The Ministry of the Holy Spirit XVII

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Sunday 07/06/14

Topic: Review: The Spirit Within – Praying in the Spirit I

 

Series – The Ministry of the Holy Spirit XVII.mp3

Click here to watch the video.

 

Key Texts:

1 Cor. 14:20-27; 1 Cor. 2:11; Jn. 11:32-35, 38; 2 Cor. 5:2-4

 

Understanding 1 Cor. 14:20-27

As I said during our last teaching on this subject, Paul seems to contradict himself between verses 20-27 by first saying that tongues are for a sign to the unbeliever and prophecy is for the church, then later saying that tongues would only serve to confuse unbelievers and prophecy would lead them to repentance. Last week I offered a simple explanation to this, but upon listening to the message myself I thought I’d better spend a little more time with this, so I went into a greater explanation this week.

 

First off, in 1 Cor. 14:21, Paul was quoting from Isa. 28:11,12. In this passage God was talking to Israel and was saying that when He sent them into captivity under a nation whose language was foreign to them and indiscernible – through that experience He was still speaking to them, but for all His efforts they still did not hear Him.

 

In like manner, under the New Covenant, God has given the church (among other things) the gift of  tongues and the gift of interpretation of those tongues FOR THE EDIFICATION of the church, yet for all this the church still was not hearing Him.

 

It appears, that of particular concern in this church was the desire to excel in the Gift of Tongues with little concern over Interpreting those Tongues. So Paul addressed the gift of Tongues most directly in this chapter, though his admonishment was concerning all their behavior – especially in reference to the ministry gifts. You see, the Corinthian church sought to excel in the gifts..and this was a good thing according to Paul, BUT, ONLY if they desired it for the right reasons! Paul’s encouragement therefore was, “Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts…but let it be for the edification of the body that you seek to excel…”, 1 Cor. 14: 1 & 12.

 

Apparently, whenever this church gathered together as a whole (which was NOT their typically way – that being from home to home) “everyone of them” (according to the Spirit) seemed to believe they had some inspired spiritual utterance (gifting) for the whole body. This seemed to be MOST prevelant with Tongues, Prophecy & Teaching – at least it appears that these were the top three because Paull addresses them specifically. Here is a bullet point list of the Spirit’s instructions concerning gifts in the church given through Paul…

 

  • He tells them that manifestations of the Gift of Tongues should ALWAYS be accompanied by the Gift of Interpretation or NOT GIVEN AT ALL!
  • The Gift of Tongues should be only be manifest through 2 people or AT MOST by 3…NO MORE!
    • It is my personal belief that God originally had no such provision, but because Christians are humans – we have a strong proclivity towards over doing things and to be in competition – so the Holy Spirit’s command to the churches (not just the Corinthian church – 1 Cor. 14:33) was to allow NO MORE than 3! For those of you who may believe that is limiting the Holy Spirit – remember it was the Spirit of God Himself Who placed these limitations, so I imagine He is fully capable of saying everything He desires and needs to say within these limitations.
  • He gives them the same limitation for Prophecy when spoken through a Prophet with the additional commands to judge what is said (as to whether it is in line with scripture) by those who are there and to defer to others who may have been given a word by the Spirit – “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent.” ~ 1Cor. 14:29-30
  • Everyone was allowed to prophecy, but prophecy needs to be defined!   “For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” ~ 1Cor. 14:31-32)
    • According to scripture, true Prophecy is to speak by direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the edification exhortation and comfort of all.
    • SOMETIMES this takes the form of speaking to and foretelling future events…but MOST of the time it was simply to teach by inspiration. THIS IS NOT TYPICAL TEACHING!!! If someone is teaching from notes from a prepared message or lesson – THIS IS NOT PROPHECY!!! That is teaching. Is it a gift? Perhaps – if that person is so gifted at it, but anyone can rattle off information even if they lack a gift.
    • Prophecy is a specialized form of teaching. The differences between the two apparently lay in the fact that prophecy is the utterance of a revelation received directly from God – and usually without foreknowledge, while teaching is the utterance of that which one had gained by thought and reflection.
    • The teacher must be led and guided by the Spirit to be a true teacher and have genuine spiritual teaching, but what he said was in a real sense his own.
    • Prophets were able also to teach, but not all teachers were able to prophesy.

 

In these verses Paul, tells the church that if they all come together and everyone speaks in tongues – they are acting in the flesh because none of the “rules of order” established by the Holy Spirit were being observed so, it could not have been inspired by Him. EVERYONE speaking is certainly more than 2 or 3, and if no interpretation is being given then it is only promoting mass confusion and so it is NOT meeting it’s objective of edifying the church AND being a sign to those who are baby Christians or unbelievers as God intended – 1 Cor. 14:22-25

 

In such cases it would serve everyone better to prophecy – for the unbeliever, the baby Christian and the maturing and adult Christian for at least everyone could then understand what was being said.

 

Finally, it is evident that Paul was being satirical in this example by his following rhetorical question, “How is it possible then brethren, that when you come together EVERYONE of you has a psalm, a teaching,  a tongue…etc.” ~ 1Cor. 14: 26

 

Groaning in the Spirit?

Most of the remainder of the service I spent talking about the passage in Rom. 8:21-27 and it’s using the phrase “groaning” by the Spirit as another term for praying in tongues.

 

We illustrated several examples of “groaning” in or by the Spirit both by Jesus and the New Testament Church and then taught on it’s meaning and how it shows that praying in Tongues gives the believer the ability to pray things which are deep in their hearts for which they have no words. The Holy Spirit takes those thoughts, and marries them with the deep thoughts of God and then prays them to the Father for us with “groanings” which we are unable to utter from our natural intellect.

 

To learn more about this, simply listen to the message on MP3 above, or on the video below.

 

We will soon be video taping our services so that there will actually be a person to watch as the message is being played as a video…just give us a few weeks to iron out the details. Also, you can pray for me (Mark) because doing real video footage is going to eat up A LOT more of my time every week, so I need to approach it with more enthusiasm then I can currently muster up.

 

I hope you will enjoy the rest of this teaching and as a result be better equipped to co-partner with the Spirit in the work of the ministry!

We encourage you…give it a listen!

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!