Day By Day - 1 Corinthians 14
By Catherine Mitchell
Opening Thought:
Pursue and desire - both words are verbs. A verb is an action word, my favourite. Paul‘s coaching here is a call to action: love’s pursuit is a chase. Love is the exquisite prize we run for. We hunt it down, capture it, engage in it and maintain every aspect of our Christian walk in it. Here is the reason for Paul’s coaching on love, our spiritual gifts are dependent upon it. Gifts, which are dependent on faith-filled action, first need love before they can grow because love is the grease that faith slides on. Galatians 5:6 TPT “All that matters is living in faith that is cultivated and brought to perfection by love.” Boom! Therefore, where my gift flow is weak my love is likely to be weak. Where my love richly grows, my gifts will richly flow. I simply must chase love.
The pursuit of love ignites faith and prepares the chaser to measure their gifts with charity, benevolence and composure. Since everything in connection to Christ is obtained, measured and accomplished through love, love’s pursuit is a saint’s daily occupation.
Then if you add to your love pursuit, genuine ownership of the gifts, as well as a genuine desire and motive, you will gain extra velocity in growing and flowing in them. Here are three edifying points for you today to help you with that:
1: Genuine Ownership of Prophecy
Vs 5: “I wish you all.. even more…prophesied”
When Paul says “you all” he means “you all’. Here is the ruination of the fallacy that each gift is only for some. Prophets, those endowed to deliver anointed oracles directly from God, are seated on every seat in every Spirit-filled auditorium. That makes “you all” prophetic people! Have you owned that fact yet? Yes you, the one reading this, may take ownership and stand in your calling to prophesy now.
There are prophecies lying at the bottom of your vessel that you haven’t delivered yet! Let me stir them up for you because Paul wished that we ALL, every one of us, even more genuinely, owned our gift of prophecy.
2: Genuine Desire Especially to Prophesy
Vs 1: “Desire spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy.”
Desire: Desire is not merely a whimsical hope or a wish upon a star. Desire here is a zealous burning, an underlying craving and a relentless longing for the gift as though your prophecies were lost children whom you desperately need to find and bring home.
Especially: Paul would rather us want more than any other gift, to especially prophecy. I believe this is for two reasons. Firstly, at the core of all prophecy, we find everything that embodies the expertise, values and intentions which God extends towards the church. Secondly, prophecies are the simplest and most effective way to build up and encourage the whole assembly corporately. No other method of edification is as succinct as a prophecy because it is the voice of God, able to capture and impact the spirits of the whole family in unity. Paul wished that you would make the effort to genuinely, especially desire prophecy.
3 a: Genuine Motives
Vs 12 “Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek it.”
Tongues are mostly a personal and private prayer language. Uttered tongues intensify the quality and volume of our personal spiritual awareness of God. When prayed, spoken, sung or heard, tongues give a divine or heavenly sense of wellbeing and so they are often called a heavenly language. Tongues are intended by the Holy Spirit to personally edify the one who utters them, however, He has also given gifts to edify the whole church.
Inspired tongues are not private when they break the silence of a gathering and demand attention. This kind of tongue is a direct delivery by the Holy Spirit, intended to edify the whole body and ought to always be interpreted. Vs 13 “Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he interpret.” With genuine motives, a responsible deliverer ought always to maintain composure, listen to the heart of the message and express their understanding of it unless someone else interprets for them.
A tongue with interpretation is prophecy. As all prophecy is divine preaching delivered from the throne room of God, we must steer the gift with pure motives and out-turned hearts, always desiring to strengthen others.
3 b: Genuine motives of the sisters in Vs 34
In that era, because brides were mostly uneducated teenagers, husbands explained the Word to them at home, hence, in ignorance, Corinthian women often blurted out undignified questions at inappropriate times. We ought to be truly grateful that modern women have access to education and can share their understanding, with dignity, in church. Having said that, Paul in vs 40, advocated that each gender maintain dignity when sharing in church. In this manner, we will all promote decency and order always.
Final Thought: Vs 24-25
Prophecy is the Jewel Princess of the gifting fleet, a flagship that is yours to steer. Imagine that! You are able to minister the best of what God has to showcase, “and thus the secrets of his (man’s) heart are revealed and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.” All of us can do that. Yes, that’s right, even you.
