Have you ever sat down and worked your way through the years of the first few generations of mankind (Genesis 5)? It’s a few minutes work, but it is worth it. There are a few surprises that grab your attention straight away.

And one of them is a particularly sobering one – Methuselah.

Biography
Methuselah comes onto the scene in world history with what seems at first to be an outrageous claim by Moses that Methuselah lived to the ripe old age of 969 years, the oldest man in history by a long margin. The remaining information about his life in the Scriptures is that at the age of 178 he became the father of Lamech and then later, had a few more nameless, sons and daughters.

And that seems to be it. Not much to say for such a long life – and not much to inspire the generations that would follow.

But there is more that can be read between the lines without going into spurious claims and myths.

A great name to live with?

My name, Jonathan, means “Gift of God”. I don’t always feel like that, but essentially as far as a name goes that is what it means. Imagine then the pressure of living with the name given by Enoch to his first son, Methuselah. Methuselah has 2 variations of meaning; “Man of the spear”, or alternatively “when he dies it shall be sent”.

Imagine life as the years roll on and on, and the promise overshadowing you, but yet passing others by as they also grow old and die, that when you die, it shall come. But not knowing what was to come.

Methuselah would be 250 years of age when Adam dies. Methuselah has walked with Adam and no doubt knows all about the Garden of Eden and what life was like having uninterrupted access to God before the days of the fall. He’s also privy to the mystery concerning Enoch. He knows all the stories, he’s met all the main characters of history, and yet, it hasn’t deeply and profoundly affected his walk before God.

The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6:5-8

Methuselah receives no commendation by God, and it is his grand-son alone that finds favour in the eyes of God.

And so for Noah, a 100 year project gets under way to build the most important ship in history, and painfully, Methuselah is never mentioned once as standing beside Noah and his family as they obey the command of God. And all the time, the man called “When he dies, it shall be sent”, carries a prophetic message, but does not benefit from it.

Jewish teaching has it that Methuselah died 7 days before the beginning of the great Flood, and the 7 days were given by God to allow for Noah to mourn his departure. Whether or not that is true, is of no real account to us. What we do know is that as the great flood arrives, maybe days before, Methuselah dies.

And as Methuselah dies and the waters of the earth begin to rise, a new day dawns on the earth that is going to be a transition to new discoveries. The day of Adam and those who knew him has passed, and history moves quickly to a new set of characters, Noah and Abraham.

Sounds of silence
The weakness in all of this is that we are arguing from silence here – it may be that Methuselah turned to God during the days that Noah was building the Ark. we just do not know, but we do know what God had said in the above verses.

There are many in our generation that know all about God, they have heard the stories of revival, they have listened excitedly to the tales of dynamic stories of signs and wonders and miracles – but yet deep down, are untouched and unaffected by those encounters.

It is to them that God again and again, comes with the message of the gospel. I urge you that if you feel that you have heard all these things before and feel unmoved, to be wise. Ask God to help you not to be like Methuselah, but to turn your heart to Him.

God is always very, very gracious to all who call on Him.

Jon Cressey is a part of City Church Sheffield. You can visit his blog here: joncressey.com

Reformed people often forget that Piper is almost as much of a charismatic as I am! He is no doubt a bit more cautious than me about gifts, but he does believe in them. In this video clip he shares what he describes as a prophetic word that has a warning for the reformed movement today. You can read the transcript or watch it here:

This is the second of a four-part interview with Matt Chandler. At Together For the Gospel, Chandler began his talk by claiming to be a reformed charismatic. After Grudem’s recent interview on this subject at New Word Alive, I was eager to ask Matt just what he meant by this, as there is a broad spectrum of people who would describe themselves as charismatic. His response including the memorable phrase, “I have never read anything in the Scripture where the devil was in the business of converting hearts to Christ”

Watch on vimeo

This video might surprise some of my readers. Wayne is well known as a reformed theologian. Arguably he and Piper have between them, with some help from Keller and Carson, led to this resurgence of “Young Restless and Reformed” that so many people talk about. So when a man like that argues that God has not stopped speaking since completing the Bible, it is worth listening to what he has to say. Wayne is theologically charismatic (believing that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today) and argues that prophecy is still available today, representing what God is saying to individual Christians rather than the whole world:

Wayne Grudem on whether God’s revelation has really stopped or not from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo. ]]> http://adrianwarnock.com/2010/05/wayne-grudem-on-whether-gods-revelation-has-really-stopped/feed/ 0 http://adrianwarnock.com/2010/02/sam-storms-on-pastoring-as-a-reformed-charismatic/ http://adrianwarnock.com/2010/02/sam-storms-on-pastoring-as-a-reformed-charismatic/#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:47:18 +0000 hostmaster http://adrianwarnock.com/?p=8108

In the following inteview, Sam and I speak about what it is like for him to pastor as a reformed charismatic. It is a very interesting exchange, and one I very much enjoyed filming:

I received this testimony from someone in an email recently.  I asked them if I could share it here anonymously and they graciously agreed.  Having grown up as a cessationist, God had other plans for them:

I set myself to reading all I could find on the subject, searching the Scriptures, and praying over the matter. It became more and more clear to me that the “proof text” of cessationism was completely out of context. The Lord showed me how an argument from silence in church history is not a valid theological argument, as the doctrine of justification by faith was likewise hidden for 1,000 years. Yet it is no less taught in Scripture, clearly seen to those who read those precious pages.

And, I saw that rejecting the gifts is actually a threat to the authority of Scripture, for the denial renders whole sections of Scripture inapplicable to our day. How can God change so much, that his supernatural care of the church be withdrawn? Likewise, the authority of Scripture argument used by cessationists is a straw man, because almost nobody on the charismatic side of the fence would see contemporary prophecy as anything near authoritative. All prophecy, says Paul and the charismatic church, should be tested to see if it is in accord with Scripture. If not, throw the words out because prophecy is subservient to Scripture. Suddenly I found that the cessationism of my youth had no leg to stand on!

Slowly but surely, the Holy Spirit peeled away the layers of resistance which had been on my heart from various sources. In addition to my theological training, some of my resistance came from dislike of the culture of charismatic Christianity as portrayed on TV, and also from the treatment I had received from others. Add to this a fear of emotionalism and lost control, and you have a pretty big wall to tear down. Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit went full force to convince me, and about three months into my inquiry I finally admitted it—the cessationist was now a continuationist. There were other questions though. For one thing, how far did I want to take this? Was there, in fact, an experience we call the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Did one have to speak in tongues to have the fullness of the Spirit? How on earth was I to live these things out without giving way to the fanaticism I was seeing on TV?

