"Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy."
It is obvious to many Christians that Paul details gifts of the Spirit in chapter 12 of 1st Corinthians and follows up with love in chapter 13, and then, in chapter 14, Paul discusses the use of spiritual gifts in the church, particularly speaking in tongues and prophecy. He emphasizes the importance of understanding and edification over unintelligible speech. He encourages the Corinthians to desire the gift of prophecy more than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets so the church may be edified. Paul also provides guidelines for orderly worship, stating that everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
For all of my 40-plus years as a Christian, these passages have been taught in isolation from Jesus as though the Lord is merely behind them, empowering them, and orchestrating them. On the other side are people operating in them. Never a thought is given beyond this box of ideas, where Jesus is separated from us when the power-gifts of the Spirit are in view.
Here are some thoughts and questions to help break up our mental concrete:
- 1. Jesus operated in the gift of prophecy. What about prophecy makes this true?
- 2. Jesus operated in all of the gifts, other than tongues and interpretation of tongues. Why? What is that about?
- 3. How does the Name and Servant theologies impact Jesus operating in the power and gifts of the Spirit of God? Why are they a requirement?
- 4. Once we understand that Jesus operated in all of the gifts, especially love and prophecy, how does that impact the idea of being a disciple and following Jesus?
What is Prophecy?
The first question to get a solid answer to is: What is prophecy? The simple answer is prophecy is the ability to receive and proclaim a message from God. This could involve foretelling future events, but is mostly speaking on behalf of God. (1 Corinthians 12:10, 14:1)
In our normal, everyday Christian lives how do we generally experience prophecy? Answer: Preaching and teaching. Think about it: Do you not have an expectation that your pastor or teacher is receiving and proclaiming a message from God? We sure hope that this is our shared expectation!
The next question is: What more precisely does receiving and proclaiming a message from God look like? How does that work? To start defining this requires us to look at the greatest example and model of all: Jesus, our Lord! We can then follow up with the apostles of the New Testament to watch them following the example and model Jesus taught and demonstrated to them.
Jesus Prophesied
Jesus consistently taught and demonstrated that he was prophesying (receiving messages from God and proclaiming them to those who needed to hear them). Let's gather up a few examples.
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me."
So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me."
"I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”
"For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
"Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works."
You may well notice that all of the example passages above are from the Gospel of John. It appears that more than any, John's description of the life and ministry of Jesus demonstrated this facet of how the Lord operated among us while he was here. What may not be transparent from the quoted passages is the context from which they come. It is a matter we will explore more in this article to a small degree, but I encourage you to read the wider context once you've consumed this teaching. There is much depth and meat in it. BUT—I am getting off-topic.
In each passage above we find three ideas that are tightly coupled together:
- First—Jesus is operating as a servant: speaking and doing what the father commands; never straying back into his own will, authority, and words, but following his mission and mission parameters from the father to the letter.
- Second—Jesus is ever and always quick to raise up his father and portray, carry, and conduct himself as the obedient servant son.
- Third—In like manner, Jesus is also lifting the love of the father and demonstrating that his own subservience to the father is driven by his own love, which is the basis for his obedience, submission, and fierce loyalty to his father and his mission of love.
To put a fine tip on the matter: Jesus is doing precisely what Paul points at in 1 Corinthians 14:1—the Lord has coupled love and prophecy, where prophecy is the expression and operational media of his love and that of his father. And this brings us to our next major thought: Jesus is operating in all of the power gifts of the Spirit except for speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues.
Gifted Jesus
Overall, there are about 19 power-gifts of the Spirit listed in scripture. These gifts are: Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits, Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, Serving and Ministering, Teaching, Exhortation, Giving, Leadership and Administration, Mercy, Helps, Apostleship, Evangelism, and Pastoring — that is — Shepherding.
Read carefully through the list above. As you do, you might come to realize that Jesus operated in each gift in the list except for the two I have already pointed out: Tongues and Interpretation. Let's get those two exceptions out of the way first.
