The Mark of God's Presence in a Church

I thought I would speak a few messages on what the Lord's been showing me about the mark of his presence in a church. Mark of the presence of the Lord in a church meeting or in the church. Something he's been speaking to my own heart. A lot of people talk about being in the presence of the Lord, presence of the Lord is here. He is, I remember hearing a song once, he's here I can feel him. And no, I've never felt the presence of the Lord in a physical way. I've had some physical experiences that I don't know if this really of the Lord. It was a time of intimacy of the Lord and I, but that's, I don't know, it doesn't matter. I'm I'd rather believe that it wasn't a real physical sensation, but I'd rather have the real presence of the Lord in me and in my marriage and in my home and in the church. And I believe like everything valuable, the devil loves to hold us in deception in thinking that the presence of the Lord is in our midst in any area simply because of something I feel or something I'm doing. So let's test the only true test. You know I think often of what it's like I hear that some of these there's a way by which you can tell really really tell if a currency note is not counterfeit. Like you can look for a specific mark and you look at look at it under a microscope or some specific instrument that says yes this is valid it's real. And the only real microscope we have to test anything is the Word of God. Really it's not even preachers, it's not teachers, it's the Word of God. And if you don't know God's Word, you don't know God's Word, you're very likely to be deceived. As you've heard Zac say often, if you have a Bible in your language and you don't read it, you deserve to be deceived. It's like God saying I've given you the microscope that can test every single currency note that people give you. Every single one. And you might come to the point where you realize Lord I've got a stack full of notes that I just realized are counterfeit. And no wonder it hasn't been working in my life. No wonder I lack the power of God in my life because I've been using counterfeit money. It doesn't really have power. So the real presence of God in our midst has real power. And if you're lacking power in some area, you're lacking power over sin, if you find that those old bad moods still come up all the time, that way of speaking to your children or your spouse still comes up every now and then, if that way of lusting, you're not really freed from it, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness, that's still master over you. And don't fool yourself that you're sitting in RLCF and so it's a good church or anything like that. We really want to test the presence of the Lord. I don't know how many I'll speak on it, but the first one I'd like to speak on is prophecy. I really believe that prophecy, true prophecy, is a mark of the presence of God in a church. Let's start in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. I think that if I was to order them, and that's why I'm not, I don't want you to think of the order or importance or anything like that, I think spiritual authority would be what I would have liked to speak on first, and so I hope to do that at some point. I wasn't quite, the Lord's still working that in my heart, so I'll speak on that later. But I do believe that that starts there, that we must recognize the authority of God in our lives, the authority that he's given us over Satan, the authorities that he's placed in the church and in the home, and those sorts of things that are the mark of the presence of God. But let's look at prophecy today, and this verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 24, he says, I'm going to start in the middle of the verse, that an unbeliever or an ungifted man, somebody who's not full of the Holy Spirit, so an unbeliever yes, but also a believer who's not yet gifted spiritually, hasn't received the anointing of the Holy Spirit in his life, comes in and he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all. Called to account means in a sense, we say, hey you over there, sitting in that chair, we see what's in your heart. He's convicted and he's called to account by all. Now we've never done that in this church, because we don't really know what's going on in the heart, but there's a sense in which true prophecy, true prophetic utterance in the church will result in that person, man or woman, actually sitting there thinking, man how did he know what I went through last week? How did he even know my thoughts that I've been thinking? Was he spying on me? He is convicted by all, called to account by all, and the secrets of his heart are disclosed. And so he, an unbeliever and an ungifted man, will fall on his face and say, surely God is certainly among you. He'll fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. Now I don't know what happens to this unbeliever or ungifted man. He may or she may still choose to not surrender their life, not give their all, and continue to live their own selfish lives or a half-hearted Christian life. But they wouldn't be able to deny that I went into that church meeting and I saw the presence of God manifest. There was something that was different. Maybe they're not ready for it yet or something like that, but there must be. And that's the constantly the prayer of my heart. Lord, not just visitors, but every one of us. There's some area in our life that's still ungifted, I believe. And that's an area in which I must say, Lord, you are here. I want to value that. This is the mark, this is the gift, the fruit of prophecy. But I want to go back and read really quickly in verse 20, what he's talking about before he gets to this point. I want you to see that he's contrasting the gift of tongues with a gift of prophecy. A lot of people in Christendom, in certain denominations, some people completely deny the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They say that there's no such thing as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You get the Spirit in all its fullness when you're born again. That's not true. Other people say that, emphasize the gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts of tongues especially. And there are some people, Christians, who preach and who believe and preach that the real mark of you being filled with the Holy Spirit is that you speak in tongues. That's also a lie, because the Bible never says that. In fact, these verses right here is exactly what Paul's addressing. He's saying that the mark of God's presence in your midst is not that everybody's speaking in tongues, actually. In fact, he says it's a bad thing if everybody's speaking in tongues. Let's read that. What you want is the gift of prophecy, which is to speak the message from God for his church in language that can be understood, not in language that can't be understood. So, verse 20, Brethren, do not be children in your thinking. And so, I don't despise anyone. I think often of that verse, I think Job 35, God is mighty and yet he despises no one. He looks down at all the foolishness that's going on in the world around him, around here, and he just doesn't despise any of them. He didn't despise me. He doesn't despise me even now, even though he knows how unchrist-like I still am. And so, let's not despise anyone, but let's not be children in our thinking. Many of these people who don't really know God's Word, haven't received good teaching, and I'm thankful. I'll say that a lot of this, the Holy Spirit revealed to me, but it was the result of godly teaching that was based in God's Word. That's why it's so important to listen to godly teaching, who will take you back to the Word, where you look at the Word of God yourself, and you see, yes, I don't just take that teacher's Word for it, but I see it. And it's not just