Status in the New Testament Church (Part 2)

Conclusions (Pt 1 of 2): is the charismatic movement a move of God?

This article is part of a series. Please see the base of the page for more details.

A Move of God?

Having reached this point in the review of the development of the charismatic movement we may return to the question posed much earlier in the series: is the charismatic movement a move of God? Was it initiated by the Lord Jesus? Despite all the strange aberrations we have noted, I would still want to affirm very positively its divine origins. I could not deny the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life or in the many hundreds of churches of which I have personal experience.

Through what we call the charismatic movement, the Holy Spirit has brought new life, joy, liberty and a more intimate personal relationship with the Lord Jesus and the Father into the lives of millions of believers. This has to be the work of God. It is certainly not anything that satan would want to do.

The fact that the charismatic movement had no clear-cut beginning causes me to doubt that God has moved in a series of 'waves' at different points during the 20^th Century. I see a continuous process in the work of the Holy Spirit throughout the century. On the first day of 1900, Charles Parnham's students began speaking in tongues, this was followed in 1906 by the stirring events in Azusa Street resulting in the formation of Pentecostal assemblies.

The fact that the charismatic movement had no clear-cut beginning causes me to doubt that God has moved in a series of 'waves' at different points during the 20^th Century.

Gradually throughout the century the recognition of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit has spread across the world. This has brought spiritual awakening in lands where the Gospel had never previously been heard, with vast numbers of new-born believers. It has also brought spiritual renewal in nations that had had the Gospel for centuries and where the Church had become largely inactive due to the onslaught of secularisation.

It was clearly God's intention to reap a mighty harvest during this century in lands which had never before been reached by the Gospel and it was also clearly his intention to renew the flagging belief and spiritual power of the Church where institutionalism and traditionalism had sapped its strength. What we see as fresh 'waves' of the Spirit have in fact been part of the on-going work of the Spirit of God working out his purposes and preparing a great company of believers to withstand the stormy days that lie ahead.

Using Human Strength

The great failing of the charismatic movement has not been in a lack of enthusiasm but in taking over the work of God and trying to do that work in our own strength. It is recorded that Frank Bartlemann, the Azusa Street leader, said that within a few years of the 1906 experience the flesh had taken over from the Spirit. This is really what also happened to the charismatic movement in the latter part of the 20^th Century. Paul's warning to the church in Galatia needs to be heeded today, “After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?” (Gal 3:3).

There are many indications that we have done something similar to the offence caused by Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, who put unauthorised fire ('strange fire' AV) in their censers which they then offered before the Lord with disastrous results (Lev 10:1). When we do such things we are showing a lack of trust in the Lord. We are trying to force the pace and direct the work of God.

Once we begin to move in the flesh and not under the direction and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we open the door to all kinds of alien influences as well as to the things of the flesh such as pride and arrogance. When we take over the work of God we are, in fact, rebelling against him and we grieve the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 63:10 speaks of the terrible consequences of such action, “In his love and mercy he redeemed them...Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”

This needs to be taken as a serious warning by all who are part of the charismatic movement. If we seriously step outside the will of the Lord he is against us, not for us. It is essential that we should understand both the will of God and his ways because all the evidence points to the fact that the world is moving closer and closer into days of international turmoil and conflict. The moral and spiritual plight of the nations, especially in the West, is desperate.

If we seriously step outside the will of the Lord he is against us, not for us.

But God is actually using this social situation to prepare the way for the Gospel. Never has there been a greater need for the Word of God to be clearly heard among the nations. Never has there been a greater need for the establishment of biblical principles as the guidelines for healthy living, both for individuals and at a corporate level. Yet the influence of the Church in the western nations has never been so weak.

In Britain the Church is under continuous attack from the media who delight to scorn the Gospel and seize every opportunity to mock the faith. The Church of England, as the established Church, holds a unique position which is rapidly being eroded by unbelief and by spiritual and moral corruption from within.

It was obvious to all those who were aware of the tactics of the enemy that as soon as the issue of women priests was over, the next battle would be over the acceptance of homosexual priests, both men and women. When that battle is over the way will be prepared for the ultimate onslaught on biblical belief from the multi-faith lobby.

Battle for the Bible

As Peter Fenwick has rightly said earlier in this series, the real battle today is a battle for the Bible; it is a battle for the soul of Britain. Alongside the battle within the Church and the attacks of a secular media, there is the growing power of Islam. The Muslims are determined to make Britain the first Islamic state in Europe. By the mid-1990s, they had been planting mosques in all the towns and cities of Britain at the rate of one per month for a decade.

During the 1990s Britain celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and the war in Europe. That was a battle for physical survival. The battle today is for spiritual survival. The Holy Spirit whom God began to pour out upon all believers on the Day of Pentecost is still active in the world today. As the battle against the enemies of the Gospel intensifies there is a new urgency that the Church should recognise the nature of the battle and understand the reasons why Jesus, shortly before his ascension, told the disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:4-8).

Jesus knew that without the power of the Holy Spirit his followers would not be able to withstand the attacks of the enemy. They had to learn not to rush out in human enthusiasm or to seek after exciting signs and wonders, but faithfully to be witnesses of the Lord Jesus, declaring the way of salvation to all those around them and trusting the Lord of the harvest to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit and enlarge his Kingdom until the Day of the Lord dawned.

Where Tomorrow?

We began this series by saying that the charismatic movement had reached a point beyond crisis and was already beginning to crumble. In Britain by the mid-1990s there was a significant number of ministers who had once exercised charismatic ministries but who later repudiated that term.

There were thousands of church members who left charismatic churches because they had been sickened by the behaviour of leaders who, under the influence of Toronto, each time they began to read Scripture or preach the Word became doubled up as with stomach cramp and fell to the ground in a helpless heap. They were sickened by being told that uncontrollable laughter, barking, roaring, mooing, crowing like a cockerel, shouting, screaming, vomiting, pogo dancing and shadow boxing were all signs of the activity of the Holy Spirit.

They remembered that these same leaders who encouraged these things were saying, only a few years ago, that such activities were clear evidence of the presence of demonic spirits and required deliverance. They had been saddened to see the Holy Spirit ridiculed in TV programmes and tabloid press reports by displays of bizarre activity. They had been dismayed to see the name of the Lord Jesus mocked in the media through the activities of some charismatics.

Jesus knew that without the power of the Holy Spirit his followers would not be able to withstand the attacks of the enemy.

There are those who, like the authors of this book, still hold fast to their belief in the charismata. They believe that the Holy Spirit is present and active among believers today as he was in the days of the early Church and that the gifts of the Spirit are available to all believers. They nevertheless believe that it is high time to ask some fundamental questions concerning our response to the work of the Spirit among us in the British charismatic movement.

If, as we believe, it was God's purpose to renew the Church and revive the nation, has that purpose been achieved? There is no evidence to suggest that the spiritual life of the whole Church has been revitalised and neither is there any evidence of moral or spiritual revival in the nation. Indeed, the moral and spiritual life of both Church and nation are infinitely worse. Scandals concerning adultery, homosexuality and child abuse are regularly revealed and that's only within the Church! In the nation all these things occur plus violence, murder and all kinds of corruption.

So what has gone wrong? The plain and simple answer is that we have turned our back upon the word of God. We have neglected to study the word, we have relegated it to a secondary place in the life of the Church and we have substituted experience, false prophecies, strange revelations, our own opinions and teachings. We have thereby abandoned the truth for the myths and fantasies and teachings of men.

Since 1990, we have been reaping the inevitable reward of the tares that have been sown among us. Although many people are still enjoying the exciting experiences of the latest waves of charismatic chaos, I believe the outlook for the future of the charismatic movement is bleak; the writing is already upon the wall.

1990: A Turning Point

I believe future Church historians will see 1990 as the major turning point in the apostatising of the charismatic movement. This was the time when all the strange, unbiblical teachings which had been current among Pentecostal/charismatics since the Latter Rain Revival of the 1940s were gathered into a complete package and swallowed uncritically by the Church in Britain.

Foremost in the body of this teaching was the expectation of a great revival brought about by signs and wonders. There is no scriptural foundation for such a belief. Indeed, Jesus did not use signs and wonders to astound the crowds and draw them into Kingdom. Quite the reverse, he instructed people whom he had healed to keep quiet about it, not to 'noise it abroad'.

God's purpose to renew the Church and revive the nation has not been achieved because we have turned our backs on the word of God.

The New Testament teaches that signs and wonders follow the preaching of the Word, but once we start making the miraculous the chief object of desire - once we start running after signs and wonders - we take the focus away from the centrality of the word of God and the glorifying of the Lord Jesus.

A major problem for us in the West has been the amazing growth of the Church in the poor, non-industrialised nations of the world. In these days of easy travel and rapid communications, many church leaders have been to the poorer nations and seen at first-hand what is happening. They have returned with accounts of multitudes being saved at great open-air meetings with amazing miracles - the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking and even the dead being raised.

I myself have seen evidence of all these things in my preaching travels across Africa, China, South East Asia and other parts of the world. I too have brought these stories back and used them to make Westerners jealous by saying that the same things could and should be happening here. These stories have fuelled the longing for revival.

