As we have mentioned before, verse 3 says that to prophesy is to speak the building up of the Body of Christ, encouragement for the divine goal, and consolation for the saints. This is further evidence that in this chapter to prophesy is not to foretell. We have also seen that, according to verses 23 through 25, to prophesy is to convict and judge people, to convince them that they are sinful and have done something against God, and to make the secrets of their heart manifest.
We should study these terms related to prophesying. By his use of these terms, we can see that the Apostle Paul considered prophesying to be the consummation of all his teachings. Paul taught many things, but all his teachings consummate in his word that we can all speak for God, we can all prophesy one by one (v. 31). Paul wrote fourteen Epistles, and by God’s sovereignty they have been preserved for many centuries. They have now come into our hands and have been translated into our language. This was not simply so that we might be saved, edified, perfected, transformed, conformed, and eventually glorified. It was so that we would speak as Paul did, that is, that we would prophesy.
By the Lord’s mercy, I have been speaking in this country for over a quarter of a century. Many have been learning of me, and the goal of their learning is that they would speak what I am speaking. A professor’s teaching consummates in the students’ ability to teach as he does. I am teaching you what I have learned from Paul, and the goal, the consummation, of my teaching is that many would repeat the speaking of Paul which I am speaking. To prophesy, to make all the believers prophets, is the consummation of the teaching of the entire New Testament concerning the divine dispensing. In 1 Corinthians 14:31 Paul said, “For you can all prophesy one by one,” and in verses 23 through 25 he said, “If therefore the whole church comes together...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; and so falling on his face, he will worship God, reporting that God is really among you.” Paul desired that you and I would all speak for God, that is, that we would all prophesy.
With this in view, we must realize that the old, traditional way of meeting must be put aside. The apostle did not desire to see one person speaking and the rest listening. What the apostle desired was that each of the believers would be like him, that we would all prophesy in the way he did. He desired that his teaching would consummate in our prophesying.
If we are going to pursue, desire, obtain, and seek this excelling matter, we have to learn, and this learning involves two organs of our being. We must exercise our mind, and we must also exercise our spirit. Paul said, “I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray also with the mind” (v. 15b). He also said, “In the church I would rather speak five words with my mind that I might instruct others also” (v. 19). To prophesy requires a very good, sober mind, a mind that not only understands but also remembers what it understands. Often when young ones are sharing, they forget what they should say in their speaking. When they forget, they may say, “O Lord Jesus!” Whenever one does this, he indicates that his memory is weak. He forgot what he wanted to speak and got lost in his speaking, so he tries to cover his forgetting by calling on the Lord. After calling several times, he may give up because he simply cannot remember what he wanted to speak. We must learn to use our mind, training it to cooperate with our spirit.
We have to exercise our spirit because our spirit is where the divine oracle is, but this divine oracle needs our human cooperation. To exercise our mind is our human cooperation with God. If we exercise a sober mind and a very clear spirit, we will be qualified to learn to prophesy, that is, to speak for Christ, to speak forth Christ, and to speak Christ into people, to minister and dispense the Christ whom we enjoy into others. Prophesying in this way should be the main practice in the church meetings. It is by such prophesying that the organic Body of Christ can be built up organically.