this fluff that I see. A lot of sermons these days are around, oh God, well, he's got a plan for your life. Trust him. He'll work it all out. He'll work it all. Yes, there's a need for that, but if that's the only thing that you're feeding on, if that's the only thing you're feeding on, yes, God loves you, and he's got a plan for your life. He can take you from the worst to the greatest. That's true, but if you're not receiving real teaching on how he's going to do that, it will never succeed in your life. Then you've got an imbalanced, you've got imbalanced teachers. But we hope, we pray. That's why we have not just one speaker every Sunday, it's multiple ones of us that speak, that in the balance of all things, you will receive more of the whole counsel of God, not just one man's idea. So, and you know, a lot of people also, I just mentioned this in passing, say that we talk about the New Covenant so much. I'll tell you why, because there's so much I see in Christendom of what is just old covenant practice. We're given clear instruction in the Word of God of what a New Covenant church should look like. And we're not here to compare ourselves with others. We just say, if it's in God's Word in the New Covenant, we want to live it out. Everything. We're not going to take this out and take that out. Because you look at Christendom, you look at Christendom and across the board there are denominations that have taken a little bit out. Whether it's people who take out the extreme and say it's, you know, I don't know, think of the most extreme case of people who call themselves Christians. They've taken a whole bunch out. And then across the spectrum there are different denominations of Christendom that have taken a little bit out. That's just cultural, doesn't really apply for our time and all this. And we say, well, if it's in the New Covenant, if it's there, we just want to obey it. Plain and simple. And if there's something we are doing that's not in the New Covenant, then we don't want to do that. We want to keep ourselves to the Word of God. So, do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature. Be innocent when it comes to evil, but when it comes to spiritual things, be mature. And that's really what this message is. It's if you desire to be more mature spiritually, not just content with the extent of revelation that God has given you up to this point. If you're hungry for more, say, Lord, I thank you for what you've shown me in your Word, but I want more. I want to be mature. I don't want to just be a child. I've been in third grade for a while now. It's time to move on to fourth grade. Then this message is for you, and for me it is, too. Be in your thinking, be mature. In the law it is written, by men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will listen to me. Now, this is a prophecy from the book of Isaiah. I want to mention something in passing. It's interesting that Paul mentions this prophecy, and Peter didn't. You remember on the day of Pentecost, keep a finger in 1st Corinthians 14, I just want you to see in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the 120 that were gathered in the upper room, the beginnings of the church as it were, and it says in Acts 2 verse 11, when verses 9 and 10 and 8, yeah, 9 and 10 says all these people from all over, Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, Pontus in Asia, from Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes. Proselytes are those who are not Jews, who were converted to the Jewish faith by the Pharisees. These Cretans and Arabs included, we hear them in our own tongues, speaking of the mighty deeds of God, and then you know it says they must be drunk. Yeah, it's verse 13. Others will mock and saying they're full of sweet wine, and it's you know early in the morning, and they're already drunk, and at that point you know, so here they're hearing these people speaking, and they know these, Peter there's no way he knows my language, he's never been to Crete, how does he know what I'm speaking, and then they're maybe they're hearing other tongues that they don't fully understand, and they're, and Peter says, oh yeah there's that prophecy in Isaiah, remember about the stammering tongue, Isaiah 28, no that's not what he says. He doesn't use the prophecy about the tongues, that we just read in first Corinthians 14, he by men of strange tongues, and by the lips of strangers, I will speak to these people, because Peter was not there to emphasize the gift of tongues. He would say listen, I know you're hearing them in all these languages, but the point of that is prophecy, and then he quotes from Joel, the prophecy of Joel, and he says verse 17, this is verse 16, this is what was spoken of through the Prophet Joel, it shall be in the last days that I will pour of my spirit on all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall what shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my bond slaves, men and women, and this, you know, sons, daughters, young men, old men, bond slaves, that is basically saying everybody, it used to be just the Levites, or just the certain tribe of people, but now everybody, you don't have to be a learned person, could be a fisherman, you could be a chartered accountant like Matthew, you could be a ex-terrorist like Simon, and he says my Holy Spirit is poured out upon you, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit, and they shall prophesy, they shall prophesy. So let's go back to 1st Corinthians 14 verse 20. Now Paul does quote from Isaiah 28 to say, to talk about tongues, and he's talking to a church that does at that time speak in tongues, and he says, verse 21 again, in the Lord is written by men of strange tongues, and by the lips of strangers I will speak to these people, and even so they will not listen to me. And so I don't know what happened to those, you know, it says 3,000 were baptized, but what about all the others? It seems like there was more. They heard the tongues, and they heard the prophetic message, and let me say that, that at that time the majority, I believe that the majority of the speaking in tongues that was going on in the day of Pentecost, was in these earthly languages. For what reason? So that the people from Phrygia and Mesopotamia could hear the news about Jesus Christ. Otherwise who was going to tell them? Peter is speaking Aramaic, and this Phrygian over there is like, what are you talking about Jesus? I don't understand. And that's why God gave him the gift of Phrygian and Mesopotamian language. The Holy Spirit gift of tongues, of earthly tongues. Now we see also that as you read the epistles, that the gift of tongues also includes tongues of angels, and so it could be a non-earthly language. In which case, if I'm speaking to people in whose language is English, and I speak in a tongue, there absolutely must be an interpretation. Because if there's a tongue and no interpretation, then what's the point of it? It's just to show off that I have a tongue. Prove to you that I have a tongue. What does that do? And what we'll see here is that true prophecy comes from a heart of love. It's not selfish, it's not even trying to show that I have the gift of prophecy. It's a care for the body. It's a care for my brother, my sister, for my wife, for my husband, for my children. And out of that care, that care is filling up within me and I don't have words. And so I speak out of that care, that burden comes out. So let's keep reading. Verse 22, so then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers. Tongues are a sign for unbelievers. How many churches really preach that? That there's a bunch of unbelievers here, so we need the gift of tongues and the gift of interpretation to know exactly what the word is for that unbeliever. Tongues are a sign for the unbelievers, but prophecy is for a sign not