You are invited to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts God has placed within you rather than fearing them. Take time to learn the proper order of operation so you can build up the body without causing confusion. Step out in faith today, trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide your words and actions for His glory.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Today, we're continuing the gifted series with a super special surprise. When we first started the gifted series, the first Sunday, it was gifted from the father. And if you missed any of these messages, you can go back and check them online. We either on our Facebook page or on our YouTube page. And then the second part of the series, talked about gifted from Christ.
He gives grace as he has portioned it, but then he also gives the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and the teachers. Third part of the series, we talked about gifted from the Holy Spirit and what it looks like to walk in the gifts of the Spirit and and and rightly, right, with righteousness and our identity as Christ in Christ as the key focus there. And then, last week, we began to go through the specific gifts and what it looks like to really understand, not be ignorant towards them unknowing, but really understand what they mean for our lives so that we can "walk in them" in love to "build up" the church. And we even talked about the gift of tongues, understanding last week, the gift of tongues. So if you've ever wondered about that, or that's intrigued you, or scared you, or whatever, go back and listen to that message.
Now, today, in *1 Corinthians-14:1*, it says, to eagerly desire the spiritual gifts. They're not something to be scared of, there's something to eagerly desire so that you can walk in them with deep understanding and love. And then it says, especially the gift of prophecy. So today, I thought, you know what? If we talked about tongues last week, and it says to eagerly desire, especially prophecy, we might as well dive into what is prophecy?
What does it look like in the church today? What should it be? And how to you know, talking about how to equip you to begin maybe by faith to step out into that in your daily life. Can you even do that? And I thought, what better way to describe or teach about the gift of *prophecy* other than to ask a trusted friend of mine to speak today on it who is a prophet.
Remember, in Ephesians-4:11, it says, Christ gave 1 of Christ's gifts to the churches of the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers. And so, I asked Sandy, who you're gonna meet in just a minute, she is a prophet. She walks in that office and remember the role of those offices, those 5 ministries, the 5 fold is what a lot of people call them. The role mainly is to equip the body, equip you for the work of *ministry* so that you have everything that you need to be able to minister the ministry of reconciliation, to minister the love of Jesus to those around you in your daily life. So just to introduce Sandy to you, she she loves real church.
She's visited real church multiple times. She's I was introduced to Sandy through our elders, Heidi and Jerry, and and she has mentored them for many many years, and she has spoken over my life the word of God, and and and she's spoken over our church the word of God. She's full of Jesus. She hears Jesus. So I encourage you to plug in right now.
She is about to teach us and equip us with with understanding or how to better understand the gift of prophecy. Thank you so much, Sandy.
Well, good morning, Real Church. It's good to be here with you today. I'm glad to see you. At least, I'm seeing me, and now you can see me. So thank you for having me this morning.
Thank you, pastor David, for inviting me. I'm really excited to get to be part of the process of this group of people learning about the gifts of the spirit. So I really am grateful. I love teaching the word of God. I've been doing it a long time, and I am still learning.
So I wanna encourage you that no matter how long you've been in it or how short of a time, we are all still learning, and God is still working in each of us to bring us into a more perfect place in the body of Christ so that we can be the influence on the earth that we're supposed to be. So I'm really excited, and I'm gonna try to be very cautious of your time this morning, and, hope to see you soon in person. Hopefully, will get back to some whatever normal might look like so that you can all meet together corporately again as many churches are trying to do that so that we can do and be what we're supposed to be in the house of the Lord. Okay? So let's get started.
We're gonna start with the scriptures, of course, from first Corinthians. I have to put my glasses on, make sure I stick with my notes so I don't take too many bunny trails. *1 Corinthians-12:10* says, to another, the working of miracles, to another prophecy. I know pastor David has been talking about the gifts and laying a foundation for that, and I'm very glad of that. I've listened to some of his messages, and, honestly, it sounds just like I would have taught it.
And so that's very exciting because the spirit of the Lord, when he teaches us, we all speak the same thing. And so that's really phenomenal. So I know he's already went over some of these scriptures, and that's where we're gonna start because I'm gonna teach you today on the gift of prophecy. We're gonna talk about what it actually is. What how does it function?
Who does it function through? And what does it look like in a setting of, say, a church setting? K? So, *prophecy*. Let's talk about what it looks like.
1 who prophesies a person who prophesies is a person who recognizes the heart of God in a situation and is able to express that to the rest of the body. I'm a say that again. A person who prophesies is 1 who recognizes the heart of God in a particular situation, and that person is able to convey that through the power of the Holy Spirit to the rest of the body or to the people that is around them. So our goal is to know and hear the heart of God so that we can all benefit from that. Now the apostle Paul was addressing the church at Corinth, and and they had really gotten excited about growing in Christ.
