“Speak, Prophesy, Encourage”

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:1-17

In Walter Brueggemann’s book, “The Prophetic Imagination” (Fortress Press, 1978), he wrote about prophesy. He believes that “The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish and evoke a consciousness and perception [that is] alternative to the consciousness and perception of the … culture around us.” Following Brueggemann’s logic, one would have to conclude that a prophet is essentially countercultural.
- Homiletics Online

The truth is that prophecy was never intended to justify our culture. As a matter of fact, if you read through the Major and Minor Prophets in scripture, every single one was speaking out against the status quo! And were the words they spoke expressing their own thoughts? Hardly! The words came directly from the Lord God Jehovah Himself.

Think about Jeremiah. In 1:7, we read of Jeremiah’s reluctance to proclaim the Lord’s message, because he was only a child, but God tells him “You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.” The Lord’s plan for the prophet had been put in place before the boy was even born, and it was to play out just as the Divine Plan intended.

Isaiah, too, received a vision from God regarding the sinfulness of Judah and Jerusalem, and we read in verse 2 “Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken”. (Isaiah 1:1-4)

How about the gift Daniel was given to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2) - he not only tells the meaning of the dream, but he relates the dream itself perfectly. And in verse 45, we read “The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future.” The interpretation wasn’t Daniel’s to give – he only related what “the Great God” had told him.

In Hosea 1:2 – “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea …” It was Hosea’s voice, but it was God who was speaking.

And over and over, we are told that the prophets were called to carry the Lord’s message, and to never offer their own words as a replacement for them. Of course prophesy runs counter to every culture, and in every age, because it is God’s word for those who are lost without it!

Read 1 Corinthians 14:1-5

Before I go any further, I want to go on record as telling you that I fully believe that all the gifts of the Spirit are still being granted today, including tongues and interpretation of tongues. But I also believe that tongues are being abused and falsified far more than they are conveying the word of God.

Having said that, today we are going to focus on true tongues, and the message that they carry to us. We can certainly learn other languages on our own, but when we speak intelligible words that we have never learned, that can only come from the Lord.
Paul challenges us to open ourselves up to receive spiritual gifts. And of all the gifts that we considered two weeks ago (1 Corinthians 12:8-10), he claims that prophecy is the most desirable. Greater than wisdom and knowledge? Greater than faith and healing? Than miraculous powers? Than differentiation between various spirits? Or tongues and interpretation of tongues?

That’s what he says! Prophesy is the greater gift! And he offers a few more gifts in Romans 12:4-8 – gifts like service, teaching, encouragement, generosity, and so on. And he wants us to understand that prophecy is the most important one. Why, of all these wonderful gifts, would this point be so important?

Every gift, with the exception of prophesy and tongues, is a means for us to reach out to care for the needs of others. But prophecy is God’s reaching out to us, to give us his word for our lives. Prophecy is intended to mold and shape our lives in God’s image, and to call us away from the ways of earth. It is given to address a range of human needs, as well as spiritual, to edify, console, encourage, teach, challenge – that we might be exposed to God’s way, and understand what it can mean for our lives.
And if the insight is given in a tongue, whether one of human origin or that of the angels (1 Corinthians 13:1), and no one knows what it means, Paul says that we are only uttering a “mystery”. Prophecy is meant to raise the church to greater heights, but the apostle says that a tongue only glorifies the speaker.
Only interpretation can reveal the prophesy contained within the language, whatever it may be.

Read 1 Corinthians 14:6-9

Paul uses music to make his point. Think about it this way – what if every hymn we sang today used only one chord and one rhythm, and what if we never announced the title of the hymn – you were just expected to know what words to sing. Everyone would be singing their own favorite hymn, and some of you may even make up few words. No one would be lifting up the intended song.

So it is with tongues if they are never interpreted – in Paul’s words, you would just be “speaking into the air”. Now I will say that I know folks who say that they pray in tongues without interpretation. Scripture doesn’t say anything about this, except back in verse 2, where Paul writes that tongues alone can never speak to other people, but that they do speak to God. Is this a bad thing? No. In Romans 8:26, we read that when our words fail us in prayer, that “the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
“Groans” are pretty much uninterpretable and unintelligible for us, but maybe these are the very thoughts that God needs to hear. I don’t know much about groans, but scripture is very clear that tongues offered as other than prayer contain prophesy, and should be clarified for all who are present.

Read 1 Corinthians 14:10-12

Seek the gifts that build up the church. Have you ever tried to carry on a conversation with a stranger who spoke a completely different language? How far would you get in developing this new relationship? Not very far, I suspect! What if God sent us thoughts and words and visions that never made any sense to us? How far would we get in walking and serving in the Name of the Lord? We would be guessing all the time, and without much accuracy, either.

How important is clear prophecy for our lives? Vitally important.

Read 1 Corinthians 14:13-17

There is a very interesting relationship between our spirit and our mind. The spirit within us enables us to know the Will of God, but our mind puts that Will into action. Which one is more important? Which one is more vital for our lives? Neither – they are to work together. I’m sure that everyone knows of someone who has said, or at least implied, that “we should fake it until we make it!” The intent is that it pleases God when we do good works, even if we have no relationship with him. The truth is that when we do this, it will certainly respond to some need that a person has, but it brings no glory to God – the “work” is being offered in our name, not God’s, and it only brings glory to ourselves. On the other hand, if we know the will of God, and hear his call on our lives, but still do nothing about it, what has anyone gained?

I truly believe that the Lord’s will for our lives has little to do with secrecy, and even less to do with our acclaim. The Lord gives us his word – and it’s not just for our instruction, but to share with others. When we speak out to reveal his word to others, that is the prophecy that Paul has been speaking about. And when that word to given to others, it is meant to encourage them, and strengthen them, and to build them up.

The point of Paul’s writing in these chapters, combined with the challenge to do all things in the love of God which we read about in Chapter 13, it is then that we are living and responding in the way and will of our all mighty, all generous, all gracious God. We all need to give it a try – and letting the Lord work his gifts in our lives is not all that difficult to do!