to unbelievers, but for those who believe. Those who are children and want to grow into maturity. Therefore, listen to this, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say you are mad? They won't say, oh this is a powerful meeting. They'll say this is a mad meeting. This is the mad church, not the spiritual church. Even an unbeliever and an ungifted man can see this is a mad church. And so many Christians fall for it. They think, oh if everybody's speaking in tongues, we really had a powerful meeting. No, read your Bible. But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever and ungifted man enters, he's convicted by all, and he hears a prophetic word that convicts him. Because if I speak in a tongue that he doesn't understand, he says, what's going on? What is this flapping of the tongue that's going on here? He thinks you're mad. But if he hears in English a prophetic word that convicts him, he says, wow, how did he know? I've never met these people before. We've had people come to us as visitors sometimes, just passing through, sit here and says, this is my first time here, but I feel like you guys know me. I remember a couple of instances where that happened. Now, we may not always hear it. We're not looking for the approval of men, for sure. But then, is there a place for tongues? Yes, there is sometimes. If a person speaks in a tongue, then there must be an interpreter in the church who understands through the Holy Spirit, not a translator. That means it's not going to be word-for-word. It's going to be an interpreter who is in tune with the Holy Spirit, who has the gift of interpretation. And the person who is not gifted enough to speak a prophetic word in English, they receive a word from the Lord, and they don't know how to express it in English. I don't know what your message is for the church clearly in English, Father, but you've given me this message, so I'm just going to pray in this tongue. And usually, I believe, the way I've seen it practiced, there is a known interpreter, somebody who is clearly given the gift of interpretation in the church. And so they can express this tongue, the person who is not as mature, not as gifted, so that a more gifted person who is in touch with the Holy Spirit can interpret it, so that the people can hear it in their own language. That is the true use of the gift of tongues in the context of the meeting. Paul also talks about how he says, I thank God that I pray in tongues more than any of you. And that was praying in tongues in secret, where it was just by himself. And that's also a use of the gift of tongues where the burden of the heart and the praise and the prayer is building up so much that you run out of English words. And if you find that, I want to just briefly touch on this. I have been tremendously blessed. I don't say this by any way just to draw attention to myself. I've been tremendously blessed by the gift of tongues myself. And I share that only for you to ask the Lord to see if He will give it to you. I only use it in private. And I only use it at times when I'm really, when there's a burden in my heart, when I'm really crying out for something. I see need in my life. Or there's a tremendous praise and the overflowing praise within me just comes out. And I release my tongue as it were. I don't try to confine it to the English language. And I let it pray in whatever syllable, whatever words come out, words that I don't understand. And I let it be to the Lord. And I have found that those times bring such release for me spiritually and emotionally. Where the devil's trying to clamp down my praise, or trying to clamp down my spirit, or clamp me down with discouragement. And I fight off discouragement. Fight off that condemning spirit by praising God. Now the Lord may give it to you, may not give it to you. Really I don't elevate that gift any more than the Holy Spirit does. I put prophecy way above that. Because that's what we're told to seek. So seek for prophecy. But I'll mention in passing, if you find that you're discouraged often, and you fall into pits of discouragement, men and women. I've read the testimonies. And I was challenged to seek for the gift of tongues through hearing the testimony of those who received it. And how it helped them. Including both of my parents. I've heard their testimony of how when they received the gift of tongues, it gave them this praise. And this way to kind of break the shackles and exalt Jesus. So I'll just mention that in passing. So the gift of prophecy is that we hear what's speaking. Now this was also prophesied about Jesus. If you go back to Luke chapter 2, the presence of the Lord. The identifying marks of the presence of the Lord in a church is where Christ is there. You see that in Luke 2, we read about a man in verse 26. Luke 2 verse 25. There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout. And he was an elderly man. And he was looking for the consolation of Israel, the Messiah. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. Wonderful man. I hope to meet Simeon someday. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. You will see Jesus. You will see Christ. You will see the presence of Christ himself. God told him that. Because he was a devout man. All the other Pharisees missed it. All the others missed it. Simeon saw it. And then when he's holding Jesus, you read in verse 33, verse 34. Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, behold this child. Look at the prophecy of Simeon over Jesus. Which for me, I take it as a prophecy about the body of Christ even today. The body of Christ today, the church, which consists of local expressions of the body gathered across the world, in different parts of the world, must be living in the same way that the first body of Christ lived. In the spiritual way. Not doing the same physical things, but with the same spiritual experience in increasing measure. And so if it was true about Jesus and this prophecy was true about Jesus, I take it as something that must be true about our church. For us who are part of that body of Christ. Behold this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed. And a sword will pierce even your own soul. He was talking to Mary. And if you really seek to be a part of building the body of Christ, you will have swords that will pierce your soul. You will have relationships that will get cut off. You will experience pain emotionally because you're seeking to bear the body of Christ. You know that Mary experienced that. Up to this point, she had. Think about the scorn and the reproach she faced. Where everybody thought she had committed sin. Committed sin outside of marriage. Like what's this business of the Holy Spirit? Yeah we know. Holy Mary went and committed sin with some guy. And maybe they thought Joseph. They had sex together before they got married. And she bore that scorn. You read later on, she pondered all these things in her heart. And throughout her life, Mary was pierced through, pierced in her soul. And even when she saw Jesus on the cross and thought, wow is this what being the Messiah was? She probably didn't fully understand it. She was pierced in her soul. But the end of this, we read in verse 35, was that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed. And I pray this often. Lord make us a church that is a living expression of your body even in this way. That what's in the hearts of people gets exposed. Through their coming in our midst, or sitting in our meetings, or spending time with us. What is in their heart is revealed. To them first of all, so that if it's sin, they can repent of it. But if they don't repent of it, it will be revealed to us. So that we can deal with that. And if they don't want to be free of that spirit, remove them from the church. The New Testament talks about that as well. So that's just my