Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Christ's Continuing Voice in the Church

The Best Procedure for Tongues and Prophecy (verses 26-33)

Verse 26. When you assemble. Paul apparently considered it important for the Corinthian saints to assemble (11:17-18, 20; 14:23, 25). 42 When they did, they were to cooperate in a unified effort to share the rich diver sity provided in a gathering of Christians. The sharing of a psalm (music, inspired and learned), a teaching (doctrinal lesson), a revelation (prophetic insight), a tongue (an unlearned language given supernaturally) and an interpretation (the intelligent explanation of the tongue) are not meant to be an inclusive list, but rather a suggestion of unified diversity. Paul again pounds home his theme: "Let all things be done for edification." Verses 27-28. By two or at the most three. Paul wants no one to monop olize the service with an overdose of personal ministry. He suggests, there fore, limiting the presentation of a tongue with interpretation to not more than three. This does not mean (as I see it) that only two or three people can participate, but that the same person (literally, "If in a tongue any one speaks") should not have more than three ministry times. (Each pres entation would have a reasonable number of interpreted sections.) Paul's teaching indicates that the Corinthian believers should from time to time expect tongues with interpretation. Such a manifestation is ben eficial in reaching certain foreign-language peoples present, as well as in bringing a beautiful, devotional expression of God's heart to His people. I feel that tongues with interpretation should be expressed in an alter nating, rapid-fire manner, such as when a person is speaking through an interpreter. That is, the message is given in short sections or bursts (so that the interpreter can remember), followed by instantaneous interpre tation, alternating in this fashion until the message is finished. Last Sunday we had a tongues/interpretation/prophecy manifestation in our home church in San Jose. During the time in the service when spir itual gifts are encouraged to function, a woman from Mexico, who has been attending the church for several years, came to the microphone. Recently she had had a wonderful experience in the Holy Spirit and now came to deliver a prophetic utterance. Since she does not speak fluent Eng lish, she brought the church's Spanish pastor with her. To facilitate her utterance, she spoke the prophecy in her native Mexican Spanish; then the pastor interpreted to the congregation. It was both a prophecy and a tongue and an interpretation! She gave quick expressions, followed by the pastor's interpretations, until she was done. The swiftness, spontaneity and uniqueness of such a presentation brings an amazingly fresh touch to a church service. 43 Verse 28. Ifthere is no interpreter. How does a person know if an inter preter is present? Members of a church family soon become aware of the various giftings in that body of believers. Also, if one is not sure, a brief ■ 226