Let God Speak 1: Prophecy part 1 page 1

A well-known healing evangelist told the story of being at a particularly loud charismatic conference in England where there was much shouting of 'Alleluia!' and loud speaking in tongues. He said that the only word which seemed to come from the Lord at that conference was when someone spoke these words in the name of the Lord: 'My children, I long for you to listen to me.' But no-one listened. They were too busy shouting praises.'
[Andy Arbuthnot, quoted in Simon Coupland, 'A Dose Of Salts', #120 p127.]

Of course, it doesn't really matter what the style of worship or the kind of church is. We Christians are frequently guilty of the same sin: too much talking, singing, and activity to be the spiritual people we are supposed to be and listen for the voice of God. We can drown out the voice of God with Charles Wesley hymns and committee meetings, with liturgy and processions.

And so it seemed to some of us that when we met to discuss how the series in the autumn based on Richard Foster's 'Celebration Of Discipline' that we had done a certain amount on how to tune ourselves into God, bob by devotional habits and lifestyle. But what we needed to move on to consider was not the tuning in, the listening, but how God speaks.

That's a subject you could spend a year exploring and still only scratch the surface. We're not even going to do that. We're going to use my services between now and March to consider a few key ways in which God speaks to us. This week and in a fortnight's time we'll consider the subject of prophecy. In other weeks we'll look at the Bible, creation, arts and culture, and dreams and visions. The cell groups are going to take a fortnight to discuss each theme, and I'm happy to recommend reading on any of the themes we discuss.

I also want there to be other ways in which we respond to this, outside Sunday mornings. One way is this: as well as us having the book where we enter prayer requests for Sunday services, we'll also introduce a book where anyone can write down something they think God is saying to us. Not only that, we want to promote the use of all sorts of arts and crafts as means for listening to God. So if you have a creative gift, there will be opportunities in the coming months for you.

I'm spending two weeks looking at prophecy, because it is a subject open to particular misunderstanding, fear, and misuse. And yet it is also a gift of God to his Church that has potential for enormous blessing. Just because it has been misused is no reason to disuse it: rather we should find the right use.

This week is more about giving prophecy, the second part is more about receiving prophecy. For this week the main Bible passage (and how do you pick just one?) is 1 Corinthians 14:1-12, with a little reference to Jeremiah 23:16-22.

next page

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ About Me ] [ Articles ] [ Kulcha ] [ Links ] [ Messenger ] [ Musings ] [ Search ]

Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.