In mid-August of the same year, my family decided to spend the day at a local park having fun. Just as we were getting ready to leave, I took the dog out. My dog, however, had a different plan than usual, and started running out of control. Trying to regain control of him, I sprained my ankle. After limping back to the house I knew I had to stay home. I could have been bitter about this, and for a few hours I was. But God had another plan because I spent the whole day studying the issues which were remaining. Tongues, I decided, were not as much the be all and end all of spiritual experiences. That notion I rejected. But what I did know was that I needed more of the power of the Spirit in my life, whatever the fullness of the Spirit was, I did not have it. Still reticent to speak in tongues though, I started asking the Lord what he wanted. Of course his continual refrain was, “I want to fill you up and let you speak in tongues.” Slowly over the next few days I began to be willing to accept that gift, then to desire it. Finally about Wednesday or so I prayed and asked the Lord for that precious gift.

The next day, I woke up to a new dawn for the Lord held me several hours just enjoying his sweet presence. In the early afternoon, I felt irresistibly drawn into his presence so that I could not do anything but start praying to him. Then it happened: I felt a breath of wind, and it started gathering in the very center of my being. The love which I had felt from the Lord earlier today started rapidly growing, and I also felt his power, his joy, his pleasure. I was caught up in him and began to praise his beauty as one who is deeply in love.

The experience of this love kept growing and growing, until I could no longer contain it and I felt like my whole soul was going to explode or be caught up into heaven itself. Then it happened: the language of praise in English gave way to silence, and then I started hearing some strange syllables in my head. As I felt compelled to repeat those syllables, I realized that I was speaking in tongues! Quickly I found myself then speaking in tongues without the auditory prompts, and I was caught up even higher into his love, joy, excellence. Not only my soul but my whole being was in an emotional high so that I didn’t think there was any greater. If I could have been any happier, I think my frame would have been overcome and I swept up into heaven itself. After a few minutes—how long I don’t know exactly—I finally stopped speaking in tongues. But the heart warming effects of it endured.

Several more times that day I would sneak off to a quiet corner to speak in tongues for a few minutes. And my heart still felt like it wanted to burst with joy, a feeling which lasted for several weeks afterwards. Immediately I started wondering: why, oh why, did I wait so long to let Jesus lavish this gift on me? I thank my Jesus for how good he is, for exercising so much patience and love in dealing with my stubbornness. This good gift, and many others, he was glad to give me once I was willing to receive them. Hallelujah.

If my series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is now finished, has left you wanting to know more, then I encourage you to listen to three talks from my friend, Joel Virgo. Joel leads the Brighton Newfrontiers church, CCK. His first talk speaks about something I have blogged about previously, apostles today. The second goes through some of the gifts, and in the third he speaks about how the gifts can operate in meetings.

Joel argues for a different approach, depending on the size of the congregation, saying “the bigger the number of people in the room, the more important the leadership gift becomes in that meeting.” He believes that the ideal size of meeting for the gifts to freely operate is around 100, although that does not mean they can’t be used at all in larger or smaller meetings.

Also, there is one talk that I recommend more than any other if you are now eager to receive more of the Holy Spirit. Terry Virgo spoke at a Newfrontiers USA event on “How to Receive the Holy Spirit.” You can download the audio, or read a testimony of how that talk led to a breakthrough for a man who had been seeking the Spirit for many years. Terry also has many other useful talks online

John Piper has a number of talks on the Holy Spirit available over at Desiring God. For example, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today. Grudem edited a four views book to which Sam Storms contributed called Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit. Read how two professors’ theological training had left them ill-prepared to deal with traumatic events, and their resulting journey away from what they called a spiritually sterile tradition to an experience of God’s Holy Spirit. Can cessationists experience the Holy Spirit without becoming out and out charismatics?

Don Carson’s book, He Who Gives Life is a very helpful and comprehensive theology of the Holy Spirit.

Gordon Fee’s God’s Empowering Presence examines every mention in Paul’s letters of the role of the Holy Spirit.

Last, but by no means least, my friend Greg Haslam has recently written a fantastic book on the practicalities of pursuing the gift of prophecy today, called Moving in the Prophetic.

And there, for now, I will leave this subject of the gifts and this blog will move on to other things.

As we draw to the end of this series on the gifts of the Spirit, I want to conclude by thinking a bit more about what is the purpose of these gifts. The gifts are a foretaste of heaven, of our restored relationship with God. They are one way to draw us into the presence of God. Through the gifts we encounter the reality of a living Jesus who is active in his church today. They are not the only way for us to experience God since for example prayer, worship music, sermons, and reading God’s Word all lead us to Jesus.

We are encouraged to be in a living relationship with a God who wants to direct our lives specifically, and who wants to do that, not just in the moral or ethical sphere, but also in terms of which of several good alternatives we should follow. He wants to guide our lives. He wants to have a relationship with us and to know us. He wants to set us free. He wants power and healing to come to us. He wants to speak with us. He wants us to know him. That’s what we have been talking about. Isn’t it a wonderful thing? Is it any wonder, then, that when Paul is speaking about this he tells us to pursue love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts?

I hope this series has challenged us to passionately seek these gifts, to stir them up, and pursue them. Many who theoretically believe in the Holy Spirit and his gifts fall at this hurdle. They simply passively wait for God to give them a gift rather than pressing in and persistently asking him to bless them with these gifts. We do have a part to play in receiving the Spirit and his gifts.

Gifts need to be exercised in our meetings. The Bible says this, “Well, then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or interpretation, that all things be done for the building up.” Now, a large church can’t do that on a Sunday morning—everyone of the congregation, one after the other—or the meeting will last all day! So if you want to obey that Bible verse, you need to get yourself into a small group, into a cluster or zone meeting, or perhaps into the church prayer meeting. Those are the contexts where each of us can do that, and it’s a safe environment where we neither foolishly embrace prophecy in a unwise way without thinking about it, nor do we reject it. So I want to encourage you. In a large church, don’t just come on a Sunday morning, because you cannot obey that verse if that is all you do.

Why are we so eager to use these gifts? It’s because their purpose is for the good of others. 1 Corinthians 14:12 says this: “Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”

The Christian faith is a supernatural spiritual faith. It’s not man-made. There is a power at work—maybe you have felt him in a church meeting—he’s there. He is present in his church wanting to give gifts to us.

