Lord, does it seem to itself as if it had just nothing in possession: but hungering and thirsting through faith and love, it is carried on insatiably in the persevering spirit of prayer-to the mysteries of grace, and to every degree of virtue.”
I would hazard a guess that only about 10-20% of the spiritual life is supposed to be guided by the “what not to do” approach. James 1:26 tells us that the practice of Christianity is to be seen in what we do (feeding the orphans and taking care of the widows) and what we do not do (keep yourself un-spotted from the world). Two dos and one don’t. It seems to me that we have heaped up a lot of don’ts in Christianity and not many dos.
Broadly speaking, we have been working with an outdated understanding of the gifts of the Spirit. The first outdated method of understanding we have already addressed: that is that the ability to prophesy is not the gift, the Holy Spirit is the gift.
The second method of understanding that we must do away with is our gift-based ministry dynamic. In our gift-based ministry dynamic we emphasize the haves and the have-nots. The emphasis is primarily on whether or not you have a gift and what gift that might be. That dynamic seems so foreign to the Gospels.