What has happened in Britain has also happened in other Western nations; the deep desire for revival has caused us to run ahead of the timing of the Lord. God has been telling us for many years that he is 'shaking the nations' and that his purpose is to turn the hearts of men and women away from their trust in material things, which is idolatry, to seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

In the highly secularised, materialistic Western industrialised nations, our whole culture revolves around the acquisition of wealth and the accumulation of material possessions. These things largely determine our position in society and they therefore have a far greater influence upon our values and our minds etc than most of us realise. It is almost impossible to divorce ourselves from the culture of the society in which we live.

A Culture of Idolatry

There is no place in our culture for the God of the Bible; the God who demands our total loyalty and our absolute trust. Western culture is a culture of idolatry and we are adherents, willingly or unwillingly, of that culture. There will be no revival until that idolatrous mindset is broken in the servants of God.

That is why revivals and great spiritual awakenings have always occurred among the poor and the underprivileged - from the days of the early Church to the impoverished nations of today. Soon after the Day of Pentecost, as revival swept through the city of Jerusalem, the rich and the powerful noted with scorn that the apostles were unlearned men, they “realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Western culture is a culture of idolatry: there is no place in it for the God of the Bible.

The same is true of those who came to Christ in the Wesleyan revival, of the blacks and poor whites who flocked to Azusa Street in 1906 and of the revival that swept through the Welsh mining communities in the same decade.

In the rich Western nations evangelicals have become obsessed with revival and the desire to reproduce what is happening in the poorer nations. What we fail to realise is the vast cultural difference. We cannot compensate for this simply by greater enthusiasm or by turning up the volume of our praise and worship, or even by more earnest intercession. Even confession, repentance, weeping and crying out to God at our meetings will not provide the quick-fix answer for which we are looking and which our quick-fix culture moulds our mindset to expect.

The Key to Revival

The key to revival is in Philippians 3:7-10 where Paul describes how he has renounced the world for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus as his Lord. He considers all worldly values as rubbish so that he may gain not the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or supernatural power to confound unbelievers, but simply that he may “gain Christ and be found in him”. He says, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” In case anyone should interpret this to mean an exciting experience of having the power to raise the dead, Paul's next words should be noted! He adds, “and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

The way to life is through death; death to self and the renunciation of the world. There is no other way for the Church in the Western nations to see revival. It may be part of God's plan to allow the Church in the rich industrial nations to die in order to raise a new and purified Church.

The great spiritual awakenings in the poorer nations are not being seen in the West because we are unwilling to meet the cost. We want the excitement of revival without paying the price of the pain and suffering and travail that goes with it. In the poorer nations the great spiritual awakenings are occurring because the Gospel of salvation is being preached, the good news that Christ died for our sins. Multitudes are being saved and the signs and wonders follow. This has been the pattern in past revivals.

But in the Western charismatic churches we are not motivated by the desire to save multitudes going to hell but to have the multitudes come and join us in the excitement of a spiritual spectacular! If they won't come and join us, then we'll have it on our own! Furthermore, if God won't do it for us, then we'll do it ourselves!

This is the tragedy of the Western charismatic movement. We are children of the world rather than the children of God. Our lifestyle is very little different from our unbelieving neighbours; our values are similar to theirs; we read the same newspapers, watch the same TV programmes, follow the same fashions in clothes, food and music; even our charismatic worship sometimes sounds more like a pop concert. We justify this by saying that it helps modern people to feel comfortable and at home in our midst; in other words, that they haven't had to leave the world in order to come into the Church! How different from New Testament teaching! How different from the teaching of the Reformers and the great revivalist preachers.

The great spiritual awakenings in the poorer nations are not being seen in the West because we are unwilling to meet the cost.

The Church in the poor non-industrialised nations is presently thriving and expanding rapidly but there is great danger of spiritual pollution from the West. In these days of worldwide travel and communications the materialistic values of the West may be easily transmitted, especially in the context of the Western nations' economic power and dominance.

Here is a parable. In the early 1980s a West African preacher of extraordinary gifting arose out of a background of grinding poverty. He had an anointed ministry of evangelism and began drawing crowds of up to half a million at his rallies. Thousands responded to the Gospel, giving their lives to Christ, and as they did so there were miraculous healings and many other signs and wonders which were reported in the secular press.

Soon some Westerners got to hear of his ministry and took him on a tour around the rich nations. They poured money into his lap. They taught him the 'prosperity gospel' by which they lived and convinced him that God wanted him rich as a sign to the poor Africans among whom he ministered. He built a great church building; he also built himself a fine home and rode around in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes. He became a great man in his community but he lost his anointing. His ministry of evangelism disappeared.

Next week: Likely consequences if the true and full word of God is not restored to the charismatic movement. Our final article in the series.

Series Information

This article is part of a series, re-publishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’, an analysis of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ and a wider critique of the charismatic movement in the late 20^th Century. Click here for previous instalments and to read the editorial background to the series.

David Forbes finishes his chapter on the roots of the Toronto Outpouring.

This article is part of a series, republishing the 1995 book ‘Blessing the Church?’ (Hill et al). Find previous instalments here.

The British Connection

The charismatic Church in Britain was fully exposed to the Kansas City prophets with all their aberrant 'revelation' teaching and their directive personal prophecy.

They were first introduced to this country by way of a book entitled Some Said It Thundered, written by Bishop David Pytches and published by Hodder and Stoughton in the spring of 1990. David Pytches had made a visit to Kansas City the previous year and his book was an encouraging and sympathetic account of the history of the Fellowship and its prophets. John Wimber then brought a number of them to meet British charismatic leaders at a series of meetings arranged by Holy Trinity, Brompton, where he sought to convince them of the authenticity of their prophetic ministry.

Despite the fact that warnings had been given, specifically by Clifford Hill, that much more time and research needed to be put into verifying the Kansas City Fellowship ministry, the majority of British charismatic leaders happily embraced Cain, Jones and the other prophets as truly spiritually credible. In fact, a number of them went so far as to sign a statement endorsing the ministry of the Kansas City prophets as being God-given.

It is difficult to understand why so many British charismatic leaders were prepared to underwrite this ministry given the bizarre teachings which lay behind it. It can only be assumed that they saw a need to inject into their churches and fellowships the kind of excitement and promise which this prophetic movement generated.

The Kansas City prophets were first introduced to Britain by way of David Pytches’ book ‘Some Said It Thundered’.

It was obviously exciting to many charismatic Christians to be given a glimpse of super-power and great signs-and-wonders ministry, where a powerful church would rule the world for Jesus. This was a glimpse of the fulfilment of all that had been promised to them by their leaders for the previous 20 years. They even had a glimpse of possible earthly immortality. There may also of course have been a sense that the love and respect in which John Wimber was held by most charismatic leaders in the country simply covered a multitude of sins.

Expectation of Revival

David Pytches' 1990 book on the Kansas City prophets.

One of the important aspects of the visits which John Wimber and the Kansas City prophets made between July and October 1990 was that they raised the expectation for revival in the United Kingdom.

In fact, Paul Cain went so far as to prophesy that revival would surely come to Britain in October 1990. It was in the expectation of the fulfilment of this prophecy that the London Dockland Conference was arranged that October, and so high was the expectation that revival would come that John Wimber brought his whole family from America so that they could be there on the last night.

Sadly, no revival appeared, which brought disillusionment and discouragement to many in the charismatic Church. John Wimber himself undoubtedly returned to the United States a very disappointed man. He subsequently distanced himself from the ministry of Paul Cain and there even appeared to be a waning of his promotion of the whole prophetic ministry. Although Paul Cain was taken under the wing of Dr RT Kendall, of Westminster Chapel, he did not again appear to have prophetic influence over leadership in the British charismatic Church - which also appeared to put the whole question of prophecy on hold.

It needs to be stressed that the foundation for the teaching and prophetic ministry of the Kansas City Fellowship, including Paul Cain, was the tenets of the Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God movements of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Despite the protestations and denials that there was any association with these movements, there has never been formal renunciation of their belief in the classic Latter Rain doctrines:

• The end times restoration of the Church through specially-chosen apostles and prophets, bringing her to perfection and the 'overcomers' to immortality,
  
• A great signs-and-wonders ministry surpassing that of the Acts of the Apostles,
  
• A great worldwide revival.
  

Similarly, there has never been any statement made by British charismatic leadership as to where they now stand on their signed affidavit of July 1990 on the authenticity of the ministry coming from Kansas City. Consequently, many are left in confusion as to what is the truth about the prophetic ministry. The lack of solid biblical teaching and honest examination of these experiential events in many charismatic churches simply adds to the confusion.

There has never been any statement made by British charismatic leadership as to where they now stand on the authenticity of the ministry coming from Kansas City.

A New Disguise?

At the same time, undoubtedly there were many adherents (especially in the United States) of these movements who, although now part of the charismatic movement, hung on to their original agendas and rejoiced at whatever progress was made in fulfilling their visions.

Although both Latter Rain and the Manifest Sons of God movements lost their overt credibility by the early 1960s it appears that an underground movement for these beliefs was sufficiently strong for serious attempts to be made from time to time to hijack the charismatic renewal movement. I would contend that one such attempt was made by the prophetic movement as epitomised in the Kansas City Fellowship. I would also contend that what has been dubbed the Toronto Blessing may have been an attempt by some to resurrect the old Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

The foreword to Richard Riss's publication on the Latter Rain movement was written in 1987 by James Watt - the same James Watt who had been part of the Sharon group at North Battleford and had inspired George Warnock to write The Feast of Tabernacles. Watt says,

In a sense, the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles came forth with the blowing of trumpets from North Battleford...the Church has been in part exposed to the day of atonement. The Harvest, or Booths, is now upon us, and the time of the restitution of all things is about to take place...The early and latter rain are about to be poured out in the same month! According to Paul Yonggi Cho of Korea and twenty other prophets, the last great move of the Spirit will originate in Canada, and by seventy Canadian cities will be brought to the 210 nations of the earth before Jesus returns.