Imagine if I was to go to my wife and say, “Darling, I’d like to spend time with you. I’d like to get to know you a bit more and chat with you, but please don’t buy me any presents. I don’t want your presents, I don’t want your gifts. I don’t want anything from you.” She’d be pretty offended, wouldn’t she? Similarly, we are foolish to think we can pursue God without pursuing the gifts.

But imagine this: if I were to say to my wife, “Give me everything you’ve got, but I haven’t got any time to talk with you. I’m not interested in that. I don’t want a relationship with you, I just want your gifts.” I don’t think my marriage would be very pleasant!

We come to a Jesus who wants to give us gifts, but more than that, he wants to give us himself. He wants us to know him. He wants us to know sins forgiven. He wants us to know that he came and died for us, he rose again for us that we might be forgiven, that we might know our way to heaven.

Never allow gifts to distract us from our loving relationship with our Savior. The whole purpose of the gifts is to enhance that relationship, not serve as an end in themselves. But do not allow yourself to despise the gifts just because you have seen counterfeits at work. We seek the giver and his gifts, because through these gifts we meet God.

The details of the following situation have been changed to protect the anonymity of those involved.

Q. A friend of mine has come to me for advice. His girlfriend has told him that one of her close friends told her that God wanted them to hurry up and get married. He is not so sure as they have only been going out for three weeks.

A. The first thing to say is that your friend needs to be reminded that modern prophecy is not authoritative. When it comes to affairs of the heart, in my opinion, wisdom and common sense trump so-called prophecy every day. There is massive potential for major damage and destruction on this. Even genuine prophecy can often be misinterpreted. It is a good idea to find out exactly what this person shared (preferably first-hand) and try to establish exactly what it was they felt God said, and how much of what they said to the girlfriend was actually their interpretation of what they thought they heard or saw.

It is just possible that the “word” itself may have been right, but the interpretation wrong. Is it possible, for example, that your friend was being too casual about the relationship? This word may have actually been intended as a wake-up call to him to be more intentional—that he should decide in his mind whether he could ever see himself marrying this girl. If the answer is a definite “no,” he should finish it, but if it is a distinct possibility, he should commit himself to intentionally pursuing a relationship with her in such a way that the goal of that relationship is to determine whether or not they will be married (even if that takes a few months or even years to decide), rather than to merely be in it for fun.

This kind of prophecy, however, is a “match” prophecy and one that I strongly discourage in almost every case. In this instance, the word was shared by someone very close to the girl, which would immediately further add to my suspicion that this might be wishful thinking rather than a true word. There are dangers in people who know each other too well prophesying for each other. The heart is very deceitful, and too often we hear what we would want God to say to our friend rather than what he is actually saying. You may want to think about having a conversation with the person who shared this “word.”

So, starting from a position of caution, let’s go through the checklist I shared in my sermon:

1. I wonder how this prophecy has left the girlfriend and your friend feeling? If they are feeling anxious, stressed, and not encouraged, then I would immediately tell them this word can’t be from God as it is not fulfilling the purposes of New Testament prophecy listed in the Bible.

2. How does this word make them feel about Jesus? Is the Jesus we see in the Bible impatient? I don’t think so! Jesus says that to him one day is like a thousand years. So the way this prophecy portrays Jesus is not glorifying to him at all!
3. I have already said that this prophecy is not really consistent with the Bible. The only possible link to biblical commands would be when Paul said we should marry rather than burn with lust. But, Paul was speaking about people who were already engaged, and surely your friends can exercise some self-control for a bit longer. I would take this opportunity to speak with them about keeping pure, however.
4. What about other ways God speaks to people? Firstly, would YOU, as their spiritual counselor, advise these people to marry just yet? I think not. The fact they have come to you is a good opportunity for you to show them that wise advice from a spiritual leader is far more valuable to us than any prophetic direction. What about their circumstances? Are they in a position financially to marry?
5. Wisdom speaks to us very clearly about marriage. It is not for nothing that the old words of the marriage service said that it should not be entered into hastily or carelessly. The string of divorces, even among Christians, warn us to be slow to jump into this life-long serious commitment. To vow to marry when you haven’t already at least gone through all four seasons together is usually very unwise.
6. The fact that this word has not left your friend with a clear sense of direction and desire to act in a certain way again makes me feel this is unlikely to have come from God.
7. Even if your friend’s girlfriend is full of faith for this, your friend is fully within his rights to simply tell her he is not ready to make that step. He should do that gently and kindly, and this whole process, which is perhaps difficult, can be used to help strengthen their still young relationship, and certainly teach them to trust in God and the fullness of all the different the ways in which he can speak to us today.

In today’s post I continue to share an edited transcript of my sermon on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The following is a list of questions to ask yourself as you test a prophecy:

1. Is it upbuilding and encouraging? Does it leave you feeling positive? Even if there is an element of rebuke in it (sometimes that does happen), there should be a positive feel to it.

2. Does it lift Jesus up? Is it honoring and glorifying to Jesus?

3. Is it consistent with the Bible? Is it in line with biblical teaching? Does it contradict the Bible, or does it resonate with the Bible? The Bible is the main way we hear from God, and the only authoritative way.

4. Is it consistent with the other ways in which we hear from God? We don’t just hear from God through prophecy. We hear from:
   • The counsel of others.
     You need a wise, mature, spiritual Christian who is going on with God, who is growing, who knows God, who believes in the gifts, and yet is also wise so he can help you to weigh it. This is so important sometimes. If a prophetic word has been given to you, before you allow that to dominate your life and become a weight on your back, find someone like that you can speak to about this.

   • Our circumstances
     Now that sounds very unspiritual, doesn’t it? Let me give you an example. If someone feels that God wants them to move, but then they can’t buy or sell a house, it just doesn’t work, does it? It’s not wrong sometimes to use circumstance as a kind of “fleece,” although we must be careful not to test God. Another example of how God uses circumstances is in our own gifting and abilities. If anyone came up to me and said , “Adrian, I really feel God is saying to you that you’re supposed to be a craftsman and you’ve got to build houses for Jesus, I would laugh at them. I can’t even put shelves up, okay? You can ask my wife about that. So I would know that was wrong because the circumstances told me so. This might sound very unspiritual. But it’s actually a vital way in which God directs us. Proverbs 3 gives us some conditions to fulfill, which promise us that God will make our paths straight or direct us. Interestingly, our ability to hear God in prophecy is not one of those conditions.

5. Is it wise? Is it consistent with wisdom? Sometimes what sounds like a great prophecy will come, and then we realize that there’s no wisdom in following it. It doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t feel right in our hearts. The consequences of a particular course of action may be very obviously such that it would be foolish to follow that word.

