1 Corinthians 14:26. Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize what I am saying. When you meet, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in an unknown language, while another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must be useful to all and build them up in the Lord. NLT
Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
1 Corinthians 14:31-32. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted….

If these Scriptures don’t describe typical meetings that you or I are attending today it should come as no surprise. Central within almost all church communities today is a leader or leaders to whom others must defer and submit.  This seems to be an essential feature even of meetings conducted in private homes.

The Corinthian believers to whom Paul was writing included many who had come from very loose and unruly backgrounds; see 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Yet Paul could describe their meetings as permitting and enjoying great freedom in the Spirit. At first sight does that not seem to have been risky? Where was the safeguard against those who were not speaking under the anointing of the Holy Spirit?

In 1 Corinthians 14:29 we read, ‘Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment’. Paul was advising the members of the church in Corinth that each one who exercises a prophetic gift should be allowed to speak and that those who are listening to their message should listen to what is said so that the content may be approved. Others might then add to it or, if necessary, correct it.

What then was the basis of Paul’s confidence that the members of this assembly would function in the freedom of the Spirit? He had absolute trust that, if they followed his teaching and instruction, the Lord Jesus would be the unseen yet focused upon leader in their midst. ‘But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit’. 2 Corinthians 3:18.

When we come to understand that we meet, not simply to be receivers of spiritual knowledge from those with special training and experience but rather to be dispensers of the divine life to our fellow members, then our meetings together will become a glorious and transforming experience.

In Colossians 3:16 Paul describes the active role of all who are members one of another within the body of Christ. He assumes that the believers will diligently acquire knowledge and experiences of Jesus in their daily life so that each one may, in the wisdom given by the Spirit, teach, exhort, provide a revelation, prophesy or admonish the other members present. What qualifies them to do so will not be some proscribed course of training but simply letting the word of Christ richly find its home within them.

If the Lord Jesus was visible in our midst would not all present be sat around His feet learning from Him? He would be the one speaking to us or questioning and seeking answers from us. When He ascended to the Father He sent the promised Holy Spirit to live personally within every believer that through each one He might speak and be displayed before the others. Just as in the time of the early church Jesus by the Holy Spirit has no other way to speak or act today than through His willing and devoted disciples.

The church, the testimony of Jesus on earth, will be impoverished if we, the members of it, do not individually and corporately  apply ourselves daily to living our faith in the presence of the Lord Jesus and in diligently applying ourselves to the study of the Scriptures. May we learn to gather something of the Spirit in our daily life and walk so that when we meet together each one may have an offering of His grace and wisdom, delivered in the power of the Spirit, to give to the others with whom we are met. ‘For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted….’

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