way of introduction. We'll see how much time I go. But I just want to touch on a few things. The first thing I want to mention, if you have notes or if you have the bulletin, you can write this down. Prophecy is for the benefit of others. Prophecy is for the benefit of others. This verse, First Corinthians chapter 12, we were reading in chapter 14. But let's go back. And to really understand prophecy, you kind of really have to start in First Corinthians 12 verse 27. Or really even before that. But let's just start in verse 27, where he says, you are Christ's body. Now I want to, before I move on, I want to mention why am I talking about this. I believe we have a command. Not I believe, I know. I want you to see it. It's First Corinthians 14 verse 1. You must desire to prophesy. You must desire to prophesy. Children, you can start that. If you're born again, if you've given your life to Jesus, pray this prayer. Lord I want to prophesy. Brothers, sisters, pray this prayer. Lord I want to prophesy. In the church, in my home, I want to prophesy. Because we're told, and we'll get to that verse, seek earnestly that you may prophesy. I don't know. I haven't counted. How many things are we told to seek earnestly? It's not that many. We're told in verse 1, love and prophecy. Seek it. So verse 27 of chapter 12, you are Christ's body and individually members of it. So here, I want you to see that Paul's not saying we are Christ's body, like he says in Ephesians 4. He's saying specifically Church of Corinth, you are a local expression of the body of Christ. You're individually, you are. You're an expression of the body of Christ. And you're individually members of it. That's why we believe in membership. People ask us, why you have membership? Because the Bible uses the word membership. You're members of this Christ's body and individually in that sense. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. Notice how tongues has come long after prophets and teaching. And all are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? Again, verses that many people don't realize is in their Bible. Because a lot of people like to think that they can teach. And we've been, you know, criticized in the past that we don't just allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry to speak in our church. We sometimes get visiting preachers coming through and say, hey, can I speak at your church? He says, no. We don't know if you're really a teacher. All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healing, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? Clearly disproving the false teaching that everybody should speak in tongues. All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And so he's going to tell us the greater gifts. But before that he says, so 1st Corinthians 13 is really like a parentheses or maybe an underline or like a, let me lay a foundation first before I tell you about the gifts. Earnestly desire the greater gifts. Earnestly desire the greater gifts. But before you do that, Paul says, the Holy Let me show you first of all the most excellent way. Remember to love. If you want the Holy Spirit to give you gifts in the body that you can use in the church, first remember love. Do you want to be a gifted father, a gifted mother, a gifted husband, gifted wife, gifted children, gifted brother or sister in the church in any way? First remember love. First remember that you must be patient, verse 4 chapter 13. First remember that you must not be jealous. See how all of a sudden why we seek for gifts goes out the door. A lot of people want the gift of preaching because they're jealous of the other person who has the gift of preaching. A lot of people want the gift of this or that because they look at somebody else who's making a name for himself and dishonoring Christ with that gift, so-called gift. No, first of all remember, don't be jealous. Don't brag, don't be arrogant. This is verse 13 chapter 13 verse 4. Now I'm not going to make this a message on love, but remember that, that love and that care that comes from the body is what qualifies you for God. And qualifies is probably a word that I don't necessarily want to use, but prepares you. That's a better word because I can never earn the gift of the Holy Spirit. I can never earn gifts. I can never earn the fruit, but it prepares me and if God sees that I only want the gift, but I don't really want to be patient and I don't really want to bear all things and hope all things and to endure all things and I don't want to be easily provoked and I don't want to seek my own and I don't want to hold grudges. This is love and if he sees that I don't want all of that, then he says well I can't give you the gifts then. Now you can get a counterfeit gift. You can flap your tongue all you want and you could say thus said the Lord and all this stuff and imagine that the presence of the Lord is there and you're just fooling yourself. But if we really want the true gift of prophecy, which is the mark of the presence of the Lord in his church, let's learn to love first. Let's really love each other. Never think of your own. Never think of yourself. Think of others. Think of ways you can bless others. It's almost like you would say well Lord, if there's nobody else that you want to give that prominent gift, then give it to me. Can you give it to that person to give that other person you know the prominent gifts that everybody else in Christendom is seeking? Give it to them Lord. Give it to them, but if you can't give it to them for some reason, sure use me. That's that others first Lord. Being willing to be used by the Lord and letting the Lord use us, but not in a way that I'm holding on to it. I'll give you a little personal testimony. I'm waiting for the day when I can step down from leading praise. I enjoy it. I know the Lord is using me here, but brothers and sisters and especially children, I'm looking for another. I believe the Lord is looking for another generation of young brothers and young sisters that can take over the praise ministry from us, so that I can step back. I think that's a ministry I can step back from. So I'm sharing that so that any of you brothers and sisters that the Holy Spirit seeks, it lays a heart, lays a finger on and says, hey practice your piano a little bit. Work on your singing a little bit so that you can be a blessing. Now we don't just let anybody get up here. We want to know that it will be a blessing that you can sing in a way that others are able to follow. So even preaching, if the Lord says, hey it's time for you to step back a little bit and let others speak more, sure Lord. I want to love. I want to care for your body and I want to be available to do what is in the best interest of your body, that the head might be lifted up. And then you get to the greatest of these is love. 1st Corinthians 13 verse 13 and then he says pursue it. Now that I've shown you what love is, pursue it. But remember I started by, I was wanting to talk about the gifts. So earnestly desire these spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. This is what the Holy Spirit is telling us through Paul. Let's continue reading. For the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. For no one understands but in the spirit he speaks mysteries. But one who prophesies speaks to men. And here's what prophecy is. This is the definition of prophecy. Take it from God's Word, God's Word alone. The one who prophesies speaks to the church, speaks to men and women for edification, for exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. So if you only desire the gift of tongues, the Lord will say, okay it's for yourself right? And then the Lord say, okay I'll give you that. But do you want to have a gift that will be for others, that others will be lifted up by? Seek prophecy. