In His Presence: Prophecy

6 · Oswald defines prophecy not merely as prediction but as forth-telling: God speaking to individuals who then communicate His message to the church

Let me define what we mean when we say prophecy. When we hear the word prophecy, we typically think of prediction. We typically think of someone saying, 'At X point in this day or that day, something is going to happen.' typically think of future telling, right? But as you probably know if you've been in a church for any length of time, the work of prophecy in the Bible isn't simply about future telling, it's also about forth telling. God would raise up people who were vocationally charged with the gift of prophecy, not simply to predict the future, but to tell the truth, to pull back the veil and help people to see. The realities of the supernatural, to see the realities of God, to see the realities of their own heart. And so when we speak about prophecy, all we mean is that God can and does speak to individuals within the church, give them some sense of His will, some sense of something He wants communicated to the church, and then that person who's hearing that attempts in faith and love to communicate that message to the rest of the church.

7 · Oswald asserts that hearing from God is a profound and complicated miracle that Christians too often take for granted, treating divine communication as ordinary

Now, let me just tell you point blank, that is an extraordinarily complicated process. You know, I always feel like in some ways Christians are the ultimate rich kids. We are so in danger of taking all these amazing things we have for granted. You know, one of the amazing things we have for granted is this community, right? I mean, this doesn't happen other places. I just can't— I just can't tell you that enough. It's just special. This is a unique gift, and we're so prone to take it for granted. We're so prone to see what it isn't. Just like a rich kid would be upset because his brand new BMW has the wrong color seats. You know, like, you're 16! It's okay! We're just prone to that sort of entitled overlooking of God's kindnesses. And one of the major ways that we take God for granted is we forget how complicated it is to actually hear from God. We forget how amazing it is to say that the God of the universe who created all things and sustains all things by the word of His power is communicating to human beings who are like less than ants. To Him.

8 · Oswald uses Isaiah 55:9 to demonstrate the vast ontological gap between God and humanity, showing why hearing from God is inherently difficult and miraculous

Isaiah 55:9 says, 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.' It isn't easy for God— well, it's easy for God to do anything. It isn't easy for us to hear from God because God is so big and so much higher than we are. It is difficult at every level to hear from God. The Word of God itself is a miracle. It's the miracle of God's revelation. And hearing from God in any other way, whether that be through creation, whether that be through inner promptings, whether that be through the Word, it's a miracle. It's a complicated process for us tiny little people to hear anything from God. That God would even speak to us is amazing. But not only does He have to speak to us, He has to condescend. He has to make that message understandable to our human minds. He has to disclose His will to us. Who know nothing. He has to somehow translate. Just think about this. Every time God speaks to us, He has to translate timelessness into people who are bound in time. Think about that. Every time God would speak to us, He has to communicate eternality to people who have 80 years to live. Right? There's just these amazing gaps that God overcomes to communicate to us.

9 · Oswald adds a second layer of complication: not only is God transcendent, but human hearts are deceitful, making discernment of God's voice inherently difficult and error-prone

So when we speak about the idea that God would speak to one of you and He would share His will with one of you, He would share something He sees with one of you, that you would hear that and then be able to repeat that to the church, that's an extraordinarily complicated process just based on the idea of hearing from God alone. But not only is hearing from God complicated, Our hearts are complicated. Proverbs 14:12 says, 'There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end leads in death.' So not only is it complicated to hear from God, but our hearts are complicated places. So sometimes we couldn't— we're not even sure if we are hearing from God. Sometimes we're not even sure where the voice in our head or heart is coming from. I know this is starting to sound really schizophrenic, but I think if we were all honest, we hear voices. We assume most of them are us. How do we discern? How do we know? This process of engaging in a spiritual gift that purports to hear from God is exceedingly complicated. It's possible to deceive oneself into thinking you're hearing something that you're not. It's extremely possible, in fact it's extremely likely, that you will hear from God and misunderstand what you've heard. In fact, that's actually an assumption. None of us hear from God perfectly. God speaks perfectly, He reveals perfectly, none of us hear from God perfectly. None of us have a perfect theology.

