Definition

In the beautiful array of spiritual gifts, this one particularly catches the apostle’s eye: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy” (1 Cor 14:1). The gift of prophecy is the special ability that God gives to some people to receive and communicate an immediate message from God to his people. Paul assumed meetings would be full of this gift (1 Cor 11:4-5, 1 Cor 14:31). I think of prophetic words in terms of the following three levels:

1. General words of love and encouragement from God. E.g. “God wants you to be freshly assured of His total love for you, not dependent on your love or obedience to Him…” These words don’t need weighing because they are actually a truth directly from God’s Word, and whilst they are always relevant, when they are brought to you (or to the meeting) at just the right time, the general truth from God’s word takes on a special intensity and relevance, doesn’t it?
2. Specific words. E.g. “I believe God is taking you to a new season of effectiveness, and that you will know greater intimacy with God and alertness to his spirit….” Again, not much weighing is necessary for similar reasons to Type 1 prophecies.
3. Highly specific words. E.g. “I feel God saying to you that you should move to London and join the church plant there” or “God is calling this church to divide into four new congregations and move to the four corners of the city”. These really do need weighing!

This is #9 in a series of posts by PJ on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. It deals with the two gifts of tongues and interpretation (1 Corinthians 12:10).

Definition of Tongues

This gift refers to a ‘meeting-stopper’ moment when a tongue is brought for everyone to hear. It does not refer to the ‘personal’ ability to pray and worship in tongues that people receive when they are baptised in the Holy Spirit. Also, it does not refer to those times in meetings when maybe everyone is praying or worshipping together in tongues.

Paul tells us that ‘anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God whereas he who prophecies speaks to men…’ (1 Cor 14:2-4). This is a vital distinction: when you bring a tongue the dynamic is man-to-God, not God-to-man. So, tongues is a form of prayer or praise.  Here lies the key thing about this gift – it is a gift to deepen our worship and revelation of Jesus.

Speaking in tongues is pure worship to God, unhindered by the mind, and the interpretation will also be divinely enabled to search the deep things of God and illumine more of him to us. Oh, how we need more of this gift! This can bring a ‘wow’ to worship and manifest the presence of God in a mighty way.  Nick Sharpe writes: “Sometimes you might hear an interpretation being brought in the form of a God-to-man prophecy. I think this is a mistake. We often move too quickly into God-speaking-to-us-mode when we should press deeper into him through worship. Often a tongue sparks off the prophetic gifting and sometimes a genuine prophecy is brought too quickly as the interpretation. Hold back you prophets! Let’s give room to this exciting manifestation first.” (NF Mag June 2004).

Definition of Interpretation

This gift is when a person brings an interpretation for the tongue that has just been publically brought.  It can either be brought by the person who brought the tongue (1 Cor 14:13), or by another person (1 Cor 14:26-28). Interestingly, this gift combination receives by far the most attention in 1 Corinthians 12-14, especially in Chapter 14.

In the next post (Part 2 of Tongues and Interpretation), I will answer these questions:

• How will I know if I have the gift of tongues?
• How will I know if I have the interpretation?
• Can a tongue have more than one interpretation?
• Should tongues and interpretation be used in seeker-sensible (missional) meetings?

This is #8 in a series of blogs by PJ on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. It deals with the gift of workings of miracles, or miraculous powers (1 Corinthians 12:10). You can view the others by clicking here.

Definition

It is the special ability that God gives to certain people to be regularly used by him to perform powerful acts that alter the ordinary course of nature.  It seems that a miracle concerning health is synonymous with the gift of healing.

Biblical Examples

• When Jesus turned water into wine (John 2)
• When the disciples caught the miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5)
• When they caught a fish with a coin in its mouth (Mt 17:27)
• The feeding of the five thousand (Lk 9:12)
• When Jesus took authority over the weather (Mk 4:41)
• When Paul did ‘extraordinary miracles’ (Acts 19:11)
• When Paul raised a dead man after he fell out of the window (Acts 20)

Where can this gift be used?

If we exclude miracles to do with healing the human body, then these other miracles are not as prevalent today as maybe they should be. I think that situations that fall within this gift include miraculous provision of food and finance, and taking authority over weather (e.g. breaking a drought, rebuking a hurricane).

Likely traits of a person with this gift

Workers of miracles need to be full of compassion for the person/people and full of a sense of God’s authority.

How can I use it?

Step out in faith! Go for it! If you sense this is a gift that you have in embryonic form, then eagerly desire it by regularly asking God for more of it, learn from people who have this gift, and be alert to opportunities to use it.

This blog was originally published on the GodFirst Blog.

This is the 7th post in a series about spiritual gifts from Newfrontiers leader PJ Smyth. You can find the rest of them here.