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. But one who prophesies edifies. Edifies means builds up, makes it stronger. And I pray and the reason I'm sharing this burden is that all of us will have impressed on our heart a desire to really build up each other. Not by just flattering words, oh brother I'm so thankful for you. You're going through that trial, I'll pray for you. Well that's good, but edifying prophetic words. Words that might hurt for the person you speak to. I'm not saying we go around swinging our swords, but you may not even know that. Your intention is not to hurt, but you speak a prophetic word. God gives you something in God's Word. Say hey brother I just want to share this verse with you. Or you might reach out to a brother and just say I'm praying for you and or something like that. And you might share something, but you know it's coming from the prophetic utterance of God. And he says now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. And greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may receive edifying. See that it's right there. That the purpose of tongues is so that the interpretation can happen. So that the church can be built up. Let me make it plain. The church is not built up by a whole bunch of people speaking in tongues. It's exactly what the Bible says. The church is built up if there is tongues. It's almost like God has to say okay is there an interpreter here who can now do the double work of interpretation. And then what you'll see in some churches, which is also not biblical, is that the same person who spoke in tongues also interprets. How does that make sense? That would be like me speaking in some Indian language just to impress you all the fact that I know this language and then saying it in English. That's just to draw attention to myself. Oh see all I have the gift of tongues. It's thinking of myself. If you see that, I hope you won't fall for the deception that goes on where the same person speaks in tongues and interprets. You should have just said it in English the first time brother, sister. That would have been enough and saved us about two minutes of blabbering. It's not the Holy Spirit. Okay now in the Old Testament prophecy was foretelling the future. You know you read Elijah said it's not gonna rain. Jonah said you're gonna get the punishment of God and all that. That was a prophecy in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it's this. A lot of people still think prophecy is you know prophetic preaching. What is a prophecy about the future? Yeah maybe God made. I think that's really a word of knowledge or you know revealing mysteries of the future that may be given to some but that's not prophecy. And that's why a lot of people are hidden from experiencing and having the gift of prophecy because they think prophecy is this other thing and they're afraid of it. Don't be afraid of the gift of prophecy. Don't be afraid of the gift of prophecy. I'll tell you why because the Bible says you must have it. You must seek it. Seek for the gift of prophecy. He said sons and daughters. So children I hope you're praying for it too. Now don't be proud in your expectation of it and don't don't be carried away with it. There's a reverential way in which God will use the gift of prophecy. It could be as simple as the spirit in which you get up and share your verse or after that during the time of sharing you'll just say one sentence. This week this verse really helped me to obey God with my friends or with my relatives or in some situation with my siblings. This memory verse that I had really helped me and that could be a prophetic word. You don't know that somebody else needs exactly that word. So prophecy is edification. That is to build up. To exhort. That is to challenge. That's why on the back side of your bulletin we have that challenge and comfort. Challenge and encouragement both. So it's edification that is to build up. It's to challenge which is to exhort. To say hey you're lacking in this area. Let's go brother. Let's go sister and to comfort. Consolation. So that's the work of the gift of the of the of prophecy. Yeah so prophecy is for the benefit of others. That's the first thing I wanted to say and that's why the gift of tongues even was prophetic tongues. I'll call it that. Prophetic tongues is where the tongue is spoken in a way that can still build up the brother the person listening. That's the gift of tongues you want to speak. And if you're alone then the only person that needs to be built up is yourself. So you can speak in tongues and you don't know it and you don't need an interpreter. Just God receives that praise. But if there are others around you and you pray out loud in tongues there must be an interpreter. Otherwise it's not edification. It's just you you spoke in tongues. Now the second thing I want to say is that prophecy comes from being an eyewitness of Christ's majesty. This is a phrase that comes from 1st Corinthians chapter no 2nd Peter chapter 1. 2nd Peter chapter 1. An eyewitness or a witness of Christ's majesty. That's where true prophecy comes from. There's a verse in Revelation 19 that says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. True prophecy will exalt Jesus. Won't exalt the person. You will think less of that person. It'll be done in other words. What does it mean that true prophecy will exalt Jesus? It'll be done in such a simple unassuming way that Jesus gets all the glory and you're not taken up with that person. Because a lot of times when I when I hear about what people call prophecy in Christendom they talk about that person. That one woman or that one man got up and they said in a loud voice and their voice was trembling and all that stuff. And you're taken up with a person and how they're speaking and you think that that's prophecy. That's not prophecy. True prophecy is the simple testimony of Jesus. I hope, let me make it that simple, I hope that what I'm saying right now is prophecy. The Lord will be the judge of it and the evidence of it in our lives will be the judge of it. If it's working in our lives, if the motives and thoughts of your hearts are revealed through what I'm saying even though I don't know what's going on in your life, then that's prophecy. But I leave that to the Lord. But that's my prayer. Lord we want to prophesy in this church. And the true prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Remember that verse, Revelation 19, I think it's verse 10. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Testifying about Jesus, testifying about Jesus. In order to testify about Jesus, what does that mean? Not that somebody told me Jesus is like this or I read in Mark or Luke that Jesus is like this. I know Jesus is like this. It's the difference between me testifying about some athlete, let's say Serena Williams. Well I've watched her playing tennis sometimes. I know a little bit of what her face looks like and her tennis ability. Or me testifying about my wife. I know her. I can tell you exactly what she's like and I'm still discovering that in many ways. I'm learning even this week. But that's the testimony of my relationship with my wife. And this is the testimony of Jesus. That I know him. He's revealed himself to me. Now let's look at this verse in 2nd Peter 1. It says, verse 16, we do not follow, we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we didn't just make up stories and all this stuff. Cleverly devised tales. