Prophecy and History

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. – Romans 12:6-8

Some of that seems a little redundant to me.  If your gift is serving, teaching, or exhorting, those are the things you ought to do.  By the way, to exhort means “to urge, advise, or caution urgently; admonish urgently”, according to the dictionary.  When most Protestants, like me, think of preaching, we are thinking of exhorting.  That gives us some insight into what Paul was thinking when he talked about prophecy.

Someone who has the gift of prophecy – and, unlike Dispensationalists, I think that gift is still operational – gets understanding or information or insight in some way other than reading it from a book or from experience or some other natural means.  

 I am not a prophet, and I don’t have a prophetic gift, but I did have this happen one time as I have related in the past.  The one instance that I can point to and say with certainty was a very minor thing, simply telling someone that he was going to receive some books he wanted from an unexpected source.  It was almost astrological in its vagueness and non-specificity, but I was as convinced of the reality of it as if the giver himself had called me and told me what he was going to do.   

I can see where exercising a gift of prophecy would require faith, first in recognizing that the insight was a reflection of reality and not imagination, and, second, in acting or telling someone else to act in accordance with it.   

I think a lot of what has advanced the human race in the last couple of millennia has been as a result of the gift of prophecy.  Insights and inspiration come from somewhere.  Those who believe in naturalistic explanations for everything will argue that inspiration is simply a happy coincidence resulting from re-combinations of existing information.  Thus Shakespeare really is no different than a million monkeys typing; he’s just a lot easier to housebreak.   

There are times when what I would call natural inspiration happens, when we extrapolate from the known or pull in something from another realm of experience to apply to the situation before us in a new way.  We might call that wisdom, but sometimes wisdom surprises me, and the same Apostle who spoke of the gift of prophecy here, speaks of the gift of wisdom in another passage (1 Corinthians 12:8).  If we have the gift of wisdom, we know that not all have it, and it is not as easy as some might think to tell from where it comes. 

What is fairly clear is the purpose of our various gifts:  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7).  When we look back over the course of history, we can see where humanity’s direction has changed, sometimes overtly and dramatically, sometimes subtly but no less substantially, by inspiration and by faith.  We live and enjoy the conveniences of modern life and our relative peace, prosperity, and security, I believe, by those manifestations of the Spirit given for the benefit of all. 

I suppose, then, we should not find it all that strange that the antichrist spirit of the world often seeks to gain control of what is beneficial, seeks to take credit for all the good that is done, or, failing in those endeavors, seeks to discredit and even eradicate a conduit of that inspiration.   

I wonder if all of this might be related to why so many of the world’s Nobel Laureates have been Jewish.  I also wonder if it would help explain why Anti-Semitism seems to be so popular from time to time.

What Is What

For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.  But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel...  -- Acts 2:15-16

When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon God's people their experiences will differ widely. Some will receive new vision, others will know a new liberty in soul-winning, others will proclaim the Word of God with power, and yet others will be filled with heavenly joy or overflowing praise. "This ... and this ... and this ... is that!" Let us praise the Lord for every new experience that relates to the exaltation of Christ and of which it can truly be said that "this" is an evidence of "that". There is nothing stereotyped about God's dealings with His children. Therefore we must not by our prejudices and preconceptions make a water-tight compartment for the working of His Spirit, either in our own lives or in the lives of others.  This applies equally to those who require some particular manifestation (such as `speaking with tongues') as evidence that the spirit has come upon them and to those who deny that any manifestation is given at all. We must leave God free to work as He wills, and to give what evidence He pleases of the work He does. He is Lord, and it is not for us to legislate for Him.

Let us rejoice that Jesus is on the throne, and let us praise Him that, since He has been glorified, the Spirit has been poured out upon us all. As we accept the Divine fact in all the simplicity of faith, we shall know it with such assurance in our own experience that we shall dare to proclaim with confidence -- "This is that!" -- Watchman Nee from The Normal Christian Life

This is from a section in Nee's book about "The Diversity of Experience".   In it he relates the different manifestations of being filled with the Holy Spirit as experienced by Charles Finney, R.A. Torrey, and Dwight L. Moody.  Moreover, what Peter in his message calls the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy does not match up to the signs the prophet seemed to forecast.

Because I was a member of the Assemblies of God, when I taught about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, I always taught that it came with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  I don't feel bad about doing that because if anyone asked me, as they sometimes did, why they "couldn't receive", I told them to seek God and not worry about tongues or any other gift.  Personally, I sought the gifts of wisdom and discernment since those seemed -- and still seem -- in very short supply in most churches of any stripe. 

Did I speak in tongues?  Yes, I did, and if I attend a Pentecostal meeting today where I somehow manage not to get so annoyed I feel more like speaking in hillbilly, I am liable to begin praying in tongues.  Sometimes when I'm praying, especially for someone else, I will break into tongues.  In a service, my rational mind says it's probably mob-think; in private, it's just a habit.  My rational mind doesn't know everything and is wrong on a fairly regular basis. 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit, whatever that means, is mostly beyond our normal ways of thinking and understanding.  It is nonetheless a reality that is available to anyone in Christ.  It is something we are called to seek continually. 

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.  (Ephesians 5:18-21)

Happy Return

You ascended to the heights, taking away captives; You received gifts among people, even from the rebellious, so that the LORD God might live there. – Psalm 68:18

Here is how Paul quotes that verse in Ephesians 4:8, “When He ascended on high, He took prisoners into captivity; He gave gifts to people”.

I did not read Gagdad Bob’s incredibly powerful post on Holy Saturday until this morning, but it coincides with the fact that I started reading Charles Williams’ Descent Into Hell last night.

I think I miss the evident for the obvious. Which is the forest – evident or obvious? How many trees does it take to make a forest? If a tree is a fact, is the forest an interpretation or an extrapolation? While talking to my wife yesterday, it occurred to me that a phrase in the Epistle to the Ephesians was of far greater significance than I could understand. He says, “Till we come … to a perfect man, to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ” – that is to say until we reach maturity as measured by comparison to Christ. The Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ must come of age. He calls us to take His yoke upon us, but we cannot be unequally yoked.

Most of my relatives are not tall people. We range from short to average. Dad was about 5’7” and his nephew Clifford was about the same, maybe 5’6”. They had a neighbor named Tom who was well over six feet tall but slightly blunt on top. The three of them were cutting some logs together. When they carried the logs out on their shoulders, Dad took one end, Clifford took the other, and they suggested Tom get in the middle. Tom thought those logs were a little heavy. If you’ve ever seen a “Ma and Pa Kettle” movie with Marjorie Main, you might recall Pa’s rather mismatched team hitched to his wagon. In that case, it’s the little horse that has to work much harder to do what the big horse does.

The gospel is the “death, burial, and resurrection” of Christ. As we just celebrated, He liberated and despoiled hell – or as one local preacher puts it: Jesus razed hell. After descending to liberate and deliver, the Lord ascended to pour out the Holy Spirit with His myriad of gifts upon us. These gifts are not baubles for our adornment or playthings for our amusement; they are the means of our growth in wisdom, maturity and beauty.

The Lord has “ascended”. In this case, the obvious is that Jesus is no longer in this world, in the stream of time. He is, as it were, hidden from the Bride. He has given us the Comforter, the “earnest of our inheritance”, but He has left us in time while He waits in eternity – already perfect and unchanging, “the same yesterday, today, and forever”.

And then there is the evident. For what is He waiting?

For us, the Bride, to grow up.