Prophecy and Discerning of spirits: Gifts of the Holy Spirit

To watch the sermon The Gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophecy and Discerning of spirits

I've heard of immersion.

I've heard of sprinkling.

I've heard of pouring.

So now we're doing splashing.

You know, Boca Tov, Shabbat Shalom, everybody.

Glad to be here with you this morning.

Hope you're happy to be here.

I, you know, I don't usually do this, but if you're a visitor here this morning, would you just wave at me?

Anybody?

All right.

Thank you.

Oh, good.

Glad to see you guys here this morning.

We just want to let you know we're glad you're here.

And we are in the middle of a series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And we're trying to tackle two each Saturday, which is becoming a bit of a monumental task.

But that's what we're trying to do.

And so if you have your scripture on your app or on your lap, whichever one, turn with me to First Corinthians chapter 12.

And we're going to be looking at both First Corinthians chapter portions of chapter 12 this morning and chapter 14 as we look at the gifts of prophecy and discernment.

Now I want to just tell you in advance that this morning we're going to change the order of the listing of the gifts.

So we're going to start with discernment of spirits, even though Paul actually listed after the gift of prophecy.

So why am I doing that?

Because we don't get any value placed.

It's not that we don't get any value placed on the gifts until we get to chapter 14.

What I mean by that is that Paul doesn't really elevate one gift over another until you get two chapters further on.

Right now he's just listing it and prophecy is going to become the gift we are told to pursue above all others.

In fact, he has a lot to say about it in chapter 14.

And so I want the lion's share, and I don't know if I, when I wrote that as my introduction, it kind of turned out 50/50, so we'll see how that goes.

But I want us to just dive in this morning and I want to invite you to pray with me to focus your heart and mind on hearing what the word of God is saying to you today.

Don't get lost in my delivery or don't get lost in the environment.

Stay focused.

We've been singing about the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We've welcomed here.

We've identified Yeshua as the one who outpours the Holy Spirit.

So right now, if you could just consider what that potential could mean for this short time that we're going to be together, it could literally be transformational if we would open our hearts to hear the word of the Lord.

So let's pray and ask him to do just that.

Abba Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah.

And I ask you, Father, to, first of all, I just want to say thank you for Lord, for being here with us, for you have fulfilled your promise that where two or three are gathered, you are here.

Though you are unseen, your presence is quite felt.

And we thank you for that, for you inhabit the praises of your people.

And Father, I thank you for those who were gifted to lead us in worship today, to cry out your name, to shout out your name and to turn our hearts to you.

And now Father, as we open our hearts and minds to what your servant, the apostle Paul, has shared with us about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, may your word and your spirit be that which teaches us today.

And may we hear from you, Lord, give us ears to hear and eyes to see what your spirit wants to communicate with us today.

I pray this in Yeshua's holy name and all God's children said, amen.

That's a preacher way of manipulating an amen out of you.

First Corinthians chapter 12, verses 7 through 11, but to each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.

For to one is given a word of wisdom through the spirit and to another, a word of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another by the same faith, by the same spirit and to another gifts of healing by that one spirit.

And to another, the workings or the effectings of miracles and to another prophecy and to another, the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues and to another, the interpretation of tongues.

But one and the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually just as he wills.

So I want to just jump right in to this discussion about the discernment of spirits.

I want to remind you first of all of the context before we get to chapter 12, you'll remember your homework was to read chapters one through 11 and if you did that, you were constantly being exposed to the carnality, the fleshliness, the willfulness of those believers that lived there in Corinth.

And yet at the same time, in spite of the fact that they were struggling with their flesh, Paul reminded us that they were absolutely enriched in every way with every possible spiritual gift, which is absolutely consistent with his teaching where sin increases, grace increases all the more.

Now let me just back away from that just long enough to say the way to get more Holy Spirit is not to sin more.

Just in case there's a little lying spirit out there trying to, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid.

So don't be twisting the word of the Lord.

I know you're out there somewhere, you little evil spirit, you just be quiet.

Don't be twisting things.

But we do have that promise that where there is genuine desire to do the word of God, to live in the will of God, even our flesh is going to rise up against us.

But we have that promise that where that is happening in the culture around us, whatever grace, God's love gifts to us will increase.

