 We're going to look specifically at the gift of prophecy, I'm going to be laying a foundation related to prophecy, ministry of prophecy in the Old Testament, nothing deep, nothing that will take forever to develop, but just some basic things and then we'll look at the gift of prophecy here in this passage. So I'll read as an introduction, verses 7 through 11, just because I want to give you a general flow of the passage and then we'll get into this particular gift that's found in verse 10. But again, beginning at verse 7, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul writes, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, but one and the same Spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually, and I underscore this in verse 11, individually as he wills. So as we continue our study here on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, verse 11 once again makes it very clear to us that the Holy Spirit is the one who distributes spiritual gifts, and he does so on the basis of his own desire or his own will. They are in other words his gifts, and the Holy Spirit determines which gifts are given to you. So if God is the one who possesses the ability to give and the gifts actually originate with him, what I do is I seek him for that which he would have for me, and one of those gifts that you might ask the Lord concerning would be the gift of prophecy. Now I'll lay a bit of a foundation for you, and I'll begin by saying the gift of prophecy is the gift that continues to fulfill what has been called the prophetic method of God. In other words, unless God were to reveal his plans, none of us could ever really know them. If God decides to hide himself, who can really find him? He's not like our children, those of us who are parents. He's not like our children when we played hide and seek with them. You know you can speak to my kids, and when they were very small, that was a common game. It was a lot cheaper than taking them to Disneyland. We would play hide and seek. And normally I would have them go and hide, and I'd read for a couple hours and then find them. They would come to look for me. I always hid in the same place. I mean a four-year-old, a three-year-old can't really find you. So I would always hide in the same place, and they knew it. We only had two bedrooms, and I would always hide in theirs. And I always hid on the bunk bed, and I always hid in the corner with blankets and pillows around me, always. But they always took a long time to find me. Maybe it's because they were reading. I don't know. I never really thought about that. And I always played in the dark, because it made it scary for them. I still, even as I'm sharing this with you, I'm remembering, I would hear them as they were climbing. One of them would be climbing up the ladder to get up to the bunk bed, because I was always on the top. And I can still see in my mind's eye, the little head, the top of their head, as it would begin to lift above, and then I'd see their little eyes. And they knew exactly where I would be every time. But they'd start giggling about the time their eyes got over, and I'd get real quiet. And then I'd hit them off at the baseball bat. It was quite a lot of fun. And then I'd yell, oh, and scare them, and off they'd run. You know, they found me. But if God decided to hide, who would find him? Unless the Lord reveals himself to man, no man could find him. So God determines to reveal himself. He determines to show himself to us, because we could never find him. His ways are past our finding out without his revelation. Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 29, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things revealed belong to us, to our children, forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and our children. So there are things that God holds to himself and doesn't share with us. And there are other things that he does share. Isaiah 40, verses 13 and 14, who has understood the mind of the Lord or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him? And who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? God's ways are past our finding out. And unless he reveals himself to us, there's no way we would ever understand. And so the Lord God is the one who reveals himself. And so from the Old Testament to the New Testament, God is the one who does not remain silent. And so you see God consistently revealing himself to man. In Hebrews, in chapter one, verse one, it says that God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. I would note with you, as he even began there in the book of Hebrews chapter one, he says that God at various times in various ways. So when it says God in various, various times, it speaks of God revealing himself, if you will, piecemeal, a portion at a time, certain things about himself at a time. And so as he was revealing himself, he would do so in a short, over a span of time. And he did so in a piecemeal way. And it could be that he's even referring to the fact that God in a piecemeal way gave to us 39 books in the Old Testament. But he also spoke to us in various ways. And what would be the ways that God has communicated or revealed himself while he used dreams? He uses visions. There are times that God revealed himself through angels or events. God reveals himself through symbols and miracles and signs. And these are the things that God has used in the past to communicate to man. But he also has used prophets. The prophets were intended to communicate God's mind to man. Amos chapter three, verse seven says it like this, the Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets. So God would reveal himself through the prophets. And they would communicate the mind of God