Marc DuPont, of the Toronto Airport Vineyard, who is considered to have a prophetic ministry, had reported that the Lord gave him a two-part prophetic vision in May 1992 and June 1993 of a mighty wall of water rising in Toronto and flowing out like a river into the rest of Canada.¹

DuPont believed this to be the start of a revival beginning in Toronto and reaching its climax worldwide between the years 2000 and 2005. DuPont also stated that, “This move of the Spirit in 1994 is not just a charismatic and Pentecostal experience, concerning power or gifting. It is one thing to be clothed with power; it is another to be indwelt with the Person of God”.²

DuPont did not enlarge on what he meant by being 'indwelt with the Person of God' and therefore the question needs to be asked whether he envisaged 'this move of God' as being the final fulfilment of Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

I would contend that what has been dubbed the Toronto Blessing may have been an attempt by some to resurrect the old Latter Rain and Manifest Sons of God visions.

George Warnock was of the opinion that the manifestation of the sons of God, which would take place at the fulfilment of the 'Feast of Tabernacles', involved the Lord coming to physically indwell his people on earth. His thesis was that when this happened we would no longer have a Head in heaven and a Body on earth but we would have the one new Perfect Man who would fill both heaven and earth. This would be the fulfilment of the Second Pentecost, the early and latter rain of Joel 2. Warnock also believed that there would be a 40-year wilderness experience for the Church from the time of the late 1940s Latter Rain revivals until the Second Pentecost.

Prophesying Toronto?

Randy Clark, who introduced the 'new move of God' to the Toronto Airport Vineyard, said that the Vineyard churches had a 'prophetic foundation' for embracing the Toronto Blessing.³ He said:

We are looking for revelation from God as to what he now wants us to do with our lives and in our cities. The prophetic revelation has already been given as a foundation. This is the beginning of a great revival...But it's a fun time, a time of empowerment. There will be ebb and flow, there will be a number of waves. There is a time for an initial inflow, an initial outpouring. Then a time when God is maturing us, then a time of persecution, then a major outpouring. This is a low power time right now. Someone in Toronto prophesied: ‘I'm giving you my power now in weakness, but there's more coming’.

Clark also told us that what happened in Toronto had been prophesied by the Kansas City prophets over ten years previously. He said that in 1984, to Mike Bickle “in visitations from the Lord, the audible voice of the Lord said ‘In 10 years I am going to visit my people’".

Later, he said a prophecy was given to the Kansas City Fellowship (subsequently renamed the Metro Vineyard), “The rain is coming”. He further quoted prophecies from Paul Cain and from John Paul Jackson, another of the original Kansas City prophets, that had been given to them in the 1980s, that 1993 and 1994 would witness “this great outpouring from God”.

Clark also quoted Paul Cain as saying that at this time God was giving “sovereign vessels” who were bringing in “an outpouring of the Lord which is such that it goes beyond anything anybody alive today has ever seen or ever heard or read in church history”. Bearing in mind the prophetic record of the Kansas City prophets regarding previous revival dates, how should these predictions have been evaluated?

Rodney Howard-Browne, a South African from the Faith/Prosperity stream (he was a lecturer at Ray McCauley's Rhema Bible School) and often cited as one of the initiators of the Toronto Blessing, was fond of using the old Latter Rain and Franklin Hall 'Holy Ghost fire' imagery. Here is an example of one of his prophecies concerning the Toronto Blessing, given at Kenneth Copeland's church in September 1993:

This is the day, this is the hour, saith the Lord, that I am moving in this earth...This is the day when I will cause you to step over into the realm of the supernatural. For many a preacher has prophesied of old that there is a move coming. But it is even now and even at the door. For the drops of rain are beginning to fall of the glory of God. Yes, yes, many of you who have sat on the threshold and have said, 'O God when shall it be?' O you shall know that this is the day and this is the hour when you shall step over into that place of my glory. This is the day of the glory of the Lord coming in great power. I am going to break the mould, says the Lord, on many of your lives, and on many of your ministries and the way you have operated in days gone by. Many shall rub their eyes and shall say, 'Is this the person we used to know?' For there is a fire inside him. For this is the day of the fire and the glory of God coming into his church. Rise up this day and be filled afresh with the new wine of the Holy Ghost.

It is vital for the health and growth of the charismatic movement that we diligently go back to searching the scriptures like the Bereans.

Search the Scriptures

It can be clearly seen that there are blatant associations in this prophecy with the teachings of Franklin Hall, with the teaching of the Latter Rain movement and with the teachings of the Manifest Sons of God groups. So, we seem to have come again full circle to a further attempt to involve the Church with these non-biblical doctrines.

All of us who are sincere and committed believers, not only in God the Father and God the Son but also in a living Holy Spirit who lives within the Church as Jesus promised so that he might 'teach us all things', must rejoice when God moves overtly in the lives of his people. According to the scriptures, God is in the business of blessing us and reviving us and if we seek him we will surely find him. However, questions need to be asked regarding both the spontaneity and genuineness of much that has happened, and is happening, in the charismatic renewal movement today. How much is there of an agenda that is sweeping many of us along without us really being aware of either its beginning or end?

I would seek strongly to counsel that the time may be upon us when it is vital for the ongoing health and growth of the charismatic movement that, like the new believers in Berea, we diligently go back to searching the scriptures to see if the things we are being told are true (Acts 17:11).

References

1 Dupont, M, 1994. The Year of the Lion. Mantle of Praise Ministries Inc, Mississuaga, pp1-2.

2 Ibid, p3.

3 Randy Clark, 1995. 'A Prophetic Foundation' (audio tape message).

Peter Fenwick continues to assess the roots of the Toronto Blessing.

(This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments)

Restorationism: The Promise of Triumph

In the 1970s most of the ‘new churches’, as the house churches are now called, were swept by Restorationist teaching, which created great expectations of triumph for the Church of God. It was embraced as a very welcome antidote to the widespread and gloomy views of the Church's future which had been disseminated by Dispensationalist teaching.

According to that Dispensationalist view, the Church on earth could look forward only to deterioration leading to failure and ignominy. As is so often the case, one extreme position was rejected, only for another to be embraced.

Restorationism came presenting an absolutely opposite view of the Church, and taught that the Church would, in this age and before the return of Jesus, become overwhelmingly successful in every area of human life. In particular, this meant that the Church would overwhelm the secular world - not by military means, but by the force of righteousness.

The Church's influence would be so massive and extensive that it would dominate Government, education, business and finance, the judiciary, law enforcement, the arts etc. This did not mean that there would necessarily be a Christian political party in Parliament; that would not be necessary. The Church would be seen to be so glorious in wisdom and righteousness that Government and political leaders everywhere would come to it for counsel and advice.

Education planners and captains of industry as well as leaders in other fields of human activity would all in similar fashion be accepting the Church's standards and the Church's direction for their affairs. The righteous rule of Christ which is foretold following the return of Christ to the earth would be in very large measure realised before his return.

Restorationist teaching created great expectations of triumph for the Church.

Almost as a by-product, the Church and its members would become wealthy as a grateful world brought its riches and laid them at the Church's feet. Such beliefs clearly opened the door wide for the ‘health-and-wealth’ errors of the so-called 'Faith Movement'.

It was strongly felt that evangelism would probably not be needed. It would be enough for non-Christians to see how good the 'new brand' of Christianity was as relationships were put right, and as Christians loved and served each other and bore each other's burdens. They would voluntarily press into the Church in great numbers and thus be readily converted. Persecution was not really expected, failure was out of the question, and trials and tribulations were not on anyone's agenda.

Interpretation of Scripture

It must be said that the errors of Restorationism, and errors they are, did not result from the Bible being by-passed as I described last week concerning other practices. On the contrary, extensive appeal was made to the Bible. It is not within the scope of this chapter to thoroughly examine what went wrong. But the nub of the error was as follows.

Jesus and the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament, took many statements and incidents from the Old Testament and applied them to the Church, thus usually giving them a wider meaning. These statements and incidents originally concerned either certain individuals or the whole Jewish people. Restorationist teaching followed that pattern and applied it to other Old Testament passages relating to promises given to Israel, transferring them to the Church.

I submit to the reader that this approach is not legitimate. Jesus was the divine Son of God and knew all things. He therefore had an absolute right to say which Old Testament passages apply to the Church and which do not. Furthermore, Jesus promised the Spirit of Truth for all believers (John 14:15) which enables us to discern those passages of the Old Testament that were for Israel and those that can be applied to the Church.

Great Expectations

Without doubt, Restorationism was an ultimate statement of over-realised eschatology. What is more, its expectations were to happen soon. When this was being declared in the 1970s and the early 1980s, no-one seriously believed that the year 2000 might arrive without much of this victory already well in place.

The expectations amongst the people of God were quite enormous and they would return in their thousands from the great Bible weeks fully expecting to see progress within the following months.