6. Does it give you a sense of direction, or does it leave you in no man’s land? Does it leave you feeling free and inspired and uplifted and driven on, or does it leave you feeling bound and condemned and fearful?

7. Do you have faith for it? If you have no inward witness that it’s right, then it is very unlikely that the word is correct. Go, pray about it, talk to others, and then if you still feel the same way, release yourself from any sense of obligation.

Some people reading this may need to be set free from previous words that have become a chain around their necks. If you are one such person, what God wants to do for you right now is to set you free from wrong prophecy that has come to you. Maybe it’s something you think God spoke to you, or maybe it’s something a well-meaning brother or sister came and shared with you, but actually the fruit in your life has been that you have been bound up by it. And maybe you’ve even made wrong decisions as a result of it. This general principle applies to many people, but one specific example that seems to repeat itself all too often is that a prophecy, whether or not the prophecy has actually said this, is interpreted as saying that God wanted you to be a so-called “number one” leader of a church. If that word is not a correct one, and you have tried to pursue that, you might have had very troubling consequences. Maybe you even were a leader for awhile, or perhaps you tried to pursue that and it’s just gone horribly wrong. Sometimes we need to realize that the word we thought was from God was not, and we need to be set free from living under false expectations. In that case, God would want to take that pressure off you and would actually want to say, “Not everybody is called to be the number one guy.” Speaking personally, I’m very grateful that I don’t believe God wants me to be a “number one” guy. It doesn’t mean I can’t serve God. It doesn’t mean I can’t have a ministry. It doesn’t mean I can’t do all kinds of things for God, but it does mean I know what my role really is. Prophecy is intended to help us find the role in which we are most suitable, not tie us up in knots pursuing something for which we are unsuited!

There are true prophesies that can take years to be fulfilled, and that’s okay. We believe in promises that are yet to come. We don’t want to lose the hope real prophecies, but we need wisdom to distinguish true words that we should cling to from words that have bound people up and condemned themand made them define their lives in the wrong way.

In the next post I will conclude this series, but I am aware that this post has focused a bit on the “negative” side of prophecy. I want to end, therefore, by saying that the capacity of prophecy to bring real hope, direction, faith, and strengthening is so huge that we must not let the dangers of prophecy stop us from eagerly pursuing this wonderful gift.

This post is a continuation of an edited transcript of my sermon on the gifts of the Spirit.

There are many dangers of prophecy. One example of this is foolish prophecy, which is really nothing more than wishful thinking. It might surprise you to hear me say this, but sometimes it can be a bad idea for a small group of friends to gather and try to hear God for each other. Unfortunately, what often happens is what you wish God would say to that person is then what you think you hear God saying to that person. So we need to be careful about this.

Prophecy is particularly dangerous in the key areas of life. There is so much risk in and so much damage has been done in God’s name by unwise, unsafe prophecy. We should avoid, in almost every case, what I call “hatch, match, or dispatch” prophesies. What’s a “hatch” prophesy? A “hatch” prophesy is when you go up to a lady and say, “I really believe God is going to give you a baby.” Not wise. A “match” prophesy is, “I think you two should get married,” or worse still, when a guy goes to a girl and says, “God has told me that we’re going to get married.” Not wise. The girl might well reply, “Well, he hasn’t told me!” “Dispatch” prophesies are about predicting death—not good. But just as dangerous also are those prophecies where someone has a fatal illness and a foolish person says, “I really feel God has said you’re going to be healed.” Not helpful—it can be very dangerous. Avoid sharing these kinds of prophecy like the plague.

Prophecy can be misleading, and very damaging in foolish hands. Lives can be destroyed by the response of someone to a careless word. In fact, because of this risk, I can understand why at various points throughout history the cry has gone up, “Ban it!” But the Bible does not allow us to do that.

Because of the dangers of prophecy, I would encourage you, if you do have a prophetic word for someone, have a witness present to confirm or correct what is being said, and to relieve any pressure that the person might feel. It’s very wise to say things like, “Well, I need you to weight this.” “Please check this with your pastor.” “Does this make any sense to you?” Sometimes people deliver a prophetic word and they say, “Does that make any sense?” And the answer is “No.” “What do you mean, it doesn’t make any sense? It was God, wasn’t it?” Well, not necessarily.

How do we recognize true prophecy then? 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 says this: “Do not despise prophesying.” Unfortunately, many of us, having seen some of the excesses and some of the craziness that has gone on in the name of a so-called prophet, despise prophesying. Don’t despise prophesying, “but test everything, holding fast to the good.” I like that, because, to me, one of the things he seems to be saying is, “Don’t get too worried about the bad.” Obviously we reject the bad, but maybe the issue here is not necessarily pointing out everything that’s wrong in a prophecy, but just letting some of that just pass us by and honing in on and holding fast to the good. It is not the prophet who we test; rather it is the prophetic words. A powerful word can sometimes come from a new Christian. Equally, however, no word is true simply because it came from someone who has a good track record of hearing from God.

We are not told to test the Bible! The Bible, we know, is true. But we have to test prophetic words by what the Bible says. We don’t ask God to speak to us about something he’s already spoken about in the Bible. If you ever go up to a pastor and tell him, “God has told me that I should divorce my wife and marry another woman,” don’t expect a particularly sympathetic hearing, okay? You probably won’t get a very sympathetic response. You’ll be told in no uncertain terms that that’s a false prophecy. But actually, sometimes it’s not as clear-cut as that. In tomorrow’s post I will share a checklist we can use to help us as we test a prophecy that has been given to us.

Today, I continue my edited transcript of a sermon on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are three key things that prophecy is not. You see examples of all of these in Acts 21, which makes that a crucial chapter for understanding New Testament prophecy.

Prophecy is NOT infallible

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, “We know in part and we prophesy in part.” So by definition, prophecy is not without error. If you study Agabus’ prophecy in Acts 21, you’ll see that the general gist of his prophecy is correct, but the specifics of it are wrong. He says that the Jews will bind Paul and give him over to the Romans. It doesn’t happen like that. The Jews do not bind Paul. Paul is bound, but by the Romans. We can only assume that perhaps Agabus saw a picture of Paul being bound and chained, and perhaps he saw Jews there and he saw Romans there. So what does Agabus say? That the Jews are going to bind you and give you to the Romans. So he gets the details wrong, but he gets the general point right. Prophecy is like that in the New Testament.