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. What a powerful word. Make that your goal, your brother and sister, children, that this week you will be an eyewitness of the majesty of Jesus Christ. That today in your workplace, this week in your workplace or at home with your husband or wife, you will just, God will reveal, eyewitness. Eyewitness means not with your physical eyes. For Peter it was. But for you and I it's the eyes of our heart And Paul, he never saw Jesus while he was on earth. Now his eyes were open to see Jesus physically I believe. But what about us? Paul says, Ephesians 1 verse 18 I think, he says, I don't pray that God will, Jesus will come and reveal himself physically to you. I pray that the eyes of your heart will be open to see what Peter is describing here, the majesty of Jesus Christ. I want to see that this week. I want to say, Lord I want to see your majesty. I want to see your glory. The beauty, and beauty is such an earthly word that's, that's falls far short of describing the divine nature of God. Lord I want to see who you are, not your face, not with the flashing eyes and the hair of white or anything like that, but your nature. Show me your nature Lord in such a majestic way that I'm, that it captivates my heart, draws me away. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son. He's talking about the Mount of Transfiguration and Peter says, I was there, I heard it made from heaven when we were with him and on the holy mountain. But he says, now listen, we have the prophetic word made more sure. That means I don't need to see Jesus physically. I don't need to have been on the Mount of Transfiguration to have heard, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear him. I don't need the physical experience of seeing and hearing. I need the prophetic utterance. We have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention, earnestly seek prophecy. Peter is saying in other words, do well to pay attention to this. You do well, you'll have a good week this week if you pay attention to the prophetic utterance, the prophetic word that comes from being an eyewitness of the majesty of Jesus. As to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. So don't just imagine that, oh this is my interpretation so I'm just going to say it. Again, that's one reason why we don't just let anybody come here and teach. We want to know that these are men who know God's Word and they're able to handle the Word of God well and they're able to interpret scripture according to the Bible because they know God. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This is prophecy. If you're sitting here and God is moving in your heart, I hope the result of that will be that God will speak through you. Men moved, men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Not spoke some cute idea they had or oh this verse balances well with that verse and oh you know the quote is here. No, not that. That's like playing with the Word of God like it's a toy. No, spoke from God. I pray that there will be a greater reverence in our sharing. Now I believe there is. I thank God there is. But even more, I want a greater reverence when I speak the Word of God because I want to speak the Word of God. Speak from God. It's not just preaching. It's not just teaching. Earnestly desire this that you will speak from God. The result will be that Christ will be manifest. Moved by the Holy Spirit. Now you could sit there like a rock and just say well Lord I'm not you know yeah that's nice. Most people I tell you most people in Christendom and I was that for many years. I sat and listened and listened and listened and never let the Holy Spirit move me. The Holy Spirit was trying to move me and the result when the Holy Spirit moves me is there's a overflow from my tongue. It's like brother I got to testify. I'm not going to add anything to it. I just got to say I have I say amen to that. I believe that this will be so in my life this week. Confessing my hope. This is men and women moved by the Holy Spirit and I pray it will grow children. I pray even more of you will testify and the Holy Spirit will move in your heart and tell you you need to say something in the sharing time. Open your heart to that. Let the Holy Spirit move you. Don't be so stuck in it. No I've never spoken in this church. I'm never going to. We open that time of sharing so that you can with reverence of course but let the Holy Spirit move you. I pray that he will. Men and women moved by the Holy Spirit but it comes from being an eyewitness of Christ's majesty. I've said this often in this church and I'll say it again that we must all every single one of us if you're walking with the Lord have been an eyewitness of the majesty of Christ in the previous week that we come here ready to share something that if I say if one of us says hey brother we'd like you to come up and speak the message at the beginning you might say yes I've seen the majesty of Jesus Christ for the last seven days or the last month and he's been revealing it's not some interpretation of scripture or this or that it is just a testimony of the majesty of Jesus Christ his life and it may just be three minutes but I tell you those three minutes of prophecy that comes from being an eyewitness of Christ's majesty will be much better than a 30-minute sermon that's you know this verse and that concordance and you know this in the Greek it says this and all that prophecy it doesn't it doesn't say how long it needs to be it could be short but it's a testimony of Jesus Christ of the being an eyewitness of his majesty the third thing I want to say is that prophecy in order to have prophecy you must remove all worthless speech we show you a verse in Jeremiah chapter 15 Jeremiah chapter 15 remove worthless speech now I hope none of us uses foul language should never be found among us bad words evil words hurtful words those are evil words so there's three types of words there's words that build up that's prophecy edify build up there's words that tear down evil words and then there's worthless words you can say well yeah it was a joke you know I was just teasing them and it was no worth to it worthless worthless words yeah you could say didn't really tear down but it didn't build up either worthless word if we don't remove the worthless words we will never be able to prophesy that's what we see here in Jeremiah 15 verse 19 therefore that says the Lord if you return if you repent that I will restore you and you will stand before me Elijah said before the God of Israel before whom I stand I know I'm standing in front of you Ahab but actually I'm standing in front of the God of Israel and that's what Jeremiah is prophesying that is available to every single one of us in the new covenant they shall not all teach their brother or their sister or their children saying no the Lord all shall know me from the least to the greatest and part of that is all shall stand before me it's available to every single one of you do you we do you want to be one who stands before God as a housewife and you're facing that trial and you're facing that difficult situation and your husband's at work perhaps or he's in a meeting and you can't you don't know what to do but you say Lord I'm standing before you why because let's continue reading you've extracted the precious from the worthless he's talking about speech you saw a whole bunch of pile of you know think of it if I had a whole pile of stones here and I say hidden in these stones is about three diamonds which are precious in value precious precious diamonds but it's hidden in this pile of stones that's over here what would you do you would sift through it separate it okay move that aside now that's that's definitely not a diamond look at it not not a diamond yeah it looks like a nice shiny stone not a diamond move that aside and pretty soon over a period of time on this table you would have a bunch of stuff that's pushed aside that I have filtered out that I've said no this is not this is not precious that's what Jesus is saying what the Holy Spirit is saying if you will extract if you will separate some translation say you will push aside these worthless words so you're about to say that to your wife but to say