to man. In Numbers chapter 12, verse six, the Bible says, God said, listen to my words. When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions. I speak to him in dreams. So in the Old Testament, God had a variety of ways that he communicated. But he especially began to use prophets who were used by God to pen what is called the Scripture or the Old Testament. Now prophets did not communicate thoughts and messages that they made up. Because if they did, that would constitute being a false prophet. The false prophets were the ones who spoke from their own hearts and said the things that they made up. Jeremiah 27, 9 and 10, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers who speak to you saying you shall not serve the king of Babylon for they prophesy a lie to you to remove you far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish. Don't listen to them. They're not telling you the truth. And in the Old Testament, you see a tremendous amount of times that God had to actually deal with the false prophets. Now God's prophets were inspired by the spirit of God. They communicated what God intends to say. They would be called by God and God would give to them a message and they would communicate that. Now we've seen that in our study of 2 Peter in chapter 1, verse 20 and 21, how it says above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation for prophecy never had its origin in the will of man. But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And so God's prophets are inspired by the spirit of God. Now I mentioned Jeremiah a moment ago. I'll use them as an example once again, Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 4 through 8. It says there, the word of the Lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I sanctified you, I ordained you a prophet to the nations. Then said I, Lord God behold I cannot speak for I'm a youth. But the Lord said to me do not say I'm a youth, for you shall go to all whom I send you and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you saith the Lord. And so God was saying, even if they're ugly, don't, no he's not saying that he said, don't be afraid of their faces. Don't be afraid of how they're going to be responding to you. Because I called you, I ordained you, I sent you, and I gave you the message to speak. So in the Old Testament, and you can see this over and over again, God used prophets and gave them prophetic messages in order that they might communicate to man what God would have as a secret. So he would communicate to the prophets who would in turn take the message to the people that God gave to them, and you see that throughout the Old Testament. Now in the New Testament, you find various individuals that had prophetic ministry, or gave prophetic words. You have Zacharias, you have a man named Simeon, you have an older woman by the name of Anna, you have John the Baptist, you have the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter, the Apostle John. All of these were men who gave prophetic utterances or who gave to us prophetic books. And so you see them in the New Testament too. There's an individual by the name of Agabus. Agabus is mentioned in Acts chapter 11 in verses 27 and 28. And it says there, during this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, one of them named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world, and this happened in the reign of Claudius. Later on in chapter 21 verses 10 and 11, we stayed many days and a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet and said, thus says the Holy Spirit, so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. So what you have is you have the New Testament with prophetic utterances and they're communicating. Now I should hasten to add this to kind of define this and move a little deeper. The prophet would communicate, sometimes he would be a foreteller communicating future events and also the prophet is referred to as a fourth teller, F-O-R-T-H, a fourth teller who is speaking forth the mind of God. And so there are times when you'll see one who is uttering a prediction concerning future things. You see that all through the Old Testament. You can see the same thing in the New Testament as I just mentioned with Agabus who was speaking concerning an event that would take place in the life of Paul and therefore he was speaking forth some future event that would occur. He also prophesied concerning a famine, so he spoke concerning future events. Now there are times when somebody through the Spirit of God will have a word that is predictive of a future event. When I was an assistant pastor I had a friend of mine whom I knew for a number of years, Marie and I knew, her name was Donna. Donna got married to a friend of mine by the name of Larry and they were married for several years. I received a phone call from Donna and Donna said we've adopted a baby and because she and I had been friends for a while she said now that you're pastoring, though I was an assistant, now that you're pastoring, would you dedicate my baby? Now they had adopted this little one and I spoke to the senior pastor that I served under and I said this is a situation, would it be okay if I were to dedicate Donna's and Larry's baby? And so he said that would be great. And so I hadn't seen Donna and I hadn't seen Larry for a few years and they came to the church that I was at, serving at and I still remember this very clearly because as I took the baby in my arms, again remember this is an adopted baby. As I'm holding the baby in my arms about to do baby dedications, many of you in this church have seen this every week we do baby dedications and you see what I normally do, I'll just hold the baby, I'll pray for the baby