10 · Oswald answers the question of why prophecy is worth pursuing by pointing to its promised effect: unbelievers will recognize God's presence and worship Him

So why bother with it? Why engage in an activity so wrought with complications? Well, look at verse 24 in 1 Corinthians. 14. But if all prophesy and an unbeliever enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. Let me read that last part again. Hearing the secrets of his heart disclosed, and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.

11 · Oswald uses a conversation with his wife to illustrate why prophecy fits the series theme: it's one of the few practices with a direct scriptural promise of manifesting God's presence

Angela and I were going to Savers this week to look for some furniture for the new apartment, the new APT, and she said, what are you preaching on? I said, I'm going to preach on the on prophecy. She's like, well, that seems kind of out of left field. Like, what does that have to do with anything in your series? And I patiently, humbly, kindly cited this verse and said, it has everything to do with the presence of God. It's one of the few places in Scripture where you can see a practice so clearly connected to the fact that someone says, because this was exercised, I can see that God is here. That's the linkage, and that's why it fits in this series. It fits in this series because it's a clear behavior we can engage in that has a clear prediction that God will, as we exercise this behavior, as we seek this practice, God will reveal himself, be present in our midst.

12 · Oswald broadens the argument: prophecy is worth pursuing despite complications because God Himself is always worth pursuing, and the reward of His presence vastly outweighs the risks

So that's why it's worth pursuing, because the central purpose of our assembly is to experience the special presence of God. And this is one of those practices in Scripture that contains a promise of the special presence of God if we will seek it. That's why it's worth all the complications. And friends, let me just go super broad. God is always worth pursuing, however complicated and difficult the path is. And if you are sitting back thinking, ah, there's just too many things to lose, I don't even know where to start, there's too many hurdles, too much crow to eat to pursue God, I would say none of that will seem like anything after you choose to pursue God. God will make all of that seem light and momentary. Compared to the eternal weight of glory of knowing Him. So whatever God might be calling you today, maybe it's this or maybe something else, whatever He's saying, this is the step, this is what it means to pursue Me, and you've got this checklist of, man, that's just a lot of work, that's a lot of uncertainty, that's a lot of fear, it'll all be worth it. It'll always be worth it to be in the presence of God to enjoy Him forever. So we engage in this practice. It's admittedly complicated. It's admittedly full of potential problems. We engage in this practice because like many things in life, the reward is worth the risk. The reward is to see and understand and experience the presence of God.

13 · Oswald shows that prophecy is gospel-centered because it simultaneously edifies believers and evangelizes unbelievers, meeting the dual standard of sanctification and evangelism

Earlier in this chapter, Paul says that not only does prophecy bless those who are— by the way, another pattern picking up in this series, I hope you're hearing it. Paul says not only does the use of prophecy bless the outsider, right, but it also blesses the insider. Look at verse 3. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. So again, remember how we were talking a few weeks ago about what does it mean to be gospel-centered? What does it mean to do stuff the way Jesus does stuff? And the answer to that is one of the ways that we can tell that is when people that are believers hear truth and come to the Lord, but also people who are not believers hear truth and come to the Lord. We know we're gospel-centered when we're primarily engaging simultaneously in the work of sanctification and in the work of evangelism. That's what it means to be gospel-centered, those two things happening at the same time. And if you will read through 1 Corinthians 14 that talks about the gift of prophecy, it says very clearly in two separate places that this gift fits that standard. It has the ability to help those who are not believers see that God is present in the church, follow their faith, and repent. And it also has the ability to encourage and upbuild and console believers.