Naturally the churches themselves expected to see a power and beauty which far exceeded anything that had been experienced in the previous 2,000 years of Church history. Attempts were made to show that throughout the years, certainly since the Reformation, the Church had become, by successive stages, more powerful and more beautiful, and now the ultimate was about to be achieved.

Restorationism was the ultimate statement of over-realised eschatology.

It must be said that there was a great deal of human pride in all of this. It was believed that it would be the charismatic churches which would achieve this, and in particular, the Restorationist charismatic churches. They would pave the way for the other churches to participate, provided of course those other churches embraced Restorationist principles. If they did not, they would be completely by-passed by God himself as he fulfilled his purposes in the earth.

None of this has happened. None of these massive expectations have been fulfilled and many of the people who were in receipt of those promises had reached a point of disappointment and considerable disillusion.

The truth is that the very opposite has happened. In all of those fields that I have previously mentioned where the Church was expected to exercise such a powerful influence, the decline of decades has not even been arrested; moral deterioration continues and the Church which was to have been such a strong influence for good frequently finds itself an object of scorn and ridicule. It has become more than ever marginalised and tends to be thoroughly ignored by Government, industry and society in general.

Restorationism was never openly repudiated, but quietly slipped out of prominence. However, the hunger amongst the people of God for something very spectacular to happen had been born and continues to this day. The great cry was then 'God is doing a new thing' and the momentum has been kept going by new phases with the cry being repeated each time. However, there has still not been any delivery of the expectations.

Hunger for Breakthrough

John Wimber, in 1983, began a process that was to greatly widen this sense of expectation beyond the Restorationist movement. He successfully appealed to the mainline churches, even though he himself was not a 'mainline' man. He taught that signs and wonders allied to evangelism (‘power evangelism’) would lead to great progress in the conversion of the United Kingdom. It did not happen.

Strange things undoubtedly did happen in Wimber meetings and particularly during the ministry times as people screamed, fell about and trembled. The momentum was thus maintained. It was felt that something was happening and that it was all going to lead to a great breakthrough for the Kingdom of God.

The hunger amongst God’s people for something very spectacular to happen continues to this day.

When in 1990 the Kansas City prophets were introduced into the United Kingdom the whole matter of expectations stepped up a gear. It was prophesied that there was going to be a revival later that year which would surpass the revival which had taken place in this nation in the 18^th Century under the Wesleys. Yet again nothing happened, the expectations were not fulfilled and the question undoubtedly arose: how much more can even the most gullible people take of this sort of thing?

By this time, undoubtedly, anxiety was at large in charismatic circles. Thus, when the Toronto Blessing appeared, the need for something remarkable was so great that the questioning and testing procedures that should always be applied to such things were frankly superficial and sporadic at best.

Even though the Toronto Blessing was accompanied by manifestations never before seen in the whole history of the Church, including the New Testament record, because something remarkable undoubtedly was happening it has been taken on board in a most indiscriminate manner.

Decline in Bible Knowledge

Let me now turn to the second factor which made the charismatic Church vulnerable to departure from biblical truth and practice.

When the house churches first emerged, there was a lot of healthy radical thinking about Christian life and practice. The object of all of this was to endeavour to re-establish something which was perceived to have been lost, namely the simplicity and purity of the life of the early Church, as depicted in the New Testament.

Therefore, all church practices were subjected afresh to the scrutiny of God's word, and I believe that most objective critics would judge that a very great deal of good emerged from that. Even though leaders in the older denominations often saw house churches as a threat, some of them recognised how their own churches might benefit from the discoveries of these new churches.

The search was on for absolute honesty in all aspects of church life and for genuineness in the exercise of charismatic gifts. Anything that was even slightly false was questioned and as an example, house churches were dangerous places to be for anyone wishing to indulge in super-spirituality.

Unnecessary meetings were scrapped, along with cumbersome committees; silliness in charismatic things was given short shrift, and ridiculous prophecies were given no houseroom at all. There was the development of genuine fellowship and great generosity, and in the realm of demonology there was no dualism whatsoever; Christ was King over all.

The Toronto Blessing was taken on board in a most indiscriminate manner, because something remarkable undoubtedly was happening.

However, in a concerted attack on legalism, diligent application to the Bible itself also came under attack, and whether the message was intended or not, large numbers of Christians began a process of taking personal Bible study less and less seriously. At the same time, expository and doctrinal preaching came to be regarded as old hat, intellectualism, heavy and wearisome.

As a result, there has emerged a famine of the Word of God, and whilst I do not believe that this is confined to the charismatic churches it has nevertheless left large numbers of Christians without the capacity to judge for themselves from Scripture whether a thing is of God or not. They are defenceless against error, in the form of both doctrine and practice, taking hold of the Church of God.

Misuse of Scripture

It even becomes possible for leaders to seriously misquote the scriptures and the people believe that God is speaking. One video of the day showed Rodney Howard-Browne addressing an audience of thousands who cheered as he declared, “Don't try to understand this. Don't you know the natural mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God?”

This is taken from 1 Corinthians 2:14 and is almost a correct quotation. Paul actually says 'the natural man', not 'mind', and he is clearly referring to unregenerate man, non-Christian man. Paul goes on to talk about the Christian man, and asserts that this man has the mind of Christ (v16 of the same chapter). Such a man is, 'a spiritual man' and is required to judge all things (v15). What the Apostle Paul teaches is the complete opposite of what Browne is saying, and yet Christian people sit there cheering this appalling manipulation of the word of God.

Many people in the Toronto movement eventually took steps to put some distance between themselves and Rodney Howard-Browne, but many did not. This dictum of Browne's: that is, the by-passing of your mind and your critical faculties, has been carried far and wide into the Toronto Blessing churches and has become a fundamental factor in the whole 'receiving process' of this phenomenon.

I quote examples of what has been said in English churches.

“Don't let the Bible get in the way of the blessing.”

“Some of you Bible-lovers need to put it down and let God work on you.”

“The Bible has let us down. It has not delivered the numbers we need.”

“You must not let your mind hinder the receiving of the blessing.”

The result of all this is that when a new teaching or a new experience comes along, many Christians have no way of assessing whether or not it is of God. Even when the Holy Spirit with them is telling them 'This is very queer', they jump in just in case it is God at work they do not want to miss him.

There has emerged a famine of the Word of God, leaving large numbers of Christians defenceless against error.

If people act in this way, it is inevitable that they will end up in trouble sooner or later, and many well-meaning charismatics have been up one blind alley after another.

The dangers are compounded by the fact that too many preachers/leaders have few skills in expounding the scriptures and laying out the truth before the people. Some hardly speak from the scriptures at all, and of those who do, too many spend their time spiritualising and allegorising them.

Conclusion

The burden of what I am saying is this: within charismatic churches great expectations have been built up among the people of God; expectations that something spectacular, something extraordinary, something perhaps even sensational is going to happen.

Disappointment has followed disappointment, but no-one can possibly be satisfied with the simple life of patiently enduring hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, nor faithfully persevering in the face of setbacks, disappointments and defections as the Apostles evidently had to; no, there must be something very big round the next corner.

But because we live in a day when personal knowledge of the Bible is at its lowest ebb for years, and the capacities for discernment and spiritual discrimination have been discarded, the people of God are left wide open to almost anything.

Am I asserting that absolutely nobody in any pro-Toronto church has received any blessing at all from God? No, because God is always eager to bless hungry children who are truly seeking his face and I am therefore in no doubt that there will be individuals who have been truly blessed of God.

However, from my own experience, I have to add that it is on nothing like the scale that people would have us believe. There have not been huge numbers of lives remarkably changed, nor have there been large numbers of conversions, nor have there been significant numbers of healings. I shall have more to say about this next week.

Next week: was the Toronto Blessing biblical – and does it matter?

Originally published 1995. Revised and updated December 2017.

How the charismatic movement took on the characteristics of its social surroundings.

Last week we looked at the social and cultural characteristics of pop culture as it developed through the 20^th Century. This week we move on to see how this shaped the Church.

Youth-Dominated

Many of the founding fathers of the charismatic movement in Britain were men of deep spirituality, personal commitment to the Lord Jesus and with a passion to share Christ with others. Many of them, such as Denis Clark, Arthur Wallis, David Lillie, Campbell McAlpine, Michael Harper and Tom Smail - to mention just a few - were steeped in the Word of God and utterly committed to the promotion of New Testament Christianity. This, indeed, was their major objective, namely the restoration of authentic New Testament principles to the life of the Church.

There were many other men from conservative evangelical or Brethren backgrounds whose study of the Word of God led them to believe that the 20^th Century Church had strayed woefully from the New Testament pattern. They longed to see the restoration of the five-fold ministries, of the recognition of baptism in the Holy Spirit and of the exercise of spiritual gifts within the Church. Their witness within their denominational institutions often stirred heated opposition and many were ejected from their fellowships.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s a few house church groups began to be formed, although this was never the intention of those who longed to see the restoration of New Testament teaching and practice in the Church. In the early days there were men in leadership of these new fellowships who were of sound biblical scholarship and considerable spiritual maturity. But, as so often happens in a new movement, it is not the thinkers who prevail but those who are the most convincing 'charismatic' personalities, popular speakers and natural leaders.