and throw the baby back in the hands of the mother and rush him off the stage. But as I took this baby in my hands, something happened then that hasn't happened since. The only time this has ever happened, I uttered a prophetic word over the baby and as I was holding the baby I began to pray but then I said to Donna, I looked at Donna and I said, Donna, the spirit of the Lord is speaking to my heart. I need to share this with you. A sword is going to pierce your soul. A sword will pierce your soul. And she looks at me like, really, I said, anyway, yeah, and I finished praying and that has never happened. That has never happened before, but the spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart in a very distinctive way. And as I held this baby, I remember doing this. I looked at her and I said, a sword is going to pierce your soul, Donna. And we prayed for the baby. Long story made short, within a few weeks, Donna, who was a trained nurse, was bathing her infant and the baby slipped in the tub and Donna as a mama panicked and grabbed the baby by the arm as quickly as she could to keep the baby from slipping under the water. But being an infant, Donna's panic and strength broke the baby's arm. They took the baby to the doctor. The doctor said, this woman abused this child. She was charged with child abuse, which she didn't do. They took that baby from Donna. She never saw that baby again. The baby was taken from her. And the prophetic word that I spoke over that baby and a sword will pierce your soul was fulfilled in the life of my friend Donna and that baby. Something I shouldn't leave you feeling real, real bad, because I know God had something for that little one. Donna, who couldn't conceive, ended up having several babies. She conceived and had several babies. So the Lord was very gracious to her in the future. Though you never really replace the one you've lost, there still is the gentleness of the spirit of how God works to bring healing into a heart. But prophecy, it is forth-telling or foretelling. Foretelling, as I was sharing with Donna, a sword will pierce your soul. Foretelling, thus saith the Lord. And you'll see that in Scripture. There are others in Scripture that have prophetic gifts that are mentioned. In Acts chapter 21, verse 9, it speaks of an evangelist. By the way, his name is Philip, the evangelist Philip, who had four daughters who prophesied. By the way, evangelists, we speak about the fact that God has given some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. You might find it interesting that in the New Testament, there's only one person ever mentioned as the evangelist, and that's Philip. And so that isn't something that everybody is. Not everybody has that particular ministry gift, evangelists. But I hasten to add, though you may not be an evangelist, you do have the responsibility of witnessing. You may not have the gifting of evangelists, but we still have the ministry of witnessing. But anyway, getting back to it, the gift of prophecy. In the New Testament, we're not speaking about the office of a prophet. Again, I mentioned prophecy can be the fourth telling of God's intentions for now, and it would differ. It would differ from the office in that God encourages us to desire to prophesy. If you look into chapter 14 here in 1 Corinthians, verse 1, notice what Paul writes. He says in 1 Corinthians 14-1, pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. And so it's not the office that we're speaking about that you find in Ephesians 4-11. He's speaking about the gift of prophecy, the ability to communicate God's mind. And chapter 14 actually gives to us some insight into it, and I want to look at it with you for some time now because I want you to see how the Bible tells us that we ought to desire to prophesy. Now why should we desire to prophesy? Well, if you look at it, I'll read to you verses, verse 3 and 4. He who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. And so this particular gift has three primary functions. You edify, you exhort, and you comfort. When it speaks concerning edification, the word edification speaks of encouraging the body of Christ. It speaks of building up the body of Christ. When a prophetic word of exhortation comes, it is an encouragement to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the word comfort there would remind us that God is concerned about us. And so when this particular gift is being exercised, when someone is bringing a word of prophecy, this person is going to be bringing to you an edification, an exhortation, or a word of comfort. And it's intended to build you up. It's intended to work in you. There are some who have abused such a gift, and under the guise of giving a prophetic word have used it to beat people up. Thus saith the Lord. And it really amazes me how sometimes when people are prophesying, they want you to know the prophesying, so they always preface it. Thus saith the Lord. In other words, this isn't just my flesh, this is God speaking. So thus saith the Lord, God is saying to you, empty your bank account and give it to me because I want a Ferrari. I mean, people can use that gift to abuse people, and they do it sometimes, sadly, they do it sometimes with that very reason to fleece the body of Christ. When a prophetic word is given, it's intended to build you up. And God's desire is to build up the body of Christ, and that's what he does. He does it through the gift of prophecy. It's a word that is intended to bring edification. And I have been a recipient of a prophetic word that built me up and encouraged me, that I can share with you very briefly. I was a young pastor, I was at a pastor's conference in 1982. And as I was there in this pastor's