For many years Christians have read 1 Corinthians 14, but they have not had a way to carry out what is spoken in this chapter. As a result, for centuries Christian teachers, for the most part, have neglected this chapter. However, some did give an adequate definition of the word prophesying, saying that to prophesy is to speak for, to speak forth, and to foretell. But, they did not see that in 1 Corinthians 14, to prophesy denotes only speaking for God and speaking forth God. In this chapter it does not bear the denotation of foretelling. This is proved by verses 3 and 24. Verse 3 says, "But he who prophesies speaks to men building up and encouragement and consolation." To prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14 is to speak building up for the church, encouragement for the Lord's work, and consolation for our daily life. Building up, encouragement, and consolation have nothing to do with foretelling. Verse 24 says, "But if all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all." To convict and judge people, to expose their condition, is not to predict. Most Christians did not see this clearly; thus, they did not have the proper practice of prophesying. The Pentecostal believers paid much attention to 1 Corinthians 14, but they understood it wrongly, teaching that to prophesy in this chapter means to foretell.
In 1937 Brother Nee saw a vision concerning prophesying as speaking for God and Christ and speaking forth God and Christ. He saw that prophesying is the basic factor of a church meeting in mutuality and that there should not be only one speaker in a meeting. First Corinthians 14:31 says, "For you can all prophesy one by one," and verse 24 says, "But if all prophesy." We all can speak, and we all must speak. Verse 26 says, "Whenever you come together, each one has." Based on all these verses, Brother Nee saw that 1 Corinthians 14 refers to a meeting of mutuality in which everyone speaks and everyone listens. However, at that time we did not find the way to replace the traditional Lord's Day morning "service" in which one person spoke and all the others listened. Thus, we too somewhat put this matter aside in our practice.
Almost fifty years later, in 1984, we began to consider this matter further, and since that time we have spoken concerning this for more than five years. We have studied this matter again and again, and I believe that the Lord has been merciful to us and has shown us the real denotation of prophesying according to 1 Corinthians 14 and the way to practice this kind of prophesying. Of all the messages I have given on this matter in the last five and a half years, the first three messages of this series, entitled "The Basic Knowledge," "The Patterns," and "The Basic Constituents of a Prophecy," are most crucial. I hope that all the saints will spend much time to dive into those three messages and practice what is written in them. If we learn to prophesy in a proper, adequate way according to 1 Corinthians 14, we will take a big step for the Lord's recovery. We have the basic knowledge concerning prophesying, and we have seen the patterns of prophesying and the constituents of a prophecy. However, there is a basic obstacle to our prophesying that we all need to strive to overcome.
As we have seen, to prophesy is to speak for God and Christ and to speak forth God and Christ. To speak in this way is to cooperate with the speaking Spirit of God and Christ (2 Sam. 23:2; Acts 6:10). The Bible unveils to us that God is a speaking God. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, "In many portions and in many ways, God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son." God is not a dumb God; He is always speaking. The highest and greatest speaking in the universe is the Bible, which contains sixty-six books of God's speaking. The Bible is the book of books because it is the speaking of God.