Word Gifts
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PROPHESYING: TO BUILD UP, TO INVITE AND TO COMFORT The Gift of Prophesying is speaking God’s heart under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The scripture says that to prophesy is to build up/confirm, invite/entreat, and comfort/encourage. That is a simple and exact definition.
1 Cor 14:3 NKJV But he who prophesies speaks edification {3619} and exhortation {3874} and comfort {3889} to men. TO BUILD UP – Edify According to the Greek, to build up is raising a structure that is built through confirmation. For those of you who are confirmed in your walk in the Lord through reading the Words the Lord gives me, it means that you are being built up or edified. It means that He is building His abiding house inside of you, where you will dwell together in peace and maturity. It also means that together, He is also bringing us together to build up His corporate heavenly house. TO EDIFY – Greek oikodome NT:3619 oikodome (oy-kod-om-ay’); feminine (abstract) of a compound of NT:3624 and the base ofNT:1430; architecture, i.e. (concretely) a structure; figuratively, confirmation KJV – building, edify (-ication, -ing). NT:1430 NT:1430 doma (do’-mah); from demo (to build); properly, an edifice, i.e. (specially) a roof KJV – housetop.
Other scriptures using the same Greek word, “To Edify”
Matt 24:1 Mark 13:1 Mark 13:2 Rom 14:19 Rom 15:2 1 Cor 3:9 1 Cor 14:3 1 Cor 14:5 1 Cor 14:12 1 Cor14:26 2 Cor 5:1 2 Cor 10:8 2 Cor 12:19 2 Cor 13:10 Eph 2:21 Eph 4:12 Eph 4:16 Eph 4:29
Prophesying with the goal to edify is to build up people’s faith, their inner man, their character, their understanding, their identity in Christ. Prophesying through edification is building the body of Christ into the image of Jesus. Eph 4:12-13 AMP His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ’s body (the church), [That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ’s own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
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TO EXHORT – To implore, bring solace, invite, entreat
In the Greek, prophesying through exhortation means to implore and it comes from a root word meaning to call for or invite, perhaps even pray as in pleading.
TO EXHORT – Greek paraklesis NT:3874 paraklesis (par-ak’-lay-sis); from NT:3870; imploration, hortation, solace KJV – comfort, consolation, exhortation, intreaty. NT:3870 NT:3870 parakaleo (par-ak-al-eh’-o); from NT:3844 and NT:2564; to call near, i.e. invite, invoke (byimploration, hortation or consolation) KJV – beseech, call for, (be of good) comfort, desire, (give) exhort (-ation), intreat, pray. NT:2564 NT:2564 kaleo (kal-eh’-o); akin to the base of NT:2753; to “call” (properly, aloud, but used in a variety ofapplications, dir. or otherwise) KJV – bid, call (forth), (whose, whose sur-) name (was [called]).
Other scriptures using the same Greek word, “To Exhort.”
Luke 2:25 Luke 6:24 Acts 4:36 Acts 9:31 Acts 13:15 Acts 15:31 Rom 12:8 Rom 15:4 Rom 15:5 1 Cor14:3 2 Cor 1:3 2 Cor 1:4 2 Cor 1:5 2 Cor 1:6 2 Cor 1:6 2 Cor 1:7 2 Cor 7:4 2 Cor 7:7 2 Cor 7:13 2Cor 8:4 2 Cor 8:17 Phil 2:1 1 Thess 2:3 2 Thess 2:16 1 Tim 4:13 Philem 7 Heb 6:18 Heb 12:5 Heb13:22
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The gift of exhortation is the ability to inspire someone to move forward from the past. It can touch a heart to begin again and move into action. It gives hope and encouragement to see beyond the difficulties and onto a brighter future.
I know a special lady who has a vivacious personality, and loves to talk to people. Throughout the years she’s had a “ministry” to people who are sick. Visiting often, calling and sending cheer, she has been a real uplift to many people. Whether she has ever thought of it as a ministry, I do not know. My guess is that she just considers it a part of her own personality and natural life. But it is obvious that her gift of cheer is God-given and is a wonderful uplift.
For some, this gift needs the balance of patience. An exhorter has the ability to foresee the desired result and is greatly motivated towards helping one obtain it. His zeal is so fervent he needs patience to slow down to the pace of the downhearted one. Someone having this wonderful gift to encourage and motivate others may often seem insensitive to the pain of the moment, being misconstrued as a lack of compassion. Yet, the Holy Spirit has so touched the one who has the gift to exhort, there is great motivation to do something about it.
