Growing up in a traditional Samoan church, my only exposure to the prophetic as a child was what I would read in the Old Testament. I would think about prophets like Jeremiah who would put themselves through pain and torment to convey God’s message year after year, only to have no one heed to the warning. I would look at prophets like Jonah who disliked the people of Nineveh so much, that when God gave him a message of prophetic repentance for them, he literally travelled in the opposite direction in an attempt not pass the message on. I think about Deborah who not only operated as a prophet, but end up leaving her prophetic post to lead the army of Israel to a gruesome victory, and then sing a song celebrating God and how her friend Jael put a stake through the head of the general of the enemy army. The image I had of the prophetic was either violent, thankless or defiant (or a combination of these). As much as I admired these men and women of the Old Testament, there really was no pictures that I was exposed to of modern-day prophecy in the church I grew up in.
However, I remember as a musician playing for a friend at their church a few times where they had regular midweek nights for prophetic worship and prayer. Admittedly, my cynical teenage mind thought it completely unfamiliar to have such an openness towards having what seemed like anyone get up and share what they would call “prophecy”. One night a man randomly stood up in the middle of one of the songs of worship, and proclaimed “Thus saith the Lord: I am not here!”, to which I remarked to my friend seated next to me “Who told him that then?”. On another occasion, the drummer in one band decided to take a 3 minute drum solo because he wanted to prophesy on the drums. It was loud and was in a number of different tempos and time signatures. Quite a regular occurrence though would be that one of the leaders who had been designated to speak and lead that night, would get up on the platform behind the pulpit and proceeded to tell us that they had not prepared because they were waiting for the Lord to tell them what to share, and then proceeded to share a number of random things they felt that God might be saying, yet without much reference to the Scriptures.
Needless to say, my exposure to the prophetic was very limited in my younger years, and ran the gamut of being purely Old Testament based narratives from a distant past, to the experiences I had at my cousins church. Whatever way you cut it, when I would hear the word “prophetic”, I would treat it like I was offered coffee as a non-coffee drinker, and say, “nah, it sure smells good, but I’m fine thank you.”.
DO YOU PROPHESY WITH THAT MOUTH? 1 Corinthians 12-14
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2 (ESV)
Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth is an interesting one. His tone is austere (4:18-21, 5:2, 11:17-22) yet thankful (1:8) and loving (16:24) like an affectionate father dealing with one of his children who may have gone astray.
1 Corinthians 12-14 is a section of Paul’s letter to the Corinth church, a church that is in urban centre that has unfortunately succumbed to “majoring on the minors”. They have forgotten how to live in the Holy Spirit, and have allowed sin to enter their fellowship, thus corrupting their Christian witness within their city. These three chapters highlight the use of spiritual gifts. In chapter 12, Paul talks about the beauty and life that happens around a diverse set of gifts all functioning together as one unit, and gives a list of some of what these spiritual gifts might be. The gifts were never meant to be isolated, but to be used in conjunction with one another like a living breathing “body”. When one section hurts, the rest of that body responds to bring comfort and alleviation. When one section celebrates, the rest of that body is jubilant. When we get to chapter 13, we read what is often called “the love chapter”, which often gets read at weddings (even weddings that I have performed) because of its love theme. But one cannot subjugate this passage aside from the context Paul writes it in, which is the use of spiritual gifts. Paul is charging the Corinthian church to not be immature in trying to pursue these gifts without loving the ones you are ministering to. Like the church at Corinth, when we do not have the love of God in us when we share and flow in our giftedness, we are like a “noisy going, or a clanging cymbal” (13:1). The love described here is a love that is without bounds, self-sacrificing and godly in nature. A noisy gong or clanging cymbal does three things: 1) it is loud with its high pitch, 2) it is meant to be an ornament instrument which either announces the coming of another, or acts as a garnish to main rhythms and 3) people can hear it from a distance but find it unbearable up close.
You may wonder, “Why is Neli belabouring this love point?” It is because love is the point of prophesy. Our love for God, our love for His church, our love for the people who have lost their way in this broken world. When we get to the 14th chapter that focuses on prophecy, it begins with these two words which again sets up the context of how the prophetic should be utilised more specifically: Pursue love.