Prophecy is not equivalent to Scripture
Some people think that prophecy is exactly the same as Scripture. That’s not true. Even in the Old Testament, Jonah had lots of prophecies. He was a prophet. Almost all of those were not recorded in the Bible. There is really only one prophecy from Jonah, and it’s very, very short and very, very unimpressive in one sense. In fact, that prophecy doesn’t even come to pass since it announces a judgment and the hearers repent. Yet he’s called a prophet. So he must have gone around prophesying, but they just never wrote those words down.

Also, we see that Philip’s daughters in Acts 21 prophesied, but their words are also not recorded. So some people say, “Well, all prophecy should be recorded in the Bible.” That’s not true. It didn’t happen in the Bible and it obviously shouldn’t happen now. Advocates of this view fail to take into account the passage from Joel that is quoted in Acts 2. If all God’s people are to prophesy, it is obvious that not all God’s people’s words can have equal weight with the Bible or there would be anarchy and a very large Bible! Joel must be envisaging something very different from OT prophecy which involved only select individuals.

Prophecy is not authoritative
Also in Acts 21, there was a group of believers, and through the Spirit (they obviously received some kind of prophecy), they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Interesting. They clearly had a sense of danger, a sense of what was going to happen to Paul in Jerusalem, and understandably, they made the jump and said, “You mustn’t go. The Spirit is warning us, so therefore, you mustn’t go.” And yet Paul ignores them. He heard it, he weighed it, he listened to it, but he wasn’t locked in by it, and he didn’t let it define his life. Actually, he said, “No, I must go to Jerusalem despite what you said.” Prophecy is not authoritative in our lives.

For the remainder of the sermon I preached on spiritual gifts, I focused on this gift of prophecy. We will be several days in sharing an edited version of a transcript of this section.

What is prophecy?
I believe that prophecy is an impression that God may have something to say specifically to specific people at a specific time. It can be a word for an individual. It can be a word to a group of people, for a church, maybe even for a whole country. But it’s a word from God that’s for the here and now. What is the purpose of this?

Well, he who prophesies, the Bible says, speaks to men and women for their upbuilding . . .” (1 Corinthians 14:3); this means edification or strengthening. We need that sometimes, don’t we? Being built up. The Bible does say, incidentally, that tongues builds us up if we do it ourselves on our own, but for us as a body to be built up, we need prophesy. Prophesy builds us up. It encourages us. The verse carries on—“and encouragement and consolation.”

These two words—encouragement and consolation—are actually quite rich words. They are difficult words to translate properly, and they have a broader sense than the English words that are used there. The word “encourage.” really means there is to comfort, to appeal, to exhort, to earnestly request or entreat somebody, to offer assistance or help or counsel. The word actually is paraklesin. You can hear the link to the word paraklete, which Jesus uses when he speaks about the comforter, the helper, the counselor that’s coming—the Holy Spirit. So, there’s a strengthening that happens. That second word, “consolation,” actually means to “speak direct to.” It means “to lift up, to give hope to.” There’s a sense of correction there, perhaps, and that’s why the word “consolation” is there, where there’s sorrow, bringing hope and trust. Where there’s weakness, bringing strength. It’s very positive, very warm, very upbuilding. People have said, and rightly so, I think, prophets go around building people’s hopes up. The prophetic in the New Testament does not bring condemnation.
There is a positive, warm bias to New Testament prophecy, because God is favorably disposed to the Christian because of Christ.

I continue to receive some questions arising from my sermon on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I thought I would try and answer a couple more today.

Q – I have been told that if I don’t pray in tongues there is something wrong with me and I am a second class Christian. I don’t know whether to give up or keep asking God for tongues.

Nowhere does the Bible say that people who speak in tongues are better than those who don’t. It is listed as one of the gifts, and Paul says clearly that prophecy is more valuable to the church. One of the things that can put people off from receiving this gift is bad teaching that leads to self-consciousness. If you have become anxious about it, and told that you are somehow inferior because you don’t speak in tongues it is no wonder that you would find it hard to receive. In my experience tongues is something that requires you to be God-focused. If your focus instead is on whether you are reaching the expectations of another Christian who has told you that you are a bad Christian, you are unlikely to be able to receive it. Tongues is not a sign of how much God loves us. Our security comes from knowing that Jesus died for us and loves us with an everlasting love.

As far as whether you should ever give up asking for tongues, we should remember that Paul said he wanted everyone to be able to speak in tongues. Thus, it is not wrong to ask God for this gift. But, having said that , our focus should not be so much on the gifts as on the giver. If you seek the fullness of the Spirit and then start to praise God in prayer for who he is, and what he has done, and you become aware of the Spirit welling up within you, then maybe you will find that your words just no longer feel “full” enough to describe the wonders of our glorious savior. As your passion and excitement for God rises, if you find yourself no longer mouthing English words, don’t focus on what you are saying focus on the glory of Jesus and speak out of the overflow of your love for him.

I have been told that my loved one wasn’t healed and died because I didn’t have enough faith, and that if I just speak in tongues for a while I will start dancing rather than grieving for him. What would your response to that be?

Nowhere does the Bible say that if a loved one dies then you had insufficient faith. Every one of the apostles died. Every Christian throughout thousands of years of church history died. Every believer alive today will also die, unless Jesus returns before that happens. Hebrews 9:27 says “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”. We believe in a God who is sovereign over all things.

When it comes to grieving, even Paul said that if his friend had died he would have experienced “sorrow upon sorrow” Philippians 2:27. Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died, even though he know he would raise him from the dead! Its not wrong to grieve, though of course the nature of our grief should be different from unbelievers since we do have hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 says that we can grieve, just with a grief tinged with the knowledge that Jesus has conquered death.

So far I have shared a transciption from my recent sermon of my general thoughts on the gifts, on the word of wisdom and word of knowledge, and on miracles, faith, and healing. Today we move to discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation.

DISCERNING OF SPIRITS
This is a gift of recognizing the work of the enemy, but also recognizing the work of God. Sometimes I think we panic. Could it be the devil? Could it be God? Actually, God gives us this gift so that we can tell where the spirits come from. Of course, one of the key ways to tell is (as we see in 1 Corinthians 12), that no one can declare Jesus is Lord by a demon and mean it. It doesn’t happen. That’s one of the ways to tell.

But there’s also that sense that something is not quite right. Sometimes you will meet somebody and you have a God-given concern. Actually, it can work the other way, too. You’ll meet somebody and you’ll think, “I think you’re a Christian, aren’t you?” Have you ever had that experience? I’ve had that experience. That’s discernment of spirits. We need to be careful not to quench that experience as it is a vital gift from the Spirit.