14 · Oswald reframes 1 Corinthians 14:1 to argue that pursuing prophecy is not optional but an expression of love—to not pursue it would be unloving

Again, it's one of these really special things. Yeah, it's hard, it's risky, it can be a white-knuckle experience, but man, the payoff is simply worth it. Let's put it this way. I think verse 1, where it says, 'Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts,' I think it says that. I'm not arguing that's a bad translation. What I want to say is that you could also say, and be absolutely dead on with the message of this chapter, you could also say, pursue love by earnestly desiring the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. What I'm saying is, is that it would in fact be unloving to not pursue this particular gift. It would be unloving not to pursue the spiritual gift of prophecy. It would be unloving not to seek the Lord and ask Do you have anything you'd like me to share with my brothers and sisters today? Do you have anything you'd like me to share with the church today? It would be unloving not to do that.

15 · Oswald applies the 'unloving' argument directly: failing to pursue prophecy withholds encouragement from struggling believers and hinders the evangelism of unbelievers, both acts of lovelessness

Why would it be unloving? Well, first of all, it would be unloving to outsiders not to have this feature play a role in our church services. If God promises that this particular practice speaks to people who are not believers in a special way, then we want to love them and help them to see God's presence, right? Unloving not to engage in this toward unbelievers. It would also be unloving not to seek this out because every single week, I guarantee you, people come here needing to be encouraged and built up and consoled. I guarantee you people walk into this building— honestly, I am most aware of that every week. It's a burden on my heart. I know you're not gathering here feeling as good as you look. And I know that not all the smiles are real smiles. I know that some of those smiles are choices against the evidence of your week, against the evidence of your morning. Friends, we gather together every week beaten up, many of us discouraged, with more questions than we have answers, more crisis than we have calm, more problems than we have peace. We gather this way and we need people. We need our brothers and sisters, not just the dude that stands behind this thing. We need our brothers and sisters to come to this place planning on encouraging us, building us up, and consoling us. So the truth is, to not seek this special gift the Lord has built into the life of the church, built into the assembly of the church to bless outsiders and insiders, To not seek that is to not love those people who are here and those people who will come.

16 · Oswald argues that pursuing prophecy is loving to God because it is commanded in Scripture, and obedience to God's commands is the expression of love for Him

Let me take it a step further. It's also not loving to God. It's not loving to God. My love for God alone would compel me to earnestly pursue this gift. Let me give you two reasons why. First of all, because it commands us, the Bible commands us to pursue this gift. Verse 1, pursue love. Yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. God's command here is to every single person in this room. Let me be clear, this is a paraphrase from my friend Rick Gamache, there is no thanks but no thanks for this particular verse. We don't get to do that with the Bible, right? We don't get to go through the Bible and say, eh, not for me, that's not really a me thing. That's something that's for somebody else. No, this Bible, this command is for you. It says pursue this spiritual gift, pursue the gift of prophecy. And the Bible says very clearly that if you love God, you will obey His commandments. So not only is this loving to pursue this spiritual gift for outsiders and for insiders, but it's also loving to God simply to obey His Word.

17 · Oswald unpacks the word 'revelation' in verse 30, showing that it refers to God actively making something clear and delivering a message to a person

But there's more at work there than just obeying His Word. Look at verse 30. It says, 'If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to prophets.' The word revelation here, if a revelation comes to this person, The word revelation means apocalypse. It's the word apocalypse. And it simply means this idea that God is making something clear. Paul uses the word about 70 times in his writings in the New Testament. And every single time he uses that word, he's describing a moment in which God has delivered a message.

18 · Oswald argues that pursuing prophecy is an act of love for God because it is a means of experiencing God Himself—those who love God desire to hear His voice despite the difficulty of discernment

So my argument right now is that Pursuing this gift is, in fact, pursuing love. Not only because it blesses outsiders and insiders, not only because it obeys God's Word, but because it's experiencing God Himself. And if you love God, you would want that. In spite of all the uncertainties and complications, if you love God, you would want to have Him share something with you. You would want to struggle through the process of, is that His voice or is that last night's pizza? Is that Him or is that me? You would want to sort through that because honestly, friends, if you love God, just like if you love anything else, you want to be with that person.