Now to understand why Paul is going to elevate prophecy, we must remember that it's through the preaching and teaching of God's word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit working within us that will lead, will be led, the people will be led away from such a self-indulgent and self-centered life.

Prophecy will confront the carnality of our lives.

And that's why when we get to the end of this, Paul's going to say, I want you to desire prophecy.

Because in the preaching and the proclamation, and it doesn't have to be from a stage, but just in the sharing of the good news with people, you have the power to bring the truth that sets people free into their lives.

And Paul wants all of us to be doing that.

But God gives another gift to help the body of Christ confront that self-centered flesh driven life as well.

And let me just sidebar from my notes and just tell you, I'm currently preaching another series on the Sermon on the Mount at the Northside Christian Church on Sundays, and I have been overwhelmed with what the Lord has been sharing with me for months and months on the subject and the topic of righteousness.

And I've said this over and over and over again, so for those of you who are just visiting us today or new online, the opposite of righteousness is selfishness.

And it is the number one epidemic in the body of Christ that keeps us from not only flowing in the gifts of the spirit, it keeps us from the Holy Spirit being able to grow the fruit of the spirit in us.

It keeps us from manifesting the glory and the presence of God because the Holy Spirit does not show up to validate selfishness.

He shows up to validate righteousness and to do righteousness.

Now the gift of the discernment of spirits is one of those gifts and wow, do we need it.

There are only three verses in the Bible that use the exact same word that Paul uses here, the word diakrisis, which means discerning or discernment.

So first of all, what does this word actually mean?

Well as usual, it's a Greek word, so it's made up of two words, a preposition and a noun or a preposition of verb.

This time it's a preposition and a noun, dia, which means through, but there's something that you need to know about that preposition.

Oh really, you need to know about that preposition.

Really, you do?

Because I know right now you're saying, do I?

You do.

What do you need to know about it?

When the writer, when Paul uses this preposition, it intensifies whatever the second word is.

It's not just a of this or by that.

The preposition dia intensifies the action or the thing that it's connected to.

So what is it connected to?

Dia means through, but it really, it's such a going through that it's where we get the idea of thorough, a thorough going through.

And krisis is from the Greek word krino, which means judgment.

This word means the act of judgment.

And I know you're probably not going to like this, but discernment is passing judgment.

What preachers say, what?

I thought we judge not lest ye be judged.

And now we're supposed to pray for a gift of passing judgment.

Yes, there's a context to it.

We'll get there.

This is not just the ability to make a decision.

This is a specific gift for the purpose of clearly understanding the origin and intention behind our choices and behaviors.

Discernment exposes who, and we don't like this, what's really going on in our lives.

Discernment is the motive exposer.

It's why it's probably why we don't pray for this gift very often.

There is actually more said about how not to use this gift than there is said to use it.

One of the verses that is used in has drawn a lot of attention recently on Facebook through the wonderful venue of meme theology.

And all God's people said, boom.

But this particular meme has been showing up, you know, and posted by well-intentioned people, but it's basically this.

It's a side-by-side comparison of a translation from the King James Version Bible and the New International Version Bible.

Now, the King James was first, came into being around 1611, the New International Version in 1978.

And the meme compares each one of their translations of Luke chapter nine, verse 56, and attempts to show how superior the King James Version is because it has an extra sentence in it that the New International Version leaves out.

The verse right before that verse is one of the verses that has our, one of our three places where Paul uses this word for passing judgment, diakrisis.

Now the context of this is that James and John have asked Yeshua if they want him, if Jesus wants them to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village because the Samaritan village knew they were coming and did not extend a welcome or a greeting.

And so James and John just filled with the Holy Spirit, ran up to Jesus and said, "You want, we should toast them, Jesus?"

Now in Luke 9, 55, the New American Standard has it like this, which is consistent with the King James.

It says, "But he, Jesus, turned and rebuked them and said, 'You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.'

And they went on to another village."

The New International Version only has, "Jesus turned and rebuked them and they went on to another village."

How many of you have seen this meme?

Anybody?

Apparently I'm the only one spending too much time on Facebook.

Point taken.