TONGUES AND INTERPRETATION
Paul talks about different kinds of tongues. The Bible is quite clear about this. There are various places where tongues can happen. Tongues occur in a private setting, in an evangelistic setting (in Acts 2), and here in 1 Corinthians 12 in the context of a public church meeting, a time where there are visitors present—people who are not Christians. Paul has some things to say about how tongues should be used in a more public context.

It seems that tongues can sometimes be real languages that people understand, and that’s what happens in Acts 2. But here in 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about tongues and he expects that no one will be able to understand. He doesn’t say in 1 Corinthians 14 “when you speak in a tongue, maybe there will be Frenchman in the audience and he will understand what you’re saying.” He doesn’t say that. What he says is, “When you speak in a tongue, nobody will be able to understand”—unless what is listed as the ninth gift of the Holy Spirit happens, which is the interpretation of tongues. This is a supernatural gift of being able to understand what someone is saying in a tongue, and that’s very important, particularly when tongues are spoken out loud in a context like this, for you all to hear.

It’s a bit different when it’s just you speaking to God, maybe even sometimes when we’re together, because we sometimes all speak out to God individually, praying with one voice as they did in Acts 4:24. This verse when seen in the context of other “crowd speaking” verses in Acts does not mean that they all chanted a single prayer, but that they all prayed different prayers together and those words summarize the intent. You don’t really know what language the person next to you is using, especially in a church like this. We probably have French, Swahili, and goodness knows what, and maybe some tongues are going on as well. And that’s fine. But if someone was to come to the front here and start speaking in tongues for everyone to hear, none of us would understand, so then it needs to be interpreted.

We need to be careful about the gift of tongues. I do think it’s possible to over-emphasize it, but it’s also possible to under-emphasize it. Paul does say that he thanks God that he speaks in tongues more than all of them. And he also says in 1 Corinthians 14:5, “I want you all to speak in tongues.” There you go! Some people wonder about that. Should all Christians be able to speak in tongues? Well, obviously not every Christian speaks in a tongue, but should all Christians want to be able to speak in tongues? It seems that that’s okay. Paul says, “I want you all to be able to speak in tongues.” So it’s not wrong to ask God for that gift. But he does carry on and says something else—“but even more, to prophesy.” So Paul focuses in on that gift of prophecy which we will cover in the next section.

This is the third part of a transcript of my recent sermon on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You can see the video or download the audio on the introduction page or read about the word of wisdom and word of knowledge.

FAITH
The presence of Faith in this list underlines a point, which is probably true about all of these gifts. In the context of this passage Paul is talking about gifts that are given for the good of the whole church, and that will be exercised, probably in a church meeting, but certainly in the life of the church, in the context of a body of people. So, probably for most of these gifts, or maybe even for all of them, the expectation is that each believer may well have them to some extent for themselves, for their own blessing. Certainly you have to have faith to be a Christian, so it’s definitely true of this one. So what he’s talking about here can’t be the faith that we all have, our trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and an eternal future, and that he rose from the dead.

This is instead that supernatural spiritual gift of faith that comes on people for specific things. It’s something that often happens to leaders. It’s when God gives you an extraordinary confidence that something is going to happen. You can’t see that thing happening except with the eye of faith, and yet somehow, by the Spirit, you have a boldness that drives you, that energizes you, that compels you to act. And if anyone says to you, “But have you thought about the risks?” You say, “What risks? God has spoken. I know this is the way we’re meant to go. I know that he’ll provide.” It happens often, for example, when it comes to choosing a new building for a church to meet in. Someone will say, “Well, what about the cost? What about the permissions you need to get?” But somehow the leader can see through that and see it happening.

Of course, it can also happen in our own lives. I sometimes think you need a miracle every time you want to buy a house in this country! And, sure enough, often God will give us a gift of faith that sees something happening that we haven’t yet experienced. And that is a vital, vital gift. If you’re looking for a church, one of the main things that you want to look for in a leadership team if you’re thinking of joining yourself is, “Have they got faith, real faith? Have they got a vision for the church? Have they got a clear sense of direction from God and are they running after that?” Do they inspire faith in me? Obviously, one needs to be sure of some other things as well when joining a church, but that is certainly one of the things that would be on my checklist.

GIFTS OF HEALING
Healings can be physical or emotional; there are various kinds—there are gifts plural of healings plural. Some individuals have a specific gift of healing. I know of people, for example, who almost every time they pray for somebody who has a bad back, that bad back is healed. We may not realize who’s got this gift unless we pray for the sick. I want to encourage us at this time to push into God to really cry and that we might see more healing. We’ve seen them here at Jubilee. We don’t have to talk about healings from other parts of the world. We don’t have to talk about healings from decades ago. Many of us have stories to tell that we’ve seen as children, or as younger Christians. Actually, right here in this cinema last week, we had some healings.

We need to remember that Jesus is willing, he is able. He died that we might be healed, that we might be made whole. He didn’t die that we would be half made whole, but that we would be fully made whole. There is a day coming when there will be no more sickness. There will be no more sorrow. There will be no more suffering. We will be made completely well in every way.

So, actually, all we’re asking is for Jesus to do what we know he will already do then, but a little bit sooner. It’s like, “God, I know you promised to do this, so why not do it now? Why not do it today?” And I think God loves that—when we cry out to him like that. And, of course, none of us can heal anybody. But as the powers of the age to come breaking through into this world, I believe we can expect to see more and more healings right here.

MIRACLES
Miracles are works of power. They induce wonder. God is not a watchmaker who just winds up the universe like a watch and leaves it ticking according to his own rules. No, God intervenes in history. He does it all the time. He does it in ways that we often don’t notice, but he also does it in big ways as well. I think we would do well to have an eye to watch for the miracles that are happening in our lives. Let’s give a couple of examples. He parted the waters of the Jordan and of the Red Sea—that’s a miracle. That’s a work of wonder. But he does miracles at other times as well, and we’ve seen it in more recent times.

One example that is cited very often, and is worthy of citing often, is what happened in World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops were holed up and were expecting to be massacred or captured by our enemy, and our government (the king and the prime minister) called for a day of national prayer. I was reading about it again during the week, and it says the mood in the country was sober because the truth was that most of our army was on the continent and likely to be killed or possibly taken prisoner. If that happened, well, it was obvious what was going to happen next, wasn’t it? We would be invaded too. So there was this day of prayer. But then, they said, “We’re going to try and rescue them.” And they thought maybe at a push, they might get to rescue, let’s say, 20,000 people was what the admirals thought.