First, a question: Is it (A), Jesus didn't have the gift of tongues and interpretation? — or — is it (B), that he didn't need them, so they went unused and lay dormant in him. I am going to suggest to you that the latter is the case. To give coherent proof to that will require defining the purpose and use of tongues and interpretation, and then examining Jesus in that light.
To put it bluntly and quickly, the supernatural and power-gift of tongues is there for the purpose of filling-the-gap for human beings who start out disconnected from the ability to know the perfect will of God and then pray in perfect concert with it, aligning our will and words with his own. This is the message of Romans 8:26-27, where our weakness of not praying as we ought (that is — in the perfect will of God) and then the solution: Praying in the Spirit (tongues and interpretation).
Understanding our weakness in this way raises the question: What stops us from knowing the perfect will of God? That answer can be found in James 4:1-3. The simple answer is: The lusts, passions, desires, and pride of the flesh. We easily mask our will in believing that our will is his will, when our will is driven by our lusts of the flesh. This is the message James is telling us by the Spirit in his letter.
Nevertheless, once we connect those dots, we can then see two things. First, we can see our need for tongues (and later interpretation). Second, we can see that Jesus had no such need. His flesh was perfectly sinless. He was without sin in his flesh. On the contrary, he was filled with the Spirit of God in power, which we see as the "dove" descends on him at the Jordan after his water baptism. As such, the Lord was in perfect alignment with his father who sent him. Jesus knew both the perfect will of God and how to speak and act within it directly.
There is more to say and teach from this deep well of tongues and interpretation, but for our purpose here, we have gone far enough. It is plain to see from the data provided above that Jesus had literally no need for tongues and interpretation.
Now, take each of the other power-gifts of the Spirit of God that was also in Jesus (baptism in water and Spirit at the Jordan river by John) and ask: Is Jesus operating in this gift? Go gift by gift and ask the question: Is he operating in this gift?
Word of Wisdom (make perfect will-of-God choices)
Word of Knowledge (perfect bible understanding)
Faith (perfect loyalty and allegiance)
Healing (curing of all disease, death)
Miracles (calming storms, multiplying bread)
Prophecy (perfect hearing and relaying message)
Discerning of Spirits (God working vs demons)
Serving/Ministering (identifying and meeting needs)
Teaching (explain God's story and word perfectly)
Exhortation (motivate, encourage, urge perfectly)
Giving (perfectly generous in wealth and talent)
Leadership/Administration (leading perfectly)
Mercy (perfectly compassionate; delivering those in distress)
Helps (behind-the-scenes labor to the church)
Apostleship (capacity to pioneer new ministry)
Evangelism (share the Gospel with non-believers)
Pastoring (perfect shepherd of lost sheep)
So, having read this list of the 19 power-gifts of the Spirit of God above, please note which ones of these Jesus did not operate in perfectly. I am betting that you are not able, just like I am not able. Why? Because Jesus operated in all of the gifts, perfectly. If we are honest and sincere followers of Jesus we will clearly see that Jesus not only operated in each gift, but excelled in them! He used each one, leaving unused only the two he did not need—tongues and interpretation of tongues. We need these two gifts, but he did not. Therefore, they laid untouched and dormant though present within him by the Spirit.
Our Disconnect
I have been a Christian for more than 40 years. Only now is the Lord making very clear and plain to me the connection between himself operating in the power-gifts of the Spirit and all of us as his followers. We are generally taught from the aspect that "Jesus-is-Jesus" and did everything he did because—well—after all—he is Jesus. We are taught that Jesus did what he did because he was Jesus. As we are not Jesus, we therefore conclude that we need the power-gifts of the Spirit, where he did not need them. This works out to a general distorted understanding and belief that the gifts are about us and not about him.
Can I say this to you clearly: WRONG!
