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

The Use of Prophecy in Church Today

The Necessity of Structure and Order

If a church wishes spiritual gifts to operate, a structure must be in place to govern and shepherd prophetic manifestations.A pastor and his peo ple should have appropriate procedures in mind for handling spiritual happenings.Teaching the church before manifestations occur is ideal but not always possible.Also, having the leadership in agreement with the procedures is a good safeguard.Every church member should understand that responsibility accompaniesprophetic manifestations.He or she must not only believe in and anticipate the movement of the Spirit, but be equally concerned to cooperate with pastoral leadership in honoring reasonable guidelines so that the service is meaningful to everyone.Faith is essential for prophetic activity, in both the giving and the receiving. It is exciting to work with a group of praying people who are full of faith and expectancy about the supernatural-and it is equally deflating to promote spiritual manifestations among lethargic people who have lit tle or no interest.Sometimes people are so scrupulously "rules-conscious" that they tie themselves up with concern and very little happens.If noth ing is ventured, nothing will be gained. I like this squib by Michael Harper: "...The rules are of no use if the gifts are not operating. What we need today, for the most part, are not rules to save the gifts from being abused and to see that everything is done decently and in order-but the apostolic injunction 'so, my brethren, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues'.The Highway Code is valueless if the car stays in the garage.But it becomes a most important document when we are on the road." 5 Since the Lord called me to the ministry when I was fourteen, I had some time to think about pastoring.One of the biggest problems in my mind, frankly, was how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in what He was doing, and at the same time supervise the response and activity of the peo ple in such a setting.It seemed to me that churches went to either one extreme of doing nothing for fear of quenching the Spirit, or the oppo site extreme of overmanagement, allowing no manifestations at all.This dilemma almost kept me from going into the ministry. It was a great relief when I realized that a praying, God-fearing pastor with the best interests of the people in his heart can actually guide a church to glorify God and edify themselves.Pastors are supposed to lead! By the very nature of their spiritual ministry, they have the built-in gifting and discernment necessary to govern and supervise people and renewal man ifestations.Most of the time a wise, Spirit-filled pastor knows what to do. He may make a mistake from time to time, but the Lord will honor his • 332