19 · Oswald uses the analogy of sorting real letters from fake letters from his wife to illustrate that love for God compels us to discern His voice even amidst potential counterfeits

You know, when Angela and I were dating, we had to separate in the summer because she lived up in the Chicago area, I lived in Jefferson City. And this is before email was really a thing. Nobody had internet in their homes yet, you know, so we would write letters to one another. And we still have a box of those letters that we wrote all those years back. You know, what if someone had inserted into the mailbox a bunch of fake letters from her? You know, would I have just said, 'Well, there's some real ones in there and there's some fake ones in there and because of that, I'm just gonna throw them all out. That's not what I would do. I would grab them, I would sit down, and I would try to sort out which ones were from her and which ones weren't. And I would use everything I know about her and other letters that she had written to try to discern. I would work through the process of discernment because I loved Her voice. I loved her. I still do, by the way.

20 · Oswald transitions from argument to anticipated objections, naming three reasons believers may not pursue prophecy and signaling how he will address each

So pursuing this spiritual gift is an expression of love for people, and it's an expression of love for God. I don't think there's really any question about that. I think it's pretty simple. If you love God, you will pursue this. If you love people, you will pursue this. But I know that many of you will not. I know that many of you have not, and you've read this before, and I'm not saying anything new. And so I want to ask, well, why not? Why would someone not pursue this? What's keeping— what could potentially keep you from pursuing this spiritual gift? And I've got 3 potential objections that I think are in the text. The first one would be you're too busy doing your own thing. The second one would be you're afraid of messing up. And the third one would be you don't believe this gift is for the church today. So let me address the first two, because in addressing the first two, I think I'll deal with a lot of the third, and then we'll spend the rest of our time addressing the third.

21 · Oswald addresses the first objection—individualistic worship orientation—by showing that Paul contrasts tongues (individualistic) with prophecy (corporate edification), and prioritizes the latter in corporate worship

First one, you are too busy doing your own thing. Second one, you're afraid of messing up. And the third one is you don't believe that this gift is for today. So you're too busy doing your own thing. I think this is by and large the reason why most of you in this room don't experience this gift. It's an ironic tension that within churches that are more charismatic leaning, they believe in the practice of these gifts, but also commit a common error in worship where they isolate themselves in their personal worship booth. So it's this ironic kind of self-defeating cycle where a group of people who believe this gift is real come to church to practice one-on-one worship. And because of that, they isolate themselves from the community, the assembly, and ministering to one another in the way that God intends through this gift. In this particular passage, the way that that's expressed is that this group had become obsessed with the gift of tongues. The spiritual gift of tongues, which I won't talk about much today. But listen to what Paul says in verse 2. 'For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men, but to God. For no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.' On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you to all speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

22 · Oswald identifies self-centeredness as the primary obstacle to experiencing God's presence and argues that corporate edification (prophecy) should be prioritized over individualistic ecstatic worship (tongues) in the assembly

Friends, you're always going to experience in a Sunday morning gathering The tension between ecstatic worship and edifying worship. There's always going to be a tension between a kind of worship that makes you really feel in the worship zone. You know, really like, I'm there. Like, I'm there. I feel individually connected with God. There's going to be a tension between that and the participation of the assembly of the saints together. Serving together, walking together, singing together, praying together. And that tension is expressed in this passage between tongues, which is a mostly individualized experience with God, and prophecy, which is a corporate experience. So the first reason why someone would not pursue this gift or not enjoy this gift is because they still come here mostly thinking about how they need to experience God, and not thinking corporately about the needs of others. Friends, I'll tell you, we're going to return to this series again this spring, and I'll hopefully get to talk about it more, but as I have studied the presence of God, I've seen that there's this one flame retardant, this one fire extinguisher that absolutely just about always throughout Scripture is the culprit when the presence of God isn't working. Isn't happening in the way that people aren't perceiving it. And that is self-centeredness. Self-centeredness will ruin this over and over and over again. And so the main reason I think for this particular group who probably in large believes that this gift is for the church, who has seen value in it, has experienced value in it, is that your orientation throughout the week is to get here to receive and not to give. To give. And that your orientation during the time of worship is to receive and not to give. It's not simply a matter of tongues versus prophecy. The larger pattern is a matter of individual versus corporate. Ecstatic versus edifying. And Paul is saying that this gathering shines, that God's presence is most known when we gather together to give to one another, when we gather together to engage in the practice of edification. So that worship for us isn't simply about experiencing something, it's about experiencing God working in us to serve someone else. That's the experience that you will, by the way, never forget. That's the experience, by the way, that will confirm God's goodness to you far more than any vibe you're getting during the worship service. It's just in large a more valuable experience. And as Paul says clearly, there is a time for that individualized ecstatic experience with the Lord, and that time is not as prioritized in this time.

23 · Oswald applies the pivot from individualism to corporate focus, then addresses fear of failure by arguing that true service requires vulnerability and that God's power is perfected in weakness

So the first reason, I think probably for many of us the main reason why we don't experience this or not seeking this particular gift is because we are quite individualized in our worship. And I just want to push you the other direction and say it is very likely that this week as you're reading your Bible, you will see God's finger on a verse. You know, you'll feel a weight or a clarity or something's just— you read a verse and you're thinking, hmm, there's a little something extra going on here. God seems to, through the Holy Spirit, seems to be illuminating this verse in a unique way. The individualist will take that, write it in their journal, and think about, well, what does this mean for me? When in fact, it is extremely likely that what God was doing in that moment was giving you something to share here. And just that pivot Just that pivot that says, I spend my week mining the depths of God's Word, not only for my good but for the good of others, so that we can come together and participate together and encourage one another and upbuild one another and console another. Just that little pivot where you start to see your week as a way to prepare to bless the church can have a tremendous effect on this particular issue. So number 2, first reason was you're too busy doing your own thing. Number 2 is you're afraid of messing up, which is actually, if you think about it, the same as number 1. Right? Because it's, where's the orientation? Where's the spotlight going? It's going on self. You know, when we really do really, really do commit to serving other people, we're gonna look dumb. It's just unavoidable. There's absolutely no way to really serve someone, to really be in the moment with them, to really walk with them in their pain, to walk with them through their difficulty, and not look stupid, to not look shameful, to not look reproachful. Guys, Jesus entered our sin and he wound up hanging naked, beaten, on a cross. There's no way to serve someone else without looking bad. There's no way to serve someone else without looking awkward. My goodness, I feel like most of the time I want to meet with someone and care for them and love them, and I feel like, man, you could probably cut about two-thirds of my time with them away and throw it in the trash because two-thirds of it was just trying to get to this one thing that the Lord had for me to share with them. And me sorting that out in my own heart in real time and fumbling and stumbling and going in the wrong direction and not sure how to say this and not sure how to— Guys, there's no way to look good and serve at the same time. If your vision of serving others is that somehow you swoop in and show off, you just don't know how messed up people are. 'Cause you just don't have it. I don't have it. I don't have it in me to look good and meet people in their pain. So if you're afraid of messing up and that's what's keeping you from practicing this gift, I just want you to know, Paul says in 2 Corinthians, 'My grace is sufficient for you.' That's what Paul says God says to him. 'My grace is sufficient for you. My power is perfected in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness.' so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardship, in persecutions, in difficulty. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

24 · Oswald addresses fear of doctrinal error by arguing that God has built protective 'bumpers' (guardrails) into the practice of prophecy to prevent serious error