The precise opposite is true. Jesus came as fully God (morphe of God) and fully-man (morphe of a Servant) (Philippians 2:6-7). As fully man, he was proving a lot of different things all at once, not the least of which was: "I-walk-in-and-by-the-Spirit" (meaning Jesus), who is precisely modeling our need as humans for our benefit. He is showing us what living that kind of life is like, how it works, what it means, as a guide for us to follow (i.e., disciple: disciplined follower of Christ).
Look—here's the bottom line: Jesus lived by and in and through the Spirit of God as a complete servant, having laid down his authority and will, taking up the delegated authority of his father and subjugating his will to the will of the father. Likewise—you and I are to do the same. Does that make sense yet? Regretfully, it took me forty years for God to penetrate my thick skull with this understanding.
So, Jesus is not to be taken as many of us have been taught, as though Jesus is somehow superhuman and not like us in all the ways that matter. We are taught that Jesus operated like some kind of Gospel superman and we are just lowly waifs and worms struggling to be like him, never getting anywhere near him. Frankly, this is NOT TRUE! Nevertheless, we will explore this idea more in a moment.
Name, Servant, Gifts
The theologies of "Two Powers" and the "Name" utterly demonstrate who Jesus was—is—and forever will be. He is the second member of the godhead—Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit). It is Jesus' perfect execution of the will of the father all the way to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8) that shows his life was lived as a perfect servant of his father in both authority and will. Jesus accomplished this by the power-gifts of the Spirit, which both connected and empowered him to these ends in order to complete his mission, given by his father. These truths are undeniable once we see them.
Jesus operated in the power-gifts of the Spirit. Not a single one was missing from the arsenal provided by the father to the son in the Spirit of God. Thus, the Name of God (Jesus or morphe of God) operated as a morphe of a Servant through the connection and power of the father through the Spirit to the son. Therefore, answer this: How do you think we are called to anything different? Yet, there is a difference between Jesus and us. That difference shows up in who we are versus who he is (and was). The difference is our starting point and limitations. Unlike him, we are not without sin in our flesh. Instead, we are infested with it and enslaved to it.
What about Us?
Unlike Jesus, who operated in sinless flesh, we do not. We start out not only living in sin-infested flesh, but we are enslaved by it and through it by fallen ancient gods (angels) and demigods (disembodied giants) as well as other humans who are also given to fallen gods and demigods in their own flesh and lust. Without Jesus, and before our Savior is revealed to us, we are caught and bound in an inescapable slavery along multiple vectors and dimensions of control. This reality even shows up in our various diseases and physical problems as well as our mental, emotional, and spiritual distresses.
Yet, the work of Jesus through suffering and at the cross, led to resurrection, appearing, ascension, and enthronement forever as King of kings. These things opened the door for our spirit (living in this sin-filled body of flesh) to be reborn by the power of God from the same father in heaven, thereby giving us the freedom we needed, but could not secure for ourselves.
Our freedom then opens the doorway for us to openly and publicly declare a realignment of our allegiance and loyalty away from fallen gods, demigods (demons), human rulers, our flesh, and even our own wills—AND THEN—pledge our utter and sole allegiance and loyalty to the Name—the Lord, Jesus, the Christ (Messiah). This is the part played by water baptism (repentance).
A remaining question is: Are we then expected to follow Jesus in a path of loyalty by our own wits and power, merely by our own reborn spirits? Keep in mind that we are still living in sin-filled flesh as a constant irritant and source of demon attack by enticement or threat! Is this where the Lord leaves us to fend for ourselves? God forbid! Enter—the Spirit of God
The power of God is gifted to us from the father such that, like Jesus, we can successfully be like and follow Jesus—the Name (Jesus) residing in us by the Spirit of God who empowers us the same way the Spirit empowered Jesus to his own successful completion of his mission and mission parameters. By this same Spirit in us, we too can be successful in this mission of Christ by his Spirit in us to the glory of the Son and then to the highest glory of the Father!