conference, I remember just being discouraged and asking myself, what am I doing here? I mean, what's the point of even being here? I don't even want to be here because I just, I can't hear the Lord. He's not speaking to my heart. I know that none of you have ever experienced anything like that, but as I was there, that's what I was going through. I just, the Lord's not speaking to my heart, I just, I don't know why I'm here. And there was a time given for us in the, in the conference for the exercise of the gifts of the spirit. And one of the pastors gave a prophetic word and he said something like this. He said, there's a brother here right now who is saying, why am I here? I'm not receiving from the Lord. I should have stayed home. And I'm saying, and the Lord says that there's a reason for you being here. God is going to do a work in your life. He's building you up right now. And I have to tell you, I began to weep because I knew that the Holy spirit was using this brother to bring a word of encouragement. That's what prophecy is intended to do. It's not intended to be used to hurt people and control them. It's intended to build them up in their faith, to encourage them in their walks with Jesus Christ. So the Lord is speaking to my heart and he's saying, hold on, God is strong. He's going to take you through this valley. You're going to make it. When you make it through, you will be stronger than before. And you may have brought a prophetic word to friends and words of encouragement in the past without even knowing it, that God was actually using you. You see, sometimes people think that the only way that this prophetic gift is being used is if we suddenly tremble in our voices and it goes up a little bit, gets louder, and maybe we start using King James English. Thus saith the Lord my beloved. Oh, God has given to you Heinz feet. You know, what does that mean? I mean, that is an actual prophecy that someone was given, a friend of mine, and he walks up to me and says, what is he talking about me getting Heinz feet? What is he talking about? Because there are people who do that. And they have to speak King James and they have to quiver as they speak and they have to get all emotional. And I've said this before, you know, Jesus Christ exercised prophetic gifts and encouragements and all. And you never see any indication of him suddenly having his eyes roll to the back of his head and start quivering and speaking very loudly and pulsating. You just don't see that. God is normal. We aren't. And so when the Holy Spirit works through us, it comes in a very normal way. We need to understand that. Because a lot of people associate the gifts of the Holy Spirit with theatrics, with the theatrical element of showmanship. That is not what God intends for us. There are times when you'll be speaking a word of encouragement or comfort or edification that is very definitely prophetic because God's word is coming through you and you're sharing with somebody and they're being built up as you do that. And they sense the presence of God. They know God has spoken to their heart. They bring, it brings that comfort to them, that joy that is a result of God ministering to them. And that's what his intent to do. To do in verse five it says, I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that your prophesied for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks in tongues unless indeed he interprets that the church may receive edification, that the church may be built up. God wants to build up the body of Christ. God wants to do works that are great. God wants to do things in our lives. And he wants us to be encouraged as he does that. Now, is that message that he's going to give to us? Is that word of encouragement? Is it going to be mysterious? No, it's not. It's going to be something that's easy to understand in chapter 14 verse nine. Notice how he says, so likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words, easy to understand, how will it be known? What is spoken for you will be speaking into the air. There are words that are easy to grab hold of. There's going to be a response in your heart as the Lord begins to speak to you that is going to give you the ability to say, I can sense that the Lord is bringing a word of comfort. Now, all of this is always going to line up with scripture, by the way. It isn't something that comes from outside the box. It doesn't come from outside of scripture. It comes from within scripture. So you can see the things that are being said line up with the revealed will of God. But as a person is bringing this insight through this word to you, it produces an encouragement. And it doesn't have to be something that is really difficult for you to understand at all. It's actually something that will be easy for you to understand because you will know that this is indeed coming from the Lord. This is one of the ways that God actually instructs to us, instructs us in the ways of God. Paul had made it very clear, and you can see this in verse 19, that he would rather be very clear in his speech. In verse 19, he said, in the church, I would rather speak five words with my understanding that I may teach others also than 10,000 words in a tongue. I would prefer being able to communicate God's ways to men in a clear sense so that all people will understand and all people can be blessed. You see, he wanted to teach others. Now, when this is taking place, verse 24 and 25 gives us some insight too. It says, if all prophesy and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he's convinced by all, he's judged by all, and thus the secrets of his heart are revealed. So falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you. Many times people