"We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith." (TNIV)

 

         The Christian life is a guided life. It is to be lived in the light. It is to be purposeful. There is a goal to our living. There are dangers and temptations along the way for which we need counsel, help and someone to walk alongside us. In his commentary on this passage, Paul Achtemeier puts it in slightly different language. He says that God's grace reshapes and restructures our lives. So often, people talk about grace as if it were a form of permissiveness. But Achtemeier says the opposite is true: Grace brings with it specific structures. The grace that saves us and frees us from the lordship of sin, also shapes our lives so that we can live under the Lordship of Christ. There are gifts and resources available to us through the Holy Spirit so that we can live a new life.

         "Structuring grace," then, is what God gives us so that we might glorify him, offering our bodies as living sacrifices, and do His will, transformed by the renewing of our minds, and follow the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor. Spiritual gifts are the positive structures in our souls that give us personal focus and purpose in living, and that build up the body of Christ. These gifts lead us from being controlled by sin to the freedom of grace, so we are able to honor and serve God. In the church, it is the gifts that free us from disunity, chaos, weakness and fear and allow us to be a unified body of believers, making disciples, overcoming resistance and transforming our communities.

         In Romans 12 Paul says, "We have different gifts, according to the grace given us." The words "gift" and "grace" come from the same root word, "charis," so in Greek they sound very similar. We are saved by grace, the gift of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and we are given a structured grace, including the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that we can live for the glory of God.

         There are a variety of spiritual gifts, and Paul lists a number of them. The first one is prophecy. I gave some thought to skipping it and moving down the list. I have been puzzling for a few weeks on what prophecy might look like in our church. Serving, teaching and encouraging are somewhat clearer; "giving generously" jumps right off the page.

         But for prophecy, we need some definition. It is the gift that was most highly valued among many of the churches Paul wrote to. It was also the gift that was most misused. There were prophets and there were false prophets in the church. But just what was the gift of prophecy in the early church?

         The NIV notes say, "Prophecy is a message imparted to a believer by the Holy Spirit. It may be a prediction or an indication of the will of God in a given situation."

         Douglas Moo writes that "Prophecy in the New Testament involved aiding the church by relaying to it truth gained from a 'revelation.' . . . It could be dangerous if uncontrolled."

         Leon Morris cautions us that "no one in the New Testament explains precisely what this gift was, but it appears to mean that there were people who had the gift of passing on direct words from God."

         The Old Testament prophet was always one who was connected to the Word of God. In the early days there were those who would be seized by the spirit, and would speak out of an ecstatic state. This seemed to die out, perhaps be discredited, and was replaced by prophets like Elijah, whose words from God were often accompanied with miracles. Much later, Jesus was called "a prophet, mighty in word and deed."

         The kings often kept prophets in the palace to tell them about coming successes or defeats. The problem is that the kings liked to hear more about the successes to come from their plans. Jeremiah warned of those prophets in the palace who said "Peace, Peace," when there was no peace.

         Then came the prophets who wrote their words, from Amos to Malachi, the ones we are most familiar with. Their focus was on the Word of the Lord. They were independent of the kings' power, and often opposed the king. They gave warning during a time of national arrogance and unfaithfulness. They also spoke of renewal and the coming of the Messiah when Israel had been humbled by defeat and exile. These prophets come to an end about 400 B.C.

         Finally, a branch of prophecy, called Apocalyptic, became well known. These writing told of revelations of what would take place, on a world-wide and even cosmic scale. These used a great deal of symbolism, some of which is impossible to interpret.

         Prophecy resumes with John the Baptist, and then comes into the early church to bring comfort, exhortation, teaching and foretelling of events. The focus on this prophecy was on Christ and the importance of keeping faith in Christ.

         These prophets brought hope and light and leadership to the church which found itself in a new and unknown situation. The Christians faced many dangers from persecution, from false teachers, and from temptations. The prophets allowed them to see that Jesus was leading his church. They provided light in a dark world.

         As the years went on, the church began to focus more on the word of Scripture. They grew cautious of prophets who brought their own revelations from God. The teaching of God's Word became more highly valued. Finally, the abuses of prophecy lead to its disappearance.

         Today we could point to many churches and movements in the world who claim prophets. There are many preachers, especially in Latin America, who rely on direct revelations from God, and do not use the Scripture as the basis for their teachings. There have been a number of movements in America where the leaders take on the title of "prophet," and these tend to become very authoritarian. There is a great reluctance in most churches to claim prophets or to use the word "prophecy" because of past abuses.

         Our heritage has stressed the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. Our church began as a lay movement, made up of people called "readers." That referred to their love of the Bible. But these lay people also had a high regard for trained ministers. They both had confidence in their own reading of Scripture, and they listened to those who had studied and were trained.

         I believe that prophecy as a gift will always be the Scripture speaking to us and through us. For that to continue, we must take seriously what it means to learn the Bible, to constantly be renewed in reading it, to be a people who speak from the word, and make decisions based on the word of God.

         I believe that prophecy for us will not be so much a matter of individuals taking on the title of prophet, but it will be people gathered together around the Word, listening together to its message. It will not be just a professional clergy or a band of Bible professors who will know God's word, but it will be as all of us give ourselves to becoming lifelong learners in the scripture.

         Prophecy comes from a warm devotional life that is informed by faithful scholars. It comes from Friends of God, whose hearts have been softened by grace and the love of God, as they are given wisdom in the Word that lights the way for us. Edifying prophecy will come from those who stay near the cross of Jesus, and whose message goes deeper into the message of the cross, but never beyond it.

         Maybe the words "prophet" and "prophecy" are lost to us for a time. But the gift is here. We need to be faithful to listen to God. We need to be devoted to God's Word. We need to be willing to speak from the heart. We need to have our lives structured by grace.

         Amen.