They had gotten the revelation of grace, and they were excited about the the Holy Spirit outpouring, and they were excited about having the gifts in operation. And like any of us in our zeal and excitement, we can get a little carried away. And sometimes we can even, get things out of order. And that's what had happened to the church at Corinth. And so the apostle Paul was "setting the house in order".
He was explaining very carefully the foundation of the gifts, who operates them, how they operate, and what order they operate because God is a God of order, and he wants us to move in order because then it benefits everyone when we're not just running helter skelter, but we are actually doing it in the order of God. So he was explaining these gifts to the body of believers, and he was establishing what a spirit led service should look like. Now I know pastor David had just recently talked about the gift of tongues, and so that is probably 1 of the more controversial gifts and a little harder for a lot of people to to understand and to accept. But it is a gift of the spirit, and it is much needed. But it must be done in order.
And so a lot of people really don't know how to do that. But after we receive that gift of tongues, sometimes we will be excited about being filled with the Holy Spirit, but we still don't understand how to be led by the Holy Spirit. And that's vital to a properly functioning body is to be led by the Holy Spirit. So So the apostle Paul was setting these things in order, and he was explaining those things to him. So we might ask 1 question.
If you got a pencil and paper, you might wanna take a few notes because we're gonna talk about the proper order of prophecy, who who who instigates it, how it operates, okay, like I said earlier. So get your paper out. When is it a proper time to prophesy? You're in a service, and every all the time seems to be filled up. There's worship.
There's the offering going on. There's, maybe some other things in different services have different parts of it. And then, of course, the pastor or the leader, the speaker of that day gets up to speak into the body. And so if a person gets a message from the Holy Spirit and they recognize that, when is the proper time to do that? Well, that is up to the discretion of the Holy Spirit, and it is up to the person receiving the message to be cautious, be aware.
Because just because you get that word right that minute or the inkling to speak that word does not necessarily mean you have to do it that moment. Use some patience. Just wait on the Lord. If he's given you a message, he will make you a place and a time for it. 1 rule of thumb to remember that has really helped me through a lot of, learning experiences in the gifts is the Holy Spirit will never ever interrupt himself.
Okay. What does that mean? If let's just use pastor David. If pastor David is preaching the word or the worship team is leading worship and someone were to jump up and either begin to boldly prophesy or begin to speak a message in tongues, it might stop things from happening, like the singing or the preaching for a moment, but it's out of order. Because if the worship team is leading in worship, that is their appointed time to do that by the Holy Spirit.
If the pastor is preaching, then that is his appointed time by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is not gonna interrupt himself. So if you always keep that in your awareness and your kinda on your radar screen, you won't jump in there too quickly and cause more confusion and chaos. The gift should never bring confusion. They might bring some lack of understanding, but that can be taught, and that can be talked about and helped explain.
So but we don't wanna be a part of confusion and division in the church. Lord knows there's enough of that going on as it is. So we wanna try to keep as much God order as possible and still obey the Holy Spirit. So, if you feel like God is moving you in a gift, be very patient. Another word I might share with you, if you have been experienced in the gifts, meaning maybe you were in a body of believers sometime before you came to real church, and they moved more fluently in the gifts and you operated in that quite a bit, it's gonna be very hard for you not to just do as you did previously.
My suggestion would be maybe if you're very fluent in those things and very knowledgeable of those things and have quite a bit of experience, get pastor David, get his attention for a moment sometimes outside of the service or even if you have to call and make an appointment and share where you've been and let him lead and guide you how he wants, Real Church to flesh those things out because God has given him the vision of Real Church, and he is the established leadership. And that is just the order of God, and it really does benefit everybody when it is operated that way. So that might be something you wanna pursue. And just please be present when he's teaching all these things and take notes and and go home and pray over them and and ask God to help you understand because he certainly will by the Holy Spirit. So we know not to interrupt what the Holy Spirit is doing.
Even if we know part of it is the Holy Spirit. Just be patient, be cautious there. So if the Holy Spirit desires to move you in a gift, please don't be afraid. He's not going to make you do something really crazy or weird. He's going to help you walk through it.
He is a teacher. Remember, he's the teacher of truth, and so he's going to help you know how to bring that about properly. And you're just gonna have to learn to trust him. If someone does jump up and and do something out of order, and you can pretty tell it's not out of maliciousness or out of just demanding their own way, maybe it's out of ignorance or just lack of understanding of how these things are to operate, then the pastor or the leader in charge will appropriately know how to help that person find a better way, and it will be done in love, and it will be done in grace because it's not about embarrassing anybody and shutting anybody down. Because I'll be honest with you, I've done this for a very long time, and in my early years, I was just learning.