The New International Version simply says that Jesus turned and rebuked them with no comment on the Son of Man coming to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

And again, the word that Jesus uses in this verse is, or the writers use, is diacrisis.

And providentially, as it turns out, this little meme crisis needs some diacrisis.

As it is being used, not just to pass judgment on a translation, but a movement that passes judgment on other believers who dare to use another translation other than the King James Version.

Years ago, in my first ministry in Indiana, I was a football coach.

And so I got to coach kids from all over the county at the high school level.

And one of the young men who I really loved, but he'd had a very traumatic experience when he was just a young man, like freshman.

And by the time he got out of high school, he'd gotten into alcohol and was kind of a mess.

But then he was befriended by a King James only preacher.

And I'll never forget running into him one Friday night down at the little place where you hang out in the small town.

And he was drunk as he could be.

And I'm trying to, I was also the probation officer in the county.

So I'm trying to help him get out of there so he doesn't get busted and thrown in jail.

And he's just kind of slobbering drunk and he decides to engage me in a theological conversation.

That's always fun.

And he said, "Coach, I've just got one question for you.

Which version of the Bible do you read?"

I knew where he was coming from.

Because this preacher had taught him that anybody not using the King James only, it wasn't just a criticism of the Bible version they were using.

It was a criticism of the people not using it.

The New International Version has a history of leaving out words its translators found repetitive or didn't have good textual evidence.

So what is the textual evidence and why did the New International Version leave it out?

It's simply that the oldest manuscripts that we have, the oldest Greek manuscripts, do not include the longer version where Jesus reminds them that the Son of Man did not come to destroy people's lives.

Now the younger or newer manuscripts tend to have it while the older ones don't.

The New International Version simply decided not to include sentences or words that don't have strong textual support.

Now I'm not here to defend the New International Version because quite honestly, they also just leave words out that do have strong textual support.

And so I have a problem with that.

But I want you to remember that the New International Version has been used by many preachers and many, many souls will be in the kingdom because of it.

The problem is this issue of does this validate the King James as the only version you could read?

So a little judgment or diacrisis goes a long way here.

Notice that the later editions include a statement that is completely consistent with the words that Jesus spoke and are recorded in other places of the gospel.

Did not Jesus say the Son of Man did not come to condemn the world but to save it?

There's nothing in that added sentence that is not appropriate to other things that Jesus has been saying.

So what is the motive of the meme?

Is it really just to provide a comparative study of biblical translations?

And again, while I would like to believe that, discernment tells me otherwise.

There's a problem with the spirit behind the meme.

Because I know the context of the movement and it's not just about saying, "Hey, this translation is better."

It's about saying, "We're better because we use that translation."

Now I'm 61 years old and don't bother trying to convince me otherwise because I've had an entire adult life running into people saying exactly that.

What is ironic is that this whole conversation is prefaced with Jesus saying, according to the younger manuscripts, "You do not know of what spirit you are."

Now the textual evidence may not support that verse, but the accuracy and application of that verse is spot on.

Especially when we're trying to understand what is discernment.

Discernment is understanding the spirit that is driving the motive, the action, or the deed.

The likelihood of an inserted verse being so spot on and accurate is unlikely, but it gives us a powerful example of Jesus saying to them, "You are not discerning the spirit that is driving your motives."

How could ...

I mean, and even if he didn't say that, you can read into that because he didn't turn and say, "Oh, not today guys.

Hey, good idea.

Let's put a pin in that one."

He turns at them and what does he do?

He rebukes them.

You have allowed yourself to believe you are saying and doing something that would please me, but in fact is just the opposite.

Church, I'm going to read that again because quite honestly, that may be the definition of the American church.

You have allowed yourself to believe that you are saying and doing things that would please me.

You're doing these things that you claim are for me, but in reality, they are exactly the opposite because they're not for me, they're for you.

Remember that definition of righteousness?

We have a verse that needs discernment when deciding how to handle it, and yet that very verse teaches us exactly what discernment is.

Sounds kind of providential.

I'm going to show you later just how providential.

That is what the gift of discernment is all about.

It's a Holy Spirit given gift to see the truth of what's driving a person's motives, actions, and words.

But why would we need such a gift?

Because even if that verse does not represent something Jesus said at that moment of the event of James and John asking him to do that, it accurately represents their lack of discernment.

