God wants us – the saved and regenerated ones – to prophesy as prophets; God wants us to be so one with Him that He speaks within us and through us according to the principle of incarnation, and we should also desire to prophesy.
In Num. 11:29 we see Moses’ desire that not just him or a few but all of God’s people would be prophets, that God would put His Spirit upon all of them that they would speak the word of God! Amen!
God desires that we all would prophesy, that we would speak for God and speak forth God. Moses also desired that all of God’s people would prophesy.
And in the New Testament Paul presented the most excellent way for us to build up the church, which is to prophesy (see 1 Cor. 14). When we come together, we all can prophesy – we all can speak for God and speak forth God.
May the Lord impress us with this mater, and may we pray before Him concerning this.
We may be some who don’t like to speak in front of others, or we may be naturally inclined to be quiet when it comes to the things of God and the Bible. However, when we are with our friends or family, we have no problem speaking and uttering our opinions and desires.
We need to have a desire to prophesy in the meetings of the church, and we need to have a desire to prophesy at all times, speaking for God and speaking forth God.
It all starts with this desire; we were born again with the capacity to speak for God, and in our regenerated spirit there’s an innate ability to speak for God and prophesy.
So when we come together or when we meet a brother or a sister, we need to learn to not just open to the Lord and enjoy Him but also prophesy, that is, allow the Lord from within us to speak through us.
The Lord carries out all things by His speaking; He created the universe by His speaking, He brought the divine life into our spirit by His speaking, and He causes us to go on in our Christian life and church life by His speaking.
Our God is a speaking God, and He is not happy when His people are shying away from speaking Him and speaking for Him.
Just as parents are very happy to see their children speaking, and even though they make mistakes, they learn by speaking and speaking and speaking, so the Lord is happy when the believers in Christ are learning to prophesy and desire to prophesy.
Today we are in the Lord’s recovery, in His move to consummate this age; however, if we don’t speak, it will not happen. We all need to desire and earnestly seek to speak for God!
God wants His believers to Prophesy – we must Desire to Prophesy, to Speak for God and Speak forth God
The top gift that is developed in the growth in life through our enjoyment of Christ is prophesying; prophesying builds up the church, and prophesying is the excelling gift (1 Cor. 14:4-5).
We need to grow in life and enjoy the Lord so that we may be able to prophesy; we should desire to prophesy, realising that God wants and even needs His believers to prophesy.
We should pursue love, desire earnestly spiritual gifts, and especially that we would prophesy (1 Cor. 14:1). We should seek to excel for the building up of the church; we should not just do things that build ourselves up and brings us enjoyment, but do things that build up the church.
God wants His believers to prophesy, and the excelling way for us to build the church is to prophesy. We must become full, abound, and overflow in our desire to prophesy.
We must pursue the Lord to such an extent that we all can prophesy by speaking for the Lord, speaking forth the Lord, and speaking the Lord into others. This should be our desire, and our prophesying should be not only in the meetings of the church but also where the Lord has placed us.
We need to desire to prophesy, realizing that it is by speaking for God and speaking forth God that we can minister Christ for the building up of the church.
Prophesying is the excelling gift produced in the growth in the divine life through our enjoyment of Christ for the building up of the church (Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 14:4).
In the New Testament we are both kings, priests, and prophets who prophesy for God (see Rev. 1:5-6; 20:4; 1 Cor. 14:31).
In the Old Testament there were these three groups of people: the kings, the priests, and the prophets; when the kings and the priest were degraded and weakened, God would raise up prophets to strengthen them.
In the New Testament, however, the priesthood, the kingship, and the prophethood are all with the believers, for all believers are kings, we are saved to be a kingdom of priests, and we are here for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
Hallelujah, we as regenerated and saved persons are able to speak for God, to prophesy for God (John 3:3, 5-6; 1 Cor. 14:31-32)!
And God desires that each of us – each one of His believers – would prophesy, that is, speak for Him and speak Him forth.
For us to prophesy, however, we need to know God and experience Christ; we can’t speak for God and speak forth God if we don’t know God and we don’t experience Christ.
Speaking for God, prophesying, is not merely opening our mouth in the meeting and reading a few verses or giving a testimony of how God healed us or did something for us.
To speak for God without speaking forth God, without the Spirit of life, is mere ordinary human speaking, not prophesying.
May we be saved from ordinary speaking by enjoying God, reading His word, praying over the word, and experiencing Christ, so that we may have something within us that can flow out for the building up of the Body of Christ!
Lord Jesus, put in us an earnest desire that we may prophesy for God, that is, that we may speak for God and speak forth God! May we realize that all the regenerated and saved persons are able to prophesy for God, and may we exercise to speak for God in the meetings of the church. Amen, Lord, grow in us and keep us enjoying and experiencing You, earnestly desiring this excelling gift of prophesying. May we experience Christ, enjoy Christ, and grow in life every day, and may we earnestly desire to prophesy!
God wants to Speak within us and Through us in the Principle of Incarnation
How do we prophesy? There are a lot of spiritual opinions regarding prophesying, and when most believers hear about it, they shy away from it. But God desires that we prophesy, and our earnest desire is to prophesy for the building up of the church.
