In this chapter and the next chapter, we shall fellowship concerning the Lord’s move and the present need of the Lord’s recovery. First, in this chapter we shall see our need for prophesying for the building up of the Body of Christ. In recent years I have traveled much and have observed the situation among us. I have also studied the Word and studied our history. The consummation of my observations and study is a realization of the importance of prophesying. The Lord’s move today, the new way, consummates in the building up of the Body of Christ, and the way to build up the Body is by prophesying. The revelation of the divine dispensing in the entire Bible consummates in the matter of prophesying.
In the Bible, to prophesy does not mainly mean to predict, to foretell. To prophesy primarily means to speak something for God and to speak forth God to others, to speak to dispense Christ into others. First Corinthians 14:3 says, “But he who prophesies speaks to men building up and encouragement and consolation” (Gk.). This verse does not say that he who prophesies foretells or predicts. Building up, encouragement, and consolation are not foretelling. Building up concerns the Body of Christ, encouragement concerns our goal, which is the building up of the Body of Christ, and consolation concerns our personal welfare related to our goal. Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 14 refers to these three things rather than foretelling.
Verses 24 and 25a say, “But if all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all; the secrets of his heart become manifest.” This verse does not say that when all prophesy, the unbeliever or unlearned person receives foretelling. Prophesying causes people to be convicted and judged and makes the secrets of their hearts manifest. Prophesying in this way is for the building up of the Body of Christ (vv. 12, 26).
In 1963 certain Pentecostal saints in Los Angeles announced that there would be a great earthquake and that the whole city would fall into the ocean. However, this never happened. The same kind of prophecy was made the next year in San Francisco. This is not to prophesy in the biblical way. The Old Testament book of Isaiah is a book of prophecy, but there is not much foretelling in that book. Rather, the sixty-six chapters of Isaiah are full of the speaking for God and the speaking forth of God to us. Even those prophecies which are foretelling convey much speaking for God. Isaiah 7:14 says, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” This is a foretelling, but it speaks forth something of God to us. The proper prophesying, even in the sense of foretelling, speaks something concerning God into our being.
To prophesy is to speak God as the very nourishing element into others. Isaiah 7:14 is a foretelling spoken about seven hundred years before Christ. Yet still today, the more we pray-read it, the more we are nourished. We may pray, “Lord Jesus, thank You. You are my God, yet You became a child in the womb of the virgin. After You were born, people called You Immanuel, God with us!” When we read this verse again and again, we may not have much thought of the foretelling, but we are nourished. This nourishment is God’s dispensing into us. When we read the Bible not merely with our mind for our understanding but by pray-reading, every word becomes life dispensed into our spirit that we may receive the rich nourishment. As a result of this dispensing, we grow, and this growth is the addition of the Triune God to the Body of Christ. In its initial stage, the Body of Christ may be like a small baby, but after much nourishing, the Body will grow with the addition of God. This dispensing for nourishment takes place by prophesying.