This wasn't the only time Jesus had to do this.

Do you remember in Matthew chapter 16, having come down from the Mount of Transfiguration, having Peter saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

And, "Oh, Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."

I mean, having this incredible spiritual moment, and then Jesus begins to get honest about it's time to go to Jerusalem, and there's going to do some horrible things are going to happen.

And Peter jumps in the way and starts saying, "No, that's not going to happen."

And Jesus turns around and says, "Get thee behind me, Satan.

You are a stumbling block."

Will you put a pin in that one?

"You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's."

Meaning you're not putting your mind on what God wants, you're putting your interest on what you want, selfishness.

There's not very many times that Jesus rebukes His disciples.

Hear me.

But when they try to pass off selfishness as righteousness, He's on it.

And maybe that's why we don't pray for discernment.

Why not say, "Get thee behind me, Peter?"

I mean, why did He have to say, "Get behind me, Satan?"

I mean, that's just offensive, Lord.

Because Peter needed to understand that he had without notice given his thinking over to the enemy, and it happens that fast.

And it can happen even in the following moments of a great spiritual high, a great spiritual moment where he has just received the revelation of truth, and he had figured out the Holy Spirit from heaven gave it to him, and then just like that, he's back to listening to his flesh.

Now if that can happen to the Apostle Peter, thank goodness it can't happen to us.

We need this gift because many times we do not realize who we're listening to.

The gift of discernment of spirits is meant to protect the body of Christ from those who would redirect us away from righteousness to selfishness and masquerade that action as righteousness.

And it happens to the best of us.

It happened to James and John and Peter.

It can happen to us.

But Paul also uses this word in Romans 14 to teach us what not to do.

Listen to Romans chapter 14, verse 1.

Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of diacrisis, not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions or on his thoughts.

Paul says the weak brother, to accept the weak brother, but don't do it so that you can set him up so that you can tell him all the things he's doing wrong.

How many of you like want to be that person?

How many of you want to go to a church and have people seem like they're accepting you only to turn around and find out all they really want, they don't really care about you, they care about their agenda and making sure you're following their agenda.

Come on church.

Am I wrong?

It happens on every street corner.

Our agenda starts overriding God's agenda and pretty soon we're doing all these things.

We're doing this outreach program.

Are you?

Are we doing an outreach program or are we doing something we think will make us look good in the community?

Are we doing it to get people to come in so that we can tell them our distinctives?

Or are we out there trying to meet people to really meet some needs?

Is what's going on in their life more important than what's going on in my agenda?

I don't like discernment.

Discernment gets too close to home.

Discernment is not for gaining superiority over someone else and passing judgment on them.

It is for building them up and not tearing them down, which is just, I don't know where that verse came from that got shoved in there and Luke, but that's exactly what Jesus said.

At least that's the verse that got put in there.

I didn't come to tear people down.

Now listen to what, how Paul goes on on this subject that he's just introduced.

Now except the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.

One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.

The one who is, the one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats for God has accepted him.

Who are you to judge the servant of another to his own master?

He stands or falls and he will stand for the Lord is able to make him stand.

One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.

Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.

He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord and he who eats does so for the Lord for he gives thanks to God and he who eats not for the Lord, he does not eat and gives thanks to God for not one of us lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself.

For if we live, we live for the Lord or if we die, we die for the Lord.

Therefore if we live or die, we are the Lords.

I'm glad none of those topics relate to us.

And he gets down to verse 13 and he says this, "Therefore let us not diacrisis, let us not judge one another anymore but rather determine this, not to put a stumbling block in my brother's way."

I wonder where they came up with that verse, that mystery verse in Luke.

What did Jesus say?

You're a stumbling block.

When you masquerade as if you're doing righteousness but in fact it's selfishness, you become a stumbling block.

And when someone has the gift of discernment but uses it to tear people down instead of strengthening them, you're a stumbling block.

Two quick questions we need to address.

The first one is why is the gift described as discerning or passing judgment of spirits?

First there's only one Holy Spirit.

We have shown Paul's almost over emphasis of that in the beginning of chapter 12.

Second like in Luke 9, 56 and Matthew 16, discernment is about our motives.

