Now we must go on to see the exercise of the gifts. The Pentecostal people always insist to have the exercise of gifts in the meetings. When they come into our meetings, the first thing they look for is whether there is the speaking of tongues with interpretation or not. They also look for the so-called prophesying. If there are not these kinds of things in the meeting, they say there is no exercise of gifts. But this is not true! Today in the churches we have more exercise of the gifts. What they mean is just tongue speaking, interpretation, and prophesying. But in our meeting we have more exercise of the gifts than they do.
In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, the first gift is not speaking in tongues, but the word of wisdom. For so many years, the word of wisdom has been in the meetings of the churches. The next gift is the word of knowledge. Have you ever heard the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge as you have in the church meetings? This is not boasting. This is just the fact. Are these not the exercise of the gifts? The third gift in this passage is faith, and the fourth is healing. The fifth is miracles, the sixth is prophesying, and the seventh is the discerning of spirits. Then the last two at the end are speaking in tongues and interpretation. There are nine gifts in this passage. The foremost are the words of wisdom and of knowledge. This is what we exercise all the time in our meetings. We exercise the top gifts.
People used to talk about the so-called nine manifestations of the Spirit as we have just mentioned. But the manifestations of the Spirit are not just these nine. Even in 1 Corinthians 12:28 there are another two. In this verse, “helps” and “governments” are also listed as gifts. There are more. In Acts, chapter two, visions and dreams are mentioned, which are also not mentioned with the nine. So we should never say that there are only nine manifestations of the Spirit. There are more! The record of the New Testament is very economical. Just because it mentions nine in one place does not mean that that is all.
Today in Christianity there are many traditional teachings. People teach in a traditional way, and people also understand in a traditional way. I have pointed out these other items of the manifestation of the Spirit to prove that the so-called nine manifestations of the Spirit are just traditional. Therefore, we should not go along with the traditional teaching, but rather come back to the pure Word.
Let us now consider the matter of speaking in tongues in the meetings. After reading all the above verses, does the Apostle Paul encourage people to speak in tongues in the meetings or discourage them? If we are fair and honest, we must admit that he is writing to discourage them. But the tongue-speaking people like to quote Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:5, “I would that ye all speak with tongues.” But they leave out the rest of the verse, “But rather that ye prophesy.” It is clear in this passage that what is needed for the building up of the church is not the tongue speaking, but the prophesying.
Concerning the matter of prophesying, I do believe we need some proper understanding. In the Bible the word “prophesy” has three meanings. The first meaning is to tell for. In this meaning, to prophesy is to tell something to people for God. Isaiah is a long book of sixty-six chapters, but not all are predictions. Isaiah told the people of Israel many things for God. The second meaning of prophesying in the Bible is to tell forth or to declare. Many times the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament writers did this. The third meaning is to foretell. This is to predict or to tell beforehand. All the Epistles of the Apostle Paul are prophesying. He tells things to people for Christ, he tells forth, proclaims, and declares the things of Christ to people, and he also foretells some things, such as the matters of the Lord’s second coming.
However, the Pentecostal brothers do not care for the first two meanings. They say that to prophesy is only to foretell, and they have their way to do it like the Old Testament prophets. I have heard these predictions both in this country and in China. In both countries this kind of foretelling is in the same tone and in the same terminology. Eventually I discovered that they were trained to prophesy in this way. However, very few of their predictions come to pass. I could give you many stories of predictions of earthquakes and other phenomena that never came to pass. If you would spend time to attend their meetings and listen to all their predictions, you would see that there is nearly no fulfillment.
We should not care for this kind of traditional thing. To prophesy in 1 Corinthians 14 does not mean this. It means to say something for Christ. If prophesying here is a kind of miraculous prediction, how could everyone do it? Paul tells us in this chapter that if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, people will say you are mad. But if all prophesy, people will be convinced and convicted. Then he says, “For ye can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted” (1 Cor. 14:31).
Now we understand the real meaning of prophesy. It means to speak forth something about Christ. Praise the Lord, we all can do it! Everyone can say something for Christ, and if everyone does, the meeting will be in the heavens. We have been much influenced in a negative way by our traditional background. We simply do not know how to exercise our spirit to say something for the Lord. We thought that to exercise the gifts meant to speak in tongues or to prophesy by saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” We must drop all of these strange traditions. We must come back to the pure Word and exercise our spirit to learn how to say something for the Lord Jesus. We can all prophesy, for the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. We do not have to wait for an inspiration. The Lord has given us the inspiration already! When we come to the meetings, we should never forget that the Lord Jesus is in our spirit. Then we should simply exercise our spirit, and forget our troublesome mind and our self-consciousness. Then we will speak forth something for the Lord. Many riches of Christ have been buried in the saints and need to be released. Let us come back to the pure Word and drop everything else.
At the end of 1 Corinthians 12, Paul tells us to seek the greater gifts, yet he would show us a most excellent way. What is the most excellent way? It is the way of life. Everyone knows that 1 Corinthians 13 speaks about love, but love is the expression of life. If we do not have love, it means that we do not have the expression of life. We are like sounding brass: there is a noise, but there is no life. Even if we speak a genuine tongue, not a human-manufactured one, that is not the expression of life. Paul says, “Love never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Cor. 13:8). Prophecy fails, tongues cease, and knowledge will vanish. Only life is eternal.
By the context of chapters 12—14, it is very clear what the childish things are (1 Cor. 13:11). In the eyes of the Apostle Paul, all of these superficial gifts are toys. Even if they are genuine, they are still childish. That is why he tells us to pursue after love in the first verse of chapter fourteen. This is in order to prophesy, because prophesying builds up the church (1 Cor. 14:5).
I believe that we are now clear about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the proper exercise of all the gifts. Praise the Lord that today in all the church meetings there is always the exercise of the top two gifts, the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. And there is the proper prophesying for the building up of the church.