Opening Thought:
Pursue and desire - both words are verbs. A verb is an action word, my favourite. Paul‘s coaching here is a call to action: love’s pursuit is a chase. Love is the exquisite prize we run for. We hunt it down, capture it, engage in it and maintain every aspect of our Christian walk in it. Here is the reason for Paul’s coaching on love, our spiritual gifts are dependent upon it. Gifts, which are dependent on faith-filled action, first need love before they can grow because love is the grease that faith slides on. Galatians 5:6 TPT “All that matters is living in faith that is cultivated and brought to perfection by love.” Boom! Therefore, where my gift flow is weak my love is likely to be weak. Where my love richly grows, my gifts will richly flow. I simply must chase love.
The pursuit of love ignites faith and prepares the chaser to measure their gifts with charity, benevolence and composure. Since everything in connection to Christ is obtained, measured and accomplished through love, love’s pursuit is a saint’s daily occupation.
Then if you add to your love pursuit, genuine ownership of the gifts, as well as a genuine desire and motive, you will gain extra velocity in growing and flowing in them. Here are three edifying points for you today to help you with that:
1: Genuine Ownership of Prophecy
Vs 5: “I wish you all.. even more…prophesied”
When Paul says “you all” he means “you all’. Here is the ruination of the fallacy that each gift is only for some. Prophets, those endowed to deliver anointed oracles directly from God, are seated on every seat in every Spirit-filled auditorium. That makes “you all” prophetic people! Have you owned that fact yet? Yes you, the one reading this, may take ownership and stand in your calling to prophesy now.
There are prophecies lying at the bottom of your vessel that you haven’t delivered yet! Let me stir them up for you because Paul wished that we ALL, every one of us, even more genuinely, owned our gift of prophecy.
2: Genuine Desire Especially to Prophesy
Vs 1: “Desire spiritual gifts but especially that you may prophesy.”
Desire: Desire is not merely a whimsical hope or a wish upon a star. Desire here is a zealous burning, an underlying craving and a relentless longing for the gift as though your prophecies were lost children whom you desperately need to find and bring home.
Especially: Paul would rather us want more than any other gift, to especially prophecy. I believe this is for two reasons. Firstly, at the core of all prophecy, we find everything that embodies the expertise, values and intentions which God extends towards the church. Secondly, prophecies are the simplest and most effective way to build up and encourage the whole assembly corporately. No other method of edification is as succinct as a prophecy because it is the voice of God, able to capture and impact the spirits of the whole family in unity. Paul wished that you would make the effort to genuinely, especially desire prophecy.
3 a: Genuine Motives
Vs 12 “Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek it.”
Tongues are mostly a personal and private prayer language. Uttered tongues intensify the quality and volume of our personal spiritual awareness of God. When prayed, spoken, sung or heard, tongues give a divine or heavenly sense of wellbeing and so they are often called a heavenly language. Tongues are intended by the Holy Spirit to personally edify the one who utters them, however, He has also given gifts to edify the whole church.
Inspired tongues are not private when they break the silence of a gathering and demand attention. This kind of tongue is a direct delivery by the Holy Spirit, intended to edify the whole body and ought to always be interpreted. Vs 13 “Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he interpret.” With genuine motives, a responsible deliverer ought always to maintain composure, listen to the heart of the message and express their understanding of it unless someone else interprets for them.
A tongue with interpretation is prophecy. As all prophecy is divine preaching delivered from the throne room of God, we must steer the gift with pure motives and out-turned hearts, always desiring to strengthen others.
3 b: Genuine motives of the sisters in Vs 34
In that era, because brides were mostly uneducated teenagers, husbands explained the Word to them at home, hence, in ignorance, Corinthian women often blurted out undignified questions at inappropriate times. We ought to be truly grateful that modern women have access to education and can share their understanding, with dignity, in church. Having said that, Paul in vs 40, advocated that each gender maintain dignity when sharing in church. In this manner, we will all promote decency and order always.
Final Thought: Vs 24-25
Prophecy is the Jewel Princess of the gifting fleet, a flagship that is yours to steer. Imagine that! You are able to minister the best of what God has to showcase, “and thus the secrets of his (man’s) heart are revealed and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.” All of us can do that. Yes, that’s right, even you.
Posted in 1 Corinthians