Young men rapidly took the initiative, both in forming new fellowships and in taking leadership. This was fully in line with the prevailing mood in Western society. These young men owed no allegiance to traditional Church or denominational institutions. They were untrained for leadership and most of them had no theological education. They rapidly developed new styles of worship using guitars, which were ideal for home groups, and new styles of meetings and leadership.

As so often happens in a new movement, it is not the thinkers who prevail, but those who are the most convincing ‘charismatic’ personalities. 

Anti-Tradition

The new house fellowships soon attracted those who were discontented with their traditional denominational churches. This, of course, is inevitable with any new movement. When David was outlawed by King Saul and took refuge in the hills, it is recorded that, “All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered round him, and he became their leader” (1 Sam 22:2).

Something like this happened in the early days of the house church movement. Many who were dissatisfied with the lifelessness of the denominational churches were attracted by the informality and freshness of the house church fellowships. The early days saw many groups split away from a parent group and form new fellowships. These splits often occurred on the grounds of teaching or practice, but in reality new young leaders were arising to challenge an established leader and form their own fellowships.

The emphasis was upon all things new in response to the new experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. This was a new day. God was doing a new thing. Old established practices in the denominational churches were considered stumbling-blocks to what God wanted to do among his people. The Holy Spirit was sweeping away the dead wood in the Church and there were many calls for people to come out of the mainline churches because God had finished with the denominations.

These calls did not come from mature Bible teachers such as Denis Clark and Campbell McAlpine, who never formed new fellowships and whose ministries were trans-denominational. They came from the young men who eagerly seized the opportunities for leadership presented by new teaching and the impatience of many within the traditional churches to move faster than their pastors deemed to be wise.

In Brighton, for example, when Terry Virgo founded the Clarendon Fellowship he was joined by a large proportion of the congregation from St Luke's, Brighton and Hangelton Baptist as well as individual members from churches in the surrounding area.

Young leaders eagerly seized opportunities for leadership presented by new teaching and the impatience of many within traditional churches. 

Similar things happened in many other parts of the country, where house fellowships sprang up and rapidly attracted members of the mainline churches. These congregants were longing to experience new life in the Spirit and felt constricted by the traditions which bound them in the churches they had attended for many years.

It was a time of splits, of fission and fusion, as house fellowships multiplied, outgrew their drawing-room bases and began worshipping in scout huts and school halls. There were many cries of sheep-stealing and counter-charges of being blocks to the Holy Spirit. There were many hurts, but it is now a long time ago and most wounds have healed. The new fellowships are an established part of the Church scene. Their leaders are prominent in the charismatic movement alongside those in the mainline churches.

Most of the new fellowships planted in the 1970s or early 1980s have now aligned themselves with one or other of half a dozen streams such as Pioneer, New Frontiers, New Covenant or Ichthus, each of which is now an independent sect or a mini-denomination.

At the time these new fellowships were being formed, a significant renewal movement was taking place within the mainline churches themselves. Many ordained ministers quite independently experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to lead their congregations into renewal in the Holy Spirit. Many suffered considerably in doing so while others saw quite spectacular results. Colin Urquhart in Luton, Trevor Dearing in Hainault, David Watson in York, David Pawson in Guildford and many others each attracted large congregations and saw the renewing of the spiritual life in the churches they led and the exercise of spiritual gifts among the people.

It is questionable in hindsight whether it was ever right to fragment the Church by the formation of numerous new fellowships, or whether it was God's intention to renew the existing structures. The new eager young leaders reflected the spirit of the age, both in their impatience to get on with the new thing, and with their anti-traditionalism which regarded all things of the past as only being fit for ridicule and rejection.

Certainly the Church was in need of a radical shake-up and spiritual renewal, but was it really necessary to tear apart the Body of Christ so wantonly and create such division? Would a little more love and patience have enabled renewal and a new unity to run right across the denominations? Was this God's intention for his Church?

It is questionable in hindsight whether it was ever right to fragment the Church by the formation of numerous new fellowships, or whether it was God's intention to renew the existing structures. 

We shall never know the answers to these questions, but it is a fact that the decade of the 1970s which saw the greatest fragmentation of the Church was also the decade of the greatest social unrest, the height of the social revolution.

A spirit of rebellion was running right through the nation with numerous strikes in industry and a vast increase in marriage breakdown and sexual promiscuity, with all the accompanying evidence of the rejection of tradition and the eager pursuit of new social and moral values.

It is perhaps a strange quirk that the young rebel leaders who caused great division in the 1970s and who became the leading 'apostles' of the charismatic movement are now the very ones condemning as 'divisive' those who question the biblical validity of their teaching and practices.

Individualism

20^th Century evangelicalism has tended towards individualism due to its emphasis upon the personal nature of salvation. The seeds of individualism have been there since the Reformation, but 20^th Century Western culture has greatly encouraged this. By the time the charismatic movement was born, individualism in Western society was rampant and the new renewal movement embraced it wholeheartedly.

Unlike the corporate experience of the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, the renewal movement was entirely personal. Its emphasis was upon the personal relationship of each believer with the Father. This, of course, is perfectly biblical and in line with the promise of the Lord, but the Hebraic background to Jesus' teaching has been lost over the centuries and with it the understanding of the place of each believer within the corporate community the Body of Christ.

Charismatic renewal is highly 'me-centred'. Each individual is encouraged to discover their spiritual gifting. Indeed, the gifts are regarded as personal possessions rather than together making up the spiritual attributes of the community of believers.

This individualistic concept of the gifts has led to some erroneous teaching, highly dangerous for the health of the Church, such as the 'positive confession' or 'faith movement' which has emphasised physical and materialistic values such as health and wealth. Its proponents have taught that God wants all his people to prosper, to be healthy and wealthy and that through faith or 'positive confession' these things can be obtained.

This teaching is fully in line with the desires and ambitions of Western acquisitive materialistic society which no doubt accounts for its popularity among charismatics, despite it being the very opposite of the teaching of Jesus!

Much of the preoccupation of charismatics with the exercise of spiritual gifts has been me-centred: me and my health, my wealth, my family and my personal relationship with God. The exercise of spiritual gifts thereby tends to meet the personal needs within the fellowship. The servant nature of discipleship - saved to serve - tends to become lost.

Much of the charismatic renewal movement has been me-centred: me and my health, my wealth, my family and my personal relationship with God.

Charismatic worship has both reflected this me-centredness and helped to reinforce it. A very large number of worship songs and choruses use the first person singular rather than plural. One of the great benefits of the renewal movement has been to heighten each believer's awareness of the presence of God and thereby to heighten each individual's active participation in worship and deepen their spiritual apprehension of God. This is wholly good, but the danger of an overemphasis on individualism is a loss of the corporate and thereby a loss of the essential nature of the New Testament Church as the Body of Christ.

Personal Involvement

If you walk into a strange church, you can usually know instantly whether it is charismatic or traditional. If it is traditional, the congregation will fill up the back pews first; if it is charismatic they will fill up from the front. In the traditional church the congregation is passive, the people are there to be ministered to by choir, readers and preacher; in the charismatic church the people are there for active participation. They want to be fully involved in worship with the freedom to wave their arms, clap, dance and give physical expression to their emotions.

This DIY worship is very much in line with the spirit of pop culture. Amateur musicians, worship leaders and singers give a performance at the front which is enthusiastically supplemented by the active participation of the congregation.

In the new sects which arose out of the house church fellowships, the preachers and pastors were also untrained. Hardly any of them had any formal theological training in a theological college or university theology faculty. A few had been to a Bible school although many of the younger leaders had received some sort of training from schools set up within their own sects. These were non-academic and simply pass on the limited teaching of the leadership.

This represents one of the greatest dangers of the charismatic movement, where the emphasis has been increasingly on experience-centred or revelationary-centred leadership with increasingly less emphasis upon biblical scholarship.

One of the greatest dangers of the charismatic movement is its emphasis on experience-centred leadership over and above biblical scholarship.

As the charismatic movement has tended to become increasingly driven by the leaders of new sects in concert with a handful of leaders from the mainline churches, few of whom are men of outstanding scholarship, the gap between biblical truth and current charismatic practice has widened.

The anti-professionalism of pop culture has been present in the charismatic movement from the beginning although leaders have been quick to assert their own authority. The excesses of heavy shepherding, which scarred many people's lives during the 1980s, have largely disappeared, although the authoritarianism of sectarian leadership has left its mark. Individual believers are encouraged to be fully involved in worship and the exercise of spiritual gifts, with the exception of the gift of prophecy, which is permitted as long as it is supportive of the leadership.

Next week: The final three characteristics of pop culture are compared to the Church: sensuousness, lawlessness and power.

First published 1995. Revised and serialised November 2017. You can find previous instalments in this series here.

Monica Hill continues her series on the ministry gifts of Ephesians 4. 

This article is part of a series. Click here to read other instalments.

“It was Christ who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11-13, emphasis added).

“And They Shall Prophesy…”

‘Prophecy’ appears in all three lists of spiritual gifts – but it has a slightly different meaning in each. We will explore the meaning of the ‘manifestation’ of prophecy described in 2 Corinthians 12 later, but we just note here that manifestations are not bestowed permanently on any individual, but come as the Lord wills and to anybody who is open to the Spirit.

