Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives — especially the ability to prophesy.
1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT
I think the Church should behave like a loving family that gathers daily in peer mentoring groups.
Love, honor, respect, grace, peace, joy, generosity and good works should exemplify our interactions with one another.
Typically, people think the Church is part of the Evangelical Industrial Complex, a major economic engine in the global economy.
But what does the Bible teach? When the Church was birthed in Acts by the corporate baptism of the Holy Spirit, things looked and sounded a lot different than things do now.
Which is the correct model? Which pleases God? Which enslaves man once again to religious bondage too heavy to bear?
God’s family is a family that loves one another.
A business is run by employees who are paid money to fill a position in a consumer funded organization recognized by the government.
Which sounds more like what Our Lord modelled?
Did He tell his disciples to stay here and build a clubhouse and never do anything useful? Or did He say go and make disciples?
How much of what we’re doing is just blind obedience to the traditions of men versus doing what the Holy Spirit is telling us to do?
Are we following Jesus or watching our budgets?
Paul’s letters to the Corinthian believers provides a framework for gatherings that works infinitely better than the typical North American business model church.
Let’s get back to basics and do what God tells us to. Abandon dead works. Let the dead bury the dead.
Father in Heaven, let everything be done properly and in order according to Your will. Forgive us for yielding to the influence of the world. Remove the stains of worldliness off of Your Church, the people purchased by the Blood of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you.
No more than two or three should speak in tongues. They must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.
Let two or three people prophesy, and let the others evaluate what is said. But if someone is prophesying and another person receives a revelation from the Lord, the one who is speaking must stop. In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged. Remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit and can take turns. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people.
1 Corinthians 14:26-33 NLT
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