Listen, I was skeptical about the statistic, so I did double-checking. It's true. Most people fear public speaking more than they fear imminent death. It sounded to me like one of those things that if you looked it up, it would not be true. But in survey after survey, people say it is scary to them to get up in front of other people and speak. So I understand what we're calling you to right now is getting at the core for many people of the true fear of feeling weak. There's another thing that you could mean when you say, 'I'm afraid of messing up.' And it's not so much afraid of looking bad as it is like, I'm afraid of becoming a heretic. I'm afraid of saying something terrible. I'm afraid of decoupling the Trinity or something accidentally. Right? Like, I just don't want to mess up. Well, Paul, God has built into this passage clear guide rails. Clear guide rails. Guys, do you remember when you learned to bowl? Or is that too— Is that too common of me? Is bowling a thing? Yeah, I remember going— thank you, thank you, John. You know, going to bowl when you're a kid. Now this is one of those back in my day speeches, I'll be quick. Back in my day we didn't have inflatable bumpers or rails or anything like that. You threw a gutter, you threw a gutter, you owned it. And your little self-esteem was okay. But nowadays you take kids to the bowling alley and they've got bumpers. And those bumpers will keep that ball from going in the gutter. Friends, this passage is full of bumpers. They're full of things that God in His wisdom has put forth. He so wants this to be a practice in His church that He's created bumpers to make sure that as we move through, it's not that it's going to look pretty. It might not. It's not that it's not going to clang against a couple steel bumpers. It very likely possibly will. Especially as you're learning how to exercise this. But there are bumpers. This is the Church of God. The Holy Spirit will win. Truth will win.

25 · Oswald identifies two biblical guardrails (quantity limits and communal discernment) and illustrates the second with a story about Mark Prather being told no by a pastor after offering a prophecy

Paul says in verse 29, 'Let 2 or 3 prophets speak, and a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.' First bumper is the bumper of quantity. If we're going to limit this to 2 or 3, it can only get so bad. The second bumper is related to quality. Others will help you discern whether or not this is the appropriate word and the appropriate time to give that word. Right? So we've created two bumpers. One is, it can only get so bad because we can just say, if the first one weren't really bad, the second one really bad, we'd just be like, that's it. Two. It says two or three, that's it. But also, God has created a system whereby, and the way that Sovereign Grace practices this I think is great, and that is simply this. If you believe that God may have shown something to you in his word or said something to you that you would like to convey to the rest of the congregation, what you would do is simply come up to one of the pastors and say, 'Help me weigh this. Help me sort this out. Be my bumper.' You know, there's a pretty funny story. Mark Prather, who's the executive director for Sovereign Grace, he's a guy that practices the gift of prophecy all the time. And he was telling a group of us guys that it was a while back that he was at church and he was sitting, you know, this large church in the back with his wife And he had a sense that he needed to share something with the congregation. So he went up to one of the pastors and said, 'Here's what I'm thinking,' so on and so forth. And the pastor said to him, 'I just don't think that's fitting. I don't think that's appropriate right now. Thank you, but no.' And so Mark walked back up the rows in front of everybody back to his wife. And his wife leans over and says, 'Thanks for playing.'

26 · Oswald applies the guardrails argument to address fear of public rejection, framing the choice as between serving others and protecting self-image

I think when we say, 'I'm afraid of messing up,' one of the things we mean, in addition to, 'I'm afraid of looking bad,' and, 'I'm afraid of saying something heretical,' is, 'I'm afraid of the walk of shame.' I'm afraid of being sent back to my seat with a consolation prize. You don't even get Rice-A-Roni with this particular game. But you know what, guys? Again, that goes back to, do you want to serve or do you want to look good? You've got to choose. You've got to choose. Do you want to serve? Do you want to be humble like Jesus, Philippians 2? Or do you want to look good? Make your choice. So we have these guardrails. I don't think it's that. I think that God is so provided, He's so careful, He's so eager for this gift to be practiced that He's given clear guardrails for us to practice this gift.

27 · Oswald transitions to addressing cessationist objections, framing the stakes not as defending the gift per se but as correcting fundamental misunderstandings of God's character

Third point. You don't think this gift is for today. So if that's you, if you don't think this gift is for today, then this has been a very long sermon. Let me reward you by trying to change your mind. I'm not going to change your mind because I think it's such an important gift for the church. I think that the Bible is perfect and sufficient, and if this didn't exist, this gift didn't exist, I think we would be poorer for it, but we would be okay. God's Word is perfect and capable of giving us everything we need for life and godliness. So if you don't believe that this gift is for today, I'm not going to try to change your mind because I think this gift is that important. It's deeper than that for me. I would try to change your mind because I think you're making some fundamental miscalculations about the personality of God. That will affect your relationship with Him in all of your life, not just in this particular place.