Manifestations are very different from the ministry gift of ‘prophet’ which is given to an individual who is specifically called to build up the Body. The Ephesians ministry role of ‘prophet’ bears more resemblance to the more ‘natural’ role of prophecy described in Romans 12, with its emphasis upon the forthtelling of the word of God as well as the foretelling of future happenings. But the emphasis for any spiritual gift still needs to be on equipping the Body and this is especially true for those who are given a ministry role.

Perhaps in our modern society we can see more affinity between the role of prophet and that of the ‘preacher’- though obviously there are differences (incidentally, it should be noted that the title ‘preacher’ is not recognised in any of the lists of spiritual gifts – the nearest is the role of the teacher, although it is not difficult to see the differences).

Old Testament Prophets

The prophets, both writing and speaking, in the Old Testament, were walking closely with God and knew him intimately. They had reached such a close understanding of his nature and purposes that they found it easy to see where the people they were called to address were falling short of all that God wanted for them.

Biblical scholars maintain that less than 20% of the words of the writing prophets are warning or foreseeing what will happen in the future, while more than 80% of their prophetic words are forthtelling God’s nature and purposes – and reminding the nation how God had revealed himself in the past.

Less than 20% of the prophetic words of the writing prophets are foreseeing what will happen in the future - more than 80% are forthtelling God’s nature and purposes.

The whole nation of Israel was in a covenant relationship with God. The prophets were the biblical preachers of their day, spending their time reminding the Jewish people of God’s requirements, while also remembering God’s actions in similar periods in their history and then challenging them to become more like the people that God expected them to be.

Occasionally they did receive a revelation of what would happen as a consequence if the nation continued in the direction it was taking, but their messages were more than foretelling and often they were of an encouraging rather than a warning nature.

New Testament Prophets

The reason we do not hear much about specifically named individual prophets in the New Testament is that with the coming of Jesus, God’s revelation of himself, his nature and his purposes was now complete (nothing new would be revealed, although to each of us “the Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from his word”). The coming of Jesus fulfilled Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 15:18 and “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people” (Luke 24:19).

The task of the New Testament prophets was unchanged, in that it was to remind people of, and bring them back to, the biblical roots set out for them (and us) in the word of God, so that they could understand God more completely and strive to be like him. Their function was additionally related to the fulfilment of the Great Commission and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the understanding that now the Church itself was to be the Prophet to the nations.

The individual role of each prophet (both then and today) is therefore increasingly to impart the wisdom they have received from their close walk with God to others, so that they too can be built up in their faith and thus be an effective ‘front line’ with the world. This is why prophets need to be subject to other prophets so that they are both open to correction and also protected from bringing anything of themselves into the words they share with others. The lone prophet is, by and large, a thing of the past: each needs to meet with others, not just for fellowship and to build each other up, but also to confirm or correct what they are hearing and to keep their thinking in line with Scripture.

The task of the prophets was to bring people back to their biblical roots, so they could understand God and strive to be like him.

Apostles and prophets are often linked together – they were the foundation of the early Church (Eph 2:20, 3:5) and interestingly these are the two most neglected of the ‘ministry gifts’ today. Their function has always been to give the Church, locally or nationally, the right base for ‘sending out’ and ‘speaking out’ (which is a powerful combination that ensures the Church is guided both in the right direction and with the right values and strategy).

The ‘prophetic’ function is to bring and present the unchanging word of God to others, both in a contemporary setting and to a contemporary world: reaching each new generation, preparing them for works of service and ensuring that the message is passed on.

The words of the prophets should be judged by their contemporaries on their truth, irrespective of the effectiveness the messages have on the +believers in their generation or acceptance of the words they had received. If the biblical prophets were judged on the acceptance of their messages, they would all be judged to be failures.

‘I Wish That All the Lord’s People Were Prophets’

Numbers 11 gives us a great example of how God supported Moses in the desert when he was almost in despair, and began to set in motion an effective strategy that has continuing significance today. Moses’ great joy when God “took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders” led him to want even more as he saw that “when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied” (11:25).

He wanted there to be no restrictions or limit on who could receive this blessing, when he made the far-reaching statement “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (11:29) which, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, did come to pass and is still available today.

Prophets need to be subject to other prophets so that they are open to correction and protected from bringing anything of themselves into the words they share.

All human beings have the ability to hear from God, although few actually do!! There is truth in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, who said “I tell you in truth: all men are Prophets or else God does not exist”. As Romans 10:14 in the Message says “…how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it?”

Encouragement or Warning

When building up the Body of Christ, words of encouragement are just as important as words of warning, and although they may not require the same hard testing as the warnings, they should still be tested. Yet, in our modern society, they are not often treated as of equal importance and often people think that God only rebukes his people.

Continually giving words of warning can be counter-productive – and it is also unbiblical - Jesus called us to ‘feed his sheep’ – not berate them all the time. It is interesting that Judas (Barsabbas) and Silas were prophets who explained the decisions of the Jerusalem Council to the believers in Antioch and encouraged them (Acts 15:30-32).

When the word came to the Seven Churches in Revelation, each of the different gatherings from Ephesus to Laodicea were both commended and rebuked, although only two (Smyrna and Philadelphia) were seen as pleasing to God, while nothing good was said about Sardis. Nevertheless, they all had warnings of what was to come in the future alongside the amazing promises for the overcomers. Our Father is concerned that we listen and hear him – and wants each of us to be ‘overcomers’ so all words from him will be given in order to help us to achieve his desire.

Individual Prophetic Words

Although most words of prophecy are to the whole Body of believers, there can be a place for individual words of encouragement that will build specific people up so that they can play their part in the Body of Christ – and that should be the main emphasis. We will look at personal ‘words of knowledge’ about the future of individuals when we cover the manifestations, but note here that they are usually linked with ‘words of wisdom’ too.

Equipping the Body of Christ

In order to equip the Body of Christ effectively, the modern day prophet should not only desire that the Body of Christ (the Lord’s people given to him to minister to) would have a right relationship with God, but that they too would know the scriptures and know the Lord - and be able to pass this on to others.

Prophetic words should be judged on their truth, irrespective of the effectiveness the messages have on believers.

This confirms the reason given in Ephesians 4 for the continued existence of the prophetic function (working along with the other ministries): “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”.

Those with a prophetic function are the most effective when a real relationship has been built up and they know who they are reaching. Their own relationship with God and understanding of the scriptures and the insights they have received are not just for themselves, but God will also show them how they are to share these with others.

As we have noted there are NO prophets speaking directly to the nations today. There are prophetic voices within churches or fellowships of believers – or there should be! They should be the groups who are more open to listening and hearing from God, to enable the Church to be the Prophet to the nation.

But remember, prophets have never had an easy ride! When prophets compare what God is alerting them to in his word with what is happening in the fellowship, they usually call for change – which is not often welcome. People like the status quo and the words of the prophet are often resented by the pastor or priest. Dean Inge said “a priest is never so happy as when he has a prophet to stone”.

There is much more we could include about the role of the prophet – which is also covered elsewhere in this magazine. Prophecy will also play a major part on the Issachar Ministries Community Portal (under construction) – click here to find out more about this project. But if you have any other comments to add about prophets and their role – past and present - please add them below.

Monica Hill turns from the ‘natural’ gifts (Romans 12) to the ‘ministry’ gifts listed in Ephesians 4. This article is part of a series – click here for previous instalments. 

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:11-13)

We have already noted that there are four lists of the Spiritual Gifts given by the Holy Spirit in different epistles – Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter 4 (which concentrates on methods) and Ephesians 4. Each of them have additional teaching in the surrounding verses on how they should operate within the corporate body of believers – often relevant to that specific understanding of the gifts.

The Five-Fold Ministry

The five ‘ministry gifts’ listed in Ephesians 4 are surrounded by teaching on the place of these quite specific roles within the body. Two things stand out of which we need to take note:

1. First, ideally these gifts are meant to operate together, as a team – the five-fold ministry is an entity in itself, and all its gifts should be visible in the leadership of our churches and fellowships today. If Christian communities do not recognise these gifts in specific individuals, at least the principles and values of each should be adopted. Team ministry is not easy and needs to be embraced and worked upon. If this does not happen, one or other of these roles will inevitably take precedence. For example:
   1. For many centuries in the Western Church, pastors and teachers have been predominant, to the neglect of the other roles.
   2. Evangelists have often set up separate, para-Church organisations, and are often felt only to be needed for overseas work - which means that work among nominal Christians has been neglected.
   3. Apostles and prophets are still very rare, with many believing that apostolic ministry died out at the end of the New Testament era. Although they are now receiving more attention these ministries are often misunderstood and can create problems.
   4. Individual prophets in the style of the Old Testament were also relegated to history as it was anticipated that, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the whole Church would become the Prophet to the nations. An understanding even of the role of the prophet, within fellowships and wider afield, is often missing.
2. Secondly, these roles are given to serve the Body and to help those to whom they are called, to enable all to grow to maturity and be found worthy of being called followers of Christ. They are not given to give status to individuals.

There is no mention of these gifts operating in this way in a worldly sense (unlike the ‘natural’ gifts of Romans 12). Apart from the role of a teacher they do not have secular counterparts, although the world has at times tried to pick up the same values and take them into secular occupations – but more of that when we look at each of them in detail. Leadership in the world is based on very different principles.

In this introduction we will be looking at the context of the introduction of Ministry gifts in the Body of believers and seeing how these gifts should operate.

