Edification, Exhortation, Comfort

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1 Corinthians 14:3
But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

We've been talking quite a bit about the prophetic word, and I have felt pressed to voice a concern. I'm sure many of us have come into prophecy with words of comfort and encouragement, hoping to really provide a vessel for impact through our faith, which is a good thing. The gift of God is good, and we should seek to use it, but a wise man once said that "Every act of obedience is an act unto death (death of the self-soul-life)."

I would like to expand our view of prophecy.

Edification:

1. (the act of) building, building up
2. metaph. edifying, edification
   1. the act of one who promotes another's growth in Christian wisdom, piety, happiness, holiness
3. a building (i.e. the thing built, edifice)

We are God's building, and the enlargement of our heart-abode to accomodate God can be a painful and trying experience. To "build the heart" with prophecy is a many shaded beast, and it may be, but certainly will not always be, a comfortable experience. If you research both comfort and exhortation, they have very similar meanings, both regarding teaching and declaring a stirring exposition, but if you read 1 Cor 14, you will see the premise of the whole chapter is more one of edification: don't speak in tongues unless it edifies; prophesy to edify; seek to excell in the edification of the church. Comfort is not the focus; in fact the greek word for comfort is much the same as the greek for exhortation. Prophecy has largely left behind the faith and holiness (consecrative) demands of prophetic power, and has been satisfied with "easy" words of "comfortable love." The Spirit speaking will always work to move a people, it will always cry (wail, bemoan, yearn) to move hearts, to change them. It will not simply speak an unneeded word of comfort to a church; he will bind wounds, but if there are no wounds, the word adds to a hindering fatness and debiliatating satisfaction: it becomes a blinding richness (?) of spirit like Laodicea, because when you are poor, then you are rich. It becomes a heart-hardening excess.




Let us look at Acts 13, where members of the body, Paul and Barnabas, are directed by the Holy Spirit prophetically, and again in Acts 21 where Agabus delivers a prophetic revelation:

Acts 13:2, 4
2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 4 So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.

Acts 21:10, 11, 13
10 And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. 11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. 13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.


These words are edifying and comforting, in that they confirm and reveal the abiding Presence, direction, and favour of God. They are not "comfortable" words. This Voice will never once make a call to convenience. When the responsive act of the servant comes it will be an act unto death (soulically or physically), just as it was for Paul in both cases. The same is true of prophetic discourse for internal edification. We must accept and grow in what is good, and what is proved to be of God, and it will demand a yielding of our heart to the Living Word. The Word will move and enlarge, it will slice and discern, but the cry of our delivering/recipient hearts should always be "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His sufferings," and that we are ready not only to be bound, but to die for the One that did for us. Amen.

May God show us the true comfort of prophetic ministry.

 

[enoch son]

"COME UNTO TO ME SON OF MAN AND SPEAK WHAT YOU SEE". I see gold my Lord under my feet the whole floor is gold. "AND WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU SON OF MAN". It means nothing to me my Lord for it is not worth one moment of Your passing by my Lord. "WELL SAID MY SON , NOW GO AND TELL THE PEOPLE THAT A PURITY IS COMING UPON THE HEARTS OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE."