Category Archives: Spiritual gifts

The gift of prophecy

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While not all Christians are called ‘prophets’ (1 Cor 12:29), all are (potentially, at least) engaged in prophetic ministry.

So argue Fee and Stevens (The Complete Handbook of Everyday Christianity):

‘Outside of Paul’s letters prophecy is mentioned as a crucial endowment of the Day of Pentecost by which Spirit-ministry has been universalized as proof that Joel’s prophecy has been fulfilled (Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:17-21). Thus prophecy in this present age of the Spirit and these “last days” (Acts 2:17) is a potential ministry for everyone since the Spirit has been poured out “on all people .

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1 Cor 13:10 – ‘When what is perfect comes’

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1 Cor 13: 8 Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside. 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 13:10 but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside. 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.…

The pattern of miracles today

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A third section of Tim Chester’s Do Miracles Happen Today? that I would like to consider is the part of chapter 4 where he outlines the circumstances in which miracles are more likely to happen today.

1. On the frontline of mission.  John Stott writes: ‘Especially on the frontiers of mission, where a power-encounter may be needed to demonstrate the lordship of Christ, miracles have been and are being reported.’

As Chester says: ‘There are a number of things that make people more inclined to pay attention to the Christian message: the lives of Christians (Titus 2 v 9-10); our response to persecution (1 Peter 2 v 11-12); the community life of the church (John 13 v 35; 1 Peter 3 v 8-15); the worship of the gathered congregation (1 Corinthians 14 v 23-25).…

Why are there fewer miracles today?

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The second part of Tim Chester’s little book Do Miracles Happen Today? that I would like to summarise and reflect on comes in chapter 3.

While insisting that God can and does do miracles today, Chester says that, in fact, they are fewer and lesser in scope than those that happened at the time of the Gospels and Acts.

Some Christians put this down simply to a lack of faith on our part.  If our expectations were greater, then so would the provision of miracles.…

What is a miracle?

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Introducing a short series based on sections of Tim Chester’s book, Do Miracles Happen Today? And other questions about signs, wonders and mighty works.  The Good Book Company.

In chapter two, Chester discusses the definition of ‘miracle’.

An unusual feat?  The success of Leicester City football team in winning the Premier League in 2016 was an extraordinary achievement (they had odds of 5,000 to 1 against them at the start of the season).  But it was not a miracle.…

God blesses truth

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Brethren, I do not believe that God will set his seal to a ministry which does not aim at being strictly in accordance with the mind of the Spirit.  In proportion as a ministry is truthful, other things being equal, God can bless it.  Would you have the Holy Spirit set his seal on a lie?  Would you have him bless what he has not revealed, and confirm with signs following that which is not true.  
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Evaluating prophecy

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According to 1 Corinthians 14, a number of questions may be asked when attempting to evaluate a prophetic utterance:-

  1. Does it glorify God? v25
  2. Is it in accord with Scripture? v37f
  3. Does it build up the church? v5
  4. Is it spoken with love? v1
  5. Does the speaker submit to the judgement of others? v29
  6. Is the speaker in control of himself? v32
  7. It there too much of it? v29f
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False prophets

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Both Jesus and the apostles warned about fraudulent prophets.

They were characterised by greed, 2 Pet 2:3,13, arrogance, 2 Pet 2:18, immoral lives, 2 Pet 2:2,10-13, and general ungodliness, Jude 4.

Bar-Jesus was a Jewish magician whom Paul and Barnabas denounced as false and deceitful, Ac 13:6-10.  Such false prophets belong to the same line as Jezebel from the church of Thyatira, Rev 2:20.

Christian believers in every age are to test those who make prophetic claims.  …

Paul the villain

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Preaching recently in Curaçao, Diocese of Venezuela, The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori demonstrated just how far she has travelled from anything resembling a biblical and apostolic faith.

Pushing the familiar agenda of inclusion and diversity (changing attitudes and laws about same-sex relationships remind us that different is not the same as wrong), she informs her hearers of a particular blind spot that Paul had in this regard.  Schori refers to the incident involving a slave girl, recorded in Acts 16. …

Prophets today?

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‘Christ,’ says Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 4:11f), ‘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.’

Most Christian teachers would agree that the office of apostle was limited to those who were the first witnesses of Christ’s resurrection.  On the other hand, they would take it for granted that evangelists and pastor-teachers are found in every era and place.…