Bristo Pentecost

What Jesus told the disciples to wait for was more than what we understand as ‘energy’, or ‘power’. The Greek word used in the text of Luke has the sense also of ‘ability’, ‘strength’, ‘confidence’.

The biggest issues that face us are not those of raw power. What often cripples us as witnesses and servants of God is a lack of confidence, a sense of insecurity. A lack of conviction that God really loves us.

It is interesting that when Pentecostal power came to the believers, it was to bring them into a closer and deeper intimacy with God. A sense of closeness and confidence in His love, that released them into ecstatic praise of God.

Let us look and yearn for this. For a Pentecostal visitation that we will ‘tarry’, look and wait for, in coming days and weeks and months if need be. Let us look for it singly, in families, in groups and as congregation together. Let testimonies be shared of what God is doing in our lives, as confidence grows and abilities are discovered and uncovered, new and renewed.

People taught, enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ name.

Genuine Prophecy

Prophecy is a vital part of church life, as Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 14. How do we recognise it?

Genuine prophecy makes Biblical sense

Genuine prophecy will resonate with the Scriptural testimony to Christ Jesus. It will have the flavour of God’s Covenant Promises as the appear in the Old Testament; the savour of the Law of Moses as it was outworked in the lives of God’s people; the sense of the Old Testament prophets, in calling people back to God and His ways.

Genuine prophecy is Christ centering

Genuine prophecy will focus on God’s call to have our lives founded on the Who, What and How of Jesus Christ. It will have the effect of calling, exhorting and encouraging us to follow our Master and Commander, Jesus Christ.

Genuine prophecy brings a hint of heaven for our lives

Genuine prophecy will affirm us in our life in Christ now. It offers hope and encouragement as to where God might take us in the future. This may be in the form of a picture or an insight offered humbly and respectfully.

Developing the 'Rule of Paul'

1 Corinthians 14

In this passage, we see how the means of expressing together the intentionality of Christ, worked out in our context and culture, is the primary concern of Christians gathered together under the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

1-5 Why is prophecy so important? Contemporary Christian prophecy is built on the basis of prior Biblical revelation: in the Old Testament this is usually revelation through the Mosaic Law, with the prophetic books affording a commentary on this revelation and pointing in anticipation to where it leads to. That is, Old Testament prophecy is a commentary on that which God has already made know.

In the NT, prophetic utterance is based on and tested in the light of Jesus Christ and the apostolic witness to Him. Prophecy is exhortation, encouragement, and sharing of a taste of what is to come; but it is not fortune telling. It is pointing in anticipation to where our Christian discipleship leads to, in the light of the truth of God that has already shared and imparted through Jesus Christ.

This is why any claim to ‘revelation’ from God by an individual must be tested by the congregation in the light of Scriptural testimony. Using the canon, or ‘measuring rod’, of the Bible. Revelation to us from God will always be Christ-centering. Moreover, because the Spirit resides in the body of Christ and not solely in the individual, the prophetic act is incomplete until it has been shared, tested and found to be upbuilding for the congregation as a whole. It is when revelation is delivered, in terms of this complete process of ‘sharing, testing and upbuilding’, that it truly constitutes prophecy. Prophecy is a process rooted in the life of a Christ centring congregation, not simply an individual’s opinion uttered with conviction.

6-19 Intent first, ecstasy second

Ecstasy is lifeblood to Christ adoring spirituality, just as intimate touch and taste is needed in a marriage. There is a vital place for intimacy that lifts us through the sensual into a sense of sublime, spiriitual union with God. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a door to this. Speaking in tongues is a valuable issue of this (v 18). But ecstasy is neither the focus nor the goal of the Christian life. Our focus is Christ centring, intentional Christian living.

This sense of intentionality had become obscured in the thinking of the Corinthian church. The Corinthian disciples were in danger of elevating the ecstatic above the intentional. This reflected their immaturity as Christians. For the serious disciple, it is the call of Christ to followership – and all the personal and ethical challenge of that - that punctuates the path of discipleship. Now certainly, embarking on the path of discipleship will probably be preceded by some meeting with Christ – a meeting where He has touched us with healing, love and salvation from God. But it does not end there. We should not try to go directly from intimacy to ecstasy, bypassing the cost of discipleship. The path of discipleship takes us from the touch of intimacy by way of the Cross; and only then into the taste of resurrection power and the Age to come, when we will live forever with Christ in God’s presence.

v 20–25 Hold on to the ecstatic but keep it in its place! When people come among us, they should not sense that they simply have entered a lecture theatre, music concert or social gathering. There is a way that the ecstatic should be sought after; for this allows people who come among us to experience something of the touch of God’s glory. Our focus, however, must be to encourage each other to walk along the path of reflecting God’s goodness in our life together.

v 26-39 The rule of Paul Our responsibility, as disciples, is to help each other walk the path. When we gather, we should seek to edify and upbuild one another in this way. We should understand that there is a path to follow and priorities to pursue in our lives. We need to gain perspective on what we are about, in terms of Who we are, What we are doing and How we plan to get there. Prophecy has a place in pursuing this. But it is for the congregation as a whole to discern the way of Christ together and affirm it.

Only when we take to ourselves, collectively, the responsibility of following Christ and paying the price of what that costs, can we truly be described as a Christian church.

Purpose

Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1.4)

Do you ever ask yourself what the purpose of your life is? It seems to me that if faith is about focus and not just ideas, this is a pretty basic issue. And the answer, as Christians know, is that we should become more like Jesus Christ.

The trouble is, it is so easy to lose sight of this. Society is so consumer orientated, that we can begin to think that the point of it all is to get all the blessing, all the healing, all the 'feel good' that we can. But this is not what the Spirit of God is about, as He works in us and through us. He is concerned to forge and form us into the likeness of Jesus Christ.