The Spirit is also the means for the believers to prophesy. Acts 11:28 says, “One of them named Agabus rose up and signified through the Spirit that there was about to be a great famine over the whole inhabited earth, which occurred at the time of Claudius.” To prophesy, according to the biblical sense, is not mainly to predict but to speak for God and to speak forth God. This is the main significance of the word “prophesy” in 1 Corinthians 14. To prophesy, to speak for God and to speak forth God, must be to utter something by the Spirit of God as the means. If we speak something for God and try to speak forth God without the Spirit of God, that is, in ordinary human speaking, that is not prophesying. To prophesy, either to predict something for God or to speak for God and speak forth God, must be a speaking by the Spirit of God.
According to Acts, the Spirit tells the believers the things to come. Acts 20:22-23 says, “Now, behold, I am going bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what I will meet with there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in city after city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.” Paul did not know what he would meet with in Jerusalem, but he knew one thing-that the Holy Spirit solemnly testified to him that bonds and afflictions awaited him. The Holy Spirit’s testifying was a prophecy, a foretelling, not a charge. Hence, Paul should not have taken this as a command but as a warning.
Another instance of the Spirit’s telling the believers the things to come is in Acts 21:11. Agabus “took Paul’s girdle; and having bound his own feet and hands, he said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, In this way shall the Jews in Jerusalem bind the man whose girdle this is and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” Here the Holy Spirit told Paul again, not directly but through a member of the Body, what would befall him in Jerusalem. This also was a warning in the nature of a prophecy, not a charge. It was again the Spirit speaking through the Body. In the practice of the Body life, Paul should have listened to this speaking.
In 1 Timothy 4:1 Paul says, “The Spirit says expressly that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons.” Here the Spirit tells the believers of the coming apostasy and warns them concerning it. This is the Spirit who dwells in our spirit and speaks to us there (Rom. 8:9-11, 16). We need to exercise our spirit that it may become keen and clear to listen to the Spirit’s speaking and be kept from the deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons.
According to the principle of incarnation-the principle that divinity is brought into humanity and works with humanity-1 Timothy 4:1 implies our spirit. When the Spirit speaks, He speaks within our spirit, through our spirit, and out from our spirit. If there were no one who was truly one spirit with the speaking God (1 Cor. 6:17), there would be no way, according to the New Testament principle, for the Spirit to speak. The speaking of the Spirit in 4:1 is according to the way of incarnation. This means that the Spirit spoke from within Paul’s spirit.
If we would hear the speaking of the Spirit, we need to exercise our spirit. Only our spirit can listen to the speaking of the Spirit. The mind is not qualified for this. The Spirit speaks to our spirit, and our spirit responds to the Spirit. Therefore, we need to exercise our spirit to listen to the speaking of the Spirit from within the spirit of the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1.
In Acts 13 the Spirit sent out Barnabas and Saul to preach the gospel. In verse 3 Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the other three: “When they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” Here the laying on of hands denotes identification, signifying that they who laid their hands were one with those on whom they laid their hands. By this they declared to all that they were one with the sent ones in their going to carry out the Lord’s great commission.
Speaking of Barnabas and Saul, verse 4 goes on to say, “They therefore, having been sent out by the Holy Spirit.” In verse 3 Barnabas and Saul were sent by the other three, but here we are told that they were sent out by the Spirit. This proves that the three were one with the Spirit in the Lord’s move, and the Spirit honored their sending as His.
In Acts 15 the Spirit worked together with the apostles and elders to solve the problem of keeping the law. There had been a great disturbance regarding the keeping of the Mosaic law and the ceremony of circumcision. Eventually, by the Spirit working together with the apostles and elders at a conference in Jerusalem this problem was solved.
In Acts 15 we have the unique conference held by the apostles of the universal church and the elders of the local church in Jerusalem. Both were the leading ones in the Lord’s New Testament move on earth. There was no chairman. This conference was under the presiding of the Spirit (v. 28), the pneumatic Christ, the Head of the church (Col. 1:18) and the Lord of all (Acts 10:36).
Some may think that this conference was the first church council. This is a mistaken understanding. Here we do not have a council but a gathering for fellowship, with the Holy Spirit as the One presiding. Therefore, verse 28 says, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.” There was no voting, and there was neither autocracy nor democracy, neither of which should exist in the church life. Instead, in the church life there should simply be fellowship in the Spirit. Acts 15 is a record of this kind of fellowship.
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