Wisdom and knowledge are in play but discernment correctly understands what is moving us.

In fact the word motive comes from the word to move.

The gift of discernment is given to protect us from our own selfish motives as well as protect us from being moved away from the focus of the kingdom and his righteousness to a selfish version of Christianity.

The writer of Hebrews also uses this word in Hebrews 5, 14 and it's very, very helpful in showing us what is being discerned.

Hebrews 5, 14, for everyone who partakes of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness.

What is the opposite of righteousness?

It's a little weak.

What is the opposite of righteousness?

Thank you, just making sure.

So everyone who partakes of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness for he's an infant.

Infants aren't great at righteousness.

Feed me, feed me, me, me, mine.

Yeah, it's not their strong suit.

And it's cute when they do it.

It's not cute when we do it.

The writer of Hebrews has already bemoaned how they have become dull of hearing.

Why?

Because they're unwilling to receive the word of righteousness that calls us away from selfishness.

They are immature and weak like infants.

They only want what they want when they want it.

Verse 14 says, but solid food is for the mature.

I'm going to take a guess what that word is.

It's my favorite Greek word.

Tell us.

For the mature, the complete, the one being fulfilled, who because of practice have their senses trained to diacrisis, to discern good and evil.

Good is righteousness because it leads us to telos, completeness.

Evil is selfishness because it leads us away from the good.

Discernment is the gift of knowing whether we are being driven by righteousness or selfishness.

Now before we go on to prophecy, I need to illustrate this.

Many of us, and I would dare say probably most of us at some point in our life, have asked for a sign from God.

Can I just get a holy grunt?

But not many of us ask for discernment to expose the truth of what our motive desire is that's driving our actions and our words and our deeds.

We ask for signs because we tell God, God, I really just need to know what your will is.

Ever prayed that?

Oh God, if I just, you know, the truth of the matter is God has, it's almost like he didn't write a book.

I mean, he's made his will about as clear as it can possibly be.

I'm about righteousness.

Whatever you do at work, at school, at home, in your relationships, as a parent, as a spouse, as an employer, as an employee, as a student, as a teacher, doesn't matter.

Do righteousness.

Oh, Lord, if you could just be more clear about your will.

We're very quick to ask God to show us what his will is.

But would we be so quick to ask God to reveal to us what our will actually is?

Yeah, it just got all kinds of uncomfortable in here, didn't it?

I'm so used to going to God and saying, God, tell me what your will is.

Oh, all I want to know is what your will is.

And I do that and I haven't even asked God to show me the truth about what my will is.

Because sometimes I don't get the sign that I want because I haven't confronted, I have not been confronted with the truth that the reality of my motives are not right.

They are selfish.

And let's not kid ourselves.

Man, we can make the most selfish thing look righteous.

I was thinking about this and I'd say, you know, the minute you're in a conversation and you start by saying, well, I was just, man, just stop.

Now I'm not saying there's never a time that you need to help someone clarify what you were doing.

But I know in my own life, there are so many times when I have to look back, well, God, I was just, and he's like, no, you weren't.

It wasn't about me.

You wanted to be liked.

You wanted to be well cared for.

None of these things are bad, but don't try to pass it.

I was, I was on a stage in front of 3000 people my senior year of college being introduced as the new Cincinnati based evangelist for this big evangelistic organization.

And I'm standing up there going, what am I doing here?

I mean, I literally had thought, I don't even like these people.

It was a big organization.

I went back to continue my studies and I was supposed to write a sermon for preaching class.

Man, I couldn't get nothing.

Finally slammed down the pencil.

I said, God, what's wrong with me?

Holy Spirit said, I didn't tell you to go there.

And he didn't have to say anything more because I knew.

I did.

Oh Lord, do you want me to do this?

I wasn't really seeking his will because if I was, I'd let him expose mine.

Well, let's move on since I have all of 10 minutes to talk about prophecy.

Acts chapter two, Peter quotes from the prophet Joel who prophesies about people prophesying.

How prophetic is that?

In first Corinthians chapter 12, Paul simply listed as one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But by chapter 13, he's putting prophecy and all the gifts in the right spirit, rightful place.

First Corinthians 13, two, if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have faith so as to move mountains, but do not love, I am nothing.