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, he secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
1 Corinthians 14:1-4, 22-25 (ESV)
Paul is exhorting the church at Corinth to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts. Not for the sake of giftedness and the building of monuments, business card accolades, or even ministry platforms, but to put the love of God on display for all to see. But notice how Paul puts prophecy at the top of the list of spiritual gifts that the church should chase after. He explains that tongues remain a mystery to people because they will not be able to decipher the mysteries in the Spirit, and although tongues have their place (building up the individual in the Spirit), prophesy is to be pursued more because it is communicated in way people can understand, especially for those who are not believers. They can hear what God might have to say to them, through us. They can experience God through the prophetic, be convicted by God, their secrets can be disclosed and they will fall on their face in worship towards God, because they have experienced God in our midst. If that does not excite the believer with a fire to desire the prophetic gifting to flow in our lives, not only in our church services, but in our every day living, that all may see God, we may need to check what it is that we are pursuing in life and in our faith in general as believers.
Church, if we are not pursuing the desire to see people both churched and unchurched moved by God’s love in any way we can, especially our giftedness, we might as well start a gong and cymbal collection. Paul outlines three characteristics for prophesy: upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Let us look at these three qualities in order that we might see these as things that are evident whenever we move prophetically.
Upbuilding: God is building His church, who are his people. When a prophetic word is released by the believer, one should see it consistently building alongside what has already been built. It should not be a lone brick off to the side of the edifice, or even a brick thrown through a window to what has already been built in order to cause damage. No, the brick should line up with what has been built previously by other faithful believers, and even more so, it should be built upon the general revelation of the Bible. We as the church are Christs building, made up of living stones with Him as our Chief Cornerstone (1 Peter 2:4-7). So we build in unity with Christ when we prophesy.
When we consider moving prophetically, we must ask two necessary questions:
- How does this build and align with what has already been built through the Scriptures and through the body of Christ?
- How does this build the ones receiving the prophetic ministry towards Christ and in Christ?
Encouragement: To encourage someone means to instil courage within them. When Paul uses this word to describe an attribute of prophesy, there would be some Jewish believers that would recall their ancestor Joshua being encouraged by God upon the death of his mentor and leader Moses who had led the people out of Egypt. Joshua would have been
familiar with the task at hand of leading the people of Israel into the land they were promised. He would have also been familiar with the complaints that would have been directed at Moses, day in and day out for almost four decades. What Joshua was most familiar with was Moses intimacy with God, where Moses would come away from the noise of vitriol and be with his God (Exodus 33). Joshua was going to need to be encouraged, as these were huge shoes to fill.
Encouragement or (to put courage in), is to allow the breath of God to fill you in order that you might live and fulfill what God has called you to do.
I grew up riding bikes and love a leisurely ride in any park, especially if it is with my son who loves to ride his scooter with me and observe the beauty of nature. If a bicycle tire is flat, there are a three things to note:
- It becomes harder, and requires more effort to ride and steer, making it a lot harder to get to where you need to go.
- It can damage the frame of the wheel and if ridden for too long in this condition, can damage the bicycle functionality itself and will need to go in for even more costly and time consuming repair.
- It makes for a deeply discomforting ride. (If you know you know.)
In the first chapter of Joshua, God tells him three times “Be strong and courageous”, as if to breathe courage into him that he might function fully for the task ahead of him and the people of Israel. Interesting to note too, that the greek word used often for the Holy Spirit is pneuma, which literally also means breath, not dissimilar to the breath (the Hebrew word Ruah) that God breathed into Adam to bring him to life.
When we encourage someone prophetically, we are not only speaking words that might cheer someone up momentarily like a greeting card, we are literally speaking life into peoples spirits. We must treat prophecy accordingly.
Consolation – To console someone is to bring comfort, and therefore if a prophetic utterance is released, it can also be utilised to bring comfort to those who receive it. I remember as a teenager both sending and receiving letters in the mailbox to and from loved ones (if you were born when people had email and internet access, please ask someone older about their experiences regarding receiving mail that was not advertising or required payment). If you were the recipient of these letters, and they were done with much care with regards to the content and the presentation, it would almost make it seem like the person was speaking to you audibly. So when Christ says that he is sending another Helper or Comforter in John 14:15-17 he speaks of the Holy Spirit, who brings comfort to those with whom he resides. To receive a prophetic word that is comfort can confirm the One known as the Comforter is there, speaking words of consolation with the recipient, and that comfort can be found in the truth that he sees us in our plight, and yet will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Joshua 1:5 from the aforementioned first chapter of Joshua, 1 Chronicles 28:20, Hebrews 13:5) , but walks with us through every peak and valley. So when we prophesy, we must ask ourselves:
Do we participate in building people up, help bring the breath of encouragement and life, and welcome the comfort of the Lord into the situation?