And, yes, I made some mistakes. And thank God the pastor that I had at the time, he was very gracious, and he was very loving and kind to me. And he helped me understand a better way to do it and to understand better what the Holy Spirit was doing through me. And so he didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater, and I am grateful. So let's show a little grace.
Let's show a little kindness and patience with 1 another because you will make mistakes, but we want to continue to grow in the gifts because it's so beneficial for the New Testament church to thrive on. Okay? So let's go to verse 7 of 1 Corinthians-12, and look at that. It says, but to each 1 is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Now the each 1, who is the each 1?
The each 1 is you and you and me and different members of the body that the Holy Spirit, it says, he distributes the gifts as he wills. It is the Holy Spirit who desire desires to do it. It is the Holy Spirit who decides whom he wants to use at that moment. And please, if it's not you, rejoice of who it is because your time will come. He will utilize you if you stay open to him, keep an open heart, a "teachable spirit", and he is going to use you.
Okay? Because that's his desire to use the body. So you might be the each 1. Okay? What does it mean given the manifestation of the spirit?
Manifestation means a showing forth or an expressing of someone or something. So the manifestation is the *Holy Spirit* showing forth, expressing himself through individuals for the good of the body of Christ. For the common good, the King James version, I'm using the, new new American standard, but the King James version says it's a prophet to the body. In in other words, p r o f I t. It profits them something.
It's for the common good. And that word means it means to bring together, to build up, to mature. And so that's what the prophet or the common good is for. It is to bring together. Okay?
To make better. The Holy Spirit will always make things better, and he uses us us imperfect vessels to do that. I just find that amazing that such a holy and perfect God chooses to use us crackpots. Yes. We're all little crackpots, but God is sealing up the cracks, refilling us constantly with himself, and saying, I'm gonna use you.
That's a blessing. Nothing to fear. Nothing to fear. Nothing to get overly excited about. It is just God being God and letting us be his children, and he's going to teach us and grow us in these gifts.
Okay? So in other words, I can't say that I have a gift of *prophecy* because I do not own the gift. The Holy Spirit is the owner of the gift. I only operate the gift as the Holy Spirit wills, So I do not take ownership of any of the gifts. Now I may flow more fluently in some of the gifts, and the Holy Spirit allows that due to the ministry I'm in.
And that's true of other ministers and other leaders and other members of the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit might flow more fluently because, you know, 1 thing, my faith level might be more in prophecy than it is in the interpretation of tongues. So God himself knows what is best for us, best for the body, and that will bring him glory. Okay? So we have to learn to trust his his decision making skills and his ability to use whom he pleases for the for the moment or for the time.
So we're simply allowed to operate the gift. We do not own them. The Holy Spirit is the owner. So let's keep that in mind. Okay?
So why would God operate through the gift of prophecy? Why does the holy holy spirit want to do that through his people? It's for the common good, for the building up of the body. Everything is about building up the body to become a *mature* man or a mature body because that's when we can really influence the world when we become spiritually matured. Okay?
So let's, let's look at something. 3 things. I want you to write these down. There are 3 things that all of the gifts are designed to do. All of the gifts of the spirit.
Now there are other gifts that's talked about in Romans, and I'm sure pastor David are gonna cover those at some point. But right now, we're talking about the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit in the first chapter of Corinthians. So the gifts do these 3 things. They should always produce these 3 things, and this is kind of a guideline. If we can follow this guideline, it will help us.
Okay? So it is to bring unity. We can't make unity happen. Only brought brought by the Holy Spirit does unity occur. So these gifts will bring unity when they are used properly in their proper place and time.
They will bring unity in the body. The second thing, it will do make better. It will mature us. It will mature us as individuals, and it will mature us as a complete body. The third thing, gifts should always produce good fruit.
God is all about some good fruit. Read the fifteenth chapter of John, and you see Jesus takes bearing good fruit extremely serious. And so that's our mandate is to produce good fruit and that our good fruit will always encourage the gifts. So gifts should produce good fruit. Good fruit will always encourage the gifts because that's how God rolls.
He uses 1 thing to enhance the next thing, and he just keeps that cycle because it is good for us, and it is good for him. Okay. Let's take something else. Let's look at 1 Corinthians-14:3. And that scripture says, but the 1 who prophesies speak to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.
Here are the 3 reasons that the prophecy is needed in the bible because we need these 3 things in our everyday lives, especially now, I think, more than any time I've certainly experienced with all the turmoil going on in the world, the pandemic, and and and then all the social issues we see rising up and the political divisions and the divisions in church and schools. And so we just got a lot of stuff going on, and this is some things we need. Okay. This scripture talks about edification. This is what edification means.
