First Corinthians 14 says that when we come together, we all can prophesy one by one (v. 31) and that prophesying builds up the church (v. 4b). In Exodus 4 Moses told the Lord that he was not an eloquent speaker (v. 10). Then the Lord gave Aaron to Moses to be his co-worker. He said to Moses concerning Aaron, "And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do" (v. 15). When Moses would speak to his brother Aaron to put some words into his mouth, God would be with Moses' mouth and with Aaron's mouth. Then the Lord said to Moses, "And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people" (v. 16). Aaron was to be Moses' spokesman. In Exodus 7:1 the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." That meant that Aaron would speak for Moses. A prophet is a spokesman. The basic meaning of the word prophesy is to speak for someone. To prophesy, in the New Testament sense, is to speak for Christ. We need to use 1 Corinthians 14:31 to impress the saints that in the church meetings we all can prophesy one by one.
In 1 Corinthians 11:17-18 the apostle Paul said, "But I give you this charge and do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and some part of it I believe." Paul told the Corinthians that they were meeting not for profit but for a loss because they met with divisions. Therefore, we must stay away from any division in the meeting. We should not participate in any divisive meeting.
According to the type in the Old Testament, the children of Israel had to come together to one unique place, and that one unique place kept them all in oneness. Their gathering according to God's way was in oneness and was also a preservation of oneness. The oneness among the children of Israel in ancient times was preserved by their kind of gathering. The children of Israel appeared before the Lord three times a year in the place chosen by God to be gathered together into one. As long as division exists yet we meet, that is not a profit to us but a loss.
The points in this message should be sufficient to give the saints a clear view of how to meet. We need to remember the focus of this message: to meet is to serve, to minister.