Prophecy and the excluded middle

Sometimes’ a football team’s strategy is to hit the ball long, consistently bouncing it between defenders and strikers so that the midfielders become passive observers.  The middle of the pitch is excluded.  There are ways in which we can exclude the middle too.

There is a tendency I think for churches to think in terms of God speaking either through the expository teaching bit of a church service or through people having spontaneous utterings or prophetic words.  Some churches will major on the former to the exclusion of the latter and for some the reverse will be true.  However, even if you try to do both, if you have spontaneous words of knowledge and expository teaching then you still may have the problem of the excluded middle and your church life will feel like a long-ball football game.

What I mean is this.  When we talk about how God speaks to us personally and enables us to speak into the lives of others, we will talk about things like having dreams, visions, pictures, words of knowledge, even specific Scripture verses. Alternatively, we will encourage the preacher to share his message and hope that something lands. 

However, there should be a place for the build-up approach.  What I mean is that there are many times where a person is able to speak into the lives of others, either one to one or in preaching to a whole congregation because they have spent many hours and days in God’s Word, many hours and days praying but also many hours and days with those people.  They have got to know the person or the congregation. They’ve heard them talk, they’ve watched them act. They are aware of the others’ circumstances, where their strengths and gifts are, their weak points too, their dreams and their heartaches.  So, able to speak to them clearly and relevantly.

There may be a wow factor when the visiting preaching says something that seems to be just right for you and your church.  It’s also amazing when a stranger walks up to you at a conference and says “I don’t know you or what this means …but” and then they say something that is incredible and for you. This has happened very occasionally to us. In fact, most significantly and surprisingly at the Keswick Convention about 12 or 13 years ago, someone randomly came up to us and shared something with us which I think we are only beginning to see what it meant now!  

However, it is just as significant, should be just as much a “wow” moment, no less the work of the Holy Spirit, no less prophetic and perhaps, dare I say, more powerful, more effective when someone speaks to us based on knowing us a long time and having allowed that message time to brew. It may feel like it’s ordinary and indeed, this is the day to day, ordinary ministry of discipleship in the Church but it isn’t any less spiritual.