It means the act of building, promoting growth, maturing the believers. So when I prophesy to you out of the Holy Spirit, then I should be edifying you. I should be building you up, promoting growth, and maturing the believers, maturing you, maturing myself because it works both ways. So it's for edification. The second thing is it is for exhortation.
Well, what's the difference? Exhortation means to urge, to advise earnestly, to prepare for something. So let's just say, for example, the Holy Spirit knows Jane, just using some fictitious names, the, the lady Jane, maybe it's been kinda going off the the proper track. Maybe she's kinda gotten off left field a little bit. And the Holy Spirit's job and and desire is to "woo her back" into the fold, to woo her back into the right path.
And so say he gives me a prophetic word for her that sounds slightly admonishing, like it's kind of not a rebuke, but an admonishment and urging because the word exhortation means to urge, to advise earnestly to prepare for something. So the word I will be giving her through the spirit might be urging her and showing her the urgency and to advise her earnestly, you need to come back in repentance. Get back on right track, then start moving forward. So *prophecy* can be an exhortation. *Hebrews-10:24* says, let us consider how to stimulate 1 another to love and "good deeds".
That's what the gifts do. They stimulate 1 another to good deeds through love. Beloved, let me assure you of this. All the gifts work through love because love is not what God does. Love is who he is, and so everything has to have that characteristic to it.
It has to have the character of love attached to it. Even faith, the bible says, works through love. So if maybe your faith hasn't been really strong, maybe you need to look at your love life. Look at your love journey with the Lord. That might be where the problem lies.
Okay. So the third thing that prophecy brings forth is consolation, and that simply means encouragement and comfort. Boy, do we need some encouragement in the world today and especially in the household of God? Absolutely. We're we're having to be divided.
We can't worship corporately in many cases, and it's taking its toll, and the children can't be in school playing with their classmates and friends. And a lot of people are suffering from anxiety and depression because of the economy. If ever we needed encouragement and comforting, is today. And you know whose job it is to do that? The church.
And if we will do what we're supposed to do, I promise you we're gonna see an increase in the church because people are gonna flock to where they can get what they need met. They have needs to be comforted, to be assured, to be urged and advised urgently, and to be edified, to be built up. Listen. We're being tore down enough. Everybody's telling us how bad things are, and we're being told we can't do this and we can't do this, and you better do this.
We need to assure people that there is an entity in the earth today, and it is God almighty. And he is working through the body of believers, so it is vital that we operate in these gifts, but it shows the love of God and encourages us. Okay. This next scripture will prove what I just said. *1 Corinthians-14:1* goes on to say, "pursue love".
Yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. Now why would Paul encourage us to especially desire *prophecy*? We're to pursue the gifts, but only through love. If you're pursuing a gift so you can look more spiritual, you're off base. Your heart is not in its proper place.
If you are pursuing spiritual gifts so that you can get in good with the leadership, your heart is not in the right place. Pursuing gifts, earnestly wanting the gifts, is to show the love of God, to build the body of Christ up into a mature man, to exhort, to console, and comfort. That should be your heart. That is where the love of God resides. Okay?
Spiritual gifts are not to glorify man. I should never utilize a gift to bring glory to myself. It might ultimately bring eyes to look at me, but I should always be pointing them back to the father because it is about ***glorifying God***. Okay? So that's that's very, very important.
So why did Paul say to earnestly desire to prophesy? Because it's a greater gift. What makes it a greater gift? Because you look at some of the other gifts. Well, the gifts of miracles, the gifts of healings, the words of knowledge, my goodness, those are powerful, powerful revelatory gifts.
But why prophecy? Just really because of what I've already told you, what it does for the body and the common good. So what's the difference between a message in tongues along with the interpretation? Because if a message comes to a corporate body, whether that's a body of 2 or a 100 or 1000, if a message is given in tongues, it must be interpreted so that there is no confusion and so all has clear understanding. That is the order, and that works best, and it flows well.
Okay? Well, prophecy is just speaking forth the word in its natural language, in your natural language, whether it's English or if you were in a Spanish congregation, it would be spoken in Spanish, whatever the understanding language is of that particular body of believers. In our case, it's mostly English. And so if I can just prophesy a word in English, why would I do tongues and then have to interpret? That's 2 gifts when you can operate in the 1 prophecy.