have been saved here in this church because during the teaching, the Lord has laid on my heart something to say that pierced their hearts. I've had it happen so many times. I take a moment to try and select which illustration I can use. It's happened so many times. I had a lady approach me one time and she said, you know, my son was here today and as you were sharing, you were saying the things that he's guilty of doing. He's never been here before and you were sharing some of the things that he's doing. So please, next time I bring him, don't say those things because he thinks I'm telling him, telling you what he's doing. One, I had never met this woman in my life. Two, I didn't know who her son was. And three, how would I know what I was saying is applying to him? That's just, it just doesn't work that way. You know, if the Lord is giving to you something to say, then you say it. Oftentimes when I'm teaching the word and most any pastor will say the same kind of thing, there are things, if I handed you my notes, for example, and you began to read my notes with me as I'm going through them, you don't see some of the, many of the things, 50% of the things that I'm saying are not here in the notes. What I give to you is, you know, you'll see me looking down and reading them and then I begin to illustrate, none of that is in my notes. And so there are very oftentimes the Lord is giving to me something to say at that moment that is applying to somebody who's out there who doesn't even, I don't know them and I don't even really know why I'm choosing to say this at this moment. But what happens is this is a divine moment where the Holy Spirit is saying, this is for this person here and that person out there is hearing it and it's speaking to their hearts in a way that's very personal. Though they may be thinking that I am illustrating through their life, the fact is, God is the one who's giving you that word at that moment and it's a prophetic word because it reveals their hearts, which is what Paul was just saying. An unbeliever who is seated amongst you, hearing these things will truly say, God is amongst you, why? Because his heart is being revealed. There are things within him that is being shown to him in a very clear way. I gave up an invitation many years ago now and a very good sized lumberjack came forward and he was a very big guy. I remember him well, I got to know him. I performed his wedding for him. I got to know him but I remember him walking forward and he was a good sized man and as we were talking afterwards, he shared with me, he said, you know, he was the only one who got saved that day. He says, you know, when you were teaching you started talking about me. You started talking about my friends. Then you started talking about my music and then I got mad and I wanted to go and hit you and I was thinking, thank you Jesus, thank you. He didn't do it, he's only thinking about it. He said, and then it hit me. My heart was being revealed and that's why I came forward because it was like you were speaking directly to me. That's the ministry of a prophetic utterance. See, it's not that suddenly I have to stop. I have to quiver. I have to speak in King James. Thus saith the Lord, country music is up the devil. I don't have, because he liked country music. It is of the devil, but that's another subject. Just kidding, I know there are a lot of people here who are cowboys and cowgirls. But that's what the Lord does. The Lord opens your heart up and sometimes the things that are being said are just so appropriate for you, prophecy. It's an edification, it's an encouragement, it's a comfort, it's a revelation and God does that work. That's how he works. Now, when this is taking place and there are times when you have believers meetings and the believers together are exercising the gifts, when this is taking place, there needs to be some order to it. So notice with me, verse 29, where Paul says, let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge. Now, there would be times when a prophet would speak forth a word. But there were others who were there with the gift of discernment and when the word would be spoken, the ones who exercised discernment were to listen very carefully. The whole church really should have discernment but there are those with the gifts of discernment and those words need to be tested. They're tested against the scripture. 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verses 19 through 21 says, quench not the spirit. Do not despise prophecies. But he goes on to say, test all things, hold fast what is good. And so something may be said, let's say at the Lord, but that has to be tested against the word of God. Is this appropriate? Is this something consistent with how God works? And that's how you test it. And sometimes as I mentioned earlier, there may be something going on in your heart that you already know and you're just waiting for a confirmation. Again, years ago, I was doing the first, in the first year of the history of this church, I believe a full year, pretty much a full year of topical studies, though I did jump into a book. Most of the time, for the first great portion of time in this church, I was doing topicals. And so I wasn't teaching through books on Sunday morning the way I do now. And I remember one week I was praying because I was gonna move into a new study and I was seeking the Lord and I remember praying and asking God, what would you have me to teach? What should I do? What is the book that you would have this church go through? You might find this interesting, but I don't just grab studies and just give them. I pray through what is it that we should be doing right now? That's why we're doing this on Sunday