Awash with the presence of God
I have thoroughly enjoyed our Sunday gathering these last few weeks. We have had some amazing times of worship together – lost in awe and wonder of our great God and lots of contributions. We are beginning to live in the good of 1 Cor 14.
“What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.( NIV v26)”
I have had a few questions about whether one can say “We will sing that song again and then I am going to bring a tongue, ask God for the interpretation” – surely a tongue is more a bubbling up? Well yes it often is, but 1 Cor 14 also goes on to say
“The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets” (NIV v32)
– that means you can hold onto a prophecy or tongue and choose to bring it at a more appropriate time or even next week, if it doesn’t fit right now. It also means that you can choose to bring it now!
When David warned that he was about to bring a tongue and stirred us to seek God for the interpretation, it meant that some of you got that very gift for the first time. Often people need encouraging the first few times and as confidence grows they can get on with it. The same happens with bringing a Scripture – last Sunday there were a few with open Bibles at passages that the Lord was stirring in hearts – a little encouragement meant we were all edified.
Bring it on!
“Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophecy. (ESV v1)”
Let’s press into worshipping our great God and building one another up with spiritual gifts! Please be there on Sunday and be prepared to “bring a…”!
“What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.( NIV v26)”
My 25+yrs as a believer has not seen a great deal of this scripture been practiced especially at a Main Sunday gathering….. yet the scripture above is clear. It is strange that when a church seeks to embrace this biblical approach questions quickly come forward. We can spends years singing the five songs selected before the meeting commenced and listening to the sermon prepared beforehand and no one bats an eyelid.
Despite a so called restoration of the apostolic ministry the main structure of Sunday gatherings across the UK invariably does not follow the 1Cor14:26 model.
A mindset needs to be pulled down ….. so I call all who want to see Jesus given the pre eminence at our gatherings ….. embrace 1 Cor 14:26 … as Jesus will only get the pre eminence if we do it his way …. the 5 songs followed by a message has never been his way