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

Suggestions for Public Services

God always has the prerogative to do what He wants in a service, but His highest objective is to work with and through His people. He knows the most consistent, lasting results are obtained when a church makes allowance, under wise pastoral supervision, for spiritual manifestations. So it seems ideal for us to allow a portion of service time for spiritual man ifestation,.particularly for communication gifts like prophecy. After a period of genuine, heartfelt worship, as we have seen, the atmosphere is most conductive to prophecy. There are three general ways in which prophecy occurs in a public wor ship service, and each of these expressions functions best when basic guide lines are considered:

• Congregational prophecy • Prophetic presbytery • Prophetic ministry to individuals

Congregational Prophecy

Most people are encouraged, not intimidated, by pastoral supervision. The average person is hesitant to come forward on his own in front of the church and speak. People are fearful of missing what God wants and of failing in front of the congregation. They do not always know how to express themselves or how to determine whether what they want to do is proper and edifying. Since the main way a person learns to function prophetically is by expe rience and observation, public supervision is necessary for best results. Many of us want spiritual manifestations, but we also want to invite unsaved friends to church. If the church family knows that the service will be managed properly, with any needed explanations given, members will feel freer to invite friends, assured that any spiritual manifestations that occur will enhance the service and impress the visitor. Pastoral supervi sion and guidance put most people at ease because they know the screen ing process is for the good of the individual as well as for the people. It saves mistakes and possible humiliation.

Some Lessons Learned

As our church developed, we had seven different locations. While we were occupying a former Mennonite church building, we had an aggres sive, younger congregation of 250-300 enthusiastic people. We were learn 353 •