Definition

Whilst we should all pray for the sick to be healed, the gift of healing is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to be used by him to regularly cure illness and restore health without natural means of any sort. The phrase is plural (gifts of healing) which implies that different kinds of healing are possible with this gift.

Biblical Examples

The Bible is loaded with examples of healing. One such example is when Peter and John healed the cripple at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:6).

Where can it be used?

This gift can be used in any context at home, work and church. It is an especially great gift to use on unbelievers and at work because (a) people very seldom decline the offer of prayer for their sickness, and (b) if they are healed it is a great entry to talk about the gospel.

Likely traits of a person with this gift

The two key biblical traits of healers are that they are full of compassion for the person and full of a sense of God’s authority.

How can I use it?

Step out in faith! Go for it! If you sense this is a gift that you have in embryonic form, then eagerly desire it by regularly asking God for more of it, learn from people who have this gift, and be alert to opportunities to use it.

This blog was originally posted at the GodFirst Blog.

Definition

This is not about the general measure of faith that we are given to be saved (Eph 2:8), or the faith that grows through hearing the word (Rom 10:17). This gift refers to a God-given super-sized measure of faith for a situation. It allows the believer to trust God for much greater things than he otherwise could. When you have the gift of faith for something you just know within you that it will come to pass.

Biblical Examples

• When David stepped out to fight Goliath (1 Sam 17).
• When Peter walked on the water (Mt 14:29).
• When the Centurion said to Jesus ‘Just say the word and my servant will be healed…’ (Mt 8:8).
• Most great leadership initiatives require the gift of faith (E.g. Abraham leaving his homeland, Noah building the ark, Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem).

Likely traits of a person with this gift

They might be optimistic, upbeat people, but not necessarily, because this is a supernatural thing, not a personality thing.

How and where can I use it?

Some people seem to have this gift for special areas such as finance or healing. When you have it for a situation, then if you are the leader then you can use it to make the decision or take the action, or, whether you are the leader or not, you can use your gift to impart faith and hope to others by standing up and speaking or praying in such a way that you can impart your gift of faith to others.

This is a gift that often accompanies other gifts. For example, the gifts of miracles and healings require lots of faith.

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This blog was originally published on the GodFirst Blog.

Definition

This is a potent gift that cuts through ‘things-as-they-seem-to-be’ and reveals what is going on in the spiritual world. It is not the same as ‘discernment’ which refers to general wisdom and experience that most people develop to varying degrees, but rather to the special ability to know what spirit is operating in a person or situation. It may come as an impression, thought, audible voice, picture, vision or dream.

Biblical Examples

• When Jesus says to Peter ‘Get behind me Satan’ (Mt 16:23). Of course, it was Peter speaking, not Satan, but Jesus discerned that the spirit behind what he was saying was a satanic one.
• When Peter discerned that Ananias and Sapphira had a ‘withholding spirit’ from Satan (Acts 5).
• When Peter discerned the motives of Simon the Sorcerer saying, ‘You have no share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God’ (Acts 8:18-24).
• When Paul discerned that an actually very ‘Christian’ sounding slave girl was in fact operating in a demonic spirit (Acts 16:16).

In what situations is this gift needed?

Parenting: Is that childishness or naughtiness? Is that disorganization or rebellion?

Business: Is this guy trustworthy?

Church: Useful for weighing prophecy. Useful for leading meetings – is God here or are we just going through the motions? Is he operating in godly zeal or carnal emotion? Is this sickness because you are run-down and tired, or is it because of sin in your life or demonic attack? Is she/he just strong-willed or actually Jezebelic?

Likely traits of a person with this gift

As it is a revelation gift, he will need to know Jesus well and be someone who practices the presence of God. He will probably be perceptive, insightful, sensitive, prayerful, and prophetic.

How can I use this gift?

Once you have discerned the spirit behind a person or situation, it is usually best to avoid charging in with your guns blazing your verdict, although sometimes a more direct approach is necessary. It is usually best to weigh your views with respected others and proceed from there with prayer and possible confrontation depending on the situation.

You may find that you have a particular antenna for certain spirits or situations. This often manifests as an uneasy feeling about someone: “I feel that we should proceed more slowly with bringing Bill into leadership.”

If you sense this is a gift that you have in embryonic form, then eagerly desire it by regularly asking God for more of it, learn from people who have this gift, and be alert to opportunities to use it.

Cautions

Avoid getting spooky-spiritual and discerning something behind everything! Also, make sure that you have others around you that can help confirm what you are discerning.

