THIS IS PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES ON THE GIFT OF PROPHECY
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Simply put, to turn to God is to hear God, and to hear God is to love God and to love God is to love his people.
The crux of prophetic ministry is not practice, repetition, or volume. It is not even having a great gift. Paul does not advocate for the practice of prophecy to grow in the spiritual life, but rather, the practice of love.
The Desert Fathers understood this emphatically. Basil the Great taught that the reason a person is gifted is not for their sake, but for the sake of their community. The gift to Basil was not something you possess, but rather something that possesses you in order to prove your fruitfulness to the people God has called you to.
“‘To one, indeed, is given the word of wisdom; and to another, the word of knowledge; to another, faith, to another, prophecy, to another, the grace of healing,’ (1 Cor 12:8,9) and so on. He who receives any of these gifts does not possess it for his own sake but rather for the sake of others, so that, in the life passed in community, the operation of the Holy Spirit in the individual is at the same time necessarily transmitted to all. ”
The gift is quite literally given in order that the Holy Spirit would touch all around the gifted one. According to this great father of the church, the gift is not given for the benefit of the giver. It is not given to build a great ministry, establish great authority, or influence a multitude of people.
It is given that the others would see the heart of God.
Furthermore, the life of love was seen as intrinsic to spiritual giftedness. Throughout history, there have been many examples of those that appeared to be gifted, impacted many people, and then later, having fallen away, result hurt many more people than they helped. The wake of destruction left by gifted, yet hard and calloused people has left much devastation.
“From history, we see that many have performed astonishing miracles, have raised the dead, and have labored to return those who are erring to the straight path and the true Faith; they worked great miracles and by their efforts led many to knowledge of God. Later, however, those who gave life to others fell into base passions and put themselves to death; and they scandalized many when (from their daily behavior) their actions became known.”
Isaac goes on to say:
“This happened because they took no care for the health of their own souls, which were sick, but instead cast themselves into the sea of the world in order to heal the souls of others, while they themselves were still ailing. And they were lost, since they did not have in their souls strong hope in God, in the aforementioned way.”
If we considered the characteristics of love as primary when it came to the ministration of spiritual gifts, we may have avoided many unnecessary scandals. It is almost as if Paul pre-conceived how people would warp the use of these workings for their own end. Perhaps it was his foresight that placed an emphasis on the character of love.
However, there are deeper implications we shall explore. Consider the previous verses on love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8b).
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
These are not merely the characteristics of love, they are the effect of love on the inner man. Just as love is patient and kind, love works patience and kindness. Notice that Paul does not say that he is patient, he says that love is patient. We could spend time reflecting here on how spiritual disciples do not inherently make us more patient, rather, they create space for us to receive love which in turn works patience. But that will be a topic for another time.
We see these characteristics clearly in the one who declared the heart of God. The one who was the image of love and full of the Spirit. We see them clear as day in Jesus:
Love suffers
- Jesus on the cross (Matthew 27)
Love is kind
- Jesus to the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43)
Love does not envy
- Greater things will you do (John 14:12)
Love not parade itself
- He came in on a donkey (John 12:12-15)
Love is not puffed up
- My heart is meek and lowly (Matthew 11:29)
Love does not behave rudely
- Struck in front of the high priest and does not respond (John 18:22)
Love...
- The Son did not come to be served (Matthew 16:1; 19:3)
Love thinks no evil
- Tempted yet knew no sin (Hebrews 4:15)
Love does not rejoice in inquitiy
- Did not come to condemn but to save (John 3:17)
Love rejoices in the truth
- Full of grace and truth (John 1:14)
Love bears all things
- Smitten for us, bore our sin (Isaiah 53:4-5)
Love believes all things
- Full of grace and truth (John 1:14)
Love hopes all things
- Into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46)
Love endures all things
- Suffering in the garden (Mark 14:22-39)
Love never fails
- It is finished (John 19:30)
This love is the very image that is presented to us in scripture, the image of the invisible God as demonstrated in the life of Christ. It is the inner working of the personhood of God. In Christ, we see the marriage of great giftedness with great love. This is so vitally important: the nature of the spiritual life and the manifestation gifts are not about you. The life of love is lived not in the interest of self, but in the interest of God and his creation.
This path of love is not so much the path of giftedness as it is the very essence of what it means to be a gift to others.
And there is still one more thing to cover so be sure to check out our next blog post.
Many times throughout the Old Testament we see prophetic words bringing significant blessing and prosperity. Take for instance the prophetic ministry of Haggai and Zechariah:
Ezra 6:14 So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built…