And, again, the reason being is because the Holy Spirit knows what is most needed in that particular body at that particular time. And when a person stands up and gives a message in tongue in its proper place, this is what it does. Attention. In other words, God is calling you to attention. And if you've ever been in that setting, right after that happens, someone gives a message in tongues, everything gets very, very quiet because we're expecting an interpretation.
But *prophecy* bypasses that first step. It just gives the message because God knows what is most needed at that time. And he is the 1 who is dealing out the gifts as he wills and as he needs it to happen. So that's why prophecy all those reasons are why prophecy is to be desired. Okay?
Because it's good for the it's good for the body. Okay. So now we're gonna talk just a little bit about prophets. I hope you got all that down about prophecy, and don't forget the finer points. It is about encouraging, building up, exhorting, bringing forth good fruit, maturing the believers.
So all that is important. Please don't forget that. Okay. Let's talk about prop prophets because a lot of people will hear someone prophesy and say, wow. They're a prophet.
No. A prophet is not a prophet because they prophesy. Everyone who prophesies is not a prophet. A prophet is not a prophet because he or she hears from God. Everyone in the body should hear from God.
Jesus said we are all his sheep, and his sheep know his voice. And so we should all hear the voice of God. Now sometimes that takes a little bit of learning and, building up a faith to to receive that you've heard from God, But all sheep should hear from God. We should all hear from God. So, just being a believer entitles you to hear the voice of God.
Okay? So why is a prophet a prophet? It's not that they hear. It is what they hear that sets them apart. Another thing that sets them apart is that a when you are utilizing a spiritual gift like prophecy or miracles or whatever else the Holy Spirit is giving you or another person to operate in for that season, that moment, that will come and go.
It does not stay on you forever. But when you are called to be a prophet, that is a specific man or woman ordained by God to speak as the voice of God. These men and women who are called to be a prophet have a specific assignment, and they move in that gift or office, if you wanna call it that, at all times. I have the calling of a prophet. I don't say that as a title, a power.
I just say that because that is just what I am, and I've known that for many, many, many years. So I move in the office of a prophet or the gift of a prophet. It is not what I do. A gift is what I do for the moment, but a prophet is what I am for all times. Okay?
If you go back to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah said, before you were formed in the the womb of your mother, I knew you and ordained you as a prophet to the nations. So the only difference between the prophets of the Old Testament and the prophets of the New Testament is the prophet of the Old Testament was the voice of God to the nation of Israel. The voice of the prophet in the New Testament is the voice of God to the church. And, again, they hear a different level of *prophecy* than just the gift operating of prophecy in the body. I hope that's a little clearer for you.
A prophet is someone living out a calling of the spirit. Now in Ephesians-4, if you go there, you find out that God has appointed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the matrimony of the believers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the preparing them for ministry and the works of service. And it says until we all come into the unity. So even those 5 gifts or 5 offices are gifts to the church to mature the believers. But that is what they are, not just what they do, and that stays with them for the lifetime that they understand that that's what their calling is.
So, I want you to just say this. Prophets will often give a word of direction, meaning it might even change decisions a person has made or the direction of their life. Prophets will often give a predictive word, meaning they can predict the future. You see this in the book of Acts. There's a I think in thirteenth chapter, there's a a prophet called, he goes to Paul, and he wraps a coat thing around his and binds his hands.
And what he was telling Paul, if you go to Jerusalem, they're gonna bind you, and they're gonna put you in prison. And Paul went anyway because that's what he was supposed to do, but the prophet was just warning him what was gonna happen. He was predicting something. He also predicted a famine, and it happened exactly as he said. So prophets can predict things.
The third thing the prophet does that is not normally found in a normal be judged. Anytime I am in a body of believers, and if I get such a type of word, I will always do it in front of the residing pastor or leader of that body of believers. The reason being is because that word needs to be judged. And if I have a problem with it being judged, then I really shouldn't be moving in that because I am not moving in true love. Even a prophet in a word of judgment must move in love because a word of judgment is just extended grace.
You understand that? See, we look at judgment as something terrible and dark and scary, but judgment is a last ditch effort for God to say, please come back to me. Please let me restore you. I don't want it happen to you what's going to happen if you do not adhere to sound counsel. So we should always have those words judged so that we can all stay in right alignment.
I have no problem with that. And a seasoned believer who is gonna operate in these gifts should not have a problem with being judged. I'm sorry. That video just cut itself off. I just wanna pray over you.
Father, we thank you for your, mercy, for your grace, and your love for your body. We thank you that you've endowed us with the power of the Holy Spirit and with gifts. I ask a special blessing over the leadership and over all of Real Church today. Let it be the powerful powerful inner entity that you desire it to be in that state, in that community. Bless them, father, with a continual outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
We give you praise and honor and glory for all of your works. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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