You know, attaining the gift of prophecy isn't going to settle all your problems.

It's not going to make you exactly what God wants you to be.

If you don't love pretty soon, you'll start using prophecy.

You'll start misusing prophecy the way people misuse discernment.

Paul will go on to define love as patient.

Remember the weaker brother, he will define love as not jealous, not focused on self.

He will define love as not arrogant, not seeking its own.

Everything that he uses to describe love is the definition of righteousness and the opposite of selfishness.

And that is after he clearly states that if you think you have the gift of prophecy, but your life looks like selfishness instead of selfless love, your prophecy, well, you're just nothing.

In the end, the greater manifestation that validates prophecy as having come from God to fulfill God's purpose is love.

And without it, even prophecy can be misused.

And yet because of its powerful capacity and being the ordained way of God to make people aware of God's love, Paul writes the following in 1 Corinthians 14, one, pursue love, but earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

Why?

Because in prophecy, we declare the grace, loving kindness, and righteousness of God demonstrated so that the children he loves would come to him.

That's what prophecy is.

It's declaring the goodness of God and the good things he has done to reveal how good he actually is.

And any prophecy that comes forth that is not consistent with his love and his righteousness is not from him.

Listen as Paul describes the role of prophecy as he juxtaposes it to the gift of tongues.

A little spoiler alert, we're going to get there next week.

But 1 Corinthians 14, one through five, pursue love yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy for the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people, but to God for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.

But the one who prophesies speaks to the people for edification, exhortation, and consultation, consolation.

The one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.

Now I wish you all spoke in tongues.

Why does Paul say that?

Because he's not saying tongues is a bad thing.

We'll get into that next week.

It just has a different purpose.

Now I wish all of you spoke in tongues, but rather that you would prophesy and greater is the one who prophesies than the one who speaks in tongues unless he interprets so that the church may receive edification.

So let's just define prophecy.

The old easiest definition is two things.

It's forth telling.

This is just the declaration of a word from the Lord or a word of the Lord.

It reveals the holiness and heart of God so that people will know the truth of who he is and be drawn to him.

Preachers do it hopefully every time they get up to preach.

We are declaring the truth about the goodness of God and inviting people to interact with that goodness.

That's forth telling.

But the other part of prophecy is foretelling.

This is a declaration of a word of the Lord or a word from the Lord, because it could be from the Bible that reveals how God will show himself in future acts of blessings or judgments.

These are kind of the two categories in which prophecy comes forth, but both accomplish the same thing, foretelling and forth telling.

The point is that the hearer understands the holiness and heart of God for his people.

Prophecy isn't just, foretelling prophecy isn't just so that we can go ooh and ah.

Foretelling prophecy, when you hear what God is saying is going to happen as a blessing or happen, it's coming as a judgment, is revealing the heart of God to us.

Remember Egypt, that they might know he is the Lord.

It's God trying to communicate, don't be caught in this situation of judgment.

I'm reaching out to you with blessing.

How do we see it used in the New Testament to foretell and forth tell the coming acts of God?

Well John the Baptist, whom Jesus said there was never a greater prophet on the planet than him, had one prophecy.

Just one.

He who comes after me is greater than I, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Yeah, but who's the beast, John?

I mean when does the anti-Christ come?

Don't know, but I know the guy coming after me is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Well that's great, but what's going to happen with the Roman Empire?

I don't know, but I know this, the one who comes after me is greater than I and he's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

The greatest prophet in the Bible had one prophecy.

Remember Pentecost, Shavuot, Peter quotes Joel 2 to explain what's happening there.

Let me just read, "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place and suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven and it filled the whole house where they were sitting and tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves and a tongue rested on each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance or giving them the ability to speak."

Now notice that the people were hearing them speaking their language and the dialects and those people say they are hearing them declaring the mighty works of God and they're hearing it in their own dialect, in their own language.

What are they saying?

What are they seeing happening?

What are this outpouring of the Holy Spirit and what is this, the tongues, what was it accomplishing?

People were prophesying.

That's what the Joel 2 prophecy was about.

That when God would pour out the Holy Spirit, people's purpose would align with God's heart and we would begin to declare the truth to people about His goodness.