The gift of prophesying through exhortation within Jesus’ body is His heart, saying, “I believe in you.” Next time someone reaches out with a smiling touch of words, listen for the Lord’s great zealous heart to motivate you away from the “mully-grubs.” Understand that He waits to see your tear sparkled eye look up and say, “OK Lord, I dare to try again.”
1 Thess 4:1-2 NKJV
Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
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TO COMFORT – To encourage, comfort and console.
To comfort is to give encouragement, consolation, and draw near to in comfort.
TO COMFORT- Greek
paramuthia
NT:3889 paramuthia (par-am-oo-thee’-ah); from NT:3888; consolation (properly, abstract)
KJV – comfort.
NT:3888
NT:3888 paramutheomai (par-am-oo-theh’-om-ahee); from NT:3844 and the middle voice of a derivativeof NT:3454; to relate near, i.e. (by implication) encourage, console
KJV – comfort.
Other Scriptures using the same Greek word, “To Comfort”
Luke 2:25 Luke 6:24 Acts 4:36 Acts 9:31 Acts 13:15 Acts 15:31 Rom 12:8 Rom 15:4 Rom 15:5 1 Cor14:3 2 Cor 1:3 2 Cor 1:4 2 Cor 1:5 2 Cor 1:6 2 Cor 1:6 2 Cor 1:7 2 Cor 7:4 2 Cor 7:7 2 Cor 7:13 2Cor 8:4 2 Cor 8:17 Phil 2:1 1 Thess 2:3 2 Thess 2:16 1 Tim 4:13 Philem 7 Heb 6:18 Heb 12:5 Heb13:22
| English synonyms for the word Comfort: To console, solace, pacify, calm, compose, tranquilize, give respite, relieve, ease, alleviate, soften, lighten one’s burden, hearten, disburden, support, sustain, bear up, cheer, gladden, divert, warm, nourish, refresh, receive, soothe, compose, reassure, warmth. |
Our God is comforting. He speaks ease and consolation to our pain. When we prophesy God’s comfort, we are speaking His Words that console, calm, reassure, soothe, support and lift up those who are suffering.
“As whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.” (Isaiah 66:13 NKJV)
THE GIFT OF SPEAKING IN TONGUES
Do you pray in tongues? When the Lord fills your mouth to pray, it can be in your language or in other languages of men and angels. You might start with the first few words that pop into your mind, but once you start, the flood gates open and words begin to pour out. You pray mysteries, but you pray according to God’s will.
Rom 8:26-27 NKJV
Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
WHAT DOES SPEAKING IN TONGUES ACCOMPLISH?
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Constructs and confirms the house of God within you (Edify; 1 Cor 14:4)
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Releases the dynamite power of God within you
(Power; Acts 1:8)
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Submerges you as though fully wet and covered in the spiritual liquid of His Presence (Baptize; Matt 3:11)
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Puts lightning upon your head (Fire; Matt 3:11)
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Hugs and embraces you with His Presence (Fell; Acts 11:15)
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Pours out upon you as a gift (Poured out & Gift; Acts 10:45)
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Intercedes, prays for you (Comforter; John 14:26)
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Gives you boldness (Boldness; Acts 4:31)
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Supplies & furnishes what you need (Filled; Acts 2:4)
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Teaches you and causes you to learn (Teach; John 14:26)
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Recalls to memory (Remembrance; John 14:26)
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Speaks a secret or mystery in the spirit (Mystery; I Cor 14:2)
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Follows as a sign (Sign; Mark 16:17-18)
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Is a sign to unbelievers (Sign; 1Cor 14:21-22)
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Protects from satan (Snakes and Not hurt; Mark 16:17-18)
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Builds faith (Building Faith; Jude 20-21)
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Petitions for the saints (Supplication; Eph 6:18)
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
When people receive the gift of speaking in tongues, not everyone receives in the same way. For myself, I went to kids camp in my teens and was prayed over to receive what they called the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5) I was supposed to feel the Holy Spirit come upon me, then speak in tongues. I felt nothing when they prayed. I was expecting some bolt of lightening to come down from the sky and hit me in a whoosh of the Holy Spirit. But they simply prayed, and I simply thanked Jesus like they told me to do.
However, an hour later as I lay in my bunk bed, little foreign sounding syllables popped into my mind. So, I spoke them with my head under the pillow. It was one sentence. My counselor told me that could happen, and to be faithful to practice my new language and it would grow. So that is what I did. I spoke my one sentence faithfully for about a year! To this day, I still remember that sentence.
