1 Corinthians 14 You’ll have to read the last 3 parts to get the fulness of this part. The apostle Paul is setting things in order here in this chapter, and in the first 25 verses he keeps hammering on the purpose of these believers meetings and that these gifts are for edification.
Evidently these gifts can operate in an un-edifying manner. We must make sure they are carried out and manifested in a good order and in an edifying way. I knew of a man in a church that would prophesy nearly every service, but it never hit the mark. His prophecies were what I call “killer prophecies”. They killed any anointing that may have been present. It was awful. For years he did this and leadership never did anything about it. I was young but I knew it was off. The pastor should’ve stopped him and instructed him privately that he was off. Sadly, some pastors wouldn’t recognize the Holy Ghost if he walked in with a bright red suit on. There should’ve been some protocol set up, so this man’s prophecies could be run by leadership. But again, so often, leadership is not trained in these things.
In the church Mom and Dad Goodwin pastored there was an old Catholic woman who told Dad that she was receiving verses of Scripture during the services. The Goodwin’s recognized that the Lord may be giving her a ministry in this area. But they did not jump into it quickly and release her. The Scripture says to “test all things”, so that’s what they did. Notice this simple wisdom.
Dad told her to watch it and test it a few more times and then to raise her hand if it kept happening. If Dad felt it was the time to give it he would acknowledge her and give her liberty to give out the Scripture references she was receiving. She did this hundreds of times and it turned out to be a tremendous blessing to the church that edified and strengthened them. The Scriptures she received always matched up with the message Dad Goodwin brought. It had a revelatory aspect to it. Very profound.
There is good and poor teaching on the gifts. There are large ministries that have no business teaching on the gifts. I know of several that have laid poor foundations in pastors and believers, and it’s messed them up. They think they are moving in the anointing but it is mostly fleshly and soulish, and moving mainly in visualization. I know I’m gonna make some people mad right now, but most of what we associate with the arts in some churches is in the soulical and fleshly realm. What some call “prophetic” dancing and “prophetic” painting and all this flag waving is for the most part not the Spirit. The attention is all on man and there is no anointing. It keeps being repeated because much of it is learned behavior that was birthed by the poor training of these big ministries.
We must train people to become vessels of blessing and not vessels of controversy. We need excellence in these gifts, not a fly-by-night operation. These gifts are not toys, but fine china that needs to be handled reverently.
Then in 1 Corinthians 14:26 Paul begins to set forth a plan. Tune in for Part 5 to learn more. These brief teachings are being regularly transferred to our personal blog.
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