that your husband and say now let me check it first we'll come back to Jeremiah 15 I think it's in Psalm 12 right talks about the words of the Lord Psalm 12 verse 6 now read the context Psalm 12 verse 1 says help Lord the godly man ceases to be this is David saying in a time when there's lots of sacrifices a lot of religious activity but the godly people are not around one of the marks of godly men and women is this verse 6 they have words like the words of the Lord look at how the words of the Lord himself are described you know we have the Word of God today in a sense I don't want to be trivial with it but in a sense it's like God is saying even the word that I gave you I tried it seven times before I gave it to you so that every word all scripture would be inspired there's not a single word in this book that is not tried by the fire of God and seven times is just a picture and therefore every single one of it is is profitable it's inspired by God the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace on the earth refined seven times you oh Lord will keep them you will preserve him from this generation forever the wicked strut about on every side I take that to mean that they can say whatever they want I'll just say this say that just casual go on and with when vileness is exiled exalted among the sons of men back in Jeremiah 15 the words of the Lord so I'm the Holy Spirit when you're really filled with the Holy Spirit you desire the gift of prophecy you say Lord I want every word that I speak to be edifying you'll separate the worthless and say no I can't say that I know it would have been oh it would have proved exactly my point and I would have been right but no it doesn't edify I'm gonna set it aside I set it aside and then I refine it then after I'm done then it would send it again no there's still more still more by the seventh time what do you think if you were to send a little block of stone of an object through the fire seven times do you expect it to get bigger or less of course less because more gets burnt up by the fire more gets burnt up by the fire it gets less and less and less and think about your words like that your brothers and sisters especially in the home and this is where it's hitting home to me even this week so I think about it I say less less so that what I say is edifying now I don't mean giving your wife the silent treatment or your husband the silent treatment I mean say Lord I want every word that I speak to be of you I want to refine it and now again it's not like we're always like oh I can't say anything here refining it it's not a super spiritual way be free with each other in your home of course but God sees your heart is your heart to refine your words the refining happens here long before you're in that situation where you're saying Lord help me that whenever I face a situation where I have to say something that what I do say has already been refined in my thoughts it's refined in my attitudes it's refined in my motors because most often we're in situations where it's like I need to answer I need to say something I need to do something I don't have time for this seven times refining I can't say honey let's wait a week because I need a week to refine my words no I need to say something right now and so it's kind of like you know when Jesus said that some demons can only be cast out by fasting and prayer I've heard some people say okay there's a demon so let's go fast and pray no the demons right there what are you gonna do continue to let that man be possessed by the demon and till you're done with your fasting and prayer no why was it that Jesus when he was faced with a demon even if it was that little boy could cast it out because his spirit was one of fasting and prayer he was he would spend nights he would go without food and nobody would want to know why because the Holy Spirit the father told him hey skip that meal just take some time off and pray with me and he would go for the night and just pray little did he know that the next day he was gonna meet that demon possessed person he had been fasting in prayer he had this mentality of Lord father I'm yours I'm only here to do your will and so when that situation came up he was the only one that could cast out that demon now all the disciples you know they could eat every meal they want and yeah just eat that and go do this and watch that movie and spend time on the phone and casual attitude and then when the demon comes you're not ready so it's this mentality of applying that here to as well that we're constantly refining the words we would say in our thoughts and in our hearts and Lord give me your heart help me to refine the thoughts so that by the time they come out as words they've already been through the fire and unless we remove the worthless from the precious we won't we won't we'll be able to speak prophetically I want you to see this first Samuel chapter 3 I think I'll continue this message later but just show this in closing for Samuel chapter 3 it says what Samuel look at the context in which Samuel Samuel is a wonderful prophet where he started from a young age eight years old most of you children I think are older than the age of eight it's a wonderful example for you young boys and young girls that from the age of eight and this is a man under the Old Testament if you think well I'm only nine years old I'm only eight years old does do I really should I even is this prophecy thing that Santos was talking about for me I hope you take it to heart I hope you'll pray one prayer children this week Lord fill me with your Holy Spirit if you haven't given your life to Jesus before I move on if you haven't given your life to Jesus why not today why not this week you haven't committed your life to Jesus and you're sure that he lives in your heart why not today I'm not telling you you should or I'm not trying to force you you don't have to tell anybody but if you haven't given your life to Jesus no matter how old you are if you're old enough to understand what I'm saying and I know I've gotten in trouble in this church for for encouraging our children to be born again but I won't stop I tell you no matter how much the devil opposes it but and I'm not talking about anybody here by the way that you can give your life to Jesus today why not pray a simple pray Lord Jesus will please come and live in my heart please forgive me for all my sins I don't know what all sins I've done Lord but you know them and I know that you don't want to remember them so please take away all my sins cleanse me wash me in your precious blood oh he will welcome you welcome you so gladly and I hope any of you children that are listening to this and haven't yet prayed that prayer I don't know for sure if Jesus really live in my heart that you'll do that sometime soon and having done that then you can pray if you've already done that then you pray Lord Jesus fill me with your Holy Spirit I want your Holy Spirit to come and fill my heart fill my heart fill every part of my being as much as I know Lord fill me and then pray this third prayer Lord I want to prophesy because you fill me with your Holy Spirit I want to prophesy I tell you children you will change this church you will turn this church upside down some of us adults will be put to shame with our tongue tied I have nothing to say and I'm not walking with the Lord and we'll see our children prophesy and that will bring conviction into us and say Lord I want to be like my children and that a wonderful thing so it says about Samuel the context in which Samuel came into the picture is in verse 1 the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli which is what he was just doing whatever he wasn't you know Lord hadn't called him yet he was just Sam Eli said hey go take out the water go take out the trash he was obeying and that's why children