Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church
Who Judges the Prophecies?
5. Public Response Should Be Appropriate.
The joyful inspiration of the moment can be lost by a careless congre gational response to a stirring prophecy. I have heard of some situations in which the people responded militantly to a prophecy by declaring, "I confirm!" or, "I don't confirm!" This boisterous response leads to confu sion, imbalance and lack of love, and can discourage those with prophetic gifts from even trying. Clapping after a prophecy can also dilute the sacred effectiveness of the moment. Prophecy is not meant to be received as a performance, although a word from God should be given appropriate, enthusiastic reception. I agree with Jack Hayford when he says, "I lament the glib habit of applauding prophetic words as though the whole idea of the gift were to excite us." 20 The church must constantly guard the sanctity of spiritual gifts by refus ing to bestow foolish adulation on the messenger instead of on the mes sage. It is appropriate to express appreciation for a prophetic word and tell of its benefit to the individual, but an inordinate praise for the con duit depreciates the value of the water flowing through it. With all this discussion, an actual procedure has not been given. The Bible does not give the practical outworking of how we are to manage this wonderfully spontaneous and explosive gift of the Spirit. The next two chapters of this book will be devoted to practical procedure; there we will talk about preparation for prophecy in the Church and the prac tical management and development of all who want to participate. Our purpose at the moment is to focus on how a pastoral statement can be given that confirms, applies, disallows or corrects a prophecy given in a church service in order to facilitate proper congregational response. Here are ten examples of how various churches and groups handle prophecy in their public meetings. How Judging Can Be Done
1. Our Own Experience
When my wife, Joy, and I and our three small children started Christ ian Community Church in San Jose "from scratch," we were not a denom inational church so we had opportunity to experiment and be flexible. Our simple approach has proven very workable through the years. 341.
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