But after prayer, something dramatic and remarkable happened. There was an unnatural calm in the English Channel. It became almost like a pond, so flat, that even small boats could sail across the channel, and yet there was also cloud cover, and rain and fog in some places, so it meant that it was harder for the German Air Force to attack these boats. It was declared a national miracle when after a couple of days or so, more than 338,000 troops were saved. It is considered the turning point of the war. As I say, you can read the newspapers where national leaders say, “That was a miracle!” Often the miracles in our own lives are smaller, and we need to have eyes to see them.

This is the second part of an edited transcript of my sermon on The Gifts of the Holy Spirit. The first part includes a video and mp3 of the whole sermon, as well as listing ways you can submit your questions.

The sermon is based on 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul lists the gifts, which I define as nine distinct ways in which the Holy Spirit works directly and specifically, and if you like, supernaturally or spiritually, within us.

As we go through the list, we should remember that all of these prefigure what will be ours in heaven perfectly. In heaven, we will have what all of these gifts are designed to give us in completeness. I should say that these are not the only ways in which the Spirit works in us. For example, the Bible talks about artists or craftsmen being anointed by the Holy Spirit for their work. But what is different about that is that there is an anointing that comes upon a natural ability. In other words, the anointing of the Holy Spirit sometimes supplements something that a person can do. But I believe that these nine gifts are all things that people cannot do. So, here it’s not a spiritual ability adding on to a natural ability. These are a completely spiritual ability that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, given directly by the Holy Spirit, and as I say, foreshadow what will be ours when Jesus returns. We are going to go quickly through most of these, and then I’m going to focus in a little bit on one of them.

THE WORD OF WISDOM
I think this is a direct supernatural act of the Holy Spirit to grant wisdom to a specific believer at a specific time to deal with a specific situation. So there is that kind of general wisdom that we all have, but there are times when God grants unusual wisdom, it’s a spiritual thing, and the people around recognize that. They say, “Wow! Where did that thought come from? Where did that wisdom come from? Oh, it must have come from God!” So the example, perhaps, that is most well known in the Bible is of Solomon, when confronted by two women who were fighting over a baby, saying “No! This is MY baby!” And the other one saying, “No! It’s MY baby!” The whole point was they had two babies and one of them had died and there was a dispute about whose baby had died. Suddenly Solomon has a flash of insight, which I’m sure was from God, and he says this: “Take a sword and cut the baby in half.” So, just as a solider is unsheathing his sword, one of the women cries out, “No, no, no! Don’t cut it in half. Give it to the other lady!” And the other woman cries out, “If I can’t have the baby, no one shall. Yes! Cut it in half!” And in that moment Solomon knew the answer to whose baby it was, so the lady who was prepared to give up the baby got the baby. And that’s an example of a specific gift of wisdom.

Often there are conflicting principles. One of the reasons why we have pastors who we look to is because of this gift. Sometimes you come to the Bible and you find a direction in here that talks about, let’s say for example, patience and faithful waiting. Then maybe you have another verse that says that you’ve got to go; you got to do something; you’ve got to act. Don’t just sit there waiting. And you say, “Hang on! Which of these applies to me in my situation?” Perhaps you’ve got a problem at work and another option has come up, or another job. Do I stick it out where I’m at, or should I be bold and go for this other one? And we could argue both from the Scriptures. Sometimes you need that word of wisdom from someone where God just comes and directs and says, “This is what you should do.” As a result, you will then, in your heart, say, “Ah yes, I’ll go with this.” I’m not talking about pastors leading you in a very direct descriptive way, but sometimes God will give a word of wisdom that unlocks the situation, makes it suddenly very clear and very plain what the right course of action actually is. In a sense, wisdom is knowing how to act, and it cuts through a dilemma.

WORD OF KNOWLEDGE
The word of knowledge is understood by most charismatic interpreters to be a specific piece of information that God reveals to somebody that they could not have naturally known. Now, it’s probably broader than the way we often think of it. God does sometimes speak to us and say that there is somebody here who is sick in a certain way, and I believe that can happen that way, but it’s often a lot broader than that. There are different ways that God can speak. A good example in the New Testament would be when Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman and said, “No, you’ve had five husbands, and the person you’re living with now is not your husband.” And at that moment the person was completely undone because Jesus had told her everything she had ever done. So, sometimes it can be that dramatic.

I’ve heard a number of examples of a word of knowledge where the person involved doesn’t even realize that they are giving a word of knowledge. I could tell all sorts of examples, but time prevents. Suffice it to say, these words of knowledge can sometimes be incredibly specific. But I will give you one example. Somebody had a prophecy for me, and in introducing it he said that he saw a picture of my hand holding a pen (he said it seemed strange in this era of technology that I’d be holding a pen) and he saw me writing, and he saw words flowing off my pen and going out all over the world. What this person didn’t know was that, at that point in my life, already I had a blog and I wrote a lot and it did go out all over the world, and there was a reasonable audience for that blog. And on the blog (and it’s still there if you want to have a look) is a picture of my hand (and it is my hand) holding a pen. So this person had a very specific piece of revelation that he couldn’t possibly have known unless someone had told him. And I have to be honest. I went up to him afterwards and said, “Have you seen my blog?” He answered “Blog? What blog? What are you talking about?” He didn’t know. So, it made me sit up and pay attention to the prophesy that this person then had, as you can imagine.

To Be Continued…

To submit more questions see the instructions on the page about my sermon on the Gifts.

Adrian, do you think we will have all the gifts of the Spirit in ‘completeness’ in heaven? Did I hear/mishear what you said?

Paul says that the gifts will pass away when we see Jesus face-to-face. But that passing away is because they will, in effect, be swallowed up in the perfection that we will receive (see 1 Corinthians 13). So, where there are gifts of healing on earth, we will not need them in heaven because we will already be enjoying the results of having been completely healed.

Over the next few days I will be serialising a lightly edited transcript of the sermon I preached last Sunday on the Holy Spirit’s activity within the Church today. I appreciate this is a subject that many people have questions on, so I have opened up a discussion thread on Facebook and The Gospel Coalition Network for us to discuss these issues. Feel free to also submit questions or comments via a Twitter comment @adrianwarnock.

