Spiritual Gifts IV - Being Led By the Spirit

Okay, back in the groove. As you can see, I’ve given up on researching every biblical passage that mentions prophecy. While I would have learned some cool things, it’s obvious that the task would not be completed. Likewise, I’m going to try and keep this shorter, and have more posts more often, so my remaining readers can more easily handle this.

To respond to the single comment on the last post, there is a lot of letting go and seeming foolish involved with the spiritual gifts. We’re not in control of ourselves when we operate in them, and it seems to me that’s part of the point.

So, prophesy. To my mind, prophecy is the centerpiece of the spiritual gifts. Let’s pull out some scripture:

To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, NIV)

The message of knowledge, prophecy, and distinguishing between spirits are all directly tied into prophesy. The message of wisdom and interpretation of tongues are almost certainly prophetic in nature as well. As far as healing, miraculous powers, and supernatural languages go, we should follow Christ’s example:

Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (John 5:19, NIV)

If Jesus took this attitude, then we also should; when we use these other gifts, they ought to be under obedience to an understanding of what the Father is doing. This understanding is prophetic in nature.

So what is prophecy, exactly? Most simply, it is to be sensitive to what God is communicating, and respond. That response can cover a lot of ground, depending on what you hear, thus the various gifts that tie into prophecy. Likewise, being sensitive can cover a lot of ground: dreams, visions, audible words, smells, kinetic sensations, feelings of touch, sudden moments of insight, and other common means of expression. Most often, though, God’s voice is inaudible, and sounds like your own internal voice. That’s what makes prophesy difficult, and that’s where practice comes into play.

To use a metaphor, imagine yourself at a large noisy party. Now, someone comes up and whispers in your ear. If you barely know the person, you won’t be able to tell who it was. If it were your spouse or your best friend, then you would easily recognize their voice. To quote Jesus some more,

[The shepherd] calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. (John 10:3b-5, NIV)

To know God’s voice is crucial. So how do we learn to do so? Practice mostly, but I’ll dig more into this later. For now, I’m over a page in Word, so I’ll stop. But more posts will be along soon, I promise!