SO LET ME BE CLEAR…
If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
1 Corinthians 14: 7-8, 33 (ESV)
My favourite jazz musician of all time is the alto saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker, aptly nicknamed because of his ability to soar with breathtakingly genius improvisational skill that was laced in often highly syncopated rhythms around a melodic idea at often backbreaking speed too. To most jazz enthusiasts, it was he who led the Bebop movement throughout the 1940’s and into the 50’s alongside others like Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Theolonius Monk. As much as I loved hearing people like Max Roach tear up a drum kit with the complexity of grooves, or Sonny Rollins play rip away at riffs soulfully on his tenor sax, it was always Charlie Parker that stood out amongst all of the players because of his ingenious ability to play notes to most that would appear randomly but have it make so much sense to all who were in earshot. To this day when I hear Salt Peanuts from Jazz at Massey Hall it both puts a smile on my face hearing Dizzy Gillespie exclaim the title of the song, while Parker tears through the song with such virtuosity on, of all things, a plastic Grafton saxophone. 70 plus years people are still trying to make sense of the genius.
Both before and afterwards the Bebop era, there were its critics. The traditionalists before the era, like the legendary Louis Armstrong, could not make sense of the over improvisation of Parker and his counterparts. They found it to be too much to decipher in the way it bent melodies and rhythm, infamously calling Bebop jazz “Chinese Music” because he could not understand it. After a while it would be one of the younger influencers who played with Parker, who would take jazz and bring it back to the essentials of a distinct melody all whilst slowing the tempo all the way down. Miles Davis, the trumpet player who played with Charlie Parker in his bands often formed his collective alongside the aforementioned John Coltrane and began the cool era of jazz with his album A Kind of Blue, which to this day is the biggest selling jazz album of all time . The track So What is 1 an example of how Davis slowed everything down and made the melody the main feature. Clarity, distinct, with less requirement to fill every measure. If it can be played in two notes rather than twenty, Davis would choose the two note route. Davis would choose the more sparse route.
Much like Miles Davis, clarity and distinction in prophecy is what Paul is exhorting the church to seek after. Much like an uncertain bugle player giving the signal for battle, if the clarion bugle call is not clear, it could be the difference between life and death. Whether a musician is playing or singing, there must be distinction. Here are four reasons:
People get to hear from God. I know this might seem like something obvious, but sometimes God unfortunately is not at the forefront of the communication of the message. At times it might be the eloquence of the prophesy, the emotional response of the recipient or the dynamics of the moment. All of these things are good, but hearing from God is not only the main thing. it needs to be held in the highest of regard. Let me repeat this again in hopes that we catch the gravitas of this: When you prophesy, people get to hear from Almighty God.
God is not a God of confusion but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). There is nothing more distressing than being uncertain. It is for this reason I cannot fathom a life without a God of whom I can be certain. It is in this certainty that you and I can find complete peace. Anxiety is invoked when we are not sure. The greater the cost of uncertainty, the more anxiety and fear may set in. When Paul encourages his spiritual son Timothy with the truth that God has not given him a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7), he is reminding Timothy to put his complete trust in a God who is certain. So if God is certain and not confusing, so should his messages of prophecy be. From this we should automatically see the weightiness of being able to walk with a deep awareness of the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the development of a prophetic vocabulary that allows for clarity of communication.
The message is not about the messenger. If the one issuing the prophetic encouragement is self-conscious, the message can be lost in the overcomplicating of the delivery. One must be faithful to listen to what God is saying, and release his prophecy with caution to make sure that the hearer can hear past the messenger and lock into the heart of God in the message. Musicians sometimes can focus on the instrumentation of a prophetic moment and dismiss the importance of becoming the backdrop of what God wants to say to his people.
There two ways that we can become a distraction:
1) We are under prepared, and
2) We make our skillfulness the objective over the actual prophetic message.
The activation of the listener. A clarion call coming from a musician that is distinct and clear, moves the heart of the person towards God, in order that God would encourage, build up and encourage them in His will. If the call is not clear, there can be a missed moment of activation for those who are hearing the prophetic call. They may hear, but not listen, because the call is not distinct. So when we move prophetically, we must take time to ask God what the extent is of our obedience to release a prophecy, in order that we are distinct, and do not overstate or understate what he might want us to communicate. For the believer it could be a prophetic word that might bring God’s guidance for the next step in their journey in His calling. For the unbeliever it could be the prophetic word that might lead them to God’s father heart for them, and open their hearts in receptivity to the Gospel.
Hopefully from these examples you can see the weight that is carried in the one prophesying to make sure that there is clarity.
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