What is the gift of prophecy?

There seems to be a renewed interest in the more “supernatural” spiritual gifts among evangelicals. Mark Driscoll, who calls himself a “charismatic with a seat-belt”, is no doubt a contributing factor. I have recently posted about healing, miraculous gifts and speaking in tongues. What remains is prophecy.

Prophecy in the Old Testament

Deuteronomy 18:18 describes the role of a prophet like this: “will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

Good news is better than good advice

There is a VAST difference between good advice and good news.
When the company you’ve invested in goes bankrupt and their share price starts falling, it is good advice to sell your shares as soon as possible. When your mechanic phones you and says your car is starting to give up its ghost and things are starting to go horribly wrong, its good advice to sell your car. When the school phones you to say that your teenage son has been bunking again and been caught smoking at the local mall, its good advice for your son to mentally prepare himself for a good dose of discipline. Good advice, you see, is often the result of bad news.

Should every Christian speak in tongues? (Part 2)

I argued in my previous post that the speaking tongues in Acts was not the norm for all Christians, but the very specific and unique plan of God to demonstrate that there was to be only one church. Not a separate Gentile Church. Not a separate Samaritan church. One church made up of converted Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all these groups demonstrated by the speaking of foreign languages (like at Pentecost, Acts 2) was evidence of this.

Should every Christian speak in tongues? (Part 1)

Many Pentecostal traditions teach that speaking in tongues is the definitive sign of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. This baptism or filling of the Spirit happens sometime after your conversion and is known as the “Second Blessing”. Every Spirit-filled believer, they would argue, should therefore speak in tongues. 

How do we give the devil a foothold?

Ephesians 4:26-27 says, ‘“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.’

The Devil
The word “devil” only occurs again in this letter in 6:11 in the context of spiritual warfare against the “powers”. Paul, the author of Ephesians, believed that the “powers” were closely associated with the “devil”. Although the believers had been raised with Christ and seated in the heavenlies (2:6) they were still engaged in a struggle with the “powers” (6:12). 4:26-27 provides an example of one of the devil’s strategies (6:11) and how this warfare was to be fought against by believers.

Why Sundays are special

Eric Liddell, Scotland’s fastest athlete at the time and a Christian, refused to run in a heat in the 1924 Paris Olympics held on a Sunday and was forced to withdraw from the 100-metres race, his best event. The schedule had been published several months earlier, and his decision was made well before the Games. The Scottish media crucified him for being unpatriotic and narrow-minded.

Eric went on to compete in the 400m. He knew his chances of winning the 400-meter race were small because two of the runners in this race had set world record times. On the day of the race Eric was assigned the outside lane, the worst lane. However, one of the American team trainers had slipped Eric a piece of paper with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30: “Those who honor me I will honor.”

One of my favourite words in the Bible

In a little village in Germany in 1483 Martin Luther was born. Martin Luther was, under God, the instigator and one of the biggest drivers of the protestant reformation in Europe - with its subsequent break from the Roman Catholic Church. By the 15th Century Roman Catholicism was dominant religion in Europe. After school Luther went on to university and studied law. He decided to become a monk in one of the strictest orders in the Catholic Church. Priests taught Luther and the general public that one could save yourself by prayer, fasting and penance. The result being that Luther’s teachers were wearied by constant prayers, fasting and penance! Luther later wrote: “If ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery, it was I”. Yet he faced a long spiritual crisis, anxiously anguishing over how sinful man can come to a holy God. Luther finally experienced great joy and his eyes were opened to understand a radical, biblical truth. He wrote later, “I felt myself to be reborn, and to have gone through open doors to paradise.” What happened? What truth did he grasp?