God wants to speak within us and through us according to the principle of incarnation (1 Cor. 6:17; 7:25, 40).
This is seen in 1 Cor. 7, where Paul gave his opinion concerning marriage; he exercised his spirit to be one spirit with the Lord, and in addressing the sisters concerning marriage, at one point he said he doesn’t have the Lord’s commandment yet he gives his own feeling and opinion; he then concluded by saying, I believe I also have the Spirit of God.
Paul gave his opinion, and somehow it was considered as the word of the Bible under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
This shows that Paul was perfected by God to such an extent that his ministry became the very utterance of the divine inspiration, and his speaking was so accurate that not a single word missed the mark.
Paul’s word not only contains God’s word but it is so accurate that even every sentence and phrase hit the mark. How did he acquire this ministry? It is by being thoroughly dealt with by God; God worked on him to the point that his thoughts, words, decisions, and opinions were all approved by God; they were all right and accurate in God’s eyes.
With Paul there was not the accuracy of a machine but the accuracy of a person. Here we see how God puts His word in man and then releases it through man; God doesn’t want His people to do a verbatim repetition, which is not that difficult, but He wants man to prophesy, to speak for God and speak forth God.
First God lays His burden in man, and man has to express this burden through his own words; man has to exercise his thought, searching and seeking, until the word is released, and then God will acknowledge it as His word.
The New Testament ministry is not one in which God dictates His message word by word and then man repeats it; rather, when a man receives the word in the New Testament, the light first shines in man’s spirit as a flicker, creating a burden in man’s spirit for the word.
This light can fade away quickly, but man has to exercise his own mind to catch this glow and fix this light with his thoughts; he needs to inquire of God for utterance, receive sentences to crystallize this light, and as he is pondering and praying, a phrase may come….
He may have a feeling, a judgement, or an opinion, and he may speak it out. Then, while man is relating his feeling, his inward judgement and opinion, the burden within his spirit is released; the more he speaks, the more the light within his spirit is released.
At a certain point, even though man speaks his own words and expresses his own thoughts, feelings, and opinions, when he finishes speaking, God acknowledges it as His own.
God puts so much trust in His ministers that He would give them a light, a burden, an impression, and then He would leave it up to them to grasp and sense and make utterance and proposals and suggestions concerning it; and though these are their own utterances, God puts His trust in their activities.
God wants to operate in man in such a way that man is like Him in His opinions, thoughts, feelings, and views. He wants our desire to be one with His desire, our love would be the same as God love, and we would not deviate in our thought from His thought; when this takes place, our speaking will always be accompanied by the Spirit’s presence.
This is the preaching of the New Testament prophets, and this is the ministry of the word in the New Testament.
The way God wants us to prophesy is in the principle of incarnation. Speaking for God and speaking forth God are speaking by the Spirit of God; the Spirit is always ready to speak with us and through us (1 Cor. 12:3; 14:32).
However, for us to prophesy in the sense of speaking for God and speaking forth God requires much growth in life (Eph. 4:15).
We first need to know God and experience Christ (Heb. 8:10-11; Phil. 3:7-15), for if we don’t have the adequate knowledge of God and experience of Christ, we don’t have anything to say for Him, and we can’t speak Him forth.
Then we need to exercise to be one spirit with the Lord, seeking to hear from Him and exercising our inner being to capture His word, ponder over it, pray it, apply it, and speak it forth.
God wants us His people to prophesy in the principle of incarnation, which is God speaking in man – it is man speaking yet it is God who speaks His word through man, and it is man who utters his opinions – but these are God’s opinions.
Lord Jesus, speak to us, speak to us, and speak through us for the building up of the church. May our prophesying be the speaking by the Spirit of God who lives in us and speaks to us. We want to be one spirit with You, Lord, and utter Your word which is revealed to us and captured by us by the seeking of our inner being before You. May we grow in life day by day through our knowledge of Christ, enjoyment of Christ, and experience of Christ, and may we prophesy for the building up, encouraging, and consoling of others in the church!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Trebuie să dorim să profețim, să vorbim pentru Dumnezeu, pentru ca Dumnezeu să vorbească prin noi.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 2, ”The Ministry of the New Testament Priests of the Gospel,” ch. 4, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 9, Moses Desiring That All Jehovah’s People Would Be Prophets.
- Hymns on this topic:
# In meetings Christ to God we bear / And Christ with one another share, / And Christ with God enjoying there, / We thus exhibit Christ. / Let us exhibit Christ, / Let us exhibit Christ; / We’ll bring His surplus to the church / And thus exhibit Christ. (Hymns #864)
# We must ever preach the gospel, / Learning how to prophesy / For the building of the Body, / Thus the Lord to glorify. (Song on, We must ever preach the gospel)
# Lord, speak to me, that I may speak / In living echoes of Thy tone; / As Thou hast sought, so let me seek / Thy erring children lost and lone. / O fill me with Thy fulness, Lord, / Until my very heart o’erflow / In kindling thought and glowing word, / Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show. (Hymns #903)
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