The ministry gifts are designed to operate together to serve and build up the Body of Christ.

Lessons from Ephesus

The whole of Ephesians is concerned with building up the body of believers in Ephesus, from which we can learn so much. The epistle starts with an emphasis upon Christ as the Head of the whole Christian community - the Church, or (more accurately) the Body of Believers (Eph 1:22-23) (not the institutions), which is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph 2:20-24) and is without any divisions, comprising one Body and one Spirit (Eph 4:4). Members are encouraged to “live a life worthy of the calling” (Eph 4:1), given various instructions on how to act (Eph 5-6) and finally encouraged to “put on the whole armour of God” (Eph 6:10-18).

It is worth noting that Paul has just given that beautiful prayer to God for his brothers and sisters in Ephesus (Eph 3:14-21) which is still such an encouragement to all who read it today. His next words express not only his own total commitment to the Father but his desire that all should “live a life worthy of the calling you have received”. The way to do this is to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”.

The Priesthood of All Believers

Here is no definition of a hierarchy, an ‘us and them’ or a ‘pecking order’ as so often seen in our churches, but a recognition that we need each other (which is described more fully in 1 Corinthians 12). The sole purpose of these ministry roles is to serve the body of believers so that they can all become mature and be the front line of mission.

The New Testament Church operated as a ‘priesthood of all believers’ – they had a different vision from that practised in Judaism when the Temple was in operation and priests were in control and acted as mediators with God. But even after the birth of the Church and the early days of taking the mission worldwide, it was not very long before the established denominations re-introduced a priestly leadership into churches.

In the priesthood of all believers, there is no hierarchy or pecking order – just a recognition that we all need each other.

Many new movements have since tried to re-capture this concept of the priesthood of all believers, but far too often institutionalisation pushes them back into the need for strong leadership aligned with worldly principles.

The ministry gifts are essentially serving roles - encouraging and empowering others – so that everyone is encouraged to have that direct relationship with the Father themselves and can discern the truth – so that they are “no longer infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”

Ingredients for Full Community Life

The ministries described in Ephesians can be seen as leading roles in the community, but they should also encompass vision, strategy and unity - all essential for any community’s survival. It is not a necessary requirement that the leader has to be the one who has the original vision, but he or she must embrace it and make it their own – just as everyone else in the body must; and likewise with the strategy and action that follows – these two aspects must both be embraced to help form a community and give it its raison d’etre. But often the ministry role also provides the glue that makes people stick together in unity.

Truth and love are essential ingredients to any community of believers – so that “we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph 4:15-16).

Unity is expressed in “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:4-6).

In the next few weeks we will be looking at each of the specific ministry gifts given to the Body of believers – Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher - and exploring further the reasons for which they are given and the way they should operate and relate to each other.

Edmund Heddle unpacks Peter's valuable instructions on prophecy.

In his two New Testament letters Peter augments and complements the teaching on prophecy and prophesying found in the letters of Paul. The two writers between them establish a complete answer to the question 'What is a prophet?' Peter's letters contain five paragraphs in which he deals with prophets and prophesying, each full of valuable instruction, and we shall deal with each paragraph in turn.

Prophecies Concerning the Coming Messiah (l Peter 1:10-12)

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and the circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels desire to look into these things.

The Old Testament prophets who foretold the coming of Messiah referred to him as the gift of God's grace. This they did under the direction of the Holy Spirit, who revealed through them the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory that would follow. The prophets were clear about the coming of the Messiah – but who he should be, what he should do, and at what point in history he would appear - all of these things they longed to know but were kept in the dark.

It was revealed to them that the prophecies they uttered were not for the immediate benefit of either themselves or God's people. They had been given for the enlightenment and blessing of a later generation, namely the people of Peter's day.

So the message had remained hidden, though they searched intently and with the greatest care. Prophets on earth and angels in heaven longed to understand the fullness of the prophetic revelation. The Greek word translated 'look into' is the same as the word used in John 20:11 to describe Mary Magdalene's entrance into the grave of Jesus, where she stooped down to look, standing at the side of the tomb so as not to get into her own light. How carefully should we look into the prophetic word, especially where the immediate application appears to be neither easily understandable nor relevant.

Old Testament prophets foretold the coming of the Messiah but were kept in the dark about the meanings of their own prophetic revelations.

The lesson from this paragraph is that no one prophet conveys the whole message. Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:29 suggests that "two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said."

Prophecy needs to be taken seriously and is best weighed in the company of the Lord's people. We need the Holy Spirit as much in understanding prophecy as in its
proclamation. The prophetic word about the Messiah remained hidden until Peter himself - the Spirit-filled preacher on the day of Pentecost - brought the explanation of their age-long bewilderment.

Using God's Grace-Gifts for His Glory (1 Peter 4:10-11)

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides so that in all things God maybe praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

God's grace is 'multicoloured' and is revealed in the gifts (charisma) of his Spirit. Peter mentions two gifts here:

1. The ability to speak God's words or, as it is usually termed, the ability to prophesy. "...the very words of God" is an attempt to translate the Greek word logion, which is usually translated by the word 'oracle' and means a divine response or utterance. This word is used in the scriptures of the Mosaic law, God's written utterances through Old Testament writers, the totality of Christian doctrine (Acts 7:38; Rom 3:2; Heb 5:12) and, incredibly, in the Spirit-inspired utterances of ordinary Spirit-filled-believers.

2. The ability to serve the body of Christ by gifts of divine power such as healing, miracles, deliverance from powers of darkness, and others (1 Cor 12:9-10). We are stewards of these gifts. Whatever gift God decides to give us for another individual or group we must pass on. God's gifts are unstinted and unlimited, except by our disobedience and unbelief. As stewards we shall one day be required give an account of our stewardship. God's provision is always lavish, and we are the ones who limit his gifts.

God's grace is multicoloured and his provision is always lavish – we are the ones who limit his gifts.

The Greek word translated as 'provides' is an interesting one; its literal translation is to provide a chorus in the theatre - to defray the cost of putting on a chorus at a public festival. Later on it came to describe the supplying and equipping of an army or a fleet. But in all cases its use conveys the idea of abundance.

Two things are required of us. First, that we are filled with God's Spirit and that we are willing to receive the gifts from the Lord and, secondly, that we obediently use them in the service of those for whom they have been provided. We are to let the spiritual gifts reach a fullness of development through us. Only then will their ultimate objective be achieved, namely that God may be praised. "To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever."

Paying Attention to the Prophetic Word (2 Peter 1:19-21)

And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 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.

Peter says that the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah had been made more certain by the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain, at which event he and the others present were eye-witnesses of his majesty. They were there when the voice came from heaven saying, "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (v17). "You will do well to pay attention to the prophetic word which is for you like a light shining in a dark place", is the admonition Peter addresses to his readers.

We cannot live the whole of our lives in the glory of our transcendent Lord. We are in a sin-darkened world which Peter describes with words that translate to mean dirty, squalid and murky. The time will come when a new day dawns, preceded by the morning star. In classical literature the morning star is Venus, which rises in great brilliance before the dawn. But for Peter it must be Jesus (Rev 22:16). The words 'in your hearts' are thought by some scholars to belong to the next verse.

The Greek word for morning star is phosphorus, which means 'light-bringer'. Until the dawning of the day of Christ the prophetic word is like a light shining in a dark place. We should do well to give attention to it as society deteriorates and things become ever more difficult for those who are wholly committed to Christ.

Peter goes on to show that prophetic Scripture can be relied on totally because it originated not in the human mind or will but in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. No true prophecy was ever produced by mere human effort. Never at any time was it man's initiative that brought into being the scriptures. Man had his part to play; dwelling in God's presence and listening to his voice, he was told to record what he heard but he had to be careful never to add his own thoughts. Peter likened the prophets to sailing boats carried along by the wind.

No true prophecy was ever produced by mere human effort. Man had his part to play, but he had to be careful to never add to what God was revealing.

Scripture could be depended upon as a light-bringer. The initiative in prophesying must always be with the Holy Spirit. As Paul says after listing the nine supernatural gifts, "All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines" (1 Cor 12:11).

The corollary to Peter's statement, ie that it was the Spirit who originated Scripture, is that it can be neither understood nor interpreted by mere human ability. The modern practice of prophesying needs to be brought into line with the fact that no true prophecy ever comes from human initiative, also that no prophecy can be understood apart from the enabling of God's Spirit. How blessed are those who, though living in a wicked and dangerous world, nevertheless have the word of the prophets made more sure.

Prophetic Promises Remembered (2 Peter 3:1-4, 8-13)

Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.

First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come...they will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised?...everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation"...but do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise...he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief...since everything will be destroyed...what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God...in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

Peter is concerned that the prophet's words concerning the destruction of both earth and heaven prior to the establishment of the new heaven and the new earth were being forgotten and were ceasing to have a challenging effect on the behaviour of God's people. He recalls the words of Jesus, who challenged the people of his day to watch "because you do not know on what day your Lord will come" (Matt 24:36-44).

Peter in his two letters makes three references to Noah and the Noachic flood (1 Pet 3:20; 2 Pet 2:5; 2 Pet 3:5). The promised flood was a long time in coming but finally it arrived and did exactly what God said it would do.

