Why a lot of bible believing churches have different culture of worship and administering their church' life? Some are having focused on the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and some seemed so silent and can't even clap their hands while singing joyful songs during the worship time. Are the bible believing people who clap and raise their hands are much holy and pleasing to God compared to those who are singing solemn songs and act like a very formal person and vice versa? Are the fast growing churches today depend primarily on what they call the unfolding of the power of the Holy Spirit that mold even their forms of worship, style and culture of administering its church life as joyful, full of emotions, practicing speaking in tongues, healing and deliverance and other manifestations of the the work of the Holy Spirit? How about the conservative way of seemingly silent and formal type of church life? Are they wrong in their beliefs and practices that resulted then to slow growth?
God gave the spiritual gifts to the church in order to edify or strengthening the faith of the body of Christ towards growth qualitatively that will surely results to numerical increase, I Corinthians 14:4,26. He will not give his great commission through Jesus' first disciples without the provisions on how to do it and the power to sustain this task, Matthew 28:18-20. Spiritual gifts are the heavenly provisions of God to the church then and today until Jesus comes. But how we should understand some of the very controversial gifts like tongue and prophecy? Are these gifts ceased already or still necessary and operational in the 21st century churches today?
We believed that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross was completed already and there are no another offerings needed to do after this caused his death was the once and for all act of God through Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and physical and spiritual salvation of men, Hebrews 9:12; 10:10. And the word of God says in II Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." The work of salvation of God through Jesus Christ was finished and completed and the complete revelation of God through the Scripture is also completed and has its final authority in all matters related to salvation, guidance to live a holy life, right expressions of love, training, relationships, conduct and others.
The writing of Apostle Paul in II Corinthians 14:1-40 gave us the clear understanding on how we should handle this correctly and apply in the 21st century church today. First, Paul reminded all the believers to do everything in love and we can understand clearly in I Corinthians 13 the true meaning of love that should be seen and served us as our clear rules in practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the church. There are three fundamental truths God has bestowed in the church and these are love, hope and faith but the greatest of these is love, I Corinthians 13:13. Even though you gave all that you possess to the church and gave too your life for other people but you have no love, all these are nothing verse 3. Second, the church should know that God gave the spiritual gifts to the church to edify and strengthen the faith of the people of God. All the believers have at least one spiritual gift to exercise and use for the edification or building up of faith of other believers, verses 4 and 26. Not all have the same gift. It's like a body which has different parts that functions differently but compliment each other in harmony towards one goal. No other part of the body should say to the feet that I'm the head and I'm much important than you and vice versa. Think of a person that has a beautiful head but has no feet. Can he live like as a normal person? Same in the application of the spiritual gifts in the church. Complimenting one another and harmony are very important truth for the growth of faith of the believers that results to more fruitful and growth in the ministry. All are equally important to God cause he is the source and the one to be glorified.
Third, the role of the gifts of prophecy and speaking in tongue are in existence even now for the following reasons: the teaching of the Apostle Paul in verses 18-19. He admitted that he speaks in tongue regularly and more than other believers during his time but, he did it in a right and intelligible manner. Another reason is, the uncontrollable working of God in the world cause he is spirit and we should worship him in spirit and in truth, John 4:23. He is not bound by space and time. He can not be contained in a box or be controlled by the wisdom of men. God pleases what he wants to do which is grounded in holiness and love, for he is our loving God and he is the God of love and has no sin in him and he is God - omniscient or all knowing, omnipresent or in all places at the same time cause he is spirit and he is God. Fourth, speaking in tongue is differentiate from prophecy. Speaking in tongue means, a person is speaking or talking to God. He says mystery to himself, I Corinthians 14:2 It is more in personal way. Only him and God understand each other and this personal communication edifies himself alone, verse 18. But he/she should be careful in talking to God like Moses before the burning bush. Moses can't looked straight to that tree cause it is so brighter and his eyes can't bear the light. God is holy and Moses is not that's why he removed his sandals because the place he went into is a holy place cause the Holy God is there. Same thing with those who say that they have talked face to face to God. God is holy and all who come to him must also be holy. God hates sin and he can't talk closely to a person who pretends or else you will be burned and died. A believer who is experiencing such kind of experience is a very blessed one but be careful to deceive yourself. True holiness is one of the marks of a believer in Christ who has that kind of gift. God sees the heart and that person needs to live a holy life too and must bear much fruit. Apostle Paul told the believers who are doing this gift to be generous or to share what he/she receives from God in order to strengthen the faith of other believers. This requires then of an interpreter verse 5, 6-12, 20-25, 27. If there is no interpreter, one must keep silent in the church and don't let the devil use this occasion to distract and disturbed other worshipers for God is God of order and harmony, verse 28, 39-40. That's why even Paul reiterated in verse 19 to regard to speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in tongue.
Prophesying is a gift of telling intelligent words to others. It is much greater than speaking in tongue, verse 5. Its functions are to give a clear encouragement to the discouraged and hopeless, strengthen the faith of the fearful and confused believers on what to do and how to overcome issues in life, and to give words of comfort to the lonely, sad and people who are in deep mourning due to death of their loved ones and others. Most of the prophecy about the coming of Jesus, the kind of death he will suffer and the way of salvation God will do through Jesus, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the believers then and today, were all realized already at the cross of Calvary. But one thing we're all waiting now and this is the second coming of Christ. The church of God and the ministry of preaching and teaching are considered as prophetic ministry. The people of God like the pastors and teachers have to inform the unbelievers with passion and intelligently to repent or they will perish in hell. They have also to remind the believers in Christ to be watchful and be ready for the coming of the Lord, I Thessalonians 5:1-11 Preaching and teaching, healing, and other ministries of the church must pointing to that future event that will surely come. The ministry of the church now is like the ministry of preaching and teaching during the time of Noah. He believed that destruction will come if people will not repent and we are now doing the same proclamation of the good news of repentance and eternal life to all because we believed on what we do not see, Hebrews 11:1;6. Faithfulness in telling the good news is a must to do by all true believers in Christ as a proof also that we are true children of God, true followers of Jesus or true disciples of Jesus Christ. And all of these should be done in holy love and faith.
Speaking in tongue and prophesying are not forbidden but should be done in a rightful way and orderly manner. We can speak in tongue on a personal capacity and on personal level and needs an interpreter to benefit also other worshipers. Paul is encouraging believers to prophesy to tell the truth in much clearer and intelligible manner than to speak in tongue for understanding purposes. And those who desire to do this prophetic ministry are expected to have a deep, right and clear understanding and training to share the good news to others clearly and with power. Much greater responsibility and accountability are expected to those who do this task cause people will be confused and might be led astray from the truth if have received false teaching and therefore will perish in hell, James 3:1. False teaching means, false application in the lives of those who received or destruction. Since we are worshiping God in spirit and in truth, the ministry of prophesy should be done by holy, blameless, upright, God-fearing and obedient preacher-teacher and believers of the words of God. The main goal of the church is to edify, build up and strengthen the faith of the believers to become more fruitful in the ministry till the coming of Christ.
For more biblical messages about life, death, hope, forgiveness, confidence, victory over temptations, inner strength and others, visit our website at savelifewithjoy.com or go to our blogs in hopeandlifeforyou.com and Eugenio "EJ" Juarez. For your comments, suggestions and prayer requests, email us at agn623@gmail.com.
God bless you all.
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