Daily Inspirations

  Good morning. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. Wow Paul. If you were not fit to be called an apostle, who was? It shows that no matter how low you go, God can still receive glory through you. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. It didn’t have to be the original apostles who preached to them. In fact, it did not have to be an apostle at all. Someone preached to them, and they believed. From Paul’s long logical argument that follows, apparently some were proclaiming that when Christians die that was it - there was no resurrection from the dead. Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of...

  Good morning. Now back to Paul’s description of what is meant by the Gospel: for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. After that He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. The gospel (good news) is: First, He died for our sins. We don’t have to do anything else other than to believe and receive it. That was especially good news for the Jews because they believed they had to do all the sacrifices and to “earn” their salvation. Second, He was buried for three days and nights. He didn’t just pass out and later revived. He was “most sincerely dead“. Third, He did not stay in the gr...

 Good morning. Paul then talks about women keeping silent in church 😇 . Of course that does not mean to not participate in a service verbally. In Acts it talks about Philip the evangelist having seven daughters who were prophetesses. Probably the key to this is when he says, if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. He concludes the chapter by saying “therefore, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner”. Now I make known to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So he is getting ready to tell us what the gospel (good news) is. Just because someone hears the gospel, does not mean that he or she receives it - remember the different types of soil upon which the seed was sown. He says that you are saved by it, ...

  Good morning. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted. It does not say that all can be prophets, but that all may prophesy. If he’s talking about in one service, and I’m not sure that he is, that would definitely disprove the belief about only two or three prophesies occurring in a service (personally I believe that there should not be more than that to the entire body in a service; however, there could be more than that to individuals that are in the service). And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Note again that he says prophets, and not ones who prophesy; however, it is also true of those who prophesy. In either case the individuals should be in total control - you are not compelled beyond your will  to speak. There have been many times that I have “eaten a prophesy“ because it would disrupt the service. Father help the reader to ...

  Good morning. Back to the “let two or three prophets speak“: but if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. Now if it were talking about them prophesying, we would have the following scenario: One of them would be standing up saying something like this, “Thus saith the Lord…“ Right in the middle of him/her prophesying, another prophet would stand up, interrupting the prophecy because he/she had been given a revelation. That would be total chaos like Paul has been speaking against in a church service. I can think of a couple of other possibilities. The prophet is giving a “three point sermon“, while the other prophets are passing judgment on his/her message. (We forget that everything was new to them. They did not have the New Testament. They were getting OJT). In the middle of the message (some of which may be just the person’s opinion), God reveals something about the topic to another prophet seated which needs to be shared with the people....

  Good morning. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. This has been used to say that like the “messages in tongues“ you should have at most two or three prophecies in the service. There are a couple of things to note. First of all, it says prophets. Just because you give a prophecy, does not mean that you are a prophet. You are just operating in that gift. If I remember correctly, Kenneth Hagan used to say that to be a prophet you had to operate in two or three other gifts of the Spirit also. I personally do not know what differentiates between someone who regularly operates in the gift of prophecy and one who is a prophet. What I do know is that like I’ve said before, too many people are going around proclaiming that they are a prophet. The second thing is that it says to let them speak; it does not say to let them prophesy. They are two different Greek words. In the book of Acts it talks about Judas and Silas, also being prophets encouraged and streng...

 Good morning. If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn and one must interpret; but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God. Not long after I began participating in a Friday night Bible study, which later turned into that house church l spoke of before, I began giving the tongues part of “tongues with interpretation” (we call it a “message in tongues”, but that term does not occur in the Bible, merely tongues). I had no teaching or training on how to do it. My heart would begin racing for no apparent reason, and I would get the impression to speak out loud in tongues; so I just “let her fly“. For me the next step was not interpretation of tongues but prophecy. I did not give an interpretation of tongues until years later after I moved here. Notice that it says by two or at the most three, and not at the same time, which would produce confusion. One reason would be that the...