You can download the audio or watch the sermon right here:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed,” and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts. but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activity, but it is the same God who empowers them all in every one. . .All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he will. 1 Corinthians 12

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are present with us this morning. Thank you for being here in our worship. Now we ask you—come inhabit the preaching of your Word that this message will be helpful to us, it will be instructive to us, it will be inspiring to us, and it will result in a fresh release of these wonderful gifts of Holy Spirit among us, we pray. Amen.

For the last few months at Jubilee Church, we’ve been looking at the book of 1 Corinthians, and the title of that series has been “Authentic Christianity.” This morning, we’re looking at one more aspect of what defines “authentic” Christianity, the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The Activity of the Holy Spirit

The Spirit is here on earth because Jesus isn’t physically here anymore. Jesus promised that when he went away, he would send the Holy Spirit. In John 7:37-39 we are told that Jesus stood up at a great feast and shouted out the following: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John then explains, “Now this Jesus said about the Spirit whom those who believe in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 15:45, that the last Adam, which is a name for Jesus, became a life-giving Spirit. Something very special happened to Jesus as he rose from the dead and was ascended on high. He received power. There was an energizing of his body, if you like, as it lay in the tomb, and as he came back to life. He became a life-giving spirit. What does that mean? It means that right here, right now, today, on the A10 in Enfield, in the cinema here in Enfield, the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is available to you and me. The same power that re-animated a body that had been crucified and that had laid in that cold tomb for three whole days, that brought that body back to life, that same power. And it’s not just a power—it’s the person; he’s here in this room. He is that presence that we may have been aware of. Maybe as you came and you visited (you may not even be a Christian here this morning), but you’ve sensed a presence in this room. You’ve sensed a person is here. It’s that person who we worship. It’s the person of Jesus, but he’s made manifest through his Holy Spirit. He’s here by the Spirit. The Spirit’s job is to reveal Jesus to us, and to reveal the Father to us. He’s here.

Jesus said to his disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you” (Acts 1:8). And then we see the fall of the Holy Spirit, tongues of fire come, and they stand speaking in other languages that they’ve never heard—the gift of tongues. We see the crowds wondering, saying, “What is this? What is going on?” Peter says, “This is what was spoken by the prophet, Joel” (Acts 2:16).

The prophet Joel promised a time when the Holy Spirit would be made available for everybody (Joel 2:28-29). He promised a time where it would no longer be, as it was in the Old Testament, that there were just one or two prophets, one or two special people who experienced direct communication with God. We were made to know God. We were designed to have a relationship with him. Adam and Eve had a relationship with God. God walked with them in the Garden, but sin broke that relationship. And by God’s grace he continually chose individual prophets in the Old Testament, and he would reveal himself to them. He would speak with them, some of them even face-to-face. And it was Jesus who would walk with them and talk with them and would explain things to them, but it was only a few of them that ever experienced that. Why? Because you cannot see God and live if you are a sinner. But because of Jesus’ death, because of his resurrection, a way was made open for all of God’s people to prophesy as it says in Joel. For all of God’s people to see visions, to dream dreams, to hear from God, to know God for themselves. It’s a wonderful promise. And it was fulfilled in Acts. Peter explained this as follows in Acts 2:32-33: “Look, this Jesus, God raised up, and of that we were witnesses.” (So they had seen Jesus. They had touched him. They ate with him since he had come back to life.) “. . . being therefore exalted on the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (Jesus) had poured out that which you see and hear.”

There is an interesting verse buried in Galatians 3 that we often miss. You don’t need to turn to it; you might want to go look at it afterwards. Paul talks about Jesus’ death on the cross, and then he says that he died so that “we might receive the promised Spirit” (Galatians 3:14). So Jesus’ death and resurrection had a goal in mind. We tend to think that the goal is heaven, and that’s right, but the goal for us today is actually a foretaste of heaven on earth, and that’s what the Holy Spirit is. Ephesians 1 puts it this way—the Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance. So we know we’re going to heaven because we have faith, but we know we going to heaven also even more strongly than that because of the Holy Spirit poured out on us. One of his key roles is to make us certain that we’re going to heaven.

Now, if someone says to me, “Adrian, I want to buy your house [which is unlikely at the moment, not least because it’s not on the market!] and they said I want to put a deposit down, they have to actually give me the deposit. Some people think that we just receive the Holy Spirit automatically, and that all Christians somehow have the Holy Spirit, and of course it’s true that you cannot be a Christian unless the Holy Spirit is working in you, producing faith in you, but there’s also available an awareness of the Holy Spirit’s activity, and unless we are truly aware of the Holy Spirit, it’s impossible to see how he can really be a deposit. I need to be able to phone up my bank and say, “Okay, he says he’s given me the deposit. Is the money in my bank account?” And, I suppose the bank manager could even lie, so, in some ways, the only way for me to really know is to go and pull the money out of my account and hold it in my hand, see it, feel it, touch it, maybe even smell it.

We know when we’ve got a deposit. We must understand and underline that— whatever else the Holy Spirit is in a believer’s life, the goal is for us to receive him, to know that we’ve received him, to experience him, to be aware of him, and to enter into this personal relationship with God, which can sound a bit weird in the modern world, but it is something that many of us in this room will testify—we know Jesus! There’s an old song—how do we know Jesus? He lives within our heart. That could sound a little bit trite, but actually it’s the reality. I KNOW that my Redeemer lives! Amen? Because I know God through him.

To be continued…

The following quote from the Doctor expresses something important that many people don’t fully agree with today. Now, I am sure that the Doctor did not mean to say that the Spirit only works in us in these direct, spiritual ways. Clearly for example the Spirit inspires a preacher, and he inspires an administrator, and in those cases he is indeed helping us to use our natural gifts. But whilst Paul sometimes lists these two different types of gifts together (Eg Romans 12) in 1 Corinthians 12, many interpreters conclude that here he is talking about nine ways the Spirit specifically works in us. It seems that the Doctor is in this camp:

Now there are some principles which stand out clearly in the biblical teaching. The first is that the spiritual gifts must be differentiated from natural gifts. We all have natural gifts, but the spiritual gift, which any one of us may possess, is something separate from and entirely different from this. It is a gift that is given directly to us by the Holy Spirit. Let us go further and say that it does not even mean the heightening of a natural gift. Some people have fallen into that error. They have thought that what a spiritual gift really means is that a person’s natural gift is taken hold of by the Holy Spirit and heightened or made more vivid so that it therefore becomes a spiritual gift. But that is not what the Scripture would have us believe. A spiritual gift is something new, something different.

David Martyn. Lloyd-Jones, God the Holy Spirit (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossways Books, 1997), 265