28 · Oswald argues that cessationism stems from viewing God as a harsh perfectionist who cannot tolerate error, when in fact God is comfortable with messiness in progressive sanctification and would not eliminate practices due to potential error

I don't know if anyone here is suspicious as to whether this gift is for today or not, but I know that the things I'm going to talk about, about the personality of God, are probably problems for many of us here as well. The first one is this: God is not a perfectionist. God is not a perfectionist. I worry that some have trouble distinguishing between God's perfection and God is a perfectionist. I think that in a technical sense there is no distinction, but I think you can feel what I'm getting at. God is not a bean counter. He is not a perfectionist in the sense that He is constantly upset when we as children stumble or make an honest mistake. Yes, God is perfect, but He isn't severe in His perfections. He is comfortable, after all, with something called progressive sanctification. He saves us and tolerates us as we continue to grow. He does more than tolerate us, right? He loves us. He walks with us. He saves us when we are a mess. He walks with us. Friends, you're a mess right now. So God is not a perfectionist. And I think I'm afraid that if if you are viewing this gift as not appropriate for the church because it is wrought with potential problems, I think you're just miscalculating the very person of God. Because honestly, guys, if we start eliminating practices from the church that pose potential error, we're going to run out of things to do very quickly. And even worse, I think we've misread the heart of God.

29 · Oswald argues that cessationism wrongly portrays God as the 'strong silent type' when Scripture reveals God as verbose, constantly communicating through creation, Word, and ongoing speech to His people

Listen, some of you may have been harmed, spiritually abused even, misled through spiritual subjectivity like what I'm talking about right now. And you're tempted to throw away all this subjective stuff and just rely on the Westminster Confession of Faith, or the Bible, whichever comes first. You know, you're tempted to just say, no, no, This subjective weirdness, it's just too wrought with potential error. It's just too wrought. Well, friends, first of all, by that standard, you would not be a Christian. You are wrought with potential error. And you certainly wouldn't be a church member. No church would ever take you if we use the standard that you're using for this gift. But more than that, let me just assure you that the grass isn't greener on the other side. Even if you thought, 'Okay, I'm going to abandon all of this charismatic weirdness, all this subjectivity, and I'm just going to— I don't know whether it's good or not, but it's just too potentially bad, so I'm going to just walk away from it.' Friends, I just want to tell you that wherever you wind up will be just as subjective as the place you left, because that's what we are as human beings. You're not going to find objective ground. You're just going to find other people with other biases. You can't abandon the subjectivity for the objectivity because there is no objectivity in our world, in our hearts. So I worry that if you're viewing this gift as not for today, one of the reasons might be because you have a wrong view of God as this harsh perfectionist, which He's not. He's a Father. I'm also worried that you might think that God is the strong silent type. You know, if you tell me so-and-so is talkative, or so-and-so is very quiet, I'm going to make a ton of inferences about their personality just there, just there alone, just on that data point alone. And I'm concerned that while we all know God's attributes, we may have fundamental disagreements about God's personality. If you think that God is the relatively quiet, strong silent type, I think you're just dead wrong. I think God is verbose. I think He talks and talks and talks. 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech.' This fundamental question: is God the strong, silent type we saw in a 1960s spaghetti western? Or is God a talkative Father who is constantly pressing in and constantly engaging and constantly sharing and has things to say? That question about God's personality seems to hang in the balance with this particular gift. Is God Quiet, or is He a talker? Is God economic with His words, or does He share and share and share? Friends, using the Word of God as the source, I would tell you that I think pretty strongly it's clear God loves to talk about God. Friends, one of the reasons why God's calling you to talk about Him out there It's because He wants you to be like Him. And God never stops talking about God. So I worry that in evaluating this gift with this sense that God used it— and we're going to talk about this more in a moment— God used this for a while and now He's done because He's written this definitive, holy, inspired Word, and that's all He has to say. I worry that the implication of that leads us to think of a God who is extremely stoic. And I think that's ridiculous. The first thing he told us to do was eat. He's lavish, he's generous, he's gracious. So be careful. Deciding whether God is talkative or not is a pretty big— will be a pretty big feature in your understanding of the Christian life.