night because I felt that first Corinthians, because I knew we were gonna get to the gifts of the Spirit and I wanted to teach that and I thought that would be a good study for Sunday nights. So that's what I'll do, I'll pray. So I started thinking I should teach the Gospel of Mark. But I started arguing with the Lord over it. I remember this very well. No, I can't. And I had this impression, you need to teach the Gospel of Mark. I had, it was just a sense, teach the Gospel of Mark. And I said to myself, actually to the Lord, no, because if I begin to teach the Gospel of Mark, there are gonna be people who come in saying the third chapter or the fourth chapter who didn't get opportunity to go with us in the first chapter or second chapter and they're gonna be lost in the study and I was arguing with the Lord. And the Lord said, teach the Gospel of Mark. I remember that all through the week. Sunday morning came, I gave my Bible study, a woman I've never seen before and I haven't seen since, walked up to me after church and I was standing in the front and I'll never forget this. She walks up to me and she says, the Lord is saying, teach the Gospel of Mark. I'll never forget that. I will never forget that. And I said, tell the Lord, no, no, I didn't do that. I promise you, I did not do that. The next week, Mark chapter one. There are things that the Lord will put on your heart that are confirmed and I saw that as confirmation. I knew that the spirit was speaking to me. He was trying to prepare me. He was telling me, I was resisting him. So there are times that somebody else will come and confirm that word to you. Now, there are times when people will give you a false prophecy. Here in this church, before we built the other sanctuary after a Sunday morning, I stepped down here and I was talking to the people and a lady walked up to me and said, this is my first time here. And I said, well, it's nice to have you. She said, the Holy Spirit has given me a word of prophecy for you. Will you receive it? And I said, say on, real biblical time. Say on, thus sayeth the Lord. That's, this is true. I'm not, I'm not making this up. Thus sayeth the Lord, I have blessed you on your Sunday studies. I will bless you greatly if you begin to have church services on Saturday. And I said, we can stop. That's not Jesus. That's you. I said, that's not a true prophecy at all. That's coming from your heart because you want me to become a Sabbath keeper. That's not what the Lord's saying. And she got upset. And again, I've never seen her since, you know? She went back to Rawls church, you know? He's still resisting the spirit. But you just tested according to scripture. Is it here in the word? And is it something God has placed on your heart? We should never follow people who are saying, oh, thus sayeth the Lord. But there are times in the gift of the spirit, a prophetic spirit is, prophetic gift is being used that, that God is going to confirm what he's already been placing on your heart. It's just simply an outside way of confirming what he's already said. And it always lines up with scripture. Now, when the gifts are in operation, the gifts are to operate in an orderly fashion. And that's why he was saying, let two or three prophets speak and let the others judge because there needs to be an orderly fashion. When God moves, it's not intended to be something that's like a carnival of some sort. It's not something that you may see sometimes on what is called Christian television where things get kind of wild and out of hand and people are running around blessing one another and people are falling out in the spirit and they're grabbing modesty cloths and putting them over the women. And you see people doing, and I call Holy Spirit Kung Fu, knocking people down and stuff. You know, that's not something that scripture teaches. It's just something that men will do sometimes. So you have to be very careful that you don't give yourself over to things that really are not of the Lord. Verse 33 says to us, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all the churches of the saints. And so a foundational rule is found in verse 40 where it says all things are done decently and in order. Sometimes people will say, I can't help myself. God told me to do that. God told me to say that. Well, notice verse 32. The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. You can control that one of the gifts of the spirit operate under the fruit of the spirit and a fruit of the spirit is self-control. So there's no need to get crazy. There's no need to raise your voice. There's no need to quiver. There's no need to change the way that you speak and the cadence that you speak and the volume. There's no need for any of that. When the Holy Spirit is preparing somebody's heart and somebody brings a word to them and says, you know, the Lord has placed something on my heart. I wanna share this with you. That is something that your heart will be in agreement with. On very few occasions over the years, there have been times when I have had a distinct impression during an invitation to say something that I might not ordinarily say. I would guess that maybe one or two out of all of you in this room have ever heard me say something like this because I've only said this kind of thing once or twice in all the years of ministry. But there have been times when I've given invitations, for example, when the Lord places it on my heart to say something that is unusual in that invitation. And I can still remember on one occasion saying, there's somebody here right now, the Lord is calling you. But it's the voice of your mother. It's like when you were a child and mama would say, she would yell, you were down the street and