Five Operations of the Holy Spirit Part 4
There was a great amount of prophecy under the old covenant and there is supposed to be a great amount of prophecy under the new covenant. It is the will of the Holy Spirit that all Christians prophesy. "Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted" (I Corinthians 14:31). "For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10).
When we are baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit the burden of prophecy becomes part of our personality. Every Christian is a prophet, a priest, and a king in the sight of God. We have been called from the world so we may represent God in the earth. When we seek the Lord with a true heart and begin to walk and live in the Spirit, the burden of prophecy is as near to us as our physical breath. The burden is heightened when we assemble with other believers.
But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. (I Corinthians 14:24,25) The above passage from First Corinthians is a description of the desirable spiritual condition of the assemblies of the Christian believers. We can see that we still have a distance to go if we are to accomplish the restoration of the power and glory of Christ to the churches.
. . . to another discerning of spirits; . . . . (I Corinthians 12:10)
As the members of the Body of Christ push forward in the Lord they will discover that all kinds of spirits, clean and unclean, are active continually, not only in the heavens but also on the earth—both in the world and in the Christian churches. Although the spirit realm is invisible to us, yet much of what we see and experience is spiritual in origin. The universe itself, the visible creation, was brought into being by the invisible Word of God.
In many cases the churches labor in a mixture of holy and deluding spirits. We experience the effects of these spirits as pleasant and helpful or painful and destructive. Yet we cannot "see" well enough into the spirit realm to cope satisfactorily with the invisible forces.
It is the will of God that the Body of Christ be aware of what is taking place in the physical world and also in the spiritual world. It is the Lord's intention that the Body of Christ have a "nose" (the discerning of spirits) so it can "smell" what is happening and act accordingly.
. . . to another divers kinds of tongues; . . . . (I Corinthians 12:10)
One of the miracles in evidence as the Holy Spirit fell for the first time on the waiting disciples (Acts, Chapter Two) was the proclaiming of the wonderful works of God in the different languages of the Jews assembled in Jerusalem in observance of the feast of Weeks (Pentecost). The disciples who were speaking knew nothing of these languages.
On the occasion of the building of the Tower of Babel, God slowed down the rapid development of world culture by issuing several different languages, dividing the human race into competing factions. God was not ready at that time for mankind to destroy itself by developing a way of life apart from Himself.
When the Holy Spirit was sent into the earth, God enabled the members of the Body of Christ to overcome the problem of the language barrier. God was revealing that He will have a world culture that is ruled by Christ in the Church. The Body of Christ will speak the language of all peoples and will describe to them the wonderful works of God.
During the past hundred years there have been instances in which the disciples of the Lord have been moved to speak to an individual, or to a group of people, in a language unknown to the speaker but understood readily by the listener as his native tongue.
It is the opinion of this writer that during the unprecedented worldwide preaching of the Gospel with signs and wonders to the ends of the earth that will take place prior to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Christians will not be hindered by the language barrier. They will be enabled by the Holy Spirit to move out quickly to every city and village, announcing the Good News of the Kingdom of God that is at hand.
In the Pentecostal movement we have utterances that are referred to as "messages in tongues" and "interpretation of tongues." They consist of someone speaking a brief utterance in an unknown language, and the same person or another person following with an statement in English or in a language usually spoken by the assembled church members.
Of the many instances of this manifestation which we have witnessed, there is no doubt in our mind that the majority of these are sponsored by the Holy Spirit. Edification, exhortation, and comfort have resulted from these proclamations.
On such occasions one believer is giving voice to the present burden of the Holy Spirit by praying in the Spirit in a tongue unknown to himself, and then another believer picks up the burden by prophesying in the language native to the assembly. The prophecy is not a literal translation of the utterance in tongues but an independent expression of the current burden of the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps these are not what is referred to in I Corinthians, Chapter 12 as "kinds of tongues" and "interpretation of tongues."
There are occasions when a message is given to the assembly that is a direct pronouncement in a language, and then someone else in the Spirit translates the pronouncement word for word, neither speaker having command of the language under ordinary circumstances. Such instances of actual translation of a language of the world appear to be in the minority.