30 · Oswald refutes the cessationist argument that miracles were only needed to authenticate Scripture by arguing that modern believers need the Word validated just as much as ancient believers did

Third, people who don't believe this gift is for today will say that these miracles, the miracle of prophecy, the miracle of healing, so on and so forth, was used in the past as a means of validating the authority of the Word. So that as God was pulling together the miracle of His Word, which it's a miracle in every way, I can't say that enough. As God was pulling together the miracle of His Word, He used the miracles of healing, the miracles of prophecy, the miracles of tongues to validate and authenticate His Word to that generation. And then once this was all pulled together, He stopped using those things to validate His Word. That's what's called a cessationist argument. Now here's the problem with that. People who say that are making, I think, a stark, bold, modernist, historically biased statement that goes something like this: those people needed the Word of God validated. I don't. Boy, I sure do. I think you do too. And I think to say that there was a generation long ago that needed miracles to validate the Word of God, but we know now, we don't need that validation, I think is hogwash. I think it's pride. Arrogance. And I think a simple audit of their spiritual obedience and reliance on the Word of God would show they, just like me, need the Word of God validated to this day.

31 · Oswald uses the analogy of a toddler learning to walk to illustrate that the awkwardness and risk of practicing prophecy is a necessary stage toward maturity and effectiveness

Friends, I was thinking about how when our children learn to walk, you know, that's a liability and nothing but at the beginning. Kids learning to walk is pure liability at the front end. They don't walk well enough or fast enough to make our lives any easier. But they do walk well enough and fast enough to get into trouble and fall downstairs and wreak havoc. So it will be perfectly reasonable under the logic many of us take with these sorts of issues to simply say, 'You, your walking is a liability. I'm going to strap you to this chair.' And I'm just going to keep buying progressively larger car seats, progressively larger strollers. Because your walking is just going to cause trouble. Nothing good is coming out of your walking. Which is exactly what it's like when a 2-year-old learns to walk. There's nothing good about it. It's annoying. But that's not the way life works. That little toddler has to be encouraged to navigate through the season of life where that is extremely awkward, because down the road, the stumbling, the falling, the getting into trouble will be eliminated, reduced. And the asset of knowing how to walk comes into play. But to get there, you have to go through the season of awkwardness, of difficulty, of liability.

32 · Oswald closes by committing to walk with the congregation through the awkwardness of practicing prophecy, grounding the call in the gospel reality that God chose to save messy people and sustains them through grace

Friends, I just want to tell you, I'm in if you are. As it relates to this gift, as it relates to seeking God, I'm in if you are. I'm ready to white-knuckle as you try out This gift. I'm ready to be your bumper. I'm ready for you to be mine. I'm ready to go through the moments of awkwardness as we try to figure out how to use something that seems so important to God. He devoted a chapter of His Word to it and calls us to seek it earnestly. That seems to be so connected with His presence. Yeah, it's complicated. Yeah, there will be lots of this as we go toward the pens, but friends, that's what God signed up for when He saved us. God chose us when we were dead in our sins and trespasses, children of wrath, uninterested in Him at all, and when He applied the righteousness of Jesus to our account, when he applied our sin debt to Jesus, he saved people who would do nothing but zigging and zagging all the way to heaven. Every feature of our life, every feature of our church is awkward and complicated, and it's all good because grace abounds. Amen. Let's pray.

33 · Oswald transitions to closing prayer

Let's pray.