she would yell, son, come home. I said, the Holy Spirit is saying to you right now, son, come home. And here comes some man weeping because his mama used to say that his mama was a believer and that connected with his heart at that moment. I didn't say, okay, that one worked. I'll do that again in a couple of years. You know, son, come home. Next time it'll be my daughter come home or my niece come home. You know, I'll just have varieties of it. Now, there are times when the Holy Spirit is simply placing in your heart something that needs to be said at that moment. And it connects with somebody who's out there and they're saying, this is the Lord. How do I know that it is the Lord? Well, let me close with this. Does it line up with the spirit of what you already have had revealed to you in the Bible? Does it line up with scripture? Again, false teachers and false prophets will contradict the written word of God. So does it line up with the general theme of scripture? Two, does it bring honor to the Lord Jesus Christ? You see, the Holy Spirit in John 16, 14 is described as glorifying Jesus. Jesus said, He will take of what is mine and declare it to you. But Jesus said, He will glorify me. So does that word that's being spoken bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ? False prophets are interested in personal glory, personal attention and personal wealth. But a genuine prophet who's a genuine gift of prophecy when prophecy is actually being spoken is intended to bring people to glorify Jesus. And then third, we need to remember that God never contradicts and God never interrupts Himself. He never does. Sometimes during a church service, there are those who are in congregations that when the pastor is teaching will stand up. Some of you may have been in churches like this where they'll stand up during the service and interrupt it. And the pastor will take a step back and he'll say something like, well, the Lord has something to say to us right now and that person will clear their throat, speak loudly, thus saith the Lord my little children and then kind of look around and sit down. There are churches, some of you came from. I've talked to many people who have come from that environment where that's normal. God never interrupts Himself. He never does. If the word of God is being taught why would He interrupt what He's saying through somebody else? He doesn't do that. Have you ever been lectured by your mom and your dad simultaneously? Like a tag team? Dad is saying something before you know it, mama wants to jump in and then mama goes for a while and then dad jumps in. At what point do you shut down? But when my dad, when my dad would give me a lecture, mama didn't need to step in. Dad was talking. And it was wise for her not to step in because he had something to say. In ministry, it's not a whole lot different, guys. God does not interrupt Himself. There's not gonna be some fresh manner that's thrown onto the plate right now because the preacher's just not doing a good job. When God's word is divided properly and communicated properly, the mind of the Lord is being revealed to the people, God isn't gonna interrupt Himself. And so one of the things that I've seen in my history of being a Christian is that some occasions there have been those who stand up, I had one person in a retreat one time, a men's retreat, who I was sharing and just finished and this man stood up and said, pastor, is it time for us to give a prophetic word? I didn't know this man from Adam. So I said, say on, this sounds biblical. And I said, speak for your servant hears. No, I said, what? He clears his throat, he gives a word and he's very proud of himself for doing it. I'll never forget, he had that smug smile on his face. Wasn't that heavy? And I nodded at him and I said, thank you, you may be seated. And he sat down, some people will do that because they want the attention that they can get from it. When Jesus is speaking, all attention goes to Him. When the Lord ministers, all attention goes to Him. Keep that in mind. That helps you to discern if you're ever kind of bored and wanting to see some Christian TV, it helps you to discern whether this person is coming from the Lord or not. It's one of the things that helps you. Who's getting the glory? Where's it coming from? What is being said? Does it line up with scripture? Is this something God would say or does it contradict something God has already said? And those are very important things. So Paul wants the gift of prophecy to be exercised, but he doesn't want it to be abused. And prophecy will never take the place of Bible study and prophecy will never take the place of Bible teaching because it's through the Bible teaching and Bible study that you develop discernment to be able to hear whether this is so or not, whether it lines up with God's word. Part of the problem that we see today is a hunger for God to basically prove Himself so that people say, well, you know what? Yes, we've got an ancient book, but I get my material from God fresh from heaven. It's right from the oven and it just comes through prophetic utterances. No, when God has something to say, He never contradicts Himself, He never interrupts Himself because it's all intended to communicate to us that which brings glory to Jesus Christ. The result will be for us to have edification or exhortation or comfort that comes through that prophetic word that helps us to be able to not only continue on, but actually thrive in the things of God because God knows my heart. He knows the secrets of it. He can reveal it to me and He can show me its remedy. That comes through the teaching of the word of God, but it can also come through the operation of the gift of prophecy.