Isaiah had foretold the establishment of a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 65:17-19, 66:22) but the process was to involve the destruction of things as they are. Since their fathers had died things had gone on just the same and people blamed God for being dilatory. But Peter explained that the delay in fulfilling the promise was due to the patience of God and his great desire that none should perish. Peter told them it was not that God had forgotten but that he loved. The delay is no indication of divine forgetfulness but rather of compassion.

Peter warned believers that God's apparent delay in delivering his promised judgment on the world was due not to forgetfulness, but rather to divine compassion and love.

Patience is likewise required of God's people. The promise of the prophets is that the new heaven and the new earth will be preceded by universal destruction. This ought to exercise a profound effect on Christians' life and conduct.

To Sum Up...

Peter reviews the coming of the Messiah; unfolds the resources of the spiritual gifts; confirms the authority of the prophetic word; and reveals the importance of preparing for the day of the Lord.

First published in Prophecy Today, Vol 7 No 4, July/August 1991.

"If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously": Monica Hill looks at the spiritual gift of leadership as described in Romans 12.

The gift of 'leadership', as such, only appears in Romans 12, although the five ministry roles in Ephesians 4 are often referred to as those necessary for leadership. Both passages tell us about the emphases that good spiritual leadership should have. In Romans, referring to individual ministry: "not conforming to the pattern of the world...not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought but with sober judgement in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you" (12:2-3).

In Ephesians, for team ministry: "to equip God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" (4:12). So spiritual leadership is not a status symbol, neither does it have worldly values, but it is supporting others who are on the front line.

Misusing Power

The Message version - used in the title quote – gives a warning context, as it equates 'leading' with 'being put in charge', which can often lead to great misuse of power. Leadership is not just a means of doing what you want. There is a great difference between 'ascribed' leadership, which is imposed or inherited, and 'achieved' leadership - which is earned.

There is a great difference between 'ascribed' leadership, which is imposed, and 'achieved' leadership, which is earned.

'Ascribed' leadership can often have disastrous consequences if the leader is not sensitive in the exercise of power; whereas the most effective leadership is that which is 'achieved' and is fully recognised and accepted by the people. But in both cases, the leader must beware of just trying to get their own way, with or without the backing of others.

Many commentaries limit this gift in Romans to that of 'administration'. While this is important, leadership is much more than just management - it should be about nurturing and enhancing. These are the aspects that should be valued and considered relevant in Christian circles and especially in small groups. The Amplified Version expands its definition of leadership to 'he who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind'.

What is Leadership?

Leadership is a 'people skill'. Mahatma Gandhi once said "I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people". John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the USA, rightly understood that "if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader" (see other quotes in the box).

There are many examples of worldly leadership using wealth, might, power, intellect and privilege; but spiritual leadership needs to have a servant dimension which recognises the importance of empowering others.

The difference between a leader and a boss is that the leader leads while the boss drives. The New Testament shepherd leads his sheep, who follow willingly because they know his voice and trust him, while so many Western shepherds drive their sheep or use a dog to chase them!!

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of those who follow them. If people believe that God is empowering them, it is amazing what they can accomplish - not to give themselves glory but to give the glory to God.

How should Leadership be Exercised?

Most biblical translations say that leading should be exercised 'diligently' - the opposite of negligently. Leaders should be actively and fully committed, engaged and occupied, exercising caution, and showing care and attention, which is characterised by hard work and perseverance.

Although in English 'diligent' has always meant careful and hard-working, it comes from the Latin diligere, which means 'to value highly, take delight in'. The Voice translation of Scripture says leaders should be 'eager to get started'!

Vision and Strategy

Leaders not only need to know where they are going, with a forward-thinking, biblical vision that is embraced by all; they also need to be able to help define the strategy for achieving that vision.

Proverbs 29:18 says "Without vision the people perish" and The Voice defines this even more clearly: "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves".

If you think you are leading and no-one is following you, you are just taking a walk!

Affirmation

We all belong to groups of many different sizes and recognise the need for leadership. We may ourselves have, or be exercising, this gift at a variety of levels. But leaders need followers. If you think you are a leader and no-one is following you, you are just taking a walk! Leadership ALWAYS needs to be affirmed by others.

If you have any other comments on 'leadership' as a spiritual gift please do add them.

References

1 Quotes from 75 Inspiring Motivational Quotes on Leadership, Inc.com.

Monica Hill begins a new series on the spiritual gifts.

An Overview of the Biblical Gifts

The New Testament gives four different lists of what are commonly known as 'Gifts of the Spirit'.

1. The Nine Manifestations, in 1 Corinthians 12:

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. (vv7-10)

2. The Seven Natural Talents found in Romans 12:

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. (vv6-8)

3. The Five Roles or Ministries found in Ephesians 4:

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (vv11-13).

4. The Two Methods found in 1 Peter 4:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. (vv 10-11)

Differences?

These listings each have a different emphasis. The Spiritual Manifestations are not really gifts as possessions. They are not permanently owned by any individual, but rather given for a specific purpose when they are needed. They can come through any believer who is listening to God.

The Natural Talents are gifts we are born with – but they can become Spiritual Gifts if they are handled rightly. The Roles have a specific purpose to build up the body of believers, both to sustain them and to help them grow and exercise their ministries with others. The Methods relate to, and underpin, all the gifts.

Some gifts are given for a particular purpose and moment- others develop over a lifetime. Some are natural talents, whilst others are supernaturally given. Some are given as ministries to specific individuals, whilst many more are available to all believers."

Repetition?

In the four lists above 'prophecy' appears in three - but this is not repetition, as each mention has a different emphasis. The Manifestation of prophecy is the prophetic word given by God to an individual for a specific situation, the Natural Gift of prophecy is the natural gift of oratory including the ability to perceive the relevance of Biblical texts so that they can be proclaimed with understanding to others.

Since the coming of Christ and the Great Commission, the church has become the prophet to the world, so the Ministry of prophecy (to which only some individuals are called) is now to alert and guide the church to carry out its prophetic task and to ensure that it does not deviate from scripture. Similarly, having the Natural gift of teaching is not identical with the Ministry of a Teacher.

What About Today?

These gifts were given to the Early Church, but it is a misconception to say that they are no longer valid today. We will unpack the biblical references and evidence of how they can operate today in future instalments of this series.

1. The Spiritual Manifestations are still a new phenomenon to many and in recent years their use has been expanded - sometimes rather inappropriately.
2. The Natural Gifts have been largely accepted in the church (and society) for many years and although they are much more understandable, they also need to be unpacked. I was brought up to believe and accept these gifts as the basis of both the church and a good society. In most societies they are still valued today - though the Giver is often forgotten.
3. The Roles or Ministries should be present in every church. Although many churches highlight the Pastor / Teacher role in their leadership, all the Ministries are needed and have a rightful place.
4. The Two Methods need to be re-emphasised today. Peter highlighted them at the time of the persecution of the Early Church and they helped them at that time. Today they can help us bring everything into a right perspective.

It is a common misconception that the spiritual gifts are no longer valid today. In this series we will unpack the evidence to the contrary, and look at God's intention for the best use of his wonderful gifts."

Are there any other Gifts?

It is unlikely that the Gifts listed in the New Testament are the only ones given to us by the Holy Spirit. For example, martyrdom and self-sacrifice figured largely in the Early Church as a gift of God, enabling many to come through victoriously in a time of persecution. Another example is the gift of music, which many use in the Lord's service.
Gifts and the Body of Christ

God gives all believers gifts which will enable them to grow stronger in their faith BUT it is not expected that any believer will have all the gifts - this is where the body comes in. We need each other and belong to each other: as the gifts are given for the building up of the Body, they cannot be used in isolation. A single stick on its own can be easily broken but many sticks bound together are much more difficult to break - and a bundle of sticks can also be much more effective in standing firm.

Always bear in mind that the Spiritual Gifts are given to build up the Body - not to divide it. The body is built up so that it can go beyond itself and be a witness in the neighbourhood or social group - and in the world. It should be a witness to God's love and desire that all will come to know him and honour and serve him.

Spiritual gifts are given to build up the Body of Christ- not to divide it. Often individuals can best discover, develop and use their giftings in a small group setting."

Discovering and Affirming Gifts

Small groups are helpful in discovering and affirming gifts. There is a strength and solidarity in a small group which is not there for an individual on his or her own. In these groups, the Scriptures can be studied together so that all can contribute to a common understanding. Believers can be affirmed and supported, and gifts can be used with each other and in outreach.

Small groups can also be vital places where believers help each other recognise where they are gifted, and where they are not! Remember that if other members of your group cannot recognise the gift God has given you (without you telling them you have it!), you may be 'thinking too highly of yourself' and may need to think again on how you are using the gifts God has given you.

This series will develop in many ways as we look in more detail at each of the gifts from a Biblical standpoint and how they can be used today.

Please do comment from your own experience.

Background to the series

In the 1980s, Prophecy Today was at the forefront of the fresh wave of spiritual growth and neo-Pentecostalism sweeping the nation. It researched and promoted the modern day usage of the gifts of the Spirit from a Biblical standpoint, producing many mini-books which still have value today.

This researching and production of resources has carried on since then and Issachar Ministries has built up a 'Resourcing for Prayer' network which explores these issues from the perspective of prayer groups. Some of that material will be made more widely available in this series.

Please feel free to comment on these articles and add from your own perspective.