Now the gift of tongues at Shavuot wasn't just so that people would see a crazy miracle.

It was to give people the ability to prophesy and that's one of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives to His people.

For now take note that the amazement of the crowd was not just the manifestation of the languages, it's that all these people were prophesying.

We don't understand that.

We don't see why that's so crazy, but remember the whole countryside went out to see John who was a prophet.

Why?

They hadn't seen one in 400 years.

They hadn't seen a prophet for 400 years.

John shows up wearing the garment of the school of the prophets, so they all go out there.

Now they're standing in Jerusalem and the whole stinking crowd that has the Holy Spirit fall on them and they're all prophesying.

And that's what the people take note of.

Not just the tongues of fire, but what the Holy Spirit was doing through those people.

And Paul says, "Above all others, desire that gift."

Now please notice that you don't have to speak in a foreign language to prophesy.

I mean honestly, if everybody around you speaks your language, you don't need to be speaking in a different language.

It would kind of defeat the purpose.

Agabus was a prophet from Jerusalem, Acts chapter 11 verse 27.

He and a group of others came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and there he prophesied about a coming famine during the reign of Emperor Claudius.

And Claudius had a rough go of it.

There were multiple famines in his reign.

But if you go to Acts 11, you'll discover that because of the prophecy, the believers gathered food and supplies to send to the church in Jerusalem.

Why?

Because while there had been other famines during Claudius' reign, the one that's going to come towards the end of his reign is going to be centered in the Holy Land.

Wherever it is centered, it's going to have a major impact on the people in Jerusalem.

And this is what I just love about this.

The prophecy had the purpose to motivate God's people to do what?

Righteousness.

What is righteousness?

Selfless giving.

And as soon as they heard the prophecy of an event that was coming, they didn't start wringing their hands.

Oh no.

Okay.

How are we going to survive this?

I mean, should we start digging holes in the ground?

Should we get a bunker?

What should we?

No, they did righteousness.

The book of Revelation isn't given to us to cause us to do fear in times of tribulation.

It's to prepare us to do righteousness in the midst of tribulation.

Do righteousness.

That's the purpose of the prophecy.

First Timothy 1.6 shows us another way prophecy operates in the body of Christ.

Notice what Paul tells Timothy.

Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the elders.

Notice that prophecy is often used by God as a means of calling and equipping people, especially for specialized task and service.

I won't go into the different times that the Lord has given me my calling, but I can tell you it just wasn't like any other Monday.

It was specific.

Paul has to tell Timothy again in second Timothy 1.6-8, for this reason I remind you to fan the flame, the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self discipline.

Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me as prisoner.

What does he tell Timothy?

Don't be afraid to testify.

You've been given the spirit to do that very thing.

So prophecy is again, speaking forth with courage, the truth about Jesus.

So now let me just wrap up with some applications.

First I think we need to understand that prophecy, that its purpose is for his glory and not yours, and not mine.

Whether it's forth telling or fore telling, they all share the same purpose and neither of it is to draw attention to myself.

So I need you to hear me church, and not just this church, but anybody that's listening in online.

If you think that you are a prophet, you need to understand that in no way, shape, or form do you function in that gift or calling outside the context of the body of Christ.

Now I'm not saying you have to get my permission to operate in that gift, but I do want you to know that if you believe you are given a prophecy, you're going to need to understand a relationship with another gift of the Holy Spirit called discernment.

And the body of Christ has the gift and the responsibility of testing the spirit of your prophecy.

What does that mean?

Did it come from your selfishness or did it come from his righteousness?

And if you think you have the gift, any gift of any of the spiritual gifts, and you think you can function in those gifts disconnected from accountability to the leadership, the ordained leadership of the body of Christ, you are using your gifts inappropriately and outside the context of what the Bible says.

Prophecy and discernment like the other gifts are paired, are grouped for a reason.

Wisdom and knowledge go hand in hand.

Wisdom is the discernment of knowing how to use and how to move forward with the knowledge you've been given.

The second grouping, faith, miracles, and healings.

Faith is the gift that aligns a person's faith with God's will to bring about healings and workings of miracles to accomplish God's purpose.

Jesus prayed, not my will, but thine be done.