Because you will be often brining unpopular news you will need to resist the temptation to keep quiet. Your best course of action is to go and tell the leaders what you are feeling. You don’t want a situation where something happened and you say to yourself, ‘Ah yes, I always felt uneasy about Bill but I didn’t think it was my place to say anything”! It was your place…you had the gift of discerning of spirits!

I left the leaders meeting feeling angry. Not healthy righteous anger, it was more like head-butt a closed door kind of anger. I just couldn’t understand why the pastors on my team didn’t help carry weight and why the leaders under them just couldn’t lead. Two years of leadership coaching, lots of prayer, encouragement, and more relational cups of coffee than could possibly be healthy just wasn’t working. I was frustrated and the truth is, I was the problem.

A lack of definition

My ill-defined roles for members, leaders, and pastors and my foggy expectations were biting me in the rear. As I reached out for coaching, read, and listened it started to come into focus. We had members who were really just attenders. Many of our ministry leaders were really just good members, and most of the guys I called pastors were just good men who loved Jesus and me but didn’t have a clue what pastoring really was about. It was time for the first of many ‘define the relationship’ talks with the team. Lots of guys stepped down, some left, and the first of several replantings of the church began.

Getting things in order

We had to start at the beginning by defining what Biblical expectations for church members looked like. The door from attender to member narrowed. Next we defined what was expected from ministry leaders. The door from member to leader narrowed even more. Finally, we defined expectations and requirements for pastors. The door between ministry leaders and pastors narrowed to the width of a credit card. We want to have a church culture where everyone is a minister and where all Christians get to suit up and get off the bench. It’s the pastor’s job to equip the saints for mission. That just can’t happen if no one knows the rules of the game.

Acts 29 leader Josh Kouri spoke at Equipped For Mission, the Newfrontiers USA Leaders conference, in October. At the conference, he led a seminar about creating a supernatural culture in the church. It was great to hear a lot of their experience of preaching the gospel and seeing the supernatural accompany their preaching. Bryan Mowrey got a few minutes to sit down with him at the conference to hear a bit more about creating a supernatural culture.

(If you cannot view the video, click here to view the post in your browser.)

What if your iPhone helped you know Jesus better? I know that I unlock my iPhone an amazing number of times each day. I see my lock screen background every time. What if that lock screen had a verse of scripture on it?

Next week at Confluence, we are starting Monday is for Memory. Every Monday morning you will be able to download a new, stylized and attractive background with a valuable scripture passage on it. It is easy to install and set as your background.  All week you'll be storing up powerful truth every time you unlock your iPhone. Check in every week for the latest background!

Starting out

The first year of the plant was fun. It looks weird seeing those words together, but it really was. People were meeting Jesus. I was free from the pressures to conform to the stale and controlling church system that I had left. Preaching on Sundays was more worship than the transfer of information. For the first time in my life I really enjoyed church. By the end of the second year the fun was gone.

Crash and burn

I think I had a good ecclesiology from 50K feet. I had a grid for what church could be and should be, but I had no idea what to do with it. I realized, almost too late, that some of the guys I called pastors were barely good members. The result was that I touched the ball on every play. My cell phone was the church line. My day off was sermon prep (read-cramming for Sunday). I was still driven by the idol of performance and the acceptance of others. Saying no felt like a sin because I was worshiping the false god of acceptance.

The result was exhaustion. I was tired but couldn’t sleep. I started hating my leaders many of whom were the kinds of people pastors would give an arm for. I developed severe TMJ. Each morning my jaw would crack like a snapping baseball bat at a Power Team rally. I couldn’t get through a counseling appointment with out seeing double and feeling like my eyes were about to explode. My recurring daydream was about being a brewer in a cabin in the mountains surrounded by more guns and beer than people. I was heading down the road of being another ministry statistic.

Out of darkness

God brought me two answers to the prayers I wasn’t smart enough to pray. The first was a series of teaching by Mark Driscoll on burnout. I was reminded of my priorities to be a Christian first, a husband second, a dad third, and a pastor fourth. He reminded me that God really is sovereign, Jesus is the senior pastor of His church, and I am not in control. I started to repent of the underlying idols of performance and people pleasing that were driving me with the whips of busyness. I changed my cell phone number. “No” was reintroduced into my vocabulary along with “I can’t”, “I won’t”, “never” and “you’re fired”. Vacation became an act of faith and worship. I rediscovered the joy of time alone with Jesus and my family.

I also met a godly older man named Charles who had been a Vineyard church planter. Charles taught me how to rest in the love of God in my prayer life instead of the “it’s all up to me” approach to prayer that left me tired and depleted. A standing appointment to meet with Jesus in silence, study, and solitude was added to my schedule. My family day became the highlight of my week. The people in my church can come and go but I want a relationship with my wife and kids till I die. I really like being a pastor now. Its hard work, but its fun hard work.