we teach you obey your parents in the Lord for this is right the first step to receiving the Holy Spirit in your life is to obey your parents it will go well with you God will give you his Holy Spirit obey them without complaining and if you find a complaining spirit come up say Lord I don't want to obey my parents joyfully and God sees you obeying see that's what Samuel was doing Samuel was serving to the Lord before Eli he was serving Eli he didn't even know he was serving the Lord he was just doing what Eli told him to do and God saw that he did it diligently he worked hard he obeyed when mom said clean your room he did it now I'm sure he faced some like I'd rather go play how come all the other eight-year-olds get to play out there and I'm stuck here cleaning the the temple he served the Lord and look at this the word from the Lord was rare in those days visions were infrequent back then they God could only speak to in visions and it was rare because Eli was a backslidden not even walk following the Lord priest so God says I can't speak to Eli I know he's doing all this stuff and he gets up and preaches the sermon every Saturday or whatever but that's not for me he's just reading from the law and so says I need somebody whom I can who will hear my voice somebody who I can give my word to and so he starts to call Samuel in the middle of the night Samuel Samuel why because the word of the Lord was rare and he looks at Eli he looks at Eli's sons they're all committing adultery sleeping around loving money stealing dishonor dishonoring God's word and God says I guess I got to start with the eight-year-old I see in him that when Eli says go clean that he does it he obeys he's learned to hear my voice by listening to the voice of his authority children remember that God will speak to you if he sees that you're willing to obey your parents and all I wish you will obey your parents obey your parents listen to them obey them and then God will see your obedience to them and will speak to you in your heart and you'll hear in the middle of the night or in the middle of the day you don't have to be sleeping you could be wide awake and you hear the Holy Spirit just like he spoke to Samuel speaking to you saying son don't do that those boys are talking about something else right now no walk away from that situation those girls are doing that thing no walk away from that they're looking at this thing on their phone go turn your eyes away turn your eyes away oh the Lord wants to speak to you young boys young girls he does then we skip down to verse 19 the end result Samuel grew you know the story God called Samuel and spoke to him and he thought it was Eli he was so untrained I love this example that Samuel didn't know that God wanted to speak to him he was he didn't even know that it was God's voice he went to Eli went to Eli finally Eli said hey God's trying to speak to you and I imagine that what went through Eli's heart he says I should have been the one that God was speaking to me he had to speak to this eight-year- old boy then we read the end of Samuel's life or the middle of Samuel's life verse 19 Samuel grew and the Lord was with him we talked about the presence of the Lord the presence of the Lord is by the prophetic word of God the Lord was with him and not one of his words fell to the ground make that your prayer Lord I'm gonna say a bunch of words this week I pray that not one of them will fall to the ground every single one of them will be prophetic now it's not gonna happen overnight but you make it your prayer Lord little by little I want you to bring me to the place where every word I speak is prophetic it's edifying it builds up if it could be done for Samuel on whom the Holy Spirit could only come on the outside and anoint his tongue on the outside how much more us in whom the Spirit dwells and who have seen the witnesses of Christ's majesty we've seen Jesus Christ himself how much more can it not be said of us that not one of the words fell to the ground oh that's my desire to tell you honestly brothers and sisters I want this week I want today to be a day that every word I speak comes from a heart that surrendered that's filled with the Holy Spirit that's prophetic all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord and the Lord appeared again the Lord had gone the visions were rare the word of the Lord was rare but then he saw somebody who was willing to listen to him somebody who gave his whole body including his tongue and he anointed his lips and the Lord came again because the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord the Lord revealed himself by the word of the Lord that's our prayer I pray that for your Sunday school classes as well children that the Lord will reveal himself by his word to you before you go I want to just give you a word of encouragement I've spoken to you children even in this message I thank God for giving me that burden I didn't plan to but I'm glad I did as you go to Sunday school classes children I want to give you a word of encouragement please listen all children Sunday school class children I want to encourage you to sit there every meeting in a way as if Jesus is actually there if Jesus was actually there because we think about Jesus being in our meetings right I believe he's here he's sitting right here that's why we ask you to sit respectfully and sit still and not be distracted because Jesus is here and he's going to be there in your Sunday school classrooms as well which means that you want to pay attention you don't want to be talking to your friend and being a you know maybe your parents are not there so they don't know how you're behaving yourself but Jesus is there and so think about sitting there with reverence sitting there giving your teachers the full attention paying attention to them not you know sitting even respectfully you know how you sit if you slouch like that that's not respectful or if you put your feet up on the table sit in a respectful way in the classrooms because Jesus is there it's him we honor listen to your teachers if they ask you not to talk or they ask you to sit still listen to that because God wants to speak to you and I also want to encourage us parents the Sunday school time I have tremendous respect and appreciation for our Sunday school teachers and from time to time things get a little bit out of hand in the Sunday school classes so I want to lay it exhortation before all of us parents who have children in the Sunday school classes to go to your their teachers and ask them honestly how your children are doing and ask them to be honest and I encourage you teachers also to be honest we're not here to compare our children with each other or say this is the bad kids no there are no bad kids there are children who need Jesus all of our children need Jesus whatever they look like on the outside some have different temperaments but ask your their teachers how is my child can you please tell me because I want my child to grow up to fear the Lord and if he's miss or she's misbehaving some way in the classroom that I'm not aware of because they know mom and dad are not watching you teachers must be must tell me so you must go privately to each Sunday school teacher you know who your Sunday school teachers are for your children go to them and ask them how is my child and children I'm saying this now so that you will behave knowing that your parents might go to the teachers and ask them how was my son in class today and not just today but as we go and this is for our good please know we care about all of our children they all have different temperaments different personalities they all might do things a little differently but they can all love the Lord they can all be reverential to him and and serve him even and listen to him even those classes okay thank you for bearing with me