1Co 14:1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
Pursue God who is love, then you can show His love revealed in His righteousness.
Desire the Spiritual Gifts that allow us to minister thru the power of the Holy Spirit, and not of our own intellect or talents.
But prophesy is a very important Gift needed to keep the Church/churches on track and running the race following Jesus.
The prophetic voice takes the written word and other words inspired from the Holy Spirit and brings it off the pages and into the lives of others. It can be for current or future applications.
“The Gifts are not Toys to Play with, They are Tools to Build with and Weapons to Fight with” Greg Laurie
The prophetic voice warns, empowers and challenges the churches and people in regard of where the churches/people were at, are currently at and where God is leading them, as well as engaging the lost where they are at and His voice for their life. We are missing the prophetic in our churches. Many even mistake a teacher gift with the prophetic. Teachers take the written word and place it upon the heart. The prophetic word takes the voice of God and draws people upward into His presence with the Gift.
The three Gifts/callings needed for these days we live in, and that will be restored are:
Apostolic: Ones sent to break open new territory that ends with new churches and ministries but leads with a spiritual attack upon new ground that needs to be tilled and prepared. They must work in other gifts that include signs, wonders, miracles, etc. Their ministry has to come with power. Too many churches think this gift is a church planter, when really church planting follows the gifts of the apostolic, and when a pastor/teacher replaces and follows up by developing discipleship and church family to build a person’s faith. This Gift/position is ‘faith-full’ in their spiritual fight against the realm of darkness, and storms the gates of hades in Christ’s victory and boldness!
Prophetic: A fresh or refreshing word from the Lord that protects, directs and detects the heart and truth of God as it reveals the condition of people’s hearts. They unite the spiritual kingdom to the physical realm. They reveal the past, present and future to challenge the Church/churches to follow God, walk Holy and finish well. The prophetic voice works closely with the apostolic calling to bring balance and insight to one each other. But both are frontline ministries.
Evangelistic: This Gift/calling meets people where they are at and speaks of a place they long to be emotionally, physically but most of all spiritually. It connects with the heart condition and speaks truth into a lost person’s soul and deposits a spiritual ‘Gold nugget’ in their decaying, empty, shameful, unloved, confused, deceived, broken, shattered, depressed, oppressed, tormented, tortured and enslaved. The evangelists implant truth, hope and love. They invest the meaning, forgiveness and identity of Jesus Christ. They are spiritual surgeons who thru the Spirit identify sin and displace it with the truth of the transformational Gospel of Jesus Christ!
All 3 of these positions are precursors for the foundation of the pastors and teachers to build upon as a church rises out of the ministry of all 5 Gifts/callings. Yet, the Gospel of truth seems to dwindle a little more each year, replaced by the doctrines of demons and an apostate gospel of half-truths and abominations to God. It is because the Church and churches have not used the Gifts and callings laid forth by scripture and anointed by God to bring people to Christ and to full maturity. The church, like a dog returns to its own vomit of doing things their own way in spite that God laid down the spiritual blueprint of how to exponentially grow the Gospel throughout the whole world. Instead we rely upon pastor and teachers to do the work of the callings anointed by God for the apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic callings. So now we have people who are pseudo-Christians, or immature believers, or just plain blasphemous in our churches where pastors and teachers are choosing relationship over truth. And these leaders identify other immature and rebellious minions to try to build their churches and ministries by using. But they all but flop!
It’s harder to find mature churches, let alone mature believers that are eating of the meat of the Word. Mature believers and mature churches ‘reproduce’ the Gospel in others through the power of the Holy Spirit. We’ve all heard the old saying about ‘children having children’, well we see it also happening in the churches. People who are spiritually fornicating with the world, or are committing ‘spiritual adultery’ with the world are thrust into leadership but barely have one grain of spiritual maturity or spiritual experience in God’s presence to mature them. The churches have been producing babes in Christ and leaving there waiting for their diapers to be changed and to be bottle fed for the rest of their lives as they remain offended, rebellious, selfish, shallow, uncommitted, unrepentant, unteachable, worldly, lustful, etc. in their infantile state. It’s time to once again grow mature believers through the power of discipleship and the power invested by God in the full calling needed to mature the flock.
All 3 of these Gifts/positions are people who’ve experienced the power of the transformational gospel, and just want to share it with others. They cannot contain the power that has been invested within them. It must bust out of our lives into the world around us!
I know where I fit!
Where do you fit???
Keep looking up to the One who is coming soon to get His Church and take it with Him! I hope you are found faithful and enduring in your faith when He returns. Blessings!
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