Then one day I was driving to school singing a popular love song along with the radio, and the second verse was sung in French. So I started singing my own pretend “French” to the words. By the end of the song, I had a complete and wonderful language, only I didn’t know it! However, every time I sang that song I would sing it in my “pretend language” even when they were singing in English. It sounded so beautiful I didn’t want to sing it in English. Then one day I started singing other popular love songs of the day in the same way. Then the realization hit me, I was doing what the Bible called “singing in the Spirit”! (1 Corinthians 14:15) “Wow! Is this finally the expansion of my new language?” So I stopped singing and just spoke it. Sure enough, there was a full blown language!
Now, not everyone will struggle as hard as I did. The reason it took me so long was because of doctrinal currents against me. I was told speaking in tongues was of the devil and that the occult speaks in tongues. It didn’t seem to connect with me that Paul in the Bible spoke in tongues all the time. (1 Corinthians 14:18) The only reason I had the courage to receive it, was because of the loving counsel of a dear lady who shined with the love of God. I felt that if she could love me like that, and she spoke in tongues, then she certainly wasn’t of the devil. Simply put, I knew the devil couldn’t love and she was no devil.
Since that time long ago, now that I am fluent in the spiritual gifts, I have come to realize that the devil can not create. Only God can create. The devil only mimics, only copies the real thing. So of course the occult speaks in tongues, that’s because God created the real speaking in tongues!
I have received a couple of wonderful confirmations about speaking in tongues. One time I was praying in tongues and in English over people I’d met on the Internet and I saw a picture-vision of a flat bed truck driven by 2 angels. On the flat bed truck were a whole bunch of packages, each wrapped and looking exactly like the size of bricks. The Lord told me I was dispatching supplies. So I asked Him what those bricks were. He said, “Each individual prayer.” Then a few days later I listened to a tape where a man was given a vision that every time he spoke in tongues, he saw packages the size of bricks come down from heaven that were deposited inside of him. When they were deposited, he felt a strengthening of his inner man. He was praying supplies for himself. So, not only did the Lord confirm that my praying in tongues was praying in supplies to others, but at the same time, I was praying in supplies for myself.
I have an interesting story about praying in supplies for others. Remember that one little sentence I mentioned when I first received tongues? When I shared it with Anna, my Mom, who also had been indoctrinated against tongues, she said it sounded like Spanish and looked it up in her Spanish dictionary. She was so surprised at the meaning, she also sought and received the Baptism of the Spirit.
Twenty-five years after that, having completely forgotten its meaning, Anna happened to ask me if I still remembered my one little sentence. I spoke what I remembered and she again looked up the words in her old Spanish dictionary, and this is what she found; my sentence was translated, “Door of a port hole released. They eat with Daddy.” This was my commission from the beginning. I didn’t know I was repeating a request thousands upon thousands of times. I was bombarding heaven and didn’t even know it! I believe part of that fulfillment is the opened doors to a website ministry and also a writing ministry. It is a good lesson in the importance of tongues.
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THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT AND SPEAKING IN TONGUES
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH INTERPRETATION OF
TONGUES
The gift of interpretation of tongues gives under-standing to an unknown language. This under-standing is not necessarily a word for word translation. Interpretation edifies those who hears.
1 Cor 14:5 NKJV
I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
1 Cor 14:13-15 NKJV
Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.
1 Cor 14:26-28 NKJV
How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret.
The scripture says tongues is the language of men as well as angels. I have heard testimonies of people who have spoken in an unlearned language and those in the audience have recognized the language. A friend told me a story where a preacher in a foreign country just started speaking in tongues from the platform. Many wonderful conversions took place because even though he was just speaking in tongues to the Lord, they understood what he said. I have another friend who went to Africa and preached in tongues. Members of his worship and ministry teams understood the whole sermon in English. All were amazed.
I have been in prayer rooms where people are speaking in tongues and I can hear a phrase or two of what they spoke, through God’s still small voice in English. It happens simultaneously with one voice superimposed over the other.
At other times, the language may be one of angels and no one would recognize it unless through an interpretation.
1 Cor 13:1 NKJV
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels…
One time in a vision I saw a deliverance angel who was massive. He picked me up and moved me to a safe place. As he was picking me up, I heard him speak in his own angelic language. I could hear his deep, profound voice in his own tongue, but superimposed over his voice, I heard him speak the same words to me in English.
