Follow
the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy - 1 Corinthians 14: 1 NIV
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We are to pursue the fruit and desire the gift.
Here we see the fruit of the Spirit (which is encapsulated by the phrase “the
way of love”) and the gifts of the Spirit with emphasis on prophecy going
together, hand in hand as it were. Why? Simple…Everything in the Kingdom of God
operates by love.
Our motivation for everything we do should be
love. God’s love has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans
5:5) who is in us. His love should be the motivating factor behind our
desire for His gifts to operate in and through us. God is Love, His very
essence is Love. Anything done without love doesn't amount to much, 1 Corinthians 13, the popular love chapter in the Bible, makes that abundantly clear.
As we yield to the love of God that’s poured
out in our hearts, we won’t have any other agendas, our desire will be to see
others saved, healed, delivered, blessed, lifted up, restored and fulfilling
their God ordained destinies. The gift of prophecy that flows out of love is
never condemning, neither does it seek to bring fear, control or manipulation;
the gift of prophecy will always edify, exhort and comfort others. True prophecy will never contradict the written Word of God, the Bible, which is the standard against which every prophetic utterance is to be measured before being accepted or rejected.
The ministry of the prophet goes beyond edification, exhortation
and comfort but that is beyond the scope of this blog post, suffice it to say that prophets prophesy but not everyone who prophesies is a prophet. The ministry of the prophet in the New Covenant is a foundational ministry in the Church. Now, back to the gift of prophecy...
Every believer can and should operate in the gift of prophesy,
the Lord urges us to desire it earnestly – above all the other
gifts, He knows we need it. He wants to reveal His heart to others
through you by way of the gift of prophecy.
In His wisdom, God has made a way for us to learn how to operate
in this gift, and as we learn we become bolder and more fluent in flowing with
the Spirit. Let me quickly say this: we cannot improve on the gifts
of the Spirit; they are already perfect gifts from the Perfect One.
What we can
and are ENCOURAGED to do is to LEARN HOW
TO BETTER OPERATE in the gifts, especially the gift of Prophecy.
31 For
you can ALL PROPHESY ONE BY ONE, THAT ALL MAY LEARN and all may be encouraged.
– 1 Corinthians 14:31 NKJV
(Emphasis mine)
Start where you are, when God reveals something to you (by way
of a vision, a spontaneous thought, an impression, a “knowing” etc.) for
someone else and impresses upon you to share it with them, then in love, step
out by faith and share it, even if it is a one word or a one liner prophecy such
as “rest in the Lord” or “I love you” or “I’m with you”, that might be exactly
what the person needs to hear at that time. Don’t hold back and wait until you
can prophesy paragraphs and chapters; faithfully start with what He reveals to
you and don’t try to interpret the message just present it exactly as you
received it. Do not let fear hold you back, the Lord desires to bless others
through you.
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Beloved, desire the gift of prophecy today and as you
do, delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart
- the gift of prophecy being one of those desires! Become a blessing
to someone today, pay attention to what the Spirit is revealing to you and prophesy!
Blessings!
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