People like to claim that the power-gifts of the Spirit were for the early church alone. Please allow the Spirit of God speaking to lovingly declare a verdict on that sentiment: BUNK! NOT TRUE! Such reasonings are the made up concoctions of men filled with fear and anxiety as well as ignorance of what God is doing and has exemplified to us in the person of his son, Jesus, the Christ, now King of all! We are to be LIKE HIM! This includes being born-again and then endowed with power from on high!
Yet, as Paul (by the Spirit) notes in 1 Corinthians 14:1, our highest aim is to pursue love (doesn't mean we will catch it) and then earnestly (with all our hearts and might and soul and strength) seek after the spiritual power-gifts of the Spirit—ESPECIALLY prophecy! Why? Now, we get to answer this question (if it isn't already obvious).
The most important gift of the Spirit beyond that of love is the ability to hear the rhema (living) word of God speaking to us from and through the scripture and the Spirit of God and deliver that living word of eternal life to those it is intended for (which may include ourselves). Note that Jesus did no less: scripture formed a foundation and the father spoke within its guidelines, but as direct rhema word.
Yes, ultimately when all of history has played out and we are eternally with our Savior and our Father, the need for the gifts will be over, including prophecy. We will be directly with the Father, Son, and Spirit face-to-face. Gifting will no longer have a place. Love will continue forever. This is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 and nothing more.
1 Corinthians 13:8-10 is not about some distorted notion that the "word-of-God-is-complete" (e.g. "perfect") so now, we no longer need the gifts. Well now, isn't that fine and good!? Yet, such people believing such drivel want you to believe that the gifts they are comfortable with remain in tact and in force. It's only the ones that make them feel weird and uncomfortable that they single out for destruction from themselves and their flocks.
Until we take our last breath or until Jesus returns in glory as King to rule, all of the power-gifts of the Spirit are in operation, required, needed, and given to us as his followers and disciples to the purpose of laboring in his mission under his mission parameters that he gives to us by his Spirit in us, which fuses us to him.
Summing Up
What have we witnessed in this article.
We have arrived at a simple and working definition of prophecy: Hearing God speaking his words to faithful servants and passing that message along to ourselves and others.
We have seen that Jesus prophesied. Every word that left his lips was a message from his father delivered through the connection of the Spirit of God in him and then spoken out faithfully to everyone as the Lord determined they needed to hear. There were no exceptions. Jesus always stuck to his mission and mission parameters when it came to his words and his actions as a faithful, submitted, and loyal servant. The authority he operated in was delegated to him and his own will was subjugated to that of his father.
We have seen that Jesus operated in every power-gift of the Spirit of God except for the two he didn't need: tongues and interpretation of tongues. We need these gifts. He did not.
We have seen that Jesus, as the Name (being, essence, morphe) of God operating as a Servant of the father (laying aside his authority and will, taking up that of his father) put himself in a purpose-filled position of operating by the power and gifting of the Spirit of God. He did this for many reasons, not the least of which was to demonstrate, model, and lead us by his example, which he commands that we follow!
Finally, we have seen that we are—in point of fact—to follow after Jesus in all things. We are to be born-again of the Power of God afforded to us by his work of suffering and the cross, sealed in his resurrection, appearing, ascension, and enthronement as King—and then—to be as he was: Filled with the Spirit and then operating in that empowerment of ourselves as servants of Jesus, laying aside our former authorities and wills for his, and operating in the power-gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy and pursuing love above all.
This is the message that the Lord has placed on me, in me, and now through me to everyone reading. I am not telling you this is scripture. I am telling you that this is rhema word from Jesus for both myself and you, the one reading.
Like God told Moses in Exodus 23:20-22: The angel of the Lord is before you (Jesus) (and now in you by the Spirit of God). Follow him. Pay attention to him. Do what he tells you to do. Say what he tells you to say. DO NOT REBEL! If you do rebel, he will not save you or spare you from the consequences. No, you won't "go-to-hell", but no, you will not reap the fullness of what God wants to do for you and through you in love and power. So, pay strict attention and obey him the best you can.
Give it your all!