Jesus only did what he saw the father doing and what he heard the father saying.

The Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith because it aligns our will and our faith with what God has already decided to do.

Faith is an act, the gift of faith helps me discern where God is going to move and how he's going to do it.

You see the relationship?

The third grouping is the one we're talking about today, prophecy and the discerning of spirits.

Jesus says the instruction he gives in 1 Corinthians 14, 29, he says, let two or three prophets speak and let others pass judgment.

Some of you are going, ooh, I want to do that because I'm very judgmental.

That is not the gift we're talking about.

Judgmentalism and discerning of spirits is not the same thing.

Discernment detects whether the spirit has moved in the one giving the prophecy or if another spirit of selfishness is driving the prophecy.

Discernment exposes the motive of the prophecy as to whether it truly came from God.

And I say it again, you're not a prophet of God if you're not in submission to the body of Christ.

Even if you have the gift, because at any time, anybody in the body of Christ, the leaders have the responsibility, even if we know you're gifted to ask you to be accountable with how you use that gift.

Now why am I saying that?

Because they don't preach that on TV, do they?

And the gifts of the spirit, which are for the edification of the body, instead turn out for the destruction of the body when we don't submit to discernment.

Prophecy declares the glory of God so people can encounter the truth.

Worship team, you can come back.

It calls people into service for our King and equips them with the power of his word and his purposes.

Paul says, "Pursue love."

Why?

Because it doesn't matter what gift you think you have, if you don't have love, you're nothing.

And what is love?

It's righteousness being manifested.

It's putting somebody else above yourself.

That's why Paul takes an entire chapter between chapter 12 and chapter 14 to talk just about the priority of love.

Paul says, "Pursue love, but especially that you might prophesy."

Now I want to warn you again, when you do so, it may not feel supernatural.

To do it, you might not need to know a foreign language you've never known.

But you know what?

You cannot do it without the help of the Holy Spirit.

You know why?

Because I don't know what's going on inside your heart and mind, but he does.

And I cannot count the number of times in my ministry where just the way I phrase something, sometimes that was in my notes, sometimes that wasn't in my notes, that was the exact vocabulary or verbiage that was related to a person's struggle, and it spoke to them.

I've been in private conversations with people where I was ministering to them, and I would say something a particular way, and they would just stop and look at me, standing like, "Why did you say that?"

And I'd go, "Well," I was like, "No, why did you say it like that?"

Because God is prophesying.

He knows what's in their heart and mind, and he knows even the vocabulary.

So even if you don't need to know a foreign language, you do need to know the language of his heart for theirs, because he's the only one that can do that.

Some people say, "Well, I'm afraid to get into those conversations."

Why?

He's promised he will give you everything you need.

Just start the conversation.

Trust him.

But what about God's promise to equip us with the right words?

Are we ready to trust him and let him do that?

So my friends, pursue love and earnestly desire to prophesy.

What does it mean when Jesus says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness"?

Get ready to go out there and be used for his glory.

Get ready to go out there and manifest his goodness and his kindness and his love and his compassion, whether it's giving money to someone who's downtrodden or giving an encouraging word.

Just do something, do righteousness, and have the courage.

If you're struggling like, "Lord, I don't, I'm trying to figure out what your will is."

Maybe if you're struggling and you're just not figuring out what his will is, maybe it's time to change the prayer and say, "God, maybe what I really need to know is an honest revelation of what my will is.

What is it going on in me that is keeping me from going on with you?

What's blocking me from hearing?

What's inhibiting the flow of the fruit of the spirit?

What's inhibiting the flow of the gifts of the spirit?

God, how come I'm never the one that gets used?"

It's a good question.

I'll tell you one thing, you gotta get out of the boat.

You gotta walk across the room.

Sometimes you have to — help me Jesus — "Hello, I'm Brent."

Yeah, for some of you that would be a huge miracle.

Me too.

You should see me on an airplane.

Brent the evangelist, "Don't talk to me!"

I get it.

But we're invited to partake of the supernatural gifting and presence of the Holy Spirit.

We have to start by saying, "Well, am I in this for me or am I in it for them?"

And the